Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.
~Jules Verne
Quilting
Happy Pi Day! Every year more and more people notice this mathematical celebration for 3.14. (It's easier to remember using the American date notation.. which I've always thought awkward. Most everyone else orders from smallest to largest units day/month/year.) That aside, this day is the perfect excuse to look for circles. Here I go again.
Since finishing the first Optical Illusion quilt I've been wanting to try it again with lighter fabrics. What if I switched values using lights for the background and dark sashing? Problem 1: none of my darks interest me or they are too busy in print or value. Eventually I decided to try a blue and white stripe as sashing. However, I'm concerned it won't show against light background.
I also want to see if I can play with values to make the center pop up even more: lightest in the middle and darkening as they extend out.
The quilt is semi-improvisational or perhaps simply my own style of improvising. I get an idea, tinker with sketches, pull fabric, mess around, sew some stuff, make changes, etc. But they are always mathematically-based. This time the blocks are foundation pieced. I sketched the sizes by imagining a plaid then cut them to size from newsprint. The main diagonal took about three-quarters of a yard and is pinned in place. Yes, I marked where it should fall but realize it will move a bit and the angles won't always match up since the block sizes change. {Go talk to your geometry teacher for a more detailed explanation.}
Here's a vignette of some stages of my progress running from top left to bottom right. The strips are sewed to paper foundation; that's what makes the corners white and sometimes kept me from understanding the color progression.
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| Building colors on this Optical Illusion quilt |
The center four blocks are all white but the subsequent blocks are {supposedly} darkening from center to edge. With all these pastels and limited values {because I'm using only scrap bag fabrics,} it's hard to get the progression correct. So I've been laying strips in the general area and photographing to see what they look like. Lots of moving going on.
I'm having fun and taking it slow. And... chicken pot pie for us today. What about you?
Reading
Emma Straub's This Time Tomorrow enters the life of Alice Stern on her 40th birthday as her father lies dying in the hospital. After a night of drinking, she awakens on her 16th birthday in her childhood room. What, if anything, can she change that day to alter the outcomes of both her life and her father's?