By Camie Roper
If our eyes are the window to our soul, our quilts must be nearly as revealing.
Are we traditional souls? Innovative? Playful? Quirky? Artsy/craftsy? Do we wish to put our viewer at ease, or do we aim to challenge? Maybe we even want to shock. Perhaps we want our viewer to begin thinking, or to entertain a new perspective.
The design we choose for our quilt — the lines and shapes and directionality and play of color against color — has the greatest initial impact on our viewer. Should we make a traditional quilt, using an existing pattern? We can personalize it with a unique color scheme, nontraditional layout, or resized pattern pieces.
What about you? Are you more interested in making an art quilt? If small, it often can be more quickly made. When creating your own design, if your monoprint process doesn’t turn out exactly right, its very imperfection can lend an esoteric beauty to the piece. Another great thing about art quilts is that, if finished early, often you can add to them, either in size or additional embellishment.
Our quilts can say things that we might not be comfortable saying. They can shock – in design, color, or in content. They might be political statements. They might embody emotions: joy, awe, inspiration, excitement, or fear, sadness, or angst. Take a moment to study an artist’s color palette; your mind’s eye will note the “happy” colors, the “moody” colors, the “angry” colors.
Will you piece your quilt? Is appliqué more your style? Or might you combine the two?
Who will receive this quilt? What message will it send? How did the receiver inspire you? Many hours go into a quilt, so cogitate a bit about the new owner, where it will be displayed and how it will be used – fodder for pleasant little screenplays in your mind as you put in each stitch.
Next time, we’ll look at the concept of color in your quilt.
