Cropping - what bits to leave off your quilt

I've been making small improv quilt compositions.  They started as colour studies, a follow-on exercise from this blog post here.

I gave myself rules: one a day, improvisational, don't get hung up on it, only allowed to change one colour per day, 4 1/2 inch finished, straight line quilting.

It's been a real eye opener for me regarding what my preferred colours are, what works with improv quilting and how the proportions of colour really change the end product.  I got sick of pink so fast...

What has also been very useful is making a quick cropping tool.

I took a sheet of paper (I have a roll of brown butchers paper that never seems to get any smaller and is incredibly useful) and cut a five inch square out of it.  I should have actually cut a 4 1/2 inch square because that's my finished size, but I was worried I'd mark my sides and then cut them without thinking, ending up with 4 inches....

Look how it helps me see possible end compositions:

And here's what I finished with:

Below are three of my most recent; numbers 20, 21, and 22.  I broke my rules and made three in one day with the same colours as I found this colour combination so compelling, and there was something really clicking with my piecing that day.  I felt as if I was really reaching something I had been looking for.

Do you crop?  And how do you feel about cutting off precious bits of quilt?  And do you break your own rules!?

Colour Palettes on Friday

One of my favourite activities is playing around with my hand-dyed fabrics, putting together colour palettes.  My fabrics are my paint box and tools and I can learn a lot just by playing around with them.  Any excuse for fabric fondling, right?

What I observe sometimes when other quilters are putting together colour palettes, is that they don't play around with proportions.  They stack a beautifully folded pile of fabrics together and look at it.  But rarely do you use equal amounts of fabric in a quilt.  So change the way you fold them and look at how the colours work together when there are different amounts of each.

Then I sometimes use this internet tool to check how the different proportions might look in actual pictures.  It's called TinEye Labs Multicolr Search Lab, and it searches Flikr creative commons images for photographs that match your chosen colours and proportions thereof.

Below is the search I did based on the proportions of colour in the above mix.  Whoa! Look at all that orange, and I can now see that the orange is about the same tonal value as the pink, so there is less tonal contrast than I might like. (Click on the image and that should biggify it if you need a closer look.)

The photo above and the search results based on proportions below.  This reminds me of sunsets and I like the large proportion of light - some nice contrasts.

Above is the photo, and below is the search with the roundabout proportions.  Lots of pinky purple coming through here.  More restful perhaps?  And once again, less tonal contrasts.

And below is the search I did with equal colour proportions.  I find it a bit messy, or perhaps busy is a better word, no focal colour that draws me in.  

So how do you play around with your colour palettes?  Do you rearrange your stacks to get an idea of how fabrics play with others in your chosen scheme?  And do you rearrange proportions to see what different looks you can get?

Dye a little every day

I've been using the hashtag #dyealittleeveryday on Instagram for about six months now.  It was my aim to dye little and often to build up my supply of hand dyed fabric without having to do marathon rinsing efforts (my least favourite part of the process).

No, I haven't managed to dye or post a photograph everyday!  But I have built up my supplies like I wanted.  And there have been other benefits to a regular dyeing practice.  I've honed my studio practice at the dyeing bench to produce fabrics without too much fuss and bother.  I also have worked out methods that suit me and processes to get quite different looks depending on what I want.  Basically, I've been increasing my skills.

There are lots of benefits to a regular creative practice.  I keep meaning to start a regular sketchbook practice but haven't quite got there yet.  I've seen people start daily photo practices or challenges, weekly mini-quilt challenges, printing, scrapbooking, painting, you name it - people will have done it.

Cynthia Morris, over on Original Impulse, wrote a nice blog post on regular creative practices.  She talks about how doing it can develop your skill, help you recognise your style, and learn to get pleasure out of the process.  It's worth heading over to read.

Do you have a regular creative practice?  I'd love to hear about it and how it works for you.  Or have you started one that fell by the wayside?  What do you think went wrong?

Happy creating everyone.

The Siren Song of Colour

These photos make my heart very, very happy.

I rolled up my sleeves on Monday and got stuck into some dyeing.  I wanted some smaller items for sale in Opua Arts gallery and so some of my dyeing was on ready made silk scarves.  

These are habotai silk that shimmer and gleam and float in the breeze and generally just look gorgeous!  I hung them up this morning after popping next door to the marine chandlery for some smooth white rope.  What do you think of my display system?

I also did some more embroidery threads.

These are a silk cotton blend, unstranded and similar to a light-weight perle cotton.

I'm going to change my dyeing habits a little.  A full day of dyeing (4-6 hours) ends up in sore feet and a sore back and another full day of rinsing, washing and pressing - phew!  Instead I aim to dye a little every day.  And I'll be posting a images of my dyeing over on Instagram with the hashtag #dyealittleeveryday.  Click on the camera over on my left sidebar to follow me on Instagram and see what I'm up to.

