Modern Quilt-Along: Pattern chosen, fabrics picked

Update on my participation in Kim's Modern Quilt-along: I've picked my pattern (Marquee), decided what size quilt I'm making (table runner), and bought my fabric! At least the first go-round of fabric, until I decide I hate it.

I'm putting the binding on my 9-patch and getting ready to do the quilt-sandwich (backing, batting, top) on my "bear" rail fence, so of course I want to start a new quilt before those are finished. Must have something going in all stages.

I loved most of the quilt patterns in the book The Modern Quilt Workshop. I want to make "Once Upon a Time" but I also want to play with their color inspiration (big idea) suggestions and OUAT doesn't really lend itself to that.

But isn't that a great quilt? You make up a story by following the "I Spy" fabrics along one of the lines. I still hope to make it, just not right now. I also don't really have a quilt stash, so getting all those I Spy fabrics would take some work.

I started working on my "big idea", the inspiration for the color combination that I was going to use. Since color is so difficult for me, I thought I'd start by looking at art that I liked, and picking one to base my color scheme on. I happened to have handy an art directory that I picked up in Santa Fe when we were there for our anniversary this year: Santa Fe Collector's Guide. Lots of really nice paintings, sculptures, etc., and a GREAT resource for this kind of thing. (A museum exhibit guide would work too, but I didn't happen to have one of those.) It was hard to look through this and ignore the subject matter, just look at the colors, but after flipping through a few times I was sort of able to do that. I settled on 12 possibilities, with three of them being top contenders. Maybe I'll do the others in some other quilt. Here are my top three "big idea" possibilities:

and here are the other nine:

Now that I had three possible color schemes, I figured I should decide on what I was making. A table runner for our very long dining table (110 inches). Maybe if we had a really nice table runner, I could occasionally keep the table top clean. (ha! what's the likelihood, do you think?) I wanted this to be ~12 inches wide by 110 inches long, so this ruled out some of the patterns in the book. I settled on either Marquee:

or Love Beads:

I then took my top three big idea color possibilities and played with them and these patterns in Macromedia Freehand. I could pick colors directly out of the paintings and put them into the quilt mock-ups, so this was an interesting exercise. Here's what I came up with, four quilt possibilities:

I like them all, but I decided to go with the first one. Marquee with a blue-grey-tan color scheme. Based on the color scheme in Randy Pijoan's "Gathering Spots, and Thoughts". I'm going to make just one row of the marquee squares with some border on each side for my very long-very narrow table runner. After a trip to the quilt-fabric stores today, here's my color scheme. Not quite the same as in the mock-up, but still sticks to the big idea. The big swatch in the middle is the "field"--the red in the quilt in the book, the filling fabric inside and around the marquee squares. The lower right dark blue is the binding fabric. The backing is the same as the field. (The fabrics that seem particularly fluorescent are not really. Something about my scanner made them seem so.)

Whew, that was a lot of fun already! Now I'm going to try some sample piecings and make sure that these go together like I think (hope) they will.

Comments

[Marie]

Wow, fascinating process! I really like the one you chose, but I particularly like the green beads too. :) I can't wait to see what it looks like all made up!

[robin]

very cool... love the artistic process collaborating with technology idea. i'm so impressed. i like the love beads... alot!

[abbyjane]

Thank you so much for posting your thought process as you get started with this new quilt. It is fascinating to read. I had never thought of using a piece of artwork as inspiration for a color scheme (I, too, struggle with color). And I love that book. It is on my list of books to buy. Anyway, thank you.

[myra]

Thanks so much for sharing about the process of just selecting a project, color scheme and fabric. I always have so much difficulty with this part. I really love that you used a favorite piece of artwork as your inspiration. Your process reminds me a bit of a decorating show on HGTV that offers homeowners a choice of colors for their decorating based on how drawn they are to different colored projects. I also admire that you can have so many projects going on in different phases! Thanks Amanda!

[myra]

Oops, I meant to say different colored "objects". :P

[kelly]

Great process... isn't it great how computers can be so helpful sometimes? I often use CAD to draft up full scale quilting templates, and that saves me a ton of time. Who knew computers and crafting would go so well together?!?