Although I teach design and color in quilt classes, sometimes, in my personal work, I get off my 'contrast is so important' soapbox. My color sense slides into mush. Literally, mush. Favorite mush colors: gray, brown, pink, lavender, and odd yellows.I can't quite tell why or when the mush gene will strike. It's always an experiment. Witness this recent odd small quilt top I made. Ostensibly it's for a kid but honestly, no self-respecting rugrat raised on Crayola brights would want the thing. I made it for me.
This barely-there antique Bars quilt has a kind of softness that you might not even be able to duplicate in new fabric . It has a feeling of made-from-your-old-jammies. A very restful quilt but never to win a prize in a quilt show. Which gets me to
thinking...is the tendency toward high contrast in modern quilts a result of more quilts being entered in judged quilt shows where contrast is a criterion? Or is it because we see quilt images in magazines or on the computer screen and high contrast is preferable in those mediums?Just musing here...it's a gray day and mushy colors somehow fit the mood.
This snatched from ebay image of a Hanging Nine Patch is, in this mush-lover's opinion, just about perfect. This is one quilt I want to make when I grow up.
4 comments:
Hi, Pepper, love your blog. I like to work in very close contrast, too, even though it gets me in trouble sometimes.
Maybe the reason high contrast quilts are in fashion has to do not just the visual contrast we are bombarded with each day but the audio noise/contrast as well.
Quilting teachers and authors stress value contrast as the most important element in a successful quilt. Many of us seem to have learned the lesson too well. Maybe we need to look at antique to quilts to see that high contrast isn't always necessary for an affective quilt.
Hello, just came across your blog and loved the barely-there antique bars. The pink is captivating and gets me thinking. I do believe it could never really be re-created. That is its beauty. thanks
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