Friday, September 23, 2011

More color and a quilt tale

   How about creating a palette from your own photo?  Here's the place for that.  Upload your photo and click.  See your palette.  This is probably the closest to my usual method of working from a "kick off fabric".  I could just take a photo of the fabric and upload it to see what happens.
  Then over at Color Lovers you can explore color palettes submitted by others or create your own.    Who knew you had help at your finger tips?  Thanks to Lynne and Ann Marie for sending me these links....and keeping me up to date. 
   These sites are tools to help us as quilters work with color.  Unfortunately, they don't offer fabric swatches, only solid color chips.  If you are stuck on selecting a color scheme to work with, browse one of these sites for inspiration.   If you are not sure your color scheme works, browse for a color scheme that is similar and does work together.  That's why I say they are a tool, and not a solution to fabric choices.  Experiment with the color choices given by finding fabric in your stash that "reads" the same as the color chip offered.
   One more thing about my fabrics needed.  For a bargello style throw, I need at least 15 fabrics, and 18 would be better.  Some of fabrics I pulled out are not large pieces and I may not have enough of the fabric for the cuts I need.  So, I may need to repeat a couple of the fabrics to come up with the total.
     So how did I come up with 15 or 18?   I will be making 4" wide cuts for strips to sew together as my strata.  The strips will finish at 3 1/2".   15 strips will create a 52 1/2" long quilt, and 18 strips will create a quilt 63" long----before borders.  So the number of strips you begin with will determine the length of your bargello.  If you want a large quilt ---bed length---think 24 strips at least. 

 A Quilt Tale
   Have you ever notice how some things come back to you or return to their place of origin.....I call them  full circle events.   The beautiful hand quilting frame made by my FIL  in the early 90's has returned to its  rightful place.  It is being used at The History Museum in Fountain Inn, SC---which is where he lived before going into the nursing home.
   After much begging by me, Dad made the frame from a pattern kit I purchased.  I had it set up in our old house and quilted several quilts on it.  That was  before my fingers gave out and  I learned machine quilting.  When we moved, it was stored in our garage. 
    I had given the frame to Suzanne a while back, as she does beautiful, amazing, wonderful  hand quilting.  The frame deserved to be used.  I knew she would put it to good use.  Through the course of events,  she began helping and volunteering her talent and knowledge for the museum.
  The quilting frame is hidden by the wagon wheel quilt, which she made...but it is there.   I am so happy to see it set up and being used.  Suzanne--doing the quilting-- shared this photo  with me.  The quilt is being quilted by Suzanne and volunteers this weekend at the museum opening and will hang in the entry.    
     Moral of this quilt tale:   Like each small piece of a quilt, we are part of the circle of life.  Pay it forward; you never know how it will return to you.    Thank you, Dad, and thank you, Suzanne. 
Happy stitching.

3 comments:

Cheree @ The Morning Latte said...

Enjoying the quilt tales! :o)

Ivory Spring said...

What a moving story!

Lynne said...

A lovely story - I'm glad it's being put to good use.

(And thanks for the mention on your blog post - how sweet!)

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