Part Four - Second No-Fail Approach to Color

Remember I started these posts for stitchers who were unsure about choosing colors... I said there were two "NO FAIL" approaches...  The first was limit your color choices.  

Well the second  "NO FAIL"  approach is just the opposite.... USE EVERY COLOR!!!!  This block is an excellent example and was stitched by Cathy LaBath... She adores color but has written me repeatedly that she is horrible at picking out colors...

Yet to appease her thirst for bright colors she uses them with abandon  making dozens of these scrappy quilts..  They work because of the multitude of colors at random... You cannot fail making one of these quilts and the same approach is true applied to crazy quilting...

She's not comfortable choosing and controlling color but she doesn't let that stop her.. Cathy has her colorful scrappy quilts on her blog.

There are some people who have a joyous sense of color gone wild and are able to choose and control it.  I posted awhile back about two such people Lauri Burgesser and Allison Aller.  I keep a special drawer of  intense colors just to use on Lauri's blocks. I admire everything done by them... Their love of color and their use of vibrant colors add energy to everything they create.

 Two other stitchers who consistently make wonderful use of vibrant colors are Lorraine Stobie and Nikki Lee Seavy...  Not only are they skilled stitchers, both have Esty shops where they sell supplies  ablaze with color. Nikki Lee Seavey sells hand dyed laces  and Lorraine sells hand dyed threads. 

One of the newer members of CQI whom I have been watching is Pamela Pincha-Wagener   who picked these colors for her blocks in the Goldwork 3 RR... She wrote that she has never made a pastel block...  I've asked her  if I can work on her last block in this RR just because the colors are so yummy and would be a real challenge for me...

Probably the most famous crazy quilter for using "Color Gone Wild' is Martha Greene of Oklahoma. She refers to herself as using the "roadside carnival" approach..  She has participated in many exhibitions and won numerous awards and has been an Artist-in-residence at Oklahoma State University for 15 years.  I met and watched her work in Colorado a year ago.. She started with a pile of brilliantly-colored scraps and picked them and stitched them completely at random... She often teaches workshops around the country.. Unfortunately I could not find a website nor web address for her...

So if you love color and have been hesitant to plunge ahead, you might want to experiment with this approach... A word of caution would be to start with solid colors or use prints with a very tiny pattern.  This ensures that your fancy stitching will show up.  Then once you have your colorful block sewn, get out your stash of threads and start pulling  lots and lots colors...

If  making a block of every color and working with thread of every color is too much for you on your first color adventure, try using threads of every color on  black blocks. Here is a RR block stitched several years back by Jo Newsham of NZ using lots of intense color on a black background.

Cathy Kizerian's CQJP project is going to be spectacular.  She is using the intense colors in a piece of vintage needlepoint and using them for fancy stitching on black crazy quilted blocks.. It is unassembled at this point and pinned to her wall. She   has just a few more to go...

If these people had a neighborhood, it should look like this!

Color Comfort - Tricks and Guidelines - Part 1

Picking your feathers.....is there a bird here that reflects your color comfort zone? Most people are fairly secure with their color comfort zone but I can tell from work I see that there are a lot who struggle with color.  If you have or  are starting a inspiration file pay special attention to recurrent colors that have attracted you..  PICK NO MORE THAN THREE.  That is the place to start...  Now here I am talking about a successful block for yourself.... The key in the beginning is limit, limit and limit... It is so easy to be overwhelmed by a pile of fabric stash and go a little crazy... It doesn't matter if the colors are intense or subdued... just pick three of your favorite.

In this case I have chosen three muted shades of pink, green and beige.(my personal comfort zone). Gathering your color choices as threads and fabric is the first step... The fabrics can vary in texture but keep any patterns VERY small or muted. I can't emphasize that enough at this stage. Patterns can be very distracting for beginning exercises.. Make a block!

