I never thought I would say this, but I love making black and white Color Grid quilts. I thought for sure I would miss all the other colors.
The interesting thing for me is that I probably never would have made a black and white quilt–and now I want to make a dozen–if two things had not happened.
One, when you are student of Nancy Crow’s, she frequently has you start a class by making a black and white composition. I have never liked this assignment–and I have yet to succeed at it.
Two, when I was in Philadelphia last spring to attended the opening of ArtQuilt Elements, I met Nancy Bavor who is the curator of Collections at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. She liked the piece I had in the show, so I showed her some photos of my most recent work. She looked at my work very thoughtfully and said, “You need to go back to working with prints.”
Yikes. I knew she was right. I’d been thinking about it but had no idea how to get there.
Back in my studio. I continued to hear her voice in my head. I tried to ignore it, but it wouldn’t go away. The idea of adding the additional element of print to my work was just too intimidating for me to consider. Finally, I hit upon a solution.
I decided to eliminate the color but add the print. It worked! From there, I went on to complete a Color Grid in neutrals, and after that there was no looking back.
This past week, I completed my second black and white Color Grid quilt. When I first started making Color Grids, I would make a complete quilt only to realize I should have used a blue instead of a green. Now, I make this smaller version. If I feel good about the smaller version, I’m hopeful that the larger, repeated version will be successful.
TRANCE proto-type or sketch if you will. Basically it is one complete unit of a larger quilt.
Some Color Grid quilts have medallion centers and some do not.
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- 35H x 34W
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- 38H x 37W
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- 38H x 38W
Here is my current favorite method for creating those medallion pieces.
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- Select your fabric. All of the Color Grid quilts I have been making lately have a four inch wide grid. So I want an image that is going to nicely fill a four inch by four inch space.
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- I like to use my 4″ by 16″ ruler–which also happens to be my favorite ruler. I center the image using that little circle you see on the ruler. This tells me that exactly half of the image is on either side of that circle.
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- I always check to see what is within the seam allow, so that I know what will be seen in quilt and what will be hidden in the seams.
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- I then use a regular old pencil to draw around the ruler marking an exact four inch square.
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- This is what a marked medallion looks like. I mark all of them and then I cut all of them.
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- Next, I use my rotary cutter and cut along my pencil lines.
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- And then I cut the next once one and so on. I need nine for the work I am doing.
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- this is tedious work, but worth the result.
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- What is left is holey, but I leave it attached to my yardage–who knows that holey stuff might be just what I need for my next quilt.
Once you get the medallions cut out, its time to piece the grid to fit around the blocks.
I don’t think I will ever tire of piecing the grid to the blocks. It’s the point where I finally get to see the quilt!
Many years ago, I let Fletcher, our oldest son, name one of my early show quilts. He named it Spinda after a Pokemon. Since then, Ozzy, son number two, has been offering up names–he picked TRANCE for this one, and I think that is about right.
As I was making the quilt, I was thinking about snow at night. Some of the names that crossed my mind included Midnight Snow, White Out, and Snow Fight. But when I got to the end of the quilt, I realized that those were names for future black and white quilts. I am particularly excited about the idea of White Out.
Too many quilts. Sew little time.
It is Friday which means you should visit Nina-Marie’s Blog and see what other artists have been up to this past week.
Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend planned. I will be in my studio stitching sweaters.
Hi Maria, your color grid quilts are entrancing and your B&B one has me bewitched.
Thank you Elena. I love it when what is in your head actually makes into the cloth.
I tend to work in a grid too and sometimes wonder why my mind takes me in that direction so often. I think it may be something about “organization”. I’m glad to see someone else thinks that way too! Love the B&W version.
I think our minds really like pattern/repetition. It is pleasing to look at. I enjoyed checking your grids out as well. Lovely work.
Beautiful, Maria! I love the grid and I love the black and white!
Thank Heather- I’ve been enjoying your work too. I love that Nina-Marie has created this circle. I look forward to it every Friday.
Wow – thanks for sharing ! It was super-interesting to learn about your process. When I saw the little pic on Nina-Marie’s blog, I wondered – how did she do that ?? Now I know a bit more about it, and I love your quilt !
Thank you!
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