Free-Motion Quilting Decisions and a Printed Panel

teddy bear printed panel enhanced with free-motion quiltingFrom the Sewing Room: Printed Panels and Free-Motion Quilting.

I have been free-motion quilting for a while now. It’s probably 4 years or so since I crawled out of my ditch and started being more adventurous in this way. 😉 But I have just discovered something that I wish I had thought of right at the beginning!  And that something is pre-printed fabric panels.

Yes, I knew they existed….. But I have been a patchwork and appliqué snob and I have shunned them. Because I didn’t appreciate the benefits of putting my patchwork aside for a bit and developing my free-motion skills in a way that would let me put all my focus into the free-motion quilting part of a project. And this week I learnt a thing or two. Because I was forced to quilt a pre-printed panel….. and I liked it!

Got my free-motion quilting up and going again

Ice-cream Tones color scheme from Clever ChameleonThis week I have been concentrating on colour boards and  fabric mosaics, triggered by the Summer Crush contest from Stitched in Color. This resulted in 4 colour blog posts and was a lot of fun, but left much less time for sewing than usual. So, to stay happy and in touch with my sewing room, I pulled out a quick project that I have been avoiding a little. My next charity quilt.

The next charity quilt on my list was a child’s printed panel. It was all pinned and ready to go, but it just wasn’t going. Partly because I was out of the mindset of quilting because I have been sewing tumbling blocks patchwork lately instead. Partly because I had no idea what pattern to quilt on it. And a big partly because it will go to a very sick baby with seriously stressed out parents. I have been that parent in the past, and I didn’t want to think about it. All these things added up to a serious lack of momentum.

Teddy bears charity quilt
My latest charity quilt – a teddy bear panel

But I wanted to take a show-and-tell to my next Handiquilter Club meeting on Friday, so I fired up the Sweet Sixteen and got started. I knew I needed to outline the main motifs of the print. I knew I wanted hearts in the aqua border and I knew I wanted some texture contrast between the sections, but I didn’t know what.

When you don’t know where to start, start with what you know

It is my experience that ideas flow better when you are creating rather than thinking. So I started. I outlined the big bears in brown. Then I outlined the little bears and balloons in white by travelling around the inside of the string of motifs and then the outside. Once I had done this I decided to add free-motion quilting in the area between the aqua border and the balloons in a motif I know well. I did loop-de-loops, with the occasional little heart thrown in. That went quite well.

Loop-de-loop free-motion quilting with hearts
Looping stipple free-motion quilting with hearts

I hope you can see the quilting…. it is there mostly for texture. Here’s a diagram of the basic idea….

loops and hearts
Loops and hearts quilting plan

Now my confidence was up. I removed a stack of pins, which made the quilt easier to handle and also look better. And I recognised that the memories of my baby being in hospital in intensive care upset me less when I was working on the quilt than when I was anticipating working on it. Of course, thinking about the thinking was worse than the thinking! Anyway, at this point I felt inspired to fill the background with straight lines to show off the bears.

Straight line quilting to produce diamond grid
Straight line quilting to produce diamond grid in background of quilt.

The print has a grid of yellow and aqua flowers and I considered joining the flowers to form a diamond grid. But then I decided to make the flowers the centre of each diamond by quilting straight lines between them. I marked the lines with a hera marker (I am seriously scared of marking white quilts with wash-out pens). Then I free-motion quilted the lines in white thread. I wish I had a quilting ruler….. and knew how to use it! But I got by.

Hearts in the border – testing a new free-motion quilting motif

About the only thing I knew right from when I first unfolded this little quilt for a first look, was that I wanted to do a heart motif in the aqua-coloured border. 

A browse through my Quilting to Admire and Inspire board on Pinterest turned up a useful idea. It is this double heart leaf vine motif from Lori Kennedy. 

double heart leaf vine from Lori Kennedy
Double heart leaf vine motif from Lori Kennedy’s blog, The Inbox Jaunt.

I didn’t want the extra petals inside the hearts, and I had to decide how I was going to turn the corners, but this was a great launching place. Thanks Lori! The design I settled on after several drafts looked like this.

heart border doodle
How I eventually decided to turn the corners with the Heart Vine motif

I used chalk to place guidelines on the quilt top.