Now start laying your threads on the block matching the colors as close as possible. If you want to use ribbons or braids add them with the same guideline.  Match as closely as possible. Using all the same color of thread and trims may seem boring but I guarantee that you will end with a block you will love. Carefully pick your threads and STICK TO YOUR choices... Do not start bringing in other colors later... There are lots of ways to add more interest with buttons, lace and motifs, etc... But stick to your original choice of colors and your block will have (my favorite word) harmony.... The next post will show some fantastic examples of just this technique of limited color.

But when you know your own comfort zone what happens when you  want to stretch a bit or get wild and crazy?  There are tricks for that also that I'll cover  in another post.

And then what happens when you join a round robin and get a block of colors that make you gasp?  This person has picked  those colors because they loved them and you are part of a team who all want this RR to be a success.  Again there are some tricks to do this and I will share.

Achieving balance

I dropped out of this RR because of overload at home so I am watching closely as it progresses and wishing I was stitching along....  This is Hideko's work on Cathy's block and CQ doesn't get more luscious and elegant than this...  I love the flatwork ribbon technique she used for the frame and the eye movement around the block is easy and direct...The ties on the fans are beautifully used to lead the eye to the image.

And it is the perfect  example of achieving balance.  Balance, unlike other elements of design, is easier to recognize because it can be related to your physical being..  Try standing on one foot very long and you immediately grasp the concept of balance.  Everything you add to a block has "density" or "weight"  Dark colors are denser than light colors, many smaller elements balance out a larger one, etc. If you squint your eyes or stand back from your work, you can learn to see the weightier areas...

In this block Hideko added a very dense (weighty) floral element to the bottom corner of the frame... To balance this she added the the delicate fly stitch spray upper right..  Even though it is more delicate, the color is deeper and stronger.

Look at what happens to this block if the darker floral spray is removed. Even adding something lighter but heavier helps some but not as much as the solution Hideko used..









It is really evident how important that delicate spray is when you see the two examples together.

 Cathy made some superb choices for her images as they are all Victorian women engaged in some meaningful activity...  If you keep a file of extraordinary blocks, you must add this one...

My Two Cents Worth for Flora

 Flora wrote:
 Not sure I'm done with this one yet.  I did finally post pictures of what I have been working  on my blog http://florasbeecrazyquilter.blogspot.com 

I'd love a little advice on what to do with that bare brown corner. I was thinking of putting a bird in a nest there to complementing the bird  button on the other side but I don't know!

  Gerry Help!

Oh my goodness Flora... you have one gorgeous block going here...  Your choice of image is delightful and so is the bird button... The combination of  the browns with the blues is really working and there's a lot of contrasts in texture and patterns in your fabrics.

I think the idea of a bird in a nest is a great idea because, as you mentioned,  it would complement the bird button.  But if you stuck it in the corner brown patch it would be corralled by that curved seam. and isolated from the block...  But if you perch the nest just above the patch on a branch..  it becomes a working element in the block and part of a path that moves your eye around the block...

Then you are still left with that brown patch and I'd recommend expanding your seam treatment right down into that patch to give it both texture and interest...  The last post I talked about scale and this could be a problem here....  You want to keep the bird on the nest larger than the button but smaller than the silkie... 

Remember my motto.... CQ is a pleasing arrangement of parts to their whole and to each other... Well as I looked at the block I am immediately drawn to the large beads upper right... At first I thought they were hearts but looking closer I think they are leaves... They don't relate to anything else on the block and overwhelm both the silkie and the block.  I would recommend removing them... Here is how it looks without them... right away the silkie gains importance which is why you chose it in the first place...

So what to do with that corner...?. well you need to look back into the block and you have lots to choose from... There is the oval laced collar on the lady and that shape in lace would be exquisite there...  Perhaps you could have a paisley or a fan overlapping the lace.  I notice that two of your patches have lovely paisley detail....why not use it as inspiration... One of my favorite things on this block is the incredible seam by the birds...  Those stitches and colors repeated would make an elegant fan that suits the block.. Anyway Flora whatever you do I want to see it when finished.... Okay?

