Brown: A Colour Blog Series

12 Replies

IMG_6764Brown is not an obvious color choice when it comes to modern quilting. It could be though. Brown has a lot of variations to consider, from chocolate to marsala to tan to bronze. Through Quilt Design a Day and the spark color palettes, I have been given several palettes with brown in them that I initially think, oh (flat sounding tone in my voice). Each design has surprised me, in a good way.

Designs: Brown + Neutrals

02_May_2016 29Jan_2016(2) Jan15_2016

Designs: Brown + Warm Palettes

 QDAD_29JUL2015  QDAD_01May2015 QDAD_02FEB

Design: Brown + Cooler Palettes

QDAD_10August2015

Quilt Projects: Brown + Cooler Palettes

This was my first project using browns. The chocolate-colored background is the perfect neutral for this succulent inspired design. I love its interaction with the warmer coral and the cooler green, aqua and mint colors, it’s gives it a richer appearance.

Succulent_Full_Quilt

This predominantly brown palette was based on a QDAD spark palette. It was not my usual palette but what tied it together for me was that thumb print design from C+S. It has blues and pinks included in the palette. That lead to me adding those pops of bright blue to the quilt in the back and the binding. I think it adds the interesting factor to the quilt otherwise it could be a little flat/boring.

ItTakesAVillage_Front ItTakesAVillage_Back

Umbrella Prints (Fabric) really led to the fabric choices I made for this Bjorn Bear I made from Tartankiwi’s Big bear pattern. The dark brown was positioned specifically at the back, to reflect the shading I imaged for this design. This was the darkest color I had. While the neutral on his face was the lightest color – where I imagined the light would hit on the bear.  Both browns play well with the vibrant green, mint and light blue.BjornTheBear

Quilts: Brown + Warmer Palettes

While many folks were adverse to the marsala color of the year, last year….I was excited. I found that the marsala (in the brown family) complement the warmer color palette of yellows,  oranges and deep reds. I was inspired with that color palette using Oakshott Cottons, this Ranger’s Station quilt. Rangers Station Quilt Top

This palette and center block was chosen by Renee over at Quilts of a Feather. It was not a color palette in my wheel house and I was terrified of it. As I worked on the first border design though, it was interesting the variations with the various purples and the great use of the brown as a background color. I loved how this center block and first border turned out.IMG_4231

Monthly Tip

Have you ever considered creating an inspiration board around the colors you are interested in? You see it a lot for weddings, graphic designers and fabric designers. I love the idea when you are exploring a color. Here are links for some examples:

Light Blue and Brown

Brown, Champagne, Nude, Purple

Autumn/Fall Inspired

Yellow, Brown Mood board

If you ever are working with brown’s in your projects and posting on IG (instagram), use #sewingwithbrowns

Monthly Resource

Here is an article that is an interesting read about Working Walls and design thinking.

Monthly Challenge

Using the color brown, create your own design/inspiration/mood board. Think about what other colors would work with brown and then investigate images, print out on paper or use a mosaic tool online to pull your board together.

Next week, I will post the link up (with a prize), and post some fabric options that will support working with brown.

Sunday Best {a finished top}

25 Replies

A few weeks ago, I was stressing out about so many things – work, quilt projects, household tasks, kid things. I decided that I needed a creative reboot and find a project that involved little to no planning, no stress….just free playing around.

I have been inspired by Luci Summers’ “Quilt Improv: Incredible Quilts from Everyday Inspirations” and Sherri Lynn Wood’s “The Improv Handwork for Modern Quilters”  for a while. I thought an improv project would meet my goal. I have to say, I loved every minute of this project.

Week10_SundayBest

I added some limits:

  • Only use colored solids from my scrap bin to help me reduce my scraps
  • A single addition is added each Sunday, spending no more than 2 hours to ensure I didn’t over think things or plan too much…go with the flow of that day
  • At some stage (around week 2) decided I would used strip pieces and black/white stripe fabric for fillers.

Week 1

This first week I just wanted to start really simple, so I did some strip piecing by cutting irregularly strips (no ruler used) and placing them in a bag. I pulled out a piece and stitched them to another and continued until the bag was empty. I continued with this method “brown bag method” until I landed up with this strip. I did trim with a ruler once all sewn together.