Here is the border quilted onto the baby quilt.

hearts border free-motion quilting motif
My hearts border free-motion quilting motif

I finished the long ends of the quilt with straight parallel lines to the edges, cut off the excess and sewed the binding onto the front of the quilt. The binding will be finished by hand by another quilter. I hope this little quilt does a little good in a bad situation. ♥♥♥

Clever Chameleon logo in blueMaybe next time I might go into more details on my thoughts of why I should have started quilting fabric panels a long time ago. And one reason I can think of as to why I didn’t. What is your experience of pre-printed “quilt tops”? Let me know in the comments below!

Until we chat again, go Quilt Your Own Story!

P.S. The follow-up blog post, where I did actually get around to arranging my thoughts on printed quilt panels, is here: 7 reasons to Quilt Printed Fabric Panels.

P.P.S. Linking up this week with The Quilting Room with Mel. Visit the linky party for more great new projects on the web this week.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Blue Fox

Blue Fox color palette from Clever ChameleonColour Inspiration Tuesday: a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts.

It’s Tuesday again already! This week we have a classic colour combination that I think I’ll never tire of. Calming blues with warm browns.  Inspired by a stunning photo of a fox curled up in snow reflecting blue light….. I’m calling this palette “Blue Fox”.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday blue fox palette. light steel blue, cadet blue, grey, dark olive, brown, slate

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Blue Fox

The “Blue Fox” colour palette is light steel blue, cadet blue, grey, dark olive, brown, mid brown, light slate and dark olive. Use these different colours in different proportions to get the effect you want. If you use a high proportion of blues, you will produce a very calming palette. Alternatively, focusing on the browns with blue highlights will give a very masculine look – maybe just the thing for a quilt for your favourite bloke? Using the two colour families in equal proportions will give a very lovely. mature palette that would look great on the wall or couch. Like always, there are no right or wrong combinations, just the ones you prefer and those you don’t.

Blue and Brown not your thing? That’s ok!

If you like warmer, much redder colours than “Blue Fox”, you may like “Butterfly Loves Red” instead!

Don’t miss your weekly dose of colour inspiration! Follow along by subscribing to this blog. Or you can find lots of colour schemes anytime you like: follow this board from Clever Chameleon on Pinterest

Today’s stock photo is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. While there is no obligation for me to tell you where I got this photo, I love to give credit where credit is due. So; this lovely photo was provided by Ray Hennessy via Unsplash.

Clever chameleon logo blueJoin me next Tuesday to explore another colour combination possibility for your quilt projects. In the meantime, look around you to find colours similar to Blue Fox in use, and notice whether there are other colours you’d like to add or substitute. Change it to make it truly your own. Remember: choose the colour combination that You like best…… always make sure you are quilting your own story by celebrating your own creativity!

P.S. If you would like to use this photo for your own projects, you can find all the unaltered Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesday in one place in my Colour Inspiration Collection.

Six ways Talented Quilters use Colour Value

Talented quilt designers use colour value in a variety of ways. Choose one or two uses of colour value to spice up your next quilt!

Over the last few posts we have been thinking about improving our quilt designs by understanding the design concepts of contrast and colour value. Now let’s look at six key effects of using deliberate, creative use of colour value. These uses of colour value direct the eye and help the brain to interpret your quilt in a certain way. Most simply put; how you choose to contrast or blend each part of a quilt design can dramatically change how your quilt looks.

1. Use Colour Value Contrast to give a quilt design definition:

When it comes to making spectacular quilts, it is the colour value range that is more important than the actual colours. You can do a fabulous geometric quilt in all pinks. There is no reason at all why you can’t do an amazing flamingo all in blues. A beautiful lush landscape quilt could definitely be created all in purples. As long as you use colour value contrast to define your design.

Where you want a shape to be obvious, it must contrast in colour value with the surrounding fabrics. However, if you want an area of many pieces to be interpreted as a single shape, the opposite is true. To blend areas, the most important thing is to use colours of similar values (ie very little colour value contrast). The second thing to do is contrast them as a group with at least one colour that is quite different – the “us against them” principle.

Take a Jacob’s ladder block as an example (below).

Jacob's Ladder quilt examples showing differences in colour value contrast
Design A shows a high contrast choice of colour values, where the geometry of the Jacob’s Ladder is the main feature of the design. Design B shows the same design done in multiple colours. The design is still obvious because all the colours are closer in value to each other than  they are to the background (white). This makes the brain interpret them as one related entity that is seperate from the background. Design C shows what happens when colour value contrast is not considered in tandem with the block layout. The colour value contrast in this quilt is randomly distributed. The effect is still pretty, but the Jacob’s Ladder design is lost and a completely different (not wrong) quilt results.

