Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Mushy Colors

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.