Those of you who have been with me for awhile know that I am more of a designer than a maker. For every 10-15 quilt ideas that I sketch out on my iPad or in EQ8, only one or two of them ever makes its way into the tangible reality of fabric and thread. I spent 20 years in the interior design industry, where I used to pass my window treatment, bedding and pillow design sketches off (along with bolts of gorgeous fabrics and trims and detailed work orders) to the amazingly talented hands of my custom drapery workroom. Then the makers in the workroom would turn my designs into reality while I got started dreaming up new ideas for another client.
So anyway, because of my interior design background, this glossy, oversize design magazine from F. Schumacher called The Bulletin appears regularly in my mailbox. And I had to share with you guys that, according to the tastemakers at F. Schumacher at least, "American Folk Art" is #2 on the list of up-and-coming interior design trends:
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| This is a Hot NEW Trend, According to F. Schumacher |
Now, how cool is that? We quilters have all just been so ahead of our times... Those two fabrics pictured above are jacquard woven matelasses. Although the one on the right is named Tristan Patchwork, it's not actually patchwork -- or quilted -- at all.
Naturally, as a designer AND a quilter, I love this fabric. It would be fabulous for light duty upholstery, throw pillows, or a structured window treatment. It comes in Yellow, Charcoal, or Indigo and the scale of the "blocks" is a good deal smaller than they would be on an actual quilt -- the pattern repeat is 13.5". So that's interesting -- modern quilters are playing with scale by making quilt blocks that are larger in size, while textile manufacturers are playing with smaller-scale versions of the same traditional block patterns. I also love how the traditional 2-color quilt idea is kicked up a notch by adding a second, paler yellow to the mix that almost reads as a visual echo or a shadow.
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| My Pea Soup Paint Strip Challenge |
Hmmm... Our guild is doing a "paint strip challenge" for next spring's quilt show, and I had the misfortune to draw a very BORING strip of sage greens that doesn't feel challenging AT ALL. I'm supposed to use at least two of the greens from my paint strip in my challenge quilt but I am sick of those greens already because they are in my Frankenwhiggish applique project, my Pineapple Nostalgia, even in Lars's Mission Impossible quilt. I guess I misunderstood the challenge -- I thought they were going to have two or more "difficult" colors in each envelope, or colors that you don't typically think of as "going together" or something. When I saw that Tristan Patchwork fabric in the Schumacher magazine this morning, I realized that I could definitely do something similar using my two shades of green where they are using yellows, but I'm not sure that's going to be interesting enough to hold my attention all the way through to a quilted and bound finish, you know what I mean? I'd rather do a color challenge based on THIS story in the same magazine:
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| I Want THIS to Be My Color Challenge! |
How much fun would it be to come up with a quilt based on THOSE two pages? This is fashion designer Johnson Hartig of Libertine, and I absolutely adore his new interior fabrics collaboration with F. Schumacher. I love how Hartig has taken this uber-luxurious, high-end cotton viscose velvet fabric and decorated it with goofy, campy Tibetan tigers. It just makes me smile.
Even MORE fun? Check out this 3" wide trim, also from Johnson Hartig's collection for F. Schumacher, adorned with SAFETY PINS. This is so delightful to me that it ALMOST tempts me to return to interior design, just so I can talk someone into decorating their living room draperies with a wide band of safety pins down the lead edges:
(Attention, DIY Fashionistas -- anyone with a sewing machine can recreate this look by sewing a bunch of safety pins to ordinary 3" wide grosgrain ribbon from JoAnn's...)
So my own PERSONAL interpretation of our guild's color challenge is going to be: How can I incorporate my boring greens into the weirdest and most unexpected quilt possible???
But that challenge piece is WAY down on my list of priorities at the moment. At the moment, I'm focused on:
- Getting back to my longarm machine to try out a different thread combination and hopefully get one of my two outreach tops quilted
- Working on a commission to finish a Double Wedding Ring UFO
- Anders' sampler quilt, Beware the Ishmaelites
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
I'm linking today's post with:
MONDAY
TUESDAY
3 comments:
What inspiration! With the visuals you are looking at for the guild project I suspect all are in for a visual surprise. Of course it will wait until your other projects are finished. I cannot wait to see where those "boring" greens will take you.
Hi Rebecca! That Tristan Patchwork fabric is very, very cool especially knowing it is not a quilt but a wanna-be. I think you are selling those pea-green color short. Pea-green?? Doesn't Sage sound so much better?! And the darkest green along with the lightest would definitely be nice . . . in a technically three-color quilt. You could frame something wild and fabulous with the light green and have the darker shade be a shadow light a window frame or box. Oh, I know you'll think of something fabulous once you're done pouting about your color selection. Gosh, I would be tempted to have you come design my interior just to give those safety pins a go! Thanks for linking up today! ~smile~ Roseanne
Oh, I want me a piece of those tigers!!! The Tristan Patchwork fabric is awesome too. Too bad about your colour drawing..... but I know your final ideas will be anything but boring. Let them percolate while you get on with your other projects, and we look forward to the moment when the usual brilliance hits you :) Thanks for joining the Chameleon at Colour & Inspiration Tuesday.
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