Color Makes A Difference In Your Quilting.

I recently received a call from my daughter asking for help in assembling a quilt

. My interest was picked. My daughter is not a quilter. Her mother-in-law had cross stitched blocks as a gift. She wanted Brigette, (my daughter)to assemble the blocks. Not knowing how to put a quilt together, Brigette called Mom.

Some weeks later, we got together to examine the blocks. The blocks were of an Iris pattern. The flower of each Iris was stitched in a deep, rich, purple with bright green foliage. Even though, I am not a lover of cross stitched blocks, the blocks were particularly beautiful. The color contrast in the blocks was striking and being involved in piecing this quilt was going to be fun and exciting. Little did I know the challenges the next few weeks would bring.

Being the owner of an online quilt fabric business, I had lots of fabric to use in the auditioning process. The blocks were 18 inches square on a stark white background. With the size of the block in mind, I chose a strong deep purple, weighing on the purple in the Iris. I had 3 fabrics in mind and the auditioning began. Hmm, well those did not work. Some 14 purple fabrics later, I decided to try a yellow. Why yellow? The fall in the Iris had a hint of yellow in it and sometimes the hint color is a perfect color to use in the border.

Ok, the yellow did not work. All of the fabrics used thus far, either were lost in the quilt, made the quilt look flat, or appear, lifeless. This was turning out to be way more complicated than I had originally thought. So far, all of my color options had been solids or at least tone on tone fabrics. Maybe I needed to introduce a pattern.

I feared using a pattern because I did not want the border to compete with the floral blocks. Pulling out my 1930's purple small print fabrics, the audition process began again. Realizing, that the border width could also make a difference, each fabric was auditioned by width comparison. What width would work: inch, 1 inch, 1 inch, or so on?

After reviewing over 30 fabrics, I still did not have the right color combination. Off to the fabric shops I went. Four fabric shops and an innumerable number of fabrics later the result was still the same: no winner. What am I going to do? My daughter is counting on me and the mother-in-law is calling "often" to find out if the quilt is done. The pressure was on.

When all else fails, take a break. Get your mind off the problem. Concentrate on another project. This is exactly what I did. I began piecing a Kumiko Sudo block. If you want a distraction, the Kumiko Sudo block collection should live up to your expectations. It turned out to be the right project to open my eyes to the color opportunities available for my daughter's quilt. What about green? Why had I not thought of using green?

So the process began again. Each fabric was auditioned by pattern, color, and width. Still I did not have a winner. Looking through my stash, I located a lime green tone on tone fabric. I liked the fabric so much, that I purchased 5 yards of it. The fabric already had been used in 5 previous quilts which resulted in my stash having a balance of 3 yards, enough for this project.

The stash green fabric had hints of yellow, white, and lime green in a circular pattern on a lime green background. As soon as the fabric was placed against the Iris block, bingo, I had a winner. Next step was to decide the width of the block border. I chose the 1 inch border for each block and began cutting the strips immediately. With the strips cut, it was time to lay out the quilt. The color was perfect and the quilt was alive.

Laying out the quilt also took a little thought. With 16 blocks to work with, I chose to put 4 blocks each in the top and bottom row. The 2 center rows each had 2 blocks. This left a big gap on each side. Wanting to keep the focus on the Iris pattern in the blocks, I decided to put a large white piece on each side. The piece would be 2 rows high and 1 block wide. I would ask the machine quilter to quilt a large floral motif, in this section, to accent the Iris in the quilt blocks. With the layout complete, the quilt was ready to piece together. As the rows came together, I realized how beautiful the final quilt would be.

The quilt still needed an inner and an outer border. Again, I went to my stash and found a striped purple- lime green fabric for the inner border. This fabric had not worked for the border on the blocks but now, as the inner border, it provided the perfect inner frame. I strip pieced this striped fabric, a white and the lime green block border fabric together. From this strip piece, I cut a 6 inch outer border. The icing was now on the cake.

Color really does make a difference in a quilt.

The process had been a challenge but the rewards were spectacular. The day I delivered this to my daughter, I watched to see if she saw what I saw in the quilt. As the quilt unfolded, her eyes began to sparkle and the smile of appreciation covered her face. The best result was seeing the look on her husband's face. He has an artistic background and I at once that he approved.

Just in case you are interested... the mother-in-law loved the final product. It is so nice to keep the family happy.

by: Darlene Pratte

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