Need help with watercolor quilt project

When I watched a lesson on this style, Jerry, a lot was made of the amount of light areas of fabric in a mixed light and dark square of fabric. So, say, if it were three-quarters light, place it at the edge of the dark with the darker quarter abutting the dark area and the three-quarters light beginning to lead into the light area. With 'pixels' of 2", I think you will have to accept slight imperfections in grading lines. . In message , MaleQuilter writes

Jerry-

I've made several watercolor quilt tops and found that the reachies were my favorite type of squares. Those are the ones that you put on the outside edges of a block of color to keep from having a straight hard line at a seam- use something like a light background with a single vine thru it and put it against an edge with lots of pattern/ color/movement. When you have several of the same print in a clump, use the reverse side of the fabric at the outside edge to "fade" out. Sometimes it's just a matter of twisting a square so that the colors/ patterns lay in a different direction. Sometimes, if you have a large flower like a rose, it's fun to stick a 4X4 in. fussy cut square with the entire flower into the 2 in. squares. You'd most often use that along a bordering edge or in the foregound. Don't be in a hurry to assemble the top- keep tweaking the squares until it until it sings to you. Taking digital photos helps, too. If you re-arrange and wish you hadn't the photo will help you put the squares back. It also reduces the size to give you another perspective of what's up there on your design wall. Don't be too hard on yourself.... this is supposed to be fun and there are NO hard and fast rules..... nor are there any quilt police! VBG

Leslie & The Furbabies > I have collected and cut into 2" squares quite a bit of fabric for my

Thanks for the replies.

I think you have help me identify my problem. I have a nice variety of fabric, but now I realize that my collection has very few pieces with with contrasting values.

I guess I just found another reason to shop for more fabric.

Jerry in North Alabama

I love colour wash/water colour quilts but have long since decided that it is not a quilt making process suited to e - I am a bit of a control freak!

But based on my two attempts I would advise -

do not judge by small numbers of squares or areas within the quilt, the overall effect might be different

more is better

a reducing glass helps to see the whole quilt layout without highlighting one specific area

more is better

try standing with your back to the quilt and seeing it in a mirror, it really does look different

more is better. No matter how many different fabrics you have, more is better in one of these quilts.

What books are you working from? Is this a picture quilt or are you after an overall effect? My second quilt in this style used the method from "Tradition With a Twist" by Blanch Young and Darlene Young Stone (?). It involved making a very big quilt from sets of nine-patch blocks that used different fabrics, so it was easier for me to "control", and I loved the overall effect I got.

Good luck with your quilt. I really like your Tumbling quilt.

Pat made a very good point! If you are using a cream colored background, then you need squares with a little bit of cream, a fair amount of cream and a lot of cream and then a reachie to transition your squares. Same with any other color, you need those different "balances" of color in your squares to blend from one to another without a hard line. And which direction you rotate each square can make a huge difference as well. Hope that makes some sense???

Leslie & The Furbabies > On Apr 18, 11:54 am, "Leslie & The Furbabies in MO."

The books are "Watercolor Quilts" and "Watercolor Impressions", both by Pat Maixner Magaret & Donna Ingram Slusser.

Most all of the featured quilts (actually wall hangings) are impressionist style.

The project I'm working on is an attempt to do a sunlight washed flower garden. However, my first efforts are a lot more realistic than the quilts shown in the books.

By the way, Cats, I love you geometric projects and especially "Mobius". Are those completed projects or just designs?

Jerry in North Alabama

Mobius (the pic on Webshots) is a design in EQ that I have for some hand dyed fabrics. So far I have not been happy with the two colour-runs I have produced . They were just not quite right. And with the SEVERE drought here I am refraining from any dye activities ATM because of the water required for rinsing thoroughly. But I do plan to make it one day using foundation piecing and Pieclique techniques.

I might try it using a rainbow spectrum just for fun as that would work in commercial prints.

Check the reverse side of fabric.

For background, use several different types of cream/white, etc.

Take a digital photo and change it to black and white to see the effect (you can probably even do it on the lcd screen) - this works as a reducing glass.

Turn each square on all sides to see which orientation fits in better.

I try to never have the same fabric touching the side of the same fabric, so they can touch corners, just not sides.

-- Anita --