Sunday, August 24, 2014

Color Study- Beverly


Color Study- 16 X 16
Hand dyed cotton, applique, machine quilted

I spent several weeks looking at Lisa's lovely fabric on my design wall, trying to decide what to do with it.  The movement of the colors was so lovely, I finally went with a color study- snazzy title, right?  I wanted to see what would happen if the darker colors were larger shapes, and if the bright yellows would still dominate the piece, even though they are much tinier.  And I knew I wanted to do it against a black background.  I love how black makes colors pop.

I quilted the background first- I had the perfect variegated thread.  Then I started played with the placement of the squares.  The final arrangement was a collaboration between me and my son.  They are fused onto the background, using Terry Grant's method of fusing just on the edge of the fabric with Liquifuse.

I spent another couple of weeks debating how to quilt the squares.  I started with an abstract design, and ripped it out after just a little bit.  I ended up with these free form, kind of fern-y things.  The entire time I was quilting them, I was thinking about Janet and her gorgeous feathers, and how mine were just a pale imitation.  Sigh!!  I drew out the first one, then freehanded the others- and I like the free hand ones best.



Lisa, I really struggled with the embellishments.  My work is going so far in the opposite direction, I wasn't sure what to do with them.  I ended up placing the leaf charm between a gold and green square, kind of a reference to the changing of the leaves that we'll be experiencing soon.

I had fun with this, learned some tricks for quilting (how to get evenly spaced rays on a square), and was inspired enough by Lisa's fabric that I spent an entire weekend dyeing fabric in color gradations- my last blog post has pictures of those.  So, thank you Lisa for a great challenge, and the materials to pull it off!

6 comments:

  1. I really like your idea of the color study and your execution! And I certainly admire your free motion quilting, looks great to me. I can understand your difficulty in placing the embellishments with your trend in the opposite direction as I'm finding myself more and more on that route.

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  2. What a wonderful way to incorporate Lisa's materials and at the same time "follow your heart". I did notice Lisa's influence in the hand-dyed fabric you pictured on your blog. As for your quilting...hmmm...wish mine looked that good. Yes, yes, I know practice, practice, practice.

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  3. Beverley, it always amazes me how many different ideas we can come up with! I like how you incorporated the charm and your quilting is wonderful!!! I did see your hand dyes on your blog and they are fun!

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  4. "Less is more" may be a good way to describe your creation. The depth you achieved with your value study is totally unexpected with the bright, light color in the background and the deep, darker colors in the foreground. The detailed quilting on the squares is an added bonus.

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  5. beautiful Beverly! Your colour study is spot on. I love how the smaller yellow squares have as much weight as the larger green ones. Your quilting is perfect, too! Your decision to use the leaf to symbolize the coming change in seasons works so well with how you've chosen to quilt this.

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  6. I love this Beverly. As judy said,"less is more" This was a great idea for just playing with the brilliant colours Lisa provided.

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