Variety in Fabrics
Somewhere, I read a line something quite like the following: “Be sure you have plenty of solid fabrics in your stash – if all you have is a bunch of crazy/adorable prints, you’ll leave yourself nowhere to go.”
I seem to be running into that problem currently. While I’ve started rounding out my “large print” collection, I don’t have a great deal of solids to choose from. Fortunately, those tend to be fairly cheap, and I can get them at JoAnn without difficulty.
A solid color, either in blocks or sashes, can keep a quilt from becoming Too Busy or overwhelming. Take this one, which I personally think is too much:
Skillful, but wow
While the skill and design is pretty impressive… there’s just no breathing room. My eyes don’t have anywhere to rest. It’s busy.
Whereas this one is a bit too sparse – that was intended, and it’s fine, but still – a lot of white (I do really like her quilting lines in this one, too:)
Sparse Stars
This one, from the same creator as the stars quilt above, is more balanced:
Balanced
It’s still quite a lot of white (I think she’s in that stage right now,) but there’s enough color to keep it interesting.
Designing a quilt is not an easy thing… I’m not sure which is harder – picking out an attractive layout in terms of color and pattern balance, or sewing the thing together.
Soon to find out!