Electric Quilt Color Challenge

I love the Electric Quilt challenge for this month. Basically, you import a colorful photo that you love into EQ and use it as the color inspiration for a quilt. What a great way to come up with new color combinations for a quilt.

Here’s one of their examples:

Inspiration:

Quilt:

So I decided to try my hand at it. My inspiration photo was some Tuscan ceramics that I purchased in San Gimignano, Italy. I took this photo just before the store packed up my purchases to ship to me in Utah. I identified the 9 main colors / values from the photo that I wanted to use in a quilt.

And here’s my first pass at a quilt using the colors. I don’t know whether I’ll eventually tweak this and send it to Electric Quilt for their challenge. I just know that I wanted to design a quilt that at first glance looked a lot harder to make than it actually was. So, here’s the first image WITHOUT lines outlining the blocks and patches.

And here’s the one with the outlines. It wouldn’t be hard to piece – but the end result would look very complicated!

I’m considering modifying the orange and rust pieces such that they would be pieced and have value gradations from light to dark / dark to light (or vice versa) to simulate a Tuscan sunset. Who knows?

Regardless, I love the technique of using a photo as inspiration for the color palette of a quilt. It certainly would keep me from getting into a color rut!

Spinning Stars

I ran across a unique block in the Connecting Threads catalog. Their quilt is called Bedford Skies:

The block is a variable star, with a square-in-square center. I played with the block in Electric Quilt, made the center square the same color as one set of the star points, and it has a somewhat different look, which I really like. The other change I made was to use the same fabric for all of the background pieces.

This is one possible layout -- straight set with sashing as the inspiration quilt.

Then I decided to set the block on point without sashing, and ta-dah -- this is the version I'll probably make.  I'll make it scrappy except for the background. If I make it with 12-inch blocks as big as I plan, I will need to buy a background fabric because it will need about 4.25 yards. (Rats -- I'll have to go to the quilt fabric store this weekend!)  The center quilt area, without borders, measures 68" by 85".

I definitely want to figure something different for the outer border -- perhaps work in a portion of the design from the block.  If and when I figure that out, I'll post it.

New Baby Quilt

One of my nephews and his wife are expecting their first baby in March, so I've got to get busy on a baby quilt. I ran across a cute pattern in the Connecting Threads catalog and have decided to modify it slightly for my soon-to-be-born great niece. (Not sure why is she a "great niece" rather than a "grand niece" -- since her grandmother is my sister, "great niece" never sounds right to me.)

I found out that they are decorating the baby's room in pinks and browns -- so  I'll do the quilt in those colors (which is easy since I have lots of fabulous pink and brown fabrics).

Here's the inspiration quilt:

And here is my variation:

I'm primarily using Lucien Antique Rose fabrics in pink and brown which I bought a month or two ago, but will add some other fabrics from my stash. You can see them at Shabby Fabrics.

Playing With Electric Quilt

I love to see quilts where it isn't obvious at first glance how the blocks were made. This usually happens when the quilt is made from a primary block and an alternate block. Plus, the quilt is either very scrappy -- or the fabrics are deliberately placed such that the two blocks blend into each other. Of course, fabric selection is essential because you want the seams to kind of disappear, adding to the blended look.

This was my creation in EQ6 this afternoon.

Can you tell where one block ends and another begins?

It is even harder to figure out the blocks when they are set on point. This setting makes the quilt look way more complicated than it really is.

I know I want to make a black and white quilt for one of my nieces. Now I just  need to decide whether to add red, hot pink or a chartreuse green as the accent color.