Let’s talk Emphasis

January 12, 2016March 23, 202410 Comments

The fifth chapter in Carolyn Friedlander’s book, Savor Each Stitch, is EMPHASIS. She says, “Emphasis is all about making a thoughtful decision about how to bring your design to life. Through fabric placement, quilting intention, and all of the other tools explored in this book, you can create emphasis by highlighting different parts of a design.”

I’m a part of a Savor Each Stitch Book Bee, and we’ve studied line, contrast, scale and color.

Emphasis seemed like an easy concept. For example, Susan posted this wonderful diagram worksheet from a site by Claudia Jacques and emphasis stands out as merely focusing one’s attention on a particular item. That “red” person stands out, right? From this worksheet, line and color are the tools, and contrast, emphasis and scale are ways to take those tools and make art.

The project from Carolyn’s book involved a block with 10 pieces, and by changing the color or emphasis of each piece she changed which part of the block stood out:

I wanted something less paper-piecing intensive. I had observed a quilting friend’s traditional block sampler and mused about how the Drunkard’s Path stood out and I liked it a lot. Two pieces — I could do that.

With my new acrylic template in hand, I started making quarter circles and experimented with changing the emphasis in this traditional block to make something unique.

I love it. It’s very me.

The size is 57″ by 71″. Each block was 4″ unfinished and each Drunkard’s Path was 14.5″ unfinished. You will notice I turned some of the quarter circles to make a few half circles and one three-quarter circle. I also used a grey geometric print as the background and in some places I didn’t make any quarter circles. There are four rows by five rows of Drunkard’s Paths.

Now that the top is pieced, it doesn’t scream “emphasis”, but that is where it began. I’m thinking of naming it “Mod Drunk.”

I will have to decide how to quilt it and that will be another way to explore the concept of EMPHASIS.

I love a good challenge

November 30, 2015November 29, 20159 Comments

One definition of a “challenge” is a stimulating or interesting task or problem. I like quilt challenges because they focus my intentions on a particular problem.

Right now many modern quilters are creating quilts using Michael Miller’s Glitz Collection for the 2016 QuiltCon West show. I was one of those quilters.

The fabric was sophisticated and included mostly polka dots and “orange peel” graphics in silver, white, black and gold. I received 8 fat-eighths.

When I typed the word “glitz” into Pinterest, I got posts from beauty pageants and little girls in heavy makeup — not chic at all. I sketched some, and nothing felt right. I let it go for awhile.

I purchased a notebook while on vacation in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and it inspired me to make Swimsuits as my Glitz challenge:

I sketched some swimsuits. Then cut out patterns from freezer paper. I added some bikinis to my swimsuit collection.

At first I thought I’d make a simple block in a coordinating solid for each swimsuit, but they looked plain and flat. I went back to Pinterest and typed “vintage swimsuits” and stumbled upon an old Frederick’s of Hollywood ad for lingerie. I liked the design which inspired this sketch:

I played and played and played. I enjoyed the process, folding fabrics and making the most wonderful swimsuit collection.

I entered it in the challenge.

My daughter loves it. She has taken it for her own. Michael Miller fabric feels luxurious.

It’s a winner.

Swimsuits make me smile too,

Wanda

Play Crafts’ Palette Builder

October 13, 2015October 12, 2015Leave a comment

I recently tried the Palette Builder (tutorial here) at Play Crafts. She’s a super nice person, and I like corresponding with her and reading her blog.

I used a photo from Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens I took last July. I’m in love with this color palette:

From left to right, the Kona Cotton colors are: Black, Hunter Green, Smoke, Steel, Herb and Ballerina.

As the tutorial from Play Crafts explains, the Palette Builder does not pick out particular colors from the photo.

The palette builder actually chooses colors based on how often they appear in the image. That [hot pink] is just a small portion, small enough that it might not register because it appears too infrequently. Fortunately, now that you can easily drag the palette circles around, you can add that [hot pink] to the palette easily yourself.

I wanted to see what would happen if I choose the “hot pink” from the photo: