A couple of years ago I was working in my studio, sorting
through fabric scraps and organizing them. I store my fabric by color because
it makes it easier to find what I’m looking for. However, one of the
disadvantages is that you have to work a little harder to discover new or long
forgotten color combinations.
When I design a quilt I generally start with a color scheme.
That way I can limit my choices. Having a massive stash is wonderful in some
ways, not so great in others. Sometimes too many choices can make it difficult
to focus. You’d think it would make you more creative, instead I’ve found that limiting
choices forces me to create within a structure. I know it sounds counter-intuitive,
but I find it challenging to take what could be predictable, and turn it into
something unique.
Getting back to my fabric scrap sorting… I do this from time
to time, (mainly to organize the mess that accumulates in my studio), and I
often find fabrics I’d forgotten about, or in this particular case a color
combination that I hadn’t used in years.
My brother and sister-in-law live in Northern California and
we live in Southern Oregon. We have both
had to deal with massive wildfires in our communities over the past few years.
We’ve managed to escape without losing our homes, but the fear is omni-present.
Along with the fires, a couple of years ago we experienced a severe snowstorm
which knocked out our power for a week. On top of that we live in the woods off
a shared gravel road. The storm caused at least 80 trees to fall and block our
road so we were stranded as well.
Fortunately, the neighbors gathered together with chain saws and were
able to clear the road enough that the power company was able to get in and get
us back up and running.
I had walked away from my fabric sorting for a few minutes
and when I returned I noticed two scraps that had fallen next to each other.
One was orange and the other aqua. The first thing I thought is how great a color
combination that was, then I remembered that my sister-in-law likes all things
aqua or turquoise. I had been wanting to make her a quilt for a while so I set
the scraps aside, and my mind started working away.
I thought about the fires and the snow and how they represent
opposites in many ways. I had been wanting to try a new technique that had been
going around in my head for a while that would be perfectly suited for a log
cabin quilt. I decided to do it in orange and aqua, with accents of deep
purple. I also decided that it would be a wonderful Christmas gift for my
sister-in-law.
The technique is a modified quilt-as-you-go. I won’t go into
the details here, but it involves creating pieced squares that are embellished,
and then adding sashing and borders. It worked beautifully and has now become
the way I work. My problem has always been that once I design a quilt in my
head, I get bored with it and don’t make the quilt as in my mind, it’s already
been done! Now, I can make decisions throughout
the process, so I don’t get bored, and I end up with a finished quilt.
This is a picture of part of the process. The center is done, as well as the first border, now I'm working out the next border:
I had a lot of fun making this quilt. Since I was fine tuning a new technique I made a few blunders. However, I learned years ago that mistakes are how you learn what not to do, so they aren’t really a waste of time and effort. I’ve had a lot of positive things come out of what I thought were big boo-boos!
In this case I finished the quilt in time to send it to my sister-in-law for Christmas. She was thrilled!
Here are some pictures:
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