A variety in scale makes interesting quilts

Small, medium and large scale prints.

Have you been through your fabric stash lately? Look to the back of the closet, the bottom of the storage tubs, or in that box that's shoved in the back corner of your sewing room. Do you have some small-print calicoes of days past? Does your scrap basket go that deep??

At the April Choo Choo Quilters guild meeting, "Scale and Variety" was the program topic. "Whether you are making traditional, contemporary or art quilts," said presenter and quilt historian, Vista Mahan, "a variety in scale of fabric prints will make your quilts more interesting." Examples of actual fabrics from Ms. Mahan's stash illustrated small, medium and large prints, regular vs. random prints, dense vs. open, and various forms and varieties of dots, checks and plaids.

In the 1970s and 80s, variety was achieved primarily by choosing a different colorway—dusty pink or country blue—of the same print fabric. Today, cottons as well as batiks offer a wide variety of small, medium, large and jumbo size motifs, random and regular patterns, geometric and stylized designs, organic and abstract patterns, florals, animal motifs, reproduction and novelty prints in myriad colors and value.

Example of the Scale exercise.

Scale also pertains to the relative size of the blocks and borders in a quilt or the pieces in an individual quilt block. In an exercise to illustrate the importance of variety in scale, guild members created a 6-patch layout and then modified it with additional pieces to make it more visually interesting. The variations are unlimited.

So, if you uncovered an abundance of small-scale calicoes in the deep recesses of your stash, you are officially granted permission to purchase additional fabrics with variety in scale to 'round out' your collection. Variety in print, scale, value and color will take your quilts from dull and flat to interesting and fabulous!

 

 

 

Vista also worked examples from her antique and vintage quilt collection into the presentation. It was interesting to see how quilters from previous generations incorporated the design principles into their work.

Vista Mahan (left) displays a vintage quilt top from her collection during her presentation on Scale.

 

 

 Show and Tell

Examples of the Texture Exercise from the March program.

 

 

 

Tote bag for a rotary mat (left).
Wall hanging using a woven fabric technique (right).

Japanese kimono fabrics (left).
Half-square triangle block swap (right). That's another way to achieve variety in your fabric collection.

Balance and Symmetry in quilts

The Design Principles of Balance and Symmetry was the topic of the Inspirational Quilting program at the February Choo Choo Quilters guild meeting.

A study of asymmetrical balance was conducted using black squares of different sizes on a white background. Grayscale versions of painted masterpieces by Seurat, Vermeer and Turner (found in the Fearless Design for Every Quilter textbook) illustrated the concept of value and its influence and effect on asymmetrical compositions.

Using magazine photos of vintage and modern quilts, guild members identified the types of symmetry used in the quilts and discussed balance in both symmetrical and asymmetrical compositions.

An Amish quilt illustrates translational symmetry.

Cuddle Quilt Program

Guild members also celebrated the success of the 2010 Cuddle Quilt Quest. Large, zippered tote bags with quilt designs by contemporary quilters were awarded to the 18 members who produced the record-breaking 73 quilts. Thank you to Deb and Veronica for spearheading this effort! Volunteers are needed to issue patterns for monthly quilt blocks to continue this endeavor.

Linda's quilted Valentine she made for her husband.
See what chocolate can inspire??

Show and Tell

Linda showed us a Valentine quilt that she made for her husband. Her Team was also responsible for the meeting refreshments. Here is Linda's recipe for Ricotta Cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13" x 9” pan.

Step #1: Use 1 box lemon cake mix, Duncan Hines ‘pudding in mix’ or similar type. Mix according to package directions. Put in pan and set aside.


Step #2: Beat together the following until smooth:
2 lb. tub Ricotta Cheese
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar

Spoon mixture on top of cake batter. Bake approx. 1 hour. Serve with cool whip or sift powdered sugar on top.

Linda’s note: I made this once with a coconut cake mix and it was just as tasty. I bet any flavored cake mix would be good: strawberry, cherry, apple spice, etc. Oh, and chocolate too!

Stenciling and Screening on Fabric

The June meeting of the Choo Choo Quilters featured a program on two surface design techniques: stenciling with oil paint sticks and silk screening.

Designs were drawn on freezer paper and then cut out to create the stencil. After ironing the freezer paper stencil onto the square of fabric, a stencil brush was used to lightly fill in the areas with color from the paintstick. More than one color could be used to blend the colors on the fabric.

Here is an example of how this surface design method could be used to make a quilt. Hand-dyed fabrics were used for the blocks as well as the sashing and outside pieced borders.

A close-up of two stenciled quilt blocks is shown here.

Another technique that was demonstrated was silk screening. Fabric paint was mixed with shaving cream to silkscreen designs onto the fabric.

The Show and Tell part of the evening included a cute baby quilt, a vintage quilt top made from an Anne Orr "French Wreath" pattern and a colorful bed quilt.