Knowing which fabrics will blend or contrast is the secret to successful scrappy quilts, Irish Chains and log cabin designs, just to mention a few.

Remember, deliberately blending fabric squares with their neighbours is a valid design choice. An example of this is the Disappearing Nine-Patch quilt. Knowing how colour value works simply gives you the power to design your quilts to be how you want them.

2. Use Colour Value Contrast to create depth:

In pictorial quilts, light value fabrics create highlights and dark value fabrics create shadows. But there is far more to understand about creating depth in quilts than just shadows and highlights. Did you know that if the values of two fabrics are similar, their shapes will seem closely connected in space and none will stand out from the others? To cause shapes to appear to be seperate in space and stand out form each other, it is necessary to use fabrics with contrasting colour values.

Use colour value contrast to create depth: tree example
Look at the bottom panel in this figure,  This picture appears very very flat. In the top panel however, your brain wants to interpret depth, with the darker trees gradually receding, even though they are the same size as the lightest tree.
tree scene showing how to use colour value contrast
Have a look at the two simple scenes. The scene on the left is easier for the brain to interpret because the bigger trees are also lighter in value…. two agreeing cues that these trees are the closest.

Also you should keep in mind that shapes made of light colours visually “come forward”. This means they appear closer to the viewer than other areas of a quilt. Therefore, you can deliberately bring things into the foreground of a quilt by using light fabrics. Conversely, you can make features recede into the background when you add them in darker colours. 

All of these effects are independent of the colour hue (ie red, blue, yellow etc). It is only the values (relative lightness and darkness) of the colours that matter.

3. Use Colour Value Contrast to convey feelings and action:

Colour values can convey concepts such as mood or change. For example, a dark region in a quilted sky will probably make you think of an impending storm. Conversely, a light patch will convey sunshine. This works even if the quilt is completely abstract and you use colours that are not true-to-life. Yet these effects are mostly lost if the whole sky is evenly coloured in the darker or lighter colours. It is the change in colour value that causes the brain to interpret the meaning. 

4. Use Colour Value blending to create illusions of luminosity and light-sinks:

Graduating colour value can be used in quilts to enormous effect. One of my favourite effects created by graduating colour value is luminosity. When you start in the centre of a quilt design with a light colour and add rings or layers of increasingly darker colours around the original shape you create the illusion of luminosity. Luminous quilts tend to convey happiness and hope. Conversely, starting in the centre with dark value fabrics and graduating to lighter fabrics gives the illusion of a dark hole. Both effects are stunning when done right.

Luminous quilt block with four luminous corners.
Quilt block with four “luminous” log cabin corners.

This effect is often seen used in concentric quilt designs. Concentric just means “sharing a centre”. So concentric quilt designs are those that have a small shape in the centre that is surrounded by echoes of that shape gradually increasing in size. “Around the World” and “Blooming Nine-Patch” quilts are good examples of whole-quilt concentric designs. You can also incorporate luminosity into individual blocks of a quilt, to create lots of smaller focal points. An example is “Light in the Valley” quilts.

Luminosity is not confined to concentric quilts – it can easily be incorporated into non-symmetric designs and landscapes as well. Sunset quilts are one common example of this. 

5. Use Colour Value Contrast to make colours more vibrant:

If you place contrasting value fabrics side by side they will make each other look more brilliant. Think of a dark silhouette in front of a sunset…. the sunset is magnified in beauty by the dark contrast. Black makes colours look brighter. White makes colours look darker. These are the extreme examples of this principle. Colours closer in value to each other will have the same effect on each other, but more subtly.

If you only use colours of the same value together, they can end up looking “washed out”. So, the takeaway message? Add a few lighter or darker colours to your quilt to maintain the beauty of your fabulous main fabrics.

6. Colour Value is critical for creating the illusion of three dimensions:

Use colour value to make illusion of three dimensional 3D block
You can represent three dimensions with colour values. Here is a square-based prism in three values of one colour.

Blending colour values gives the illusion of 3-dimensional shape and form to flat objects. This is the same principle as shading in a pencil drawing and is colour independent. Again it is the colour value of the fabrics that matter. You can make round features look three dimensional by gradually graduating from light to dark fabrics in any colour.  You can create the look of flat edged 3D shapes using sharp changes in colour value. Tumbling block quilts use this second principle, as do other three dimensional illusions.

Realistic pictorial quilts generally use gradual changes in colour value to convey shape and substance.

So, what’s next?

