It's Crafty: Quilting And The Fear of Color and Pattern

If you ever take a quilting class, you may be surprised at the variety of colors and patterns that are put into play.  Blues and greens and pinks and yellows will be placed right next to each other.  Stripes and plaids and polka dots CAN all coexist in a quilt.

When we dress for work or play, we are taught that we don't mix patterns.  A solid shirt with a patterned skirt, or a solid skirt with a patterned top.  Our choices of color are guided by convention.  We wear blue or black or brown or grey with a pink or orange or red or yellow... but not pink and yellow or red and yellow.

Our clothes are made of fabric.  Quilts are made of fabric.  Quilts, however, are much more than simply being covers for our laps when we're cold... Quilts are canvases for fabric art.

Piece quilting naturally requires you to embrace color and pattern combinations.  Just as you can take watercolors, acrylics or oils to make your scenes, you take pieces of fabric to do just that when you piece quilt.

The tiniest bit of leftover fabric can be turned into a leaf, the roof of a house, a colorful floral window, a sun or its rays.

If you are in the habit of admiring quilts, you may already know this.  For me, however, learning to quilt required overcoming years of training to NOT mix my bright colors, to keep my patterns separated.

I'm still working on getting over that fear of combining colors, patterns, florals.  My first unscripted quilt included several different colors.  All solids.  Not yet realizing the purpose of patterned fabric in quilting, I'd purchased red, yellow, purple, light and dark blue.  All solids.  The quilt basically added strips of different colors in various rectangular lengths.

Now, when I look at a quilt hanging on a wall, I can truly appreciate the role of color and pattern in the scene created by the quilt.

Included are a few photos of quilts that use color and patterns in different ways.

Long Beach Quilt (1975)

This amazing hand-quilted piece uses fabric colors and patterns in a very traditional way.  The beauty is immediate to anyone who lives in Long Beach.  Each of the 24 panels depicts a Long Beach scene and was created by a different senior under the direction of Parks and Recreation's Betty Olson (according to the nearby plaque).  It occupies a place of honor in the lobby of the senior center on 4th Street.

Block of the Month Quilt

I joined the Sew Vac Block of the Month club to learn piece quilting.  Each month we were given fabric, a pattern and instruction on making a different block.  Each block was made of floral fabrics in yellow, blue, green and pink.  The patterns were intricate, and required many cuts.  Even though the fabric and pattern were prescribed, the result could vary significantly if, say, an entire flower was included into a piece instead of parts of several flowers.

Mrs Ward Class Quilt

This quilt was done as a project in Mrs Ward's class last year.  Fabrics used for the borders and joint pieces were all made from leftover pieces of various projects by class children and parents.  Several samples were donated by the Coachies, Maribel and Sandy.  The main concern was in matching the border colors with the children's artwork and in balancing the color across the quilt.

Carter Ray Embroidered Pillowcase

I recently finished a pillowcase that included art by the newest Handmade Penguin youth artist, who goes by the creative name Carter Ray.  For that, I nudged myself outside of my box and had fun with the theme of the artwork - the ocean.  All the pieces of fabric were from my fabric box and were chosen for their similarity to something that can exist in the ocean.  Plankton, little fish, starfish, schools of bigger fish.

Don't be Embarrassed

If you have several unfinished quilt tops in your project pile, I've found that it is entirely normal!  This disclosure came at one of the Block of the Month meetings... Even the instructor confessed to having a few!

Share your quilting with Patch and upload photos of your work here.

More photographs of the Long Beach Quilt and the Carter Ray pillowcase may be found at http://www.handmadepenguin.com/blog