Monday, September 9, 2013

September Just Kinda of Slid In...

OK, can anyone tell me just what happened to last week?
One day I am writing about visiting Maddie, for the opening of her new store 'SPOOL' and whoosh...this is all a thing of the past.

My week was one filled with so many ups, downs & in betweens...
my new laptop went quite dead - was wisked away and replaced -- and I can happily report to be writing this on it's replacement -WOO Hoo.

The trip to Chattanooga was quite remarkable. My husband and I had never been and we just loved everything that we encountered --- especially Maddie's store. Boy, talk about lucky stitchers!!!

But, enough.... as I sit here sipping tea out of my new BadAss Quilters mug (yes a must have!) I realized it is September and all about FABRIC.

Part of my reason for picking FABRIC as my topic this month is that I am all wrapped up in the planning, choosing and very soon to be cutting and sewing the fabric for my newest book. It is pretty exciting.

Once I have a design in mind I just begin the fabric choosing by first thinking of COLOR. Now we spent a whole month earlier this year chatting about color (click on April posts), but really....
can we ever say enough about the most important part of our quilt making or art making process??

Some pieces actually begin with the color and the design is created to support it.
Color is magic - It plays with our eyes and our emotions.
Blues, cool & soothing; Reds, wild & hot; Yellow can make you feel happy....
and I was once told that Orange (the new black) is the color of conversation.

And, conversation we had --- so much conversation under the orange fabric of "The Gates" --now long gone are the miles of gates of Christo's Central Park installation, but it was a gate keeper who told me that the color was selected so there would be lots of conversation.
 
 
 
 
 

I took these and hundreds more photos over two days back in 2005 -- I flew in from LA and my sister flew in from Seattle --- and we had a grand time walking through the snow to be part of this.

Orange fabric -- kicking off the month of conversation about fabric....

So, how do you begin choosing fabric?
is it color --- or something else?







5 comments:

  1. Oh color.... swoon and sigh it can lift me up or drag me down... I LOVE that orange.. it makes me SO very Happy!!... and so do you! :)

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    1. orange is a happy color ... and so many shades of oranges we have at our fingertips these days to choose from.

      I loved sipping from my BadAss Quilter mug this morning...big hugs!

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  2. As a child I saw orange as outrageous ~ ~ since my mother was born on Halloween, she selected orange as her favorite color and I came to realize it was her way to insert shock value in a conversation (hmm, that word conversation again!).

    As a quilter I've begun to see orange as a means to add dimension and depth to my other color selections.

    But color ALWAYS affects my mood ~ ~ ~ the orange gates in your photos is powerful! Wonderful.

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    1. Hi Kara -- It seems like orange is one of those love it or hate it colors -- One only needs to visit or see pictures of Santa Fe to fall in love with it.

      Leave it to Christo