Thursday, January 20, 2011

Monochromatic Fabric

This is the fabric I planned to make into a quilt A YEAR AGO.
I am NOT a quilter so I sewed these flowers on my curtains and added some green ribbon. 




26 comments:

  1. Beautiful color! The idea of roses is good for this fabric, I presume they'll be somewhat 3-D. You need good quilt shop 100% cotton fabric for the quilt under the roses. There are literally thousands of possibilities but keeping in mind the roses either at random or in a pattern, you'll probably want a fairly simple background pattern, possibly large squares or simply strips of fabrics in colors [with or without design on them] that you love and that compliment the rose color. The whole underlying quilt needs to be quilted before the roses are added. You should consider that this will be somewhat fragile, not a quilt you'll be throwing in the wash often, if at all -- actually if you don't intend to wash it [maybe infrequent dry cleaning] you can use fancier fabrics than the cottons, silks or brocades or satins. [These are more difficult to work with.] Shopping can be an adventure in imagination but you need to have an idea how much fabric you need so you'll want a sketch or firm design plan. It'll take longer than you think, as quilts usually do, but it could be a wonderful, fun adventure. I'll wait to see the progress.

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  2. OH, Kass, I absolutely want to ring in on this. I need to chew on it for an hour or so and I'll jump back on. Some of what I would say would simply be repeating June's comments, but I'll still pop back with ideas.

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  3. Kass, some initial offerings. I'm 100% with June that you'll want the entire, substantial quilt foundation completed before you add one rose. I also agree with her assessment that it calls for good quality quilting cotton. If you're inexperienced, finer fabrics would give you much grief.

    You have your own wonderful taste, so I'm not going to try to tell you "go blue, Kass" or "soft green is it!" Here's how I'd go about it for my own taste. I'd make my base quilt (as June suggests) in a simple diagonal strip pattern. The fabric you plan to use for the roses looks vari-colored to me. I'd strongly recommend you look at some of the beautiful hand-dyed cottons in the better quilt shops that are also mottled and variegated. Maybe you'd echo the same color family as your rose fabric. Maybe you'd use shades of green representing leaves, or maybe you'd just choose some beautiful color because you loved it.

    For myself, I'd scatter the dimensional roses randomly. Maybe your taste runs more toward checkerboard regularity (I don't think it does, by the way!).

    Strong advice to a beginner: draw it and draw it again. Measure twice, cut once.

    Knock on my door any time you want to brainstorm about it. ; ~}

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  4. Other thoughts: a "quilt" is not required to be a bed covering. Wall hangings are a beautiful way to show off fabric art, too. They are usually smaller than even a twin bed quilt and go faster. Just a thought. Not sure whether you required this item to live on the bed. And if it's wall art, it doesn't require the same sturdiness as something used for a bed cover.

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  5. June & Limes - Thank you so much for the feedback. It has really helped to firm up what I'm doing. I do think it will be a wall-hanging. Off the the fabric store now. Thanks.

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  6. I want to hear every part of this!

    Find the wonderful wooden wall-hanging blocks with marbles in them - they won't mar your quilt and will display it nicely.

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  7. i can't wait to see the evolution of this piece! i'm neither a quilter nor sewer, and yet i have a serious fabric fetish. i have hunks of fabric that i want to do something with, that doesn't involve much needle-and-threading. hmmmm.

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  8. These curtains are beautiful, and seem like the perfect use of that fabric! I am looking out the window at so much snow and grey, wishing I had these curtain to hid the wintery feel!

    Well done!

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  9. a fitting evolution, i say, from quilt to curtains. bet it went quicker, too! i love this.

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  10. Beautifully done, Girlie. I love the dimension the flowers add to an otherwise flat curtain, and the varied green tones of the flower stems. Very nice! More interesting than a quilt. PROOF that good use will be found for all fabric!

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  11. It's brilliant you are - and so are the curtains.

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  12. LES, STANDING, MARION and DAVE - Thanks so much for your comments and appreciation. These curtains actually hide my sewing corner in my bedroom. I don't know that I would dare put them on an outside window. I'll start my boldness in the basement.

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  13. You are very creative. This is wonderful.

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  14. from the Plaza Series: how to find or lost love in public paces
    I'm planning to post clips of the
    pieces, little by little
    I'm such a procrastinator...

    http://www.youtube.com/user/godskin9?feature=mhum

    Thank you for your feedback

    Carlos

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  15. that is just a gorgeous look. Clever Kass. I have a part made patchwork quilt (in a box at the moment) that I work on every winter and it must be 4 years now. sigh.

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  16. I love how you used the fabric. I painted on a sheer curtain to give an effect of mulberry branches but the three dimensional flowers have way more impact. You've inspired me to see what I can do with shimmering blue transparent fabric that I've had for five years.

    And thank you for your comments on my blog. It is always heartening to hear from others pursuing their passion.

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  17. Omigosh, that is LOVELY...!!! And that is my favorite color. You are very talented. :-)

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  18. What a cute, cute, cute idea! Do you know I can't sew a straight enough line to do something like the ribbon on the shower curtain? And as for making those beautiful flowers? No chance! :)

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  19. nice...these are really cool...love the change in color and texture in the flowers...very cool...

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  20. What beautiful curtains! You have made a blooming field indoors. I love how the flowers stand so tall. They are mighty.

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  21. That colour is gorgeous! I love how you've put the roses together, I could never pull that off.

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  22. Stop by and wish Johanna a Happy Birthday on Tuesday, December 27!

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  23. Kass, I've taken to long to get here, but it's lovely to see this other side of you, however late I am. So talented.

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