TGIF

Yeah, it's Friday!  Being Friday the 13th doesn't bother me in the least, just that it's Friday and the weekend is just a short few hours ahead.  We are blessed with sunshine, so I am soaking some of it up by sitting near the sunniest window in the house. 

I want to touch on a subject today and that is COLOR!!  Why do so many people have trouble with color?  Just the mere mention of color (like yellow) sends some people running for cover.  I LOVE yellow!  Actually, there is no color I don't like.  If you like a particular color, what is wrong with using it? 

Does Orange bother you?  My fall pumpkins attic window quilt is full of orange. 

How about blue?  Or the center squiggle, an orangey red?  Do these colors make you cringe?  Especially when they are put together like this? 

Do you like black and white?  This has a bit of yellow/gold, and yes, it hangs this way so the bargello stripes are vertical instead of horizontal.  Probably another of my "mistakes", but hey, I love it. 

My surprise boxes quilt was made using whatever was in my scrap bag at the time.  It's a mix matched selection of great colors.  It's tremendous freedom to just reach in and pick whatever is on top for each one.

The colorful stripey squares around the first border were already cut pieces in my scrap bag from the

"Color My World" quilt.

"Color My World" won a design competition in July 2000

Do these colors make you scream?

This one is full of texture in the quilting and just that thin blue line of color makes this quilt. 

Jinny Beyer's "Sport" pattern.  To add interest to my quilts, sometimes I infuse just a spot of unexpected color.  Notice that the bridles on the horse heads are not all the same color?   Next time you make a monocromatic quilt or one using just 3 colorways, try an element of surprise in color and see if it works for you, if not proceed with your original design or pattern. 

Years ago I took a color class with Jinny and I bought 3 of her books one of them was "Designing Tesselations".  It is a wonderful book.  I have taken other color classes with different teachers and they were all great resources.  The best tool you can make or buy is a color wheel which will help you make some decisions on color choice, but ultimately if you love a color don't be afraid to use it. 

Portrait quilt

This is my portrait quilt I did last year for the green and white challenge I participated in.  It was my first attempt at this monocromatic and portrait type of quilting.  I don't take step by step pictures of each quilt I do, as you've noticed.  It just takes me too much time to locate the camera and have enough lighting and space to lay everything out.  So, if I'm lucky and make an effort, I usually only take one shot of the quilt when I'm finished with it.  Sorry, but that's just the way I work. 
We had set instructions for size and color, but after that anything goes.  Our dimentions were 6"X24".  Strange, I know.  It limited me to making a wall-hanging or a table runner.   Really, I didn't need another one of either of those.   But, my thoughts have drifted back to my love of photography and how I like to frame photos to hang.  Way back in the 1970's and 80's tole/folk painting was very popular.  You could find family plaques at nearly all the craft stalls where there would be a nice folk painting in the center and on top would be a family name and the bottom would read something like "est. 1974".  So using that idea and the fact that I wanted to practice my machine's capability of sewing the alphabet, I used that on this piece.  Of course, don't look too close, as a couple of them are slanty and my binding strip pulled slightly at the end so it hangs slanty as well.  All these little mistakes gives it my homemade flair and I will not rip it apart to fix it to make it perfect. 
There are quite a few publications out there on portrait quilting.  Here are 2 that I have used.

Fabric Photo Play: Love to Quilt Series by Julia C. Wood

Faces and Places: Images in Applique by Charlotte Warr Andersen

I am going to do another challenge this year, however, it is my own personal challenge.  I have done a red and white quilt for my mother before, but this time I want to use red and white a little differently.  So, I will try to keep you posted on my progress.

Rave On

Happy New Year!  What happened to December?  I blinked and it was gone.  Honestly, I know I'm getting older....thankfully, everyone is.  But, time for me has always been an issue.  Its careless fleeting cosmic course sends me reeling from one edge of my existence to the other.  Although I would rather blame time itself, I realize I am to blame for not being an expert at time management.  I sometimes brag to my DH about how I can multi-task by balancing a huge arm-load of folded laundry with a mouth full of papers to shred and my treasurers notebook tucked under my arm, up the stairs to the bedroom to unload the clothing and then the office to dump the notebook and shredding on my desk.  Back tracking only once to put the clothing away, then into my office where I'll spend the next 2.5 hours either reading emails, shredding or doing other necessary office related tasks.   It's boring work, but if I don't do it and at intervals so I can tolerate the boredom, it will never get done.   Stay at home wives or husbands have been short changed for years.   I absolutely despise the term "Stay at home wife".    Being called a "Lady of Leisure" is hardly the proper term to use in this country as well.  Only the very rich and elite who wouldn't do one chore to risk breaking a nail should be called this.  It's insulting to those of us who actually work at home and don't get paid to do it.  It's also the most important work anyone can ever do, and that is taking full care and responsibility of a household.   In the 1950's it was expected that women would stay home to raise their children and be there for them after school and the wives were happy to do it.  They made meals from scratch, hung the laundry on the line, washed dishes by hand, made minor repairs, sewed everything from clothing to curtains, and helped the children with their homework.   Call me old-fashioned, I don't mind at all.  But, don't ever call me a "Lady of Leisure"!   If I need a title, then it should be "Household Director/Manager", thank you very much.