Contemporary Quilts = Sloppy Quilts?

Today I picked up a book at Barnes from the discount area about contemporary quilts. While the designs were interesting I was again reminded of how many people seem to think because a quilt is "art" that it's okay to ignore the basic principles of good quilting.

I don't mean to be mean, I really don't. I understand that there is a learning curve. That's not what I'm referring to. I'm talking about the people that you know have been doing this for quite awhile, and still seem to have no desire to do things properly.

Quilting has been around a long time, and I think it's only right that we respect the traditional quilters of the past as well as today. Our fore-mothers would greatly appreciate it if we would learn how to execute the basics properly.

What am I talking about? Here are some examples:

• Saggy front due to not having enough quilting
• A very non-square quilt when you know it wasn't intentional - they just didn't care enough to square up the piece properly
• Poor quality binding - uneven thickness, poorly stitched on
• Unevenly quilted - densely quilted in a few areas then essentially ignored everywhere else
• Hanging threads - Both the non clipped threads from starts and stops, but I've also noticed areas that were "unstitched" but they didn't bother to pick out the little lashes left over

I don't mean to be a quilt snob, I really don't. But I do take it a bit personally, and find it embarrassing when I see art quilts where it's obvious the person didn't really give a damn at all. Fiber artists often have strained relationships with the traditional quilting world and in traditional shows, and I am put off by people who seem hell bent on perpetuating the idea that art quilts are just "slapped together". We are working very hard to earn respect as fine artists using a medium not readily accepted in the art world yet - please don't make it harder!

Just slow down and put some effort into it! If you are hanging a piece in a show, that piece is a representation of yourself. Don't you want to show your best "self" to all those people coming to the quilt shows? All it takes is a couple of classes on the basics; binding, quilting and tension!

How To Quilt It: Squiggle Puzzle Filler

This free motion filler works great in large and small background areas. I use it a lot in the background of my art quilt pieces.

ADvantages in Advertising

I often hear from quilters that they have a very hard time picking colors for projects. Often times, they are so insecure about their color choices, that when they see a pattern they will buy almost the exact same fabrics as in the pattern example piece. While that may make it easy for them, it doesn't result in a "unique" quilt, and at local quilt shows you often find 5-10 of the same quilt, in nearly the same fabrics/colors!

So, what if I told you, I have a super duper secret weapon for color choice? And what if I told you it doesn't require an art degree, or even a perfect sense of "what goes together", at least not for you!

By trade, I am a trained graphic designer, and I can tell you that in advertising, color is a HUGE part of the plan.

In fact, a great deal of money is spent by companies for research on what colors are most effective in advertising. Even fast food chains spent time and money to figure out that oranges, reds and yellows increase how much food people will eat while they are there. Apparently these colors make you more hungry.

Offices spend money to be told what colors make a doctor's office more comfortable and calm. Big companies spend money to be told what colors will make their employees more productive and happy. Are you seeing a theme here? People are paying the advertising industry money to tell them what colors to use.





 Well guess what? Those same advertisers, are giving quilters that information for free! Just open a magazine - Living, Real Simple, Home, Good Housekeeping - pick out a NON quilting magazine and open the pages. Now completely ignore the articles and start looking at the other seemingly 90% - which is......


ADVERTISING!


That's right, those "useless" pages that have always annoyed you -  "I swear I don't know why I buy this magazine..it's mostly advertising!" Well, now even those pages can have a purpose!

The design companies that make those ads, have their finger on the pulse of what hot and cool in the visual world right now! When I was still doing design, a great deal of my time was spent deciding what colors I would be using - which was chosen by taking into account who the client is, who their target is - age, mood, gender, what the product is...etc.

All of that information has been in your hands each time you've flipped through a magazine! Start using that tool right now! You spent good money of those magazines, and it's time they gave something back to you!

Just take a look at these ads in some recent publications:

First of all, you can see the colors are fairly bright and bubbly and most definitely a bit "warm" - well that's because we're moving into the summer month publications. The colors seem to reflect a warm summer day, or a day on the beach.


I took several of these images to my stash, and pulled some fabrics for each one:

Then I went the next step, and made a couple of them up into a block:

This:

Became this:

And this:

Became this:

I'm not sure if that second image picks it up or not, but the red/yellow fabric also has some of the green in it - much like the garnish on the chili!

So, the next time you're grabbing a pattern, and are about to buy all the same fabrics as in the picture, try something else. Count how many colors are in the pattern - let's say it's a three color pattern - two main and a background color. Grab a magazine and start flipping to ads you like - count the colors, and find one with at least three colors that you like together. (**The image can have more than 3 colors, but pick the 3 that seem to be used the most in it, or the 3 you like best together.**)

Now take that picture, and head to your stash or the quilt store and pull out colors that match those in the ad. Lay them out, get a feel for if they look good together. One thing that can help, is take a quick snapshot of them, and look at them as a thumbnail size on your screen - phones work especially well for this as they are inherently small already. If the colors look "interesting" even in a small image, chances are they are really going to POP in your quilt.

The ADded benefit? If you're entering a quilt show (particularly a small local one) even if you did the exact same pattern as twenty other people, if you go with a different color scheme with colors that "jump", you are already increasing your likelihood of 1. Getting into the show, and 2. Possibly placing against the twenty that look identical!

Give this color choice theory a try, and send in some pictures of the ad you used with the block/piece you've made, we'd love to share them!