Week1_SundayBest

Week 2

My love for the strip piecing continued, but this piece was inspired by the rail fence block. I played with the vertical and horizontal placement. I was slightly short on a couple of blocks, so I used the black/white stripe fabric as a filler. The saved the off-cuts from the block sections, thinking I could use them as filler pieces later on.

Week2_SundayBest

Week 3

I have mentioned previously how much I love Tapa cloths, I actually have 4 in my room. One of the designs is this diamond/double triangle, which inspired this addition. Most of these triangles were cut out of a 5″ charm pack that was in my scrap bin. I then played with the border and realized that I had some colored pieces that were not big enough to do both sides….this lead to the mixed borders around the triangles.

Week3_SundayBest

This addition is one of my favorites, and may lead to a new quilt design.

Week 4

Black and White solids were called for this week. It was Mother’s Day weekend. I was feeling down. I was thinking about my Mum and whether this could be her last mother’s day, and then feeling the additional guilt for not having her quilt finished yet.

Week4_SundayBest

I started with just wonky flying geese but they didn’t seem to fit. I added some of the HST off-cuts of the flying geese and loved the chaos look they provided to the flying geese. This is what, I finished with.

Week 5

Inspired by Frank Stella’s art work, I decided to play with curves this week. I had so much fun creating the orange peel – like block. I wasn’t done with improv curves though, and added a second block, inspired from my tapa cloths.  After adding these two blocks, I realized that the column layout didn’t work as well. I decided to change the layout some.

Week5_SundayBest

Week 6

From week 3, I had a lot of left over triangles. In order to not have additional scraps, I stitched them blindly together (brown bag method) to make HSR (Half Square Rectangles).

Week6_SundayBest

Week 7

There have been several quilts lately, that inspired me to make these stripe 45 degree angled blocks. This addition is my favorite part of the quilt. I love how they fit horizontally across the bottom, complementing the columnar piecing from the previous week.

Week7_SundayBest

Week 8

IMG_6340
I  struggled this week. I had a couple of ideas and neither were working in this gap. One idea was another circular block but I think the color palette I used for the block made it not fit with the rest of the quilt. Don’t get me wrong, I love the block but think it needs its own quilt.

IMG_6332

The other idea was various small log cabin blocks. Again, they did not look right. I decided to call it a day. I took the day off for my birthday this week, and gave it another go. Something made me cut up the log cabins and sew them all back together. That was it….a perfect addition to my crazy quilt.

Week8_SundayBest

Week 9

At this stage, I was feeling that the project was winding up. I pieced all the left over strip scraps and added the left column strip. Off-cuts from this, and having the old TV end of program sign stuck in my head, lead me to adding the black/white circle block (based on my phased circle block). Lastly, it was just finalizing layout and adding the filler pieces (which I also added for balance).

Week9_SundayBest

Week 10

This final week, I conquered my fear of partial seams (not easy when stitching really large parts of a quilt) and stitched it all together. It’s now a finished quilt top, measuring ~ 50 x 52″.

Week10_SundayBest

I am totally in love with this quilt. I am thinking, right now, of matchstick quilting it, using yellow thread (or may be various colors). I have to mentally prepare myself though for matchstick quilting.

For now though, I loved this free process so much I have already started another improv project (using that circle block from week 8).

Linking up with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

 

 

 

 

Purple: Guest Post {Sandi Hazlewood}

4 Replies

IMG_6369

Welcome, I know things are a little different this month….we are doing the guest post first and announcing the winner from last month. I hope this works for you all. My post on Purple, with the challenge (hint: inspiration boards) and link-up will appear this weekend.

Guest Post: Sandi Hazlewood

Sandi is a quilter, garment sewer, pattern designer and podcaster living in San Diego, CA. Known as the Crafty Planner, Sandi blogs at craftyplanner.com and posts on Instagram as @craftyplanner. She is one of the co-founders and first President of the San Diego Modern Quilt Guild along with serving on the Nominations Committee for the Modern Quilt Guild. Her weekly podcasts have featured guests such as Lizzy House, Tula Pink, Denyse Schmidt, Gwen Marston and more.

She LOVES purple! For her blog post, she will show you how the color purple can be combined with almost any color to make visually attractive quilts.

Challenge Winner

I loved seeing the art pieces you all chose and how you translated that into fabric. Such a great job. The winner of the challenge is Toni Jo Sews. I will email you shortly with details.