Colour

The wave design for this quilt came entirely out of my head upon hearing the recipient's favourite colours (aqua and tangerine). But, having designed the quilt, I wanted some reference to help with selecting and positioning the fabric colours most effectively. Many of you would have received and seen the emailed slideshow of stunning wave photography, taken from 'inside' the waves. To be honest, I had no idea who the photographer was, but a quick search identified him as Clark Little. I won't risk breaching copyright, but a quick flick through his online gallery not only found this image perfect to help me with my colours, but also proved very inspirational.

Unfortunately I neglected to take many photos as it came together on my design wall; it's nearly complete above, and you can see my working design there for reference. Below is a small section of 3 'blocks'. I designed it using blocks of 7 strips each, although that doesn't show (and doesn't matter at all) - but it did help with keeping pieces in place (the little white squares are the block numbers. I made 2 sets; 1 to pin to the bottom strip of each block, and 1 to pin in position on the board.

Even before I finished the piecing, in spare moments I'd been sketching quilting ideas over rough diagrams of the quilt. Given my very tight timeframe, I needs something relatively quick. I came up with the idea of a few (probably open) feather plumes curving over the crest of the wave and through the curl to the droplets falling off it. This should help create directional movement.

Despite my extensive stash and a trip to mh LQS, I couldn't get the full gradation of tangerines for the sun part of the sky, and ended up over-painting 2 of them to make them a better match. I got the right colour, but unfortunately I left the lighter one too pale, leaving a too-sharp contrast, and didn't realise until I'd started pieicing. There are actually 2 very plae yellows; the 2nd one should have been rather darker! However, I'm thrilled I managed to do what I did with the paint given my minimal experience and lack of time to test it out. Hopefully I'll be able to blend them a little more with the quilting.

I think the stemmed swirl I've been using quite a bit (especially in skies) recently will work well for the sky again in this quilt, and I've been playing with how to work this design by Angela Walters to work into the wave shape. It'll be easy enough in straightish lines at the bottom, and I think the nature of the design will allow me to gradually curve it up and through the wave in the direction the water flows.

This delightful selection of Glide threads arrived last Friday, and below is the selection I'll use on this quilt: