(marroon gray coral and blue)
After a few weeks working on quilts of a certain color or certain design, I find myself drawn to completely different colors. The week I made this vibrant curved quilt I started with a maroon and gray palate. I needed to follow the maroon into more medium and light tones which lead to corals and peaches. Then I thought some blue would be a nice contrast. Whenever I’m selecting colors, I think about room color design…what might people have in a room together? What might compliment each other or bring in an unexpected zing of color to a matchy matchy design? By now you know I’m not for matchy matchy. I like surprise colors in my quilts, and unexpected patterns. Focusing on abstract design means there are few rules. I get a feeling when the curves are right and the flow of color is right. I wish I could be more specific but truly, it is just a sense when I see it….yes it is right or something needs tweeked. The rule of thumb on design is to hang your art quilt on your design wall and step back at least 10 feet. Another trick is to take a photo and view the photo as very small such that the details are blurred almost and the colors present themselves for evaluation. Are they pleasing? Is the effect what I’m after?
There are times when I launch into a design with colors I’m absolutely sure of only be realize part way through that they are all wrong together or too different for what I want. With those efforts I set aside the colors and pieces and start something new. But….I return to the already cut pieces and sort out some new colors to blend and almost always finish with a new art quilt. And those unused pieces go into the many bins of sorted colors in my closet for use in a future quilt.
It is just fun to dive into a curved design and try different mixes of colors and shades!