And that's

From my list of the "Best of the Best"

 "Crazy Quilting = Harmony... a pleasing arrangement of parts to their whole and to each other..."

I am a self-taught crazy quilter and worked for years in isolation using books, but a whole new world opened up when I found CQI and the internet... By far I was most dazzled and inspired by Jo Newsham from NZ and sadly she no longer does any CQ at all...

It was her seam work that was most extraordinary.  She never fell into a habit of using a variation of a limited number of stitches..  All of her seams  were unique and I especially loved the ones that incorporated  ribbon work as you see here.  This DYOB block was part of  Fab Fans RR. 

Do click on it to enlarge and study the detail.

Most everyone, and especially myself, used conventional fans but not Jo.. Hers were all very creative and not a machine-made lace fan motif to be seen.. 

Most noteable was the focal fan of this block... a paddle fan..   She could have used just a piece of lace with a handle but she took it a step further by putting a circle offset in a circle... much more interesting. Doing it white on the light center patch makes it stand out on the block while the darker work on the darker lower right patch recedes and makes a perfect balance

This was the other piece of Jo's I had in my collection of great blocks...  But first I must share that Jo is color blind. To compensate she most often stuck to a very limited color palette or a monochromatic selection of threads and fabrics.  These techniques defined her style and should be a great inspiration to anyone struggling with color theory. . You can see here she chose only lavender and soft green.. This limited palette gave her work a  simplicity that ensured all the parts of the needlework would complement each other.

My favorite on this block is the elaborate seam running diagonally up the block.  It is  a seam treatment but is much more as it creates the path that takes your eye around this block... It is so creative.  Look closely at it and don't overlook the little white needlewoven leaves. There is so much movement in this short section of thread, beads and buttons that it almost seems alive.

And of course her  ribbon embroidery work is second to none... Please take note also that there are very few "doodads" on Jo's work...it is all about needlework and superb needlework at that.

As I mentioned she doesn't do any CQ work anymore but much of her work is still archived on her blog under "round robins" label and you can also see what she is doing now...   I often think her tidbits of sage advice and wicked humor... I do miss her.

Let's Talk Block

In Sharon Boggon's class last April she felt the key to what makes a successful block was contrast and we discussed it at length.  I had to think about that for a very long time and while contrast is vitally important, there is one more thing more important in my opinion....  "Harmony... a pleasing arrangement of parts to their whole and to each other..." After searching through the many blocks this summer I am even more convinced of this and you will hear it often from me and this block by Sharon Boggon is a perfect example.  Here are some of the reasons I chose it to be among the best of the best...

Look at all the parts of this block and how they relate to each other and how they combine to one complete whole... Nothing stands alone in this block... Every part is unique but complements every other part...



 Now about these parts!  The first thing that attracted my eye was the fabulous seam treatment upper left.. It alone is a work of art... Basically it is quite simple... chain scallops with stacked sequins and beads but the colors echo every single color in the block.. This simple seam adds immeasurably to this block.  Look at the block without it... The block feels incomplete without it... If you ever had any doubts about the importance of seams and what you can achieve with them...here it is..

Next is the rich surface texture of the flowers.  It also incorporates all the block's colors but for me the drama is in the size of it.  It anchors the block and frames the silkie.. It wouldn't be nearly as stunning if it were any smaller...

And of course there are all the  elements placed strategically  for your eye move smoothly around the block...

And finally one of the least  talked about design elements  in crazy quilting...quiet spots for the eye to pause.  There are three kinds in this block..  First is upper right.. It is not just a patch with a button stuck in the middle...  The buttons are complements to the seam but the patch is small but quiet.  The second  quiet spot is lower left..  Even though it is heavily embellished with a lace motif and beads, the dark color recedes and does not draw your eye at all...  The third and loveliest is the pink patch that is unembellished except for the seams..  The upper left seams and the flower treatment would all mesh together if it were not for that quiet pink patch between them... There is also the quiet but gorgeous beaded diagonal seam  lower left...  Lesson.... Not every thing has to stand up and shout to be an important part of the design of a block.