Sorting Fabric

This Monday marked the End of my Color Class.  Having taken classes in art and design in the past this class was a great refresher.  It was also a chance for me to examine my fabric from a new perspective.  I learned a few new ways to look at color in terms of quilting and designing with fabric.  The class gave me a new and fresh look at what others see when they look at and select fabrics. It enabled me to look at color choices through a different set of guidelines.  A very interesting thing indeed!

I learned new things about what I like, what I don't like and fabrics I tend to lean towards.  I learned that my choice of fabric has grown and changed significantly since I started quilting 12 years ago. Believe it or not I still have some fabric remnants from that time period.  While some of these stashed fabrics I still use and love,  others I most definitely do NOT.

Today in an attempt to re-organize my stash I went through and grouped all of my fabric yardage by color.  (I have not yet attempted to organize all of the scraps. perhaps next? or not.) I was not at all surprised to find that I have an entire bin of Green and Blue fabric.  Blue is after all my favorite color.  I have been gravitating lately towards the brighter colors of yellow, orange and a few bright pinks, so I have a fair amount of those colors. What surprised me the most was the amount of colors that I don't have.  I have very few purples or violets, very few tans, beige or light browns and no cream colors at all.  I seriously need to stock up!

 Then I went through and piled up all the fabric that I have been toting around with me for 12 years that I no longer love, like or would even consider using (no not even as a backing) While it hurts just a little to let go of some of the old fabrics, it is time it found a new home.

Color Combo Project.

This weeks Color Intensive Project was to create a tote bag with either complementary or analogous colors.  (Okay, technically it was last weeks project but I'm moving a little slower than usual)  I have been struggling with my choices.  I even went to the fabric store to pick up a few fat quarters thinking that would help.  It did help, more with my mood than with the actual project but perhaps that's a story for another day.  :)

I have two choices both of which I like, but then also don't like. Perhaps I am not doing to well with commitment this month.

The first is my analogous color scheme.

I received this print in a scrap bag I ordered sometime last year or the year before.  I really like the print and the colors I just have never found the right project to use it in.  Could this be the one?

The second color scheme is my Complementary colors.

For this combination I tried to pick out a print that had several different colors to work with.  The main color in this fabric being this yellow-orange.  I have this trim that I love and want to use which doesn't work at all with the analogous color scheme but works fairly well with this print.  The teal looks nice with print but isn't complementary to the yellow. Although the teal does complement the red in the print.  The green is complementary to the orange in the print but not so much with the yellow.

Either way I am not "in love" with either selection.  Perhaps it is time to dive back into my fabric stash or better yet head out to the store. I believe I am in need of a few more fat quarters.

Neutral (Blah.)

Don't get me wrong.  I love neutrals, in when used in combination with color.  Neutral do indeed have a place in the quilting world, even if it is mostly in backings and borders.  I just cannot get excited about them.  They are after all  neutral (like Switzerland) .

This weeks Color Intensive Mosaic is all about neutrals.  I played around with both prints and solids in my mosaics but in the end settled on mostly solids.

I chose two.  A cool neutral mosaic and a warm neutral mosaic.  That was just about as creative as I was going to get with neutrals.

Color Mosaic (A rainbow of fruit flavors)

Another Color Mosaic challenge from my Color Intensive Class.  This time we were challenged to make a Rainbow Mosaic.  Seemed simple enough of a task.  Would you believe it took me over 90 minutes to make 2 simple mosaics!  We were told choose our fabric selections from Pink Chalk fabrics.  Boy do they have a large selection!  Simple task. Ha!

When I think rainbow I think of the cute little semicircular shapes that I drew when I was in elementary school.  When we had 10 or so colors to choose from in our box of crayons the task was simple.  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple.  Even with the big box of Crayola 64 it wasn't a difficult task.

Somehow when you transform those colors into fabric, give them texture, patterns, designs, it befuddles my mind.  I did manage to finally come up with 2 mosaics although I cannot say that they are the best representation of a rainbow.  What is truly amazing is that when all of the students post their mosaics onto the blog, all of the rainbows are beautiful, and they are all different.  Sure some of the fabric choices overlap but just like in nature, never are their two that are the same.

Color me confused.

I love color!  I mean who doesn't?  Can you imagine seeing only in shades of gray?  How ordinary every thing must look. Very blah indeed.  The thing is I am not aways very good when I mix colors.  I took several art classes when I was in High School and College, but never took a class specifically on color.  Sure their was the color wheel, primary, secondary and tertiary colors.  I get that.

When I paint and draw the colors can easily be blended, mixed or completely covered to get exactly what I want.   But when it comes to fabric sometimes I'll admit, I am a mess. Fabric is not so easy to manipulate.  Once it is sewn, you get what you get.  And what I get is not always what I thought I would get or what I wanted.

So imagine my surprise when I saw Rachel at Stitched in Color was offering a class on Color.  Well color me happy!  Another chance to learn and grow as a 'fabric artist'.  And if it just happens that I might need to go purchase more fabric, well that is something I'll just have to live with.  I have taken a couple of her classes and they are always well planned, thought out and informative.

The Color intensive class started this week and our first assignment was to come up with a color mosaic that exemplifies "Spring."  Well, that turned out to be much harder than it sounds.  She sent us over to Fabricworm to choose fabric selections for our mosaic.  They have so many fabrics!  Overwhelming to say the least.

I selected, sorted, selected more, sorted more, threw some out, added some and came up with what I thought was a fair representation of spring.  Then when I added it to the hundred others over at Rachel's blog, I felt terribly adequate.  Is this really what spring looks like?  So I tried again.  Again, still just adequate.  If I were to make a quilt from these fabrics would I really think Springish or would I think Drizzly Rain Day?  I am not sure what to make of it.

Here are my two mosaics.

Springtime

Springtime2

What do you think?