Friday, September 14, 2012

Broad Perspectives

September brings about a positive
change in the temperatures.
Hopefully, the oppressive heat
of summer is over,
and the cooler temperatures of fall are 
on their way. 
 
That always brings a renewed enegry 
and broader perspectives.

September's show and tell is 
all about that broader perspective, 
broad wide borders!
 
 This quilt was a variation of
the North Wind pattern.
80" x 92"
1992

One of the ways I would encourage 
new quilters to feel comfortable choosing
fabrics and colors was to have them 
look for a large print and let
the fabric lead them to the perfect color choices.

Using the large floral border as a tool,
makes it easier to create a palette.
As more and more fabrics 
were becoming available at this point in time,
it was fun to select several fabric for each color family,
which was the beginning of a "collection".

This is obviously a quilt from the 90's.
Mauve and country blue are the stars.

Notice the other dating clues,
the pin dot which is fading just a bit.
And there's probably Jenny Beyer's original piece
of eyelash fabric.
 
Pretty sharp points without all the newer
methods for creating half square triangles.

Back then, I hand quilted everything.
The 8 inch wide floral border made a perfect
opportunity to quilt this wide cable design.


It really shows up on the back.

Before I started putting a separate label on the back,
I embroidered my name and date on the front lower right corner.
I'm glad I did that because
there would be absolutely no way I could remember
when I made this.

Another wide bordered quilt is this
Kaleidoscope pattern

 80" x 94"
2003

The large border fabric had a definite Asian feel and
I used it exclusively in the quilt along with a single background fabric.

 Without picking other pieces of fabric to 
bring out the colors, I let the large print
 do all the work.


This block has 12 points coming together in the center.
 
 I was continuing to hand quilt and 
on this 8 inch wide border I chose the Baptist Fan design.

 My labels had moved from the front of the quilt
to the back so I could include more information.
And to make them more secure, the label was added 
before I quilted.

 September is a month that brings a different
viewpoint and opens up new possibilities, 
just like those large prints
 opens up color opportunities. 

Until Next Time-

2 comments:

  1. I love my quilts!! ~Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete
  2. lovely hand quilting! I especially love the cable pattern, one of my favorites too

    ReplyDelete