There are crazy quilts and then there are crazy quilts... some are much more pleasing than others......the same goes for the RR blocks... Both of these are crazy quilts and both have endless numbers of various patches but when examined there are some major differences.... mainly repetition of color and shapes.. In the top quilt there are no dominant or prevailing colors to move your eye around the quilt.. On looking closely at the bottom quilt you'll notice, even though there are a myriad of colors, red and black are dominant and repeated throughout the quilt... This technique brings a cohesive element to the quilt even with the chaotic use of other colors.
The same thing makes a block pleasing. Choose your main colors (one or two). Use them in various shapes, threads. and trims throughout the block... This is a subtle thing but very important. 
Here is another example of a gorgeous, modern crazy quilt done by a group. The dominant color is blue repeated in every shade possible and it is the blue repetitions that hold the eye and makes this a successful quilt. Another element of importance to be noted in this quilt is repetition of shapes....squares and spirals. In the fan quilt above it is squares and triangles.. All the shapes are fairly consistent in size and complement each other in both quilts. There is no effective repetition of shapes in the first quilt.I ran across a vintage poster which is a good example of these same principles. There are a myriad of colors but red and black move the eye around. You might think at first there is no repetition of shape but if you look closely, be aware of how a right-angle corner is repeated over and over throughout the poster... The same design principles apply to both the quilt and the poster... I'm really hoping that you are finding all this helpful
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5 comments:
Gerry:
This such a wonderful lesson, the words and pics work beautifully together.
You sound like me teaching one of my painting classes!! LOL!! The two arts have more in common than one might think!
Big Hugs, Carolyn
Thanks for this Gerry - it is good to be able to learn this from you.
Huigs,
Kerry
Hi Gerry,
Yes it does help. I JUST finished piecing my challenge block with the curved piecing. I was thinking I have much more than just one or two colors, but at the same time I think maybe I have more apricot and cream. I can at least incorporate more of these two colors in the rest of the block now that I know apricot and cream are probably the focus. They are the colors I am liking the most, anyway!
Thanks for the tips!
Dakotah
really interesting and useful Gerry, especially about the right hand corners in the poster. A repeating element can be that benign, but so visually important.
I think you have hit on why I piece using monotone, so that it at least, looks cohesive.
I find this fascinating, Gerry, please continue. I understand some of these design principles on certain level, but when you put it into words, it just makes so much more sense to me.
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