Sunday, July 05, 2009

Ugly fabrics, great result

In response to "No-reply" questions on my previous post "Lavender Meadows" Kaleidoscope quilt, YES, the hearts/leaves structures are free-form MQ on my domestic sewing machine (DSM). No, no stitch regulator.

I have been thrilled with how successful ALL these Kaleidoscope quilts are turning out, and decided to try out a strata of really unlikely and/or ugly fabrics to see if "ugly" might also work.

Values are arranged from light to dark. (I DID avoid large splashy prints.) They don't look like much when used together, do they?
But once again, I cannot keep from cutting them up in wedges to see the lovely result! This just proves we/I should not stew and fuss over color choices, at least not so it keeps us from actually SEWING something.

NOTE: the fabric/color you put near the middle of the strata (that peachy one) takes on it's own personality in the block, so that factor would be the only suggestion when choosing a fabric, although if you mix all the different strata/wedges up, the result may be different. (Personally, I LOVE the surprise!) I DID use a red filter (a simple high school report cover) to assist with VALUE.

Now, these are my samples for a workshop and I will NOT sew them into a block. 8-)

Friends ask me how I complete so many quilts. There are a number of answers, but mostly, I do NOT stew over my choices, color, values, or even my small errors. My goal is to MAKE a quilt and enjoy the process. Oh yes, it would be wonderful to win ribbons at our small quilt show, and maybe that is a cop-out, but I know my style and my approach, and they don't lean to perfection, but DO lean to having fun along the way. I'm an enthusiastic and joyful quilter and if I can motivate another quilter, THAT motivates me even more. 8-)))

7 comments:

  1. Elaine: This is an eye opener! I have a fun patriotic coors Kaleidoscope but haven't done anything with the ruler since that one -- made years ago. What a nifty way to use up fabric!

    Thanks for sharing. Bonnie in the Poconos... where it's been 36 hours without rain. Hallelujah!

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  2. Guess that I need to get one of those rulers!

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  3. I love your attitude! It's better to have fun than to win prizes. I also love how you make ugly into beautiful. It just proves my point that there are no ugly fabrics.

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  4. Do you mind sharing how you mark your quilts for the machine quilting? You do a beautiful job and since I am just starting machine quilting I am always looking for help from people like you who do it so well.

    Thank you.

    Linda

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  5. This supposedly ugly one looks pretty good to me!

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  6. I like your attitude too. This isn't about winning prizes in my mind either. I want to do a good job, but not compete!

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  7. I have some uglies to use..will have to give it a whirl. I don't have the ruler yet..but as you had stated once..I can cut a template. Silly me have my mind stuck on a wave square design. much more complicated when piecing. But I need to learn curves. SEw Peacefully DEB };o

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