building Collaboration

This work-in-progress is called Collaboration, so named after the Collaboration patchwork group from Positivities quilt which inspired the design. With such a quilt each round of color builds on the one before. They interact with each other in a powerful and sometimes surprising way. The patchwork effect is so different than looking at the fabrics together as simple fabric stack.

When I last shared my progress, I had reached the above point in laying out the quilt on my design wall. The center was looking surprisingly dark to my eye and the next two rounds were to be that cream clover print and a dark gray Carolyn Friedlander print. These made the work even darker.

The thing is, I wanted this quilt to feel green, green, green! Yes, green with purple and blue, but green and minty aqua were my primary mental colors for this quilt. Hence this happy fabric, which is called Giggle from Anna Maria Horner’s Brave collection. Giggle is a happy, exuberant fabric with mint green, teal green and spring greens, plus a touch of pink and golden yellow. I was glad when it was time to cut and add this to the quilt, and quite curious about how it would transform the work.

Here we are with Giggle inserted in a round of green plus shapes, surrounded by solid minty aqua. It’s like a fresh pool of green! I wonder though if it is enough to cheer up the work?

Actually, I suspect that the quilt center is a tad too muted. I’ll change the muted olive green center “plus” for a fresher green with lime tones.

There! Just changing tbat one fabric makes everything in the center brighter and fresher, don’t you think?

Now I have continued to cut fabrics for subsequent rounds. The dark green value comes in again after the minty aqua/green plusses. Then comes a pop of pink, which works beautifully with the giggle fabric. Perhaps I will want to change the purple stripe at the center of the quilt into the same pink fabric, so that there is more repetition. We shall see.

It is perfectly delightful to cut fabrics for this quilt and build it piece-by-piece on my design wall. Each fabric choice is weighty with such a “trip around the world” quilt. I couldn’t do this well without a design wall, that’s for sure. This is one of those quilts to sew when you feel like being quite intentional with color. I am enjoying it!

But - - - maybe my next quilt will be a wild scrappy quilt, haha.