Colour with Texture

I'm running a low-water immersion fabric dyeing course on Friday.  It's a 'prototype' or test workshop with a group of my quilting club members to see how much info I can cover in one day, whether I've got all my handouts written correctly , and whether or not it's fun!

This is hanging on my design wall today.  It's one of my samples for the course.  Any guesses on how I made it?  Looking at the final product makes my mind whizz with possibilities.  

And I'm so looking forward to running this class, I love fabric dyeing!!  I'll let you know how it goes, and stay tuned for some more sample pics.

Hand Dyed Fabric on the Warm Side of the Colour Wheel

Just a quick post today with some of my recent hand dyeing.  It's a quick post because I'm busy getting ready for beginners class tonight and sewing up samples and writing instructions.  It seems to take a stack of time!

I was aiming for some more 'ish' kind of colours - not pure hues and I also wanted some tints (colour with white added, which with dye is diluted dye).  The second photo was dyed light orange then folded and one edge rested in pure dye.  I love the effect the wicking action gave.

I also dyed some silk.  I expected lighter colours than I got because silk tends to dye a little lighter than cotton, but the colour I used as a base for all these (I was trying out a series theory) is a pretty tenacious colour.  I must remember that in future!

I wish you could see the lustre of the silk, just yummy.

Tone vs Colour in Quiltmaking

The lovely Tanya from Suburban Jubilee wrote me a question on my last post.  And I thought I'd publish part of my answer here in a post where I could illustrate it with pictures.  Now colour and tone and value are topics that people have written whole books on and I don't suggest that I am an expert, but here are some thoughts.

Dear Ms Lottie, you know how high I hold you in regard and wanted to ask you a question about colour. You know I have been stashing and procrastinating for a long time but I am finally ready to commit. Sew Many Ways is doing a block of the month with extremely clear step by steps and I feel I can DO this. She is using a monochromatic scheme but breaking the combo into distinct light and dark placements. My question is...can I achieve this successfully with multiple colours or should I stick to just the monochromatic scheme. I have been collecting pinks, yellows and greens. I have also quite a bit of brighter green and purple? Perhaps it could work with two contrast colours? I know you can't TELL me what I should do but I do value your vast experience with colour. Much love Tanya from Suburban Jubilee 

Yes, you could do it in multiple colours, you just have to be careful with your lights and darks. I put two fabrics next to each other then stand a ways back and squint at them to see which one is lighter or darker if I'm not sure. For instance in a monochromatic scheme, navy might be your dark and sky blue your light. You could easily replace the sky blue with a butter yellow as this is a light colour, but replacing it with a red might not provide enough contrast with the navy. Put the red and the navy next to each other and squint - is there a distinct difference?

This is a monochromatic scheme (mostly) and it took a lot of squinty eyes to get my blues in the correct order.  Can you see how the dark tone of the red contrasts much more with the light blues than the dark?

You can also line up the fabrics that you like together colourwise and look at them through a tonal viewer - basically a piece of red plastic (red cellophane will do) - and this takes away the colour and just shows the tone.

Different colour, very similar tone.

The red takes away the colour and you can see the tonal difference.

In the end though, colour probably makes the boldest statement. And sometimes you might want a quilt with low contrast. A low contrast scheme can be quite restful, eg pastel blue, green, blue with cream.

All three of these quilts are low in contrast.  The middle one has light tones  and so is probably the most restful.  The red one has deeper tones and so is more vibrant.  On the far left quilt, can you see how the square on the second to bottom row stands out?  It has a much lighter tone to the other fabrics.  Squint your eyes!

I sometimes print out a picture of a quilt that I like in black and white (greyscale) to examine the tonal difference a bit closer.

I've got the tonal difference right in this log cabin block.  One side needs to be distinctly darker than the other so that when I join multiple blocks together I can make a secondary pattern.

If you are making sampler blocks you could choose to make each block monochromatic, so one block green and cream/white, one block yellow and cream/white, one block pink and cream/white and then use your more intense colours for sashings (between blocks) or borders (around the quilt).

These are monochromatic blocks, but made in a variety of fabrics, all with a cream background.  Against the cream background the pattern of each is quite distinct.

These sampler blocks are not monochromatic.  Have a squint at the top left block.  The yellow points fade into the cream background, as do the green flying geese in the bottom right block.  Take a look at the border.  Sage green and lavender are completely different colours but tonally almost the same and blend into each other.  Which in this case I think is fine.

You might also want to consider what the use of your quilt is going to be.  Is it a wall hanging that will be looked at from a distance and so needs to have a clearly defined image?  Or is it a snuggly quilt that will be wrapped around legs and folded on the back of the couch and so just needs to be a beautiful pattern made of soft and lovely fabrics?

Whatever you choose to do, have fun and remember it's the little imperfections that make it homemade and therefore from the heart.

Regards,

Ms Lottie