Monday, August 1, 2016

Purple Passion: A Four-in-Art Quilt

 Four-in-Art Quarter Three has arrived.  If you remember, our theme this year is Color.  The sub theme for Quarter Three is Purple Passion.
 Gratuitous Shot of a bees- and some purple and fuchsia flowers.

So, purple passion.  It's a funny thing, when I started pulling purple fabrics, I had quite a few!
 I don't wear purple regularly, though.  I have two purple clothing items out of all I own.
I did realize, however, that I've made a fair number of purple quilts, or at least quilts with purple.
Jelly Roll Race, Thirteen, Wisteria 1, Wisteria 2

 But I have enough fabric to make a king size quilt!
 I managed to whittle it down to a realistic 21" x 36".
This was my conceptual drawing in crayons while I sat at cello lessons one morning.  I knew that I wanted to add the pops of orange or red to offset all the purple.
 I guess you could call this my attempt at improvisation.  Improv is hard for me.  Especially the waste factor.
 I had originally thought I would approach it the way the Crazy Mom Quilts makes a Scrap Vortex quilt, but my pieces just weren't small enough, or varied enough.

So instead I started with one 2.5" strip of each purple fabric I owned.  They were varying lengths depending on how big the fabric piece was.
 In the next post I'll talk more about how I made this quilt.  I think of it as no-waste improv quilt.  I truly started this with strip piecing - which I think you can see if you look at the over all quilt.
The red strips are actually pieced in, but with the outline quilting, it really looks like they are sitting on the top.  My youngest called them "ribbons" on the quilt.
 Quilting was straight line within each section.
 The back gives a good view of the quilting. 

And now, make sure you take the time to visit all the members of this Art Quilt Group.
The many ways to interpret Purple Passion.



Betty https://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2
CamillaFaffling
Catherine http://www.knottedcotton.com
Elizabethhttp://www.opquilt.com
Janinehttp://www.rainbowhare.com
Nancy http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com
Rachel (ME!)http://www.rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com
Simone http://quiltalicious.blogspot.com
Susan http://patchworknplay.blogspot.com

And our group blog can be found *here*

8 comments:

Catherine said...

I love this, not least the idea that it is no-waste! It looks wonderful with the contrasting strips, and the way you have balanced them across the quilt is great.

Susan said...

A lovely graphic design Rachel! I love the use of the red ribbons dashing across your quilt! This is a wonderful interpretation of this quarter's challenge!

Betty said...

What a fun improv piece, Rachel! So great to see that purple is way more used (and in our stashes) than we thought. The orange strips do exactly what they need to - draw the eye in to the improv layout and take you out again to examine the whole. Great strategy and just a delightful mini - excellent!

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

I love this. All those improv purples look great and the 'ribbons' of orange are a brilliant feature :)

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

I love this. All those improv purples look great and the 'ribbons' of orange are a brilliant feature :)

Anonymous said...

Me too on hating to waste fabric in improv. But I still like improv effects sometimes--can't think of anything I like all of all the time.
I like your approach and your idea.

OPQuilt said...

OF course, I had to go and look at your other purple quilts first, and yes--you have sewn more than one. But this is really fun and I think deserves to be in the Top Three of Purple Quilts (I"m in love with your wisteria quilts). I love the improv look, and loved letting my eye wander around to take it all in. You and Simone are on the same wave length, insofar as purple and orange, but how differently you both used that pop of color. I think the quilting really adds to it--super cool to do each section in different directions, I say. All in all--a great success!! Woohoo!

Camilla said...

Great idea to start with strip piecing. Love the improv and use of complementary orange really makes it sing!