Breaking from your comfort zone!

Somehow I started on a series of block composition and am ending with my usual lecture on color....but since I feel strongly about the subject I will proceed.  The majority of people in the US struggle with color....we are not comfortable with color on our bodies, in our homes and in our surroundings. And I am a prime example.  My comfort zone is neutrals and pastels....in fact EVERY room in my house is a shade of beige.    I   make a conscious effort to break out of this comfort zone and if I didn't everything I stitched would be neutral or pastel.

 

I would love to live in a culture that celebrated color in their clothing...

 
or in their surroundings.

 

But I don't and thank to a challenge years ago by Laurie Bergesser I regularly make a concerted effort to emerge from my comfort zone.....and I am ALWAYS   glad when I do as those works are among my favorite.

 

 

So whether you are a person who likes brights OR a neutral and pastel person... the real trick is to pick the colors  are harmonious.  Here are some of the techniques to  use... First look for inspiration... Find a colorful fabric that sings to you and use it as a guide. 

Also look to the color wheel and pick touching colors. This will ensure you that your piece will be harmonious. 

 

I wrote a whole post on "Color Seeds" which I love, love, love and has taken me on some interesting color journeys.  This post and that site should not be missed.  There are options there for  every taste...

 

I often use a color pile before I make my final choices... Put possible choices in a pile.. toss it about several times accessing what doesn't fit..  It's easier to pick them out of a pile then to deal with them later in a block..  If you look at your fabrics in a pile and like them, toss them around a few times  and still like them, they are going to look good on a block no matter what you do... This is the "pile test",

I do mine on a table but   I just noticed on Facebook that Allie posted her pile of fabrics  on the floor.  I think that is a great idea because you get a better perspective.. 

 

Remember I started this posts for stitchers who were unsure about choosing colors to use together... I said there were two "NO FAIL" approaches...  The first was limit your color choices.  

Well the second  "NO FAIL"  approach is just the opposite.... USE EVERY COLOR!!

This block is an excellent example and was stitched by Cathy LaBath... She adores color but had written me repeatedly that she is horrible at picking out colors that harmonize...

Yet to appease her thirst for bright colors she uses them with abandon  making dozens of these scrappy quilts..  They work because of the multitude of colors at random... You cannot fail making one of these quilts and the same approach is true applied to crazy quilting...

She's not comfortable choosing and controlling color but she doesn't let that stop her.. Cathy has her colorful scrappy quilts on her blog.

 

 

And there are those who are masters of color and I always think of them as the girl in this painting.

 

There are lots of them and do look for their work on line and gather samples for inspiration.

 

This delightful painting is by Maria Pace Wynters and I tried in vain to find a print for sale.

 

 

My personal favorite colorist is Allie Aller who not only thinks, dreams and plans in  color with abandon, she also is a master manipulator of color which is a whole another level of skill. She has written a wonderful crazy quilting book. 

 

But  a last  important point ....do not let fear of color harmony keep you from forging ahead.  It certainly doesn't mean that you can't be among the best by NOT leaving your comfort zone.  As a prime example I give you New Zealand's legendary crazy quilter, Jo Newsham.   I must share that Jo is color blind. To compensate she most often stuck to a very limited color palette or a monochromatic selection of threads and fabrics.  These techniques defined her style and should be a great inspiration to anyone struggling with color theory. . You can see here she chose only lavender and soft green.. This limited palette gave her work a  simplicity that ensured all the parts of the needlework would complement each other.

This next six weeks is crazy busy and I may get personal posts up but not block talks which take a lot of time... this one especially because I lost all the photos I gathered for it when there was a power outage.  I will try to pick up a few block talks from the archives and rerun them.  Thanks for dropping by.

Pet portrait and life on the farm...

Spent time last night finishing up this pet portrait on a button.  Just a few tweaks and it will be done..  lovely dog.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed when we left for Alaska and came home refreshed.  The first thing I wanted to do was walk in the woods but it turned out the first thing I had to do was clean the refrigerator.  In our hasty departure I neglected to tell the house sitter that the bag of spinach in the refrigerator was for the chickens.  It was close to "sell-by" so it spoiled and made a god-awful mess.  The new pullets had grown and are used to sleeping in the roost loft.  Will soon let them wander out of the pen an hour or so before dark and gradually lengthen the time.

Then I could walk in the woods and it was breathtaking and I love it when I can find the perfect adjective....dappled... the light and a breeze made everything shimmer.  And Morris startled some turkeys and to his delight they flew into a tree over his head and he could bark at them.  But when he barked the ravens appeared and scolded him...

The elderberry trees are absolutely loaded and will provide lots of feed for all types of birds.  We have had way more rain this summer than normal and all the trees and bushes are loaded with fruit.

And the mama quail are continually encouraging this year's crop of babies out of the safety of juniper shrubs. They finally emerge a few inches and then at the slightest  movement they scurry back.

And my young buck is hanging about scarfing up the apples falling to the ground... Didn't have a fawn this year so I hope he stays safe until breeding season... There are enough apples that he could be busy until then.

Our Alaskan Adventure

Well we're back and had a grand time... The weather was sunny and bright the day we arrived and we spent time on one of the decks with wine and cheese... Then it started to rain and poured until the day before we left.  It certainly didn't  dampen our spirits though.  It was so pleasant to sit there and enjoy the view.

