Thursday, July 9, 2009

Which came first - the quilt or color scheme?


I made this quilt well over 20 years ago. I did a triangular fold and dipped each corner in a different color dye that I had mixed myself by eye. I used left over dyes to dye additional fabrics for the border. It went with nothing in our house at the time.

Fast forward 10 years when we put an addition on our home and redecorated in the new color scheme inspired by this rug from Peru.

This inspired all the colors throughout the addition and into the original house.
The quilt was the perfect color and size to hang on the powder room wall. I painted the walls in the colors I had selected and the quilt fit perfectly. Painting the graphic on the wall was a real challenge. It is my original design. Rather than cut a stencil I chose to use masking tape to layout the design. The width of the painted design is not the same horizontally as it is diagonally so that was the first challenge. As I painted in the area where it had been newly plastered to cover the former window opening the plster came off the wall when we removed the tape. Add to that that my husband and I were working together in a room barely 4 x 6 feet and I think you get the picture.
We did make it work and it was ready for the magazine shoot for Quilters Newsletter a few days after we finished. Although they photographed it for the magazine there were so many other photos they didn't use this quilt.


In the first photo you see the overall effect. Without the quilting it was nothing special. The quilting elevated it to something special. I still enjoy looking at this quilt.

Enjoy putting this together!
Click to Mix and Solve

4 comments:

Eva said...

You must have folded it very exactly to get this regular effect! This is so special, I think it deserved to be published.

Dolores said...

Very nice quilting. I take it that it was hand quilted?

Kay Koeper Sorensen said...

Yes, I didn't mention this one is hand quilted.

Deb said...

Oh my! I love this quilt too and the design on the wall is awesome!
I love your story to go with it. Really makes it even more special!
Now I have to see if I can fold some fabric and get that same dying effect.