Quilts from the archives

   After making 3 or 4 wall hangings using the 2" square technique for watercolor, my mind began wondering what else could I do with the blending of fabrics.  Did it translate to strips or other configurations?  My first venture was a simple one....using strips to create a strata, or set of strips usually  in a defined arrangement.
   I pulled out a couple of older quilts...waited for the sun to go behind the clouds and took a couple of photos of these quilts from my early stage of working with value.
  This is Misty Window using the strata technique.  I kept the color palette in the blue, green, purple range.

  I included floral prints and  tonal prints--mainly.  The glow comes from the light values clustered in the center.  The block values darken toward the edges.









 
 Then I moved on to a simple much loved block....the court house steps.  This is a variation of the traditional log cabin block, and it uses lots of strips and makes tons of scraps, too.  Summer Garden 2006 was made before I began blogging! Yet the same design principle again......light blocks clustered in the center.  And the blocks are set on point.  Setting the blocks on point improves the interest and seems to let the blocks blend better.
 

   Here's a close up this quilt.  Maybe you can pick out the actual block.  You can see how very, very busy each block is.  All the better to fool the eye, my dear!
Large setting  triangles of medium to dark fabrics were used on the outer edges.













   And playing with value continued with batiks.   I was quite taken with the cobblestone blocks that Wanda at  Exuberant Color was using a couple of years ago.   I played around with the blocks to use up every scrap of those precious batiks.
    By arranging the units according to value, I created a background setting for applique in Heads Up.   I decided where the light source was--upper right--and let the overall value of each cobblestone darken as I worked to the opposite corner.  A blended border strip was added to extend the size.

  So I had answered my question....using value to blend fabrics, create a light source, and add interest applies to many more techniques and blocks.  
  What else could I try?  Part 2 in a couple of days.   Happy stitching.