Just across the inlet are two active volcanoes... Mt. Illiamna which last erupted in 1876 and is still constantly spewing steam and fumes and  Mt. Redoubt which last erupted in 2009 and wreaked havoc with air travel for some time.  Both volcanoes are visible from the lodge on a clear day.

My son's  lodge is magnificent and it is like a natural history museum as it is  filled with every Alaskan animal imaginable... and my son does not even hunt.  But hunters do kill these animals and have them mounted.  When they arrive in an ordinary house some wife says "No way in my house!" and they end up giving them to the lodge.  It is hard to imagine the size and power of these animals until you stand next to one.

One afternoon we drove to Homer and another we went eagle watching.

There is a large staff including a chef and a masseuse.  We ate a LOT of food.  This 3-foot-tall seafood tower had the appetizers for one evening.  There was every seafood imaginable... salmon, cod, shrimp, oysters, clams, scallops, etc. and even sea urchin. There were containers of dry ice billowing ice fog...very dramatic.  I especially loved the large prawns.

Each night had a fabulous menu and the last night was prime rib and lobster.

One night there were huge tubs of king crab and we enjoyed every bite.  I meant to save DH's bib as there are days when he is grouchy I could hang it on him.. He's looking pretty happy here though.

Each night had a theme and one was cowboy night.  When they have that dinner it always ends with Mom's Apple Pie made from my recipe.  My son always complains that it never really tastes as good as mom's.  So when I am visiting I bake the apple pies.... real Mom's Apple Pie baked by the real mom...

And then there is my son... who if had lived  in 1900 would have been in vaudeville..... he is always "on" and there was no way I could make him look normal for a proper mother/son picture.  This was pirate night which starts out with a whole roasted suckling pig as one of the appetizers... The entire staff dress as pirates and wenches and put on a quite a show.

He is now approaching 60 but was just as funny and wacky when he was 6.

I did get to spend time stitching when everyone was busy and also on the plane.  I did almost finish basting all the laces I took.  When there was any quiet time I spent it with my lovely daughter-in-law... who keeps the entire operation running smoothly.  And she is as beautiful inside as outside and made a very fetching wench.  I wish I had taken a picture of her costume..  My oldest granddaughter did get down from Anchorage for a couple days and I loved that.




DH did get to go out one day and caught enough halibut that we brought it home frozen and will enjoy it this winter.

This particular week there was a lot of fly outs as the water was really too rough for the boats.  On the last day there were four helicopters ready to take the fisherman across the inlet to remote rivers full of fish.  At the end of the last day we were treated to a long flight across the inlet...right up the side of Mt. Illiamna

 

 

 

 We saw bears fishing in the river, moose grazing, lots of seals and incredible scenery.... and was I having fun...I think so!!!!

 

And for more pictures and more information about the lodge go to http://alaskafishinglodge.com/

Lavish with Laces - Part 2

I want to get going again on CQJP as this March block was the last one I did.

I desperately need something to work on for this upcoming trip and I can baste down laces without my magnifying lamp. Since I am woefully behind in the CQJP2016 challenge   I've decided to lace up 6 blocks and take them along to baste in Alaska.

For years I have had a special drawer for my most precious laces... not necessarily precious monetarily but precious in that I loved to fondle them... They will be pretty much depleted by this project.  First I lay out the six blocks and begin sorting a pile of lace on each block.

I am looking for a balance with each block having a good variety of laces.  Hopefully each block will have some fine handmade laces, antique gossamer laces, inexpensive machine laces and both tatted and crocheted laces...each different.

After I get them pretty much sorted and pinned, I lay them all out side by side to see how well they harmonize and then do some fine tuning...  The three finished blocks are across the top as the new blocks have to blend with them also... You might also notice that I have left a unadorned area near the center of each block.  That is for the placement of the gold work feature added later.

I am mainly looking for variety in texture as the texture of the laces is the very essence of these blocks.. Below I used a very special delicate hand made lace from Italy along with machine made lace and hand crocheted lace.  I try to include several on each block that lend themselves to beading.  The narrow laces can be worked into seam treatments.

Here is another shot of with an juxtaposition of a variety of laces.  The lovely lace lower left was from a vintage collar I bought on Portobello Road in London last fall..  The fine lace at the bottom center was from a tattered section of an old wedding dress.  I only had one sleeve.  Lower right is very inexpensive machine lace but it beads beautifully. The narrow lace I put on the ribbon will be incorporated into a seam treatment...... layer and stack.....layer and stack.

You may have noticed that I only used plain ribbon to bury edges and for the seam lines and there is a reason for that.  I used grosgrain, velvet, silk and both sides of satin ribbon (  the shiny side and the dull side.)  With all the texture of the laces any fancy seam treatments would be invisible.

The ribbons act as a canvas for fancy stitching.  Here you can see how nicely a seam treatment shows up on the grosgrain ribbon... the ribbon is edged on the upper edge with two  different narrow laces...layer and stack...layer and stack!

Here is a seam on a ribbon that had a nice texture but was about 2" wide but I just cut it to size and buried the raw edge under the daisy trim.  Lower left the satin ribbon on the seam that is edged on both sides...one is a scalloped eyelet and the other is a lace especially nice for bead embellishment.

Here is a better shot of that area... Don't you just love the tiny vintage MOP buttons?

Again here is that entire block...  It was the March CQJP2016.  I did a "Lavish with Lace - Part 1" some time ago and it is in Block Talk...  Lots of tips and techniques!

I'll do a block talk on color when I return.