Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Left-Brained Thoughts on Scrap Quilts


Pat was looking through "Scrap Quilts" by Roberta Horton in our meeting today (only during the boring parts!), so I dug out my copy when I got home. The dogs and I had a good hug while I looked through it for the first time in ages. As any proper left-brainer would, I enjoyed the analysis of what makes scrap quilts work (I'm not sure I can even spell "gestalt"!):

Lots of fabrics -- I can do that!
It must visually show from afar that different fabrics are used
Not every fabric can be noteworthy
Repetition of color makes things go together
Accent colors tell you where to look, move your eye across a quilt and add excitement
Colors need to be mismatched

Which brings me to the Ocean Waves quilt I made in about 1992 (I was working on it when Hurricane Andrew hit). Go ahead and laugh--I started it with the intention of "using up" my greens! Mint green was the rage when I started it, and I had to put it aside for a while until a better range was available. I still have some of those "new" greens in my stash...

What is funny, though, is that I initially didn't mean to add the bright pink accents. It was a green quilt, darn it! Those little bits are so important, though, that I'm glad I left them in.

Interesting how I've internalized a lot of Roberta's "rules" so working this way comes naturally now.

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