If you’ve got this far, you’re probably wanting to better use colour value contrast to create better quilts. In this case, there are three things I recommend for you to do next. Firstly, get a really good handle on the theory of what colour value is and how it applies to quilts! Secondly, have a critical look at lots of quilts and decide what you like or dislike about their use of colour value contrast. This will help you decide what suits you and your quilt story. And thirdly, find a reliable method that you like to help you determine the colour values of your fabrics – so that there are no nasty surprises after your quilt top is finished and it doesn’t look right. Then start applying what you know to your quilt design process and grow as you go!

  • If you want to know more about colour value theory and how it applies to quilts, my next post will cover it nicely. Colour Value Theory for Quilters – What you need to know! is scheduled for the 4 June 2017. Subscribe to read it as soon as it is published.
  • If you want to see a variety of quilts that illustrate the principles of colour value contrast and blending that I have covered in this post, visit my especially curated Pinterest board: Colour Value Contrast discussion quilts. I have labelled each pin on this board with relevant features to take notice of. Have a critical look at them. What can you notice about the way the artist has used colour value?
  • If you want to know which tools I recommend to determine the colour value of your fabrics, subscribe to my blog to receive notification or come back in a week or two. I am halfway through writing a post on exactly that!

Clever Chameleon logo

 

P.S. If you found this article helpful, please feel free to pin and share, as long as you include attribution to Dione Gardner-Stephen and the correct Clever Chameleon URL. Thanks!

Colour Inspiration Tuesday is here!! Let’s start with Butterfly Loves Red

Butterfly loves Red color scheme from Clever ChameleonWould you like a free resource of colour combinations to try on your quilts?

Perhaps you have seen a fabulous quilt pattern but you don’t like the colours. Perhaps you do like the pattern’s colours, but the fabrics featured are already out of print (don’t you hate that!!). Or perhaps you just want to try something different to what everyone else is doing…… Colour Inspiration Tuesday is here to help. 

On occasional Tuesdays I will post a photo and a corresponding colour palette using the photo as inspiration. You can follow along by subscribing to my blog. Or you can find all the related posts whenever you like by using the Colour Inspiration Tuesday category tag. 

So let’s get started….. the very first Clever Chameleon Colour Inspiration Tuesday.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: "Butterfly loves red". Crimson, dark green, tan, slate, brick red, olive.

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Butterfly Loves Red

The “Butterfly Loves Red” colour palette is crimson, fire brick red, peach, tan, slate, dark slate and dark olive. Use these different colours in different proportions to get the effect you want. Using mostly reds with sparing use of the dark colours for contrast will give you a very vivid, warm looking quilt. Predominately using the more neutral colours with the reds as highlights will give you a modern elegant look. There are no right or wrong combinations, just the ones you prefer and those you don’t.

Today’s stock photo is from Unsplash.com. Unsplash is a collection of free, high resolution, “do what you want with” photos. While there is no obligation for me to tell you where I got this photo thanks to their open community-minded licensing, I love to give credit where credit is due. So; this lovely photo was provided by Tung Minh via Unsplash.

Clever Chameleon logo redI hope you will join me at Colour Inspiration Tuesday to explore new colour combinations you could try in your quilt projects. These suggestions are just the starting point…. have a look in your stash or in your local quilt store to see how you can translate these colours to fabrics. See what you can add or change to make it truly your own. Remember: choose the variation that you like the best…. it’s all about you or your recipient at this stage of the process……make sure you are quilting your own story!

P.S. If you would like to use this photo for your own projects, you can find all the Unsplash photos from Colour Inspiration Tuesday in one place in my Colour Inspiration Collection.

Colour Value Contrast for Spectacular Quilt Designs

Princess owl patchwork

Becoming an expert in colour value contrast will help make your quilts stand out from the crowd.

Fabrics lined up in a row showing colour value contrast.
When choosing colours for your next quilt, there is waaaaay more to think about than just the colour scheme. How are you going to make those colours sing!!?

Last time we talked about how contrast is the key to producing an eye-catching quilt. If you missed that post, you might like to read my comprehensive overview of the types of contrast to consider when thinking about your next brilliant quilt. Today however, I want to start to elaborate further on just one of these types of contrast – using colour value contrast to give your quilt designs a facelift!

Colour value contrast is a quilt design fundamental you should master EARLY. Possibly even before the perfect 1/4″ seam……..!!

What is the very first thing you think of when I say “Add some contrast to your quilt.”? I bet your first response is something about using “light, medium and dark coloured fabrics”. This is colour value contrast.

