Playing With My Fabric

One way to see if I have a pleasing and balanced group of fabrics is to photograph the group and play with different graphic effects.

These are not something I will actually create but just a fun way to check how well the fabrics work together.

Another fun one with the same groups and arrangement of colors.

A different composition with some editing.

Another fun effect I created.

This is a fun thing to do and it does allow me to realize if I have a potential winner in the fabrics I have picked.

Although this produced some interesting textures it does not produce a strong balanced composition. This is just one of the arrangements I tried with the fabric I used in yesterday’s blog post design

Design Play

I am using my design wall to get ideas for possible new compositions.

Using some of my newly dyed fabrics to create Crimson Sky.

With the computer I can easily crop off some of the top fabric.

I might be a good idea to break up the magentas with this piece of fabric?

This is an  easy way to try a lot of different fabrics, combinations and proportions.

Whether I use these together or not I do now have a record of how they work.

As I study these I see things I like and things I’m don’t like. I also see things I could change with either different fabrics, arrangements or proportions.

These are things I can take my time deciding as I work on finishing some of my works in progress.

An Unusual Get Together - Sibling iPad Get Together!

On Friday evening we had our first Sibling iPad dinner at my home.



The evening began with Pizza Fondue which has become my recent "specialty"!
Mary brought one of the most delicious salads I have even tasted with home made salad dressing. Karen made a fantastic apple dessert which she served with the best vanilla ice cream.


It was a lot of fun and we each learned and shared a lot.

Here Bill is showing Karen some Apps he likes.

We shared Apps we like along with some techniques on how to do things. I stayed up way too late working/playing with it after everyone left.

I have found one of the best ways to get good Apps is to ask others.

I have also learned it is NOT a child's toy - don't ask me how know!

Do you have any Apps you like for your iPad or iPhone? I'd love to hear about them.

While we were playing with our iPads my sister in law Mary cleaned up the kitchen and put all the dishes in the dishwasher - how did I get so lucky to get the perfect sister-in-law?

Getting To Know You

I have spent a fair amount of time the last few weeks getting my new computer and other devices set up and working. Today I thought we were done. Not quite so!


One of the issues we ran into was the fact that colors that looked close to perfect on my old computer showed up almost neon on my new computer. We made 2 changes to the color system.

It was a challenge to figure out how to really see what was happening.

I decided the best way to evaluate things was to take a picture of this particular quilt "In Living Color" which I made from Jinny Beyer's original 100 palette fabrics.
I then downloaded it to each computer rather that cutting and pasting from one to the other.
With the quilt in hand we held it right next to the new monitor and tried to see how close it came to the colors of the fabrics in the quilt.
We were able to see where the colors were off and adjust the new computer to closely replicate them. I have to say I am still not 100% satisfied with the way I see them on the new computer.

I had heard how different monitors show color differently and this made me a believer. I am still using the old computer to do my blog posts but I will switch very soon. When I do I will note it on the blog and I'd appreciate it if you let me know if you notice a big difference.

I posted this quilt in a larger size than normal. If you click on it you will be able to see the colors and fabrics very clearly. If you have some of Jinny's original palette fabrics you may want to compare them to my rendering.