Turkey Tracks: Changing Fabric Tastes

Turkey Tracks:  March 22, 2019

Changing Fabric Tastes

Back in the day when I first started quilting, I used dark, intense colors.  That’s what was in the market in the 1990s.  And they were beautiful.

I also used traditional patterns, where blocks, when put together, formed internal, secondary patterns—like strings of little colored squares all lined up in diagonal rows.  Traditional patterns, I think, are much like the intersecting interactions of a community—where the whole is made from the intersections.

Here’s a favorite from some years back—a Bonnie Hunter pattern, “Narragansett Blues,” which can be found in MORE ADVENTURES IN LEADERS AND ENDERS.

Here’s another, showing the use of dark, rich colors.

But something happened to my fabric “tastes” over the last five or so years.  I found brights, low-volume neutrals, and whimsical fabrics.  I also found all the greys—down to deep charcoal colors.  And English Paper Piecing with its intricate blocks.

Many of my quilts still have internal secondary patterns—I do love that effect—but many now also have stand-alone blocks, each an individual feature in a matrix of surrounding cloth and other individual blocks.  So, now, in some forms of modern quilting, the individual blocks form a community in the quilt, but one made up of separate individuals.

Look at this pile of quilts, all made in recent years.  They are VERY different from my older quilts.  (The dog is different too.)

Here are two completed EPP projects.

Here’s the charcoal I love, but the stars are low-volume Cotton+Steel.  The internal patterns (see the dark fans) are just…different than a traditional quilt.  (This one is my design, made from a workshop with Amy Friend of the blog During Quiet Time.)

I still love Bonnie Hunter’s patterns, but now I use brights and low-volume to construct them.

And grey:

And, oh my goodness!!!  Look what’s happening now.  Solids!!  Drenched intense color, yes, but very different patterns.

And the journey continues…