Why do I think you will likely choose this form of contrast first and foremost, even though there are dozens of other ways to introduce contrast into a quilt? (And even though you’ve read my last post, right?!) It is because colour value contrast is one of the most fundamental design concepts used in great quilts. If you like looking at other people’s quilts, it is a concept you have already seen in action, possibly hundreds of times. We’ve all heard about it…. but do we really understand it? Let’s investigate and make sure…..

What is colour value and colour value contrast?

Colour value is defined most simply as the relative lightness or darkness of a colour (read “fabric”!). So, there are two parts to colour value:

  1. the properties of a colour, and
  2. the colour’s context.

A colour can be described as light, dark or medium. Really light and really dark value colours are fairly straight forward….. they tend to look light or dark in any context. However, medium value fabrics are more tricky. They have a habit of looking light next to dark fabrics and dark next to light fabrics. And these tricky fabrics are generally the ones that quilters buy in great lengths and hoard in stash. Because medium value colours are the most attractive.

However, as pretty as these fabrics are, if you only use medium colour value fabrics in a quilt it is very difficult to produce a “WOW” design. This is why you need colour value contrast. Effective colour value contrast is the art of using a range of colour values to create a design that is well-defined, pleasing to the eye and interesting to the brain.

Why is colour value contrast so important?

Colour value advice can be found in recent quilt books.
A selection of fabulous books from my personal library, all with advice on how to choose fabrics to get the best out of their patterns.

If you pick up a recently written quilt book , chances are that somewhere in the introduction there will be a short section about choosing fabrics. And in this section, you will be reminded to choose fabrics covering a range of colour values. If you’ve ever joined a class to sew a particular quilt pattern, I hope you’ve heard it there too. And you’re hearing it again here! This is because it is great advice and if you do not heed it, you will get a disappointing result. You will wonder why your quilt doesn’t capture you like the demonstrator’s/pattern’s example did.

Have you ever wondered why a quilt you’ve made looks flat, boring or dull; even though you used really really beautiful fabrics in colours that you love?

You might have wrongly assumed that it is because you can’t sew as well as “her”, or that you are just not talented enough at choosing fabrics. If you inner voice tries to tell you this, it is wrong, wrong, wrong! – You just need to get a better handle on using colour value contrast! If you are the victim of a boring quilt, the most likely culprit is that you have used too many fabrics of the same or similar colour value. Even if the actual colours are all different (ie red, blue, green etc) they can still be much the same value. The easiest way to see if this is the problem is to stand a good distance from your quilt. If the pattern disappears as you move away, you do not have enough colour value contrast.

Using different colour values properly in a quilt creates visual depth and adds definition to the design. Colour value contrast also changes the way the brain perceives colours – dark fabrics make mid colours appear brighter, while light fabrics make mid colours appear more intense. Colour value contrast causes people to notice those beautiful fabrics you’ve invested in and to see the fabulous layout of your pattern. It makes your quilt eye-catching. 

Ok, so I can see that mastering colour value contrast would help me grow as a quilter…… What can I do?!

Like anything else, becoming proficient at choosing good fabric combinations takes practise. Try some of these suggestions:

  • If you have a stash, play with your fabrics to make colour combinations you like (you could use scraps to do this too). First, choose a couple of medium value fabrics that you really like together. Now find several more fabrics that look good with these  Concentrate on making sure they are noticeably lighter or darker than your first choices. You may actually find that your stash is pretty short on light and/or dark fabrics….. you won’t be alone in this, it is quite common, and a good excuse for shopping!!
  • Find out more about how expert quilters use colour value contrast….. Attend a quilt show and deliberately look for the colour value contrast in your favourite quilts. Or read more about how colour value is used in quilting. You may like to read my article: Six ways talented quilt designers use colour value.
  • Find out more about colour value theory. Knowledge is power! My quilting perspective on this topic is collected here for you in: Colour Value Theory for Quilters: What you need to know!)

Practise, practise, practise!

In the meantime, look around you as you go about everyday life and notice colour value contrasts. Train your brain to see where colour values are used to create interest. Whether in the supermarket, reading a magazine, or relaxing at the park, be “contrast aware”. You might be surprised at what you see that you didn’t before!

P.S. If you found this article helpful, please feel free to pin and share as long as you include attribution to Dione Gardner-Stephen and the correct Clever Chameleon URL. Thanks!

P.P.S. I know some tricks you can use to rescue boring quilts suffering from lack of colour value contrast. Comment if you are interested in a post about this!