QDAD: February Designs so far

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I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed design work this month. Even more exciting, I also got to present and share a program on quilt designing at our local guild meeting this past week. I want to continue to share my process here, so this post includes couple iterations on the

10 February

Not my favorite color palette, I did love the sparsity between the shapes in the image. I tried to include that by using a single line within a square and alternating the direction.

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This design was still not sparse enough for me so I included some solid square blocks to add the space I think it needed.

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11 February

This is a fabulous color palette, that surprised me. I was thinking not to include the dark green but in the end, it totally works. The design for this was inspired by homemade tree house ladders, the makeshift ones that are nailed to the trunk. I like the balance of the colors and negative space in this design.

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12 February

I wanted to redo an older design when I saw this palette, from December 2014. My design aesthetic, I think, has matured and become more unique style. While I like this design I find it very busy.

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So, my goal, is to take elements from this design and use them in a more minimalist design. I decided to use the split alternating lines and using the 4 quadrants. This is my new design, love the lines, and the composition.

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15 February

This design came about from a dress that was on a TV show for about 3 seconds. It had a block design on it, exactly what I wanted to play around with. I was not sure the direction I was taking with this design at the time. Now, I think the reds for me represent the heart chambers and the Aorta, perfect for this Valentine’s Day palette. This is on my make list for sure, and I am thinking of using the Ruby Red Oakshott Cottons for the vibrant colors.

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17 February

I loved this color palette, but I found it very hard to work with in a design. Keeping with the limits though, this is my design after 20 minutes of playing around.

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19 February

I am loving these red palettes, which to me is so strange, since red is not my go to color for quilts. Following up on working with blocked red color from my previous design, I came up with this one with hints of structure/shape with the neutral colors. I like this one as well but the Valentine’s Day one is still my favorite.

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20 February

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I was not rapped about the browns in this palette or the circle inspiration. Instead I wanted to play with squares and quadrant designs, inspired by Denyse Schmidt. I actually came up with two designs, this being my first:

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I was thinking for this second one that maybe the distinct quadrants needed to blend a little more. I go between both of these designs, trying to decide which one I prefer. Today its the top one but the other day I liked the one below :-).

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More designs at the end of the month.

Please Note: If you would like to make or use one of my designs, please email me (ml_wilkie(at)hotmail(dot)com) or leave a comment below. I am happy to talk with you on options and provide the relevant measurements etc. or have you test out a pattern. Also, if you use one of my designs, please use the following text to credit me the design: “Designed by Michelle Wilkie @ Factotum of Arts”.

Yellow – Melanie Tuazon

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Our first guest on this colour blog series is Melanie Tuazon. Melanie is a quilter and designer who lives in New Jersey. She blogs at melintheattic.com and posts on Instagram as @melintheattic. She is a former president of the North Jersey MQG and has had quilts in the Quiltcon 2015 and 2016 shows. Her quilts can also be seen in the Winter 2015-2016 issue of Stitch and the Quiltcon 2016 issue of Modern Patchwork. Her quilt is this month’s MQG Quilt of Month, which is fantastic!! Check out her blog or the MQG site (if you are a member).

“I love playing with color in quilts because my feelings about the colors change throughout the process. It lets me develop a relationship with a certain shade or hue, and how it can shift depending on the colors that are adjacent to it. I never even liked yellow much before I started quilting, and using it in my quilts made me fall deeply in love.”

Her post on her process and yellow can be found here.

Challenge / Give-away

This month’s challenge is sponsored by two great companies.

The first is Robert Kaufman who is providing the winner 1 yard Highlight, the Kona Cotton Solids 2016 Color of the Year.
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Also, the Fat Quarter Shop is providing a $20 gift card.

The Challenge this month, is to make your own 3 x 3 mosaic palette of (9) prints, that features yellow as the main color (I recommend at least 1/3 of the palette). Please post the mosaic, that is linked to either:

a blog post explaining your process/inspiration (feel free to grab the widget above to display on your blog),
or to an Instagram pic (using the url),
or a Flickr pic (using the url).

Add your mosaic by clicking onto the button below, and a winner will be announced after 9pm Tuesday 23nd February. I hope you all have fun.

(Note: I use Big Labs Mosaic Tool to create the mosaic. To get the image URL right click on the image and “Copy Image Location” and paste it into the tool).

QDAD January

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I have been enjoying the bit of spare time, I have had, designing new quilts using the inspiration sparks. I actually like most of these designs, this week.

If you want to join in, come over to join our Facebook group “Quilt Design a Day“, you don’t need to design every day, and when you do limit your time to 15-20 minutes. You will be so surprised what happens over a couple of weeks or months.

24 January

I liked the circular shape of the glass, lemons and cucumbers. I wanted to try to represent that in this design here as well.
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25 January

This color palette is my favorite of the week. I also liked the text and decided to take the “Royal” and use that as the design element in this one but represent it with Braille.

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27 January

I was thinking about an elevator in a building, when this design popped into my head. I love the simplicity of this design.

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29 January

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The somewhat miscellaneous items made me go with a set of miscellaneous blocks in this design. I wanted to go with an alternative grid approach and a focus to the left.

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02 February

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The inspiration photo was taken while my family was on vacation at the outer banks. I loved the lines in this photo, so I used these in this design and pull the focus on the red. 2Feb_2016(1)

05 February

With the graduated color palette, I had to get this (possible) bias tape design out of my head. It had been percolating for about a month. Once I started, I came up with three possibilities, this being the last.

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