Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Some lessons 2 (of 2)

Miriam brought a lovely big pile of quilts that we were delighted to see up close again, and talked us through her fabric choices. Most of them were her own design.

Like Nerida, Miriam collects small cuts of many different fabrics, and is not averse to quirky prints in some of her quilts. She also collects yardage for some backgrounds and borders. She has a very well honed eye for putting colour palettes together, and is conscious of achieving contrast through colour and tone. 

Miriam's most recently finished top features a vintage
linen as the centre background, an appliqued basket
border and a seminole-style outer border - a lot
of different fabrics working well together.

Some features of the basket border are constant, others are
more random. The vibrant background ties the quilt together.

This scrappy log cabin reads as a two colour quilt,
but on closer examination you can see there are flashes
of many colours adding depth. Note that the scrappy low
volume prints in the background are all white with red.

The low volume background here is a delicate pink print,
the feature fabrics are vibrant, but a controlled palette, and that
 border of squares is a serendipitous print.

Miriam designed this quilt as a class sample, with a controlled
palette on a contrasting fine cross hatch background ...

... and a second sample is in a completely different,
muted palette of blues, with small pieces of a honey
beige introducing warmth.

This 'Trip Around the World' was made in a hand pieced
Instagramsewalong with Brigitte Giblin. The red with white
spot fabricwas the feature fabric, required by the design.
Miriam recommends not choosing all the fabrics before
starting, as the look of the whole design can change
with each row, and dictate the next row.

Miriam included this bright quilt of simple shapes to remind
us how solid colours can add to the vibrancy of a quilt.

And this one to remind us that contrast is actually not
always necessary - similar tones and colours can provide calm
and softness, and look absolutely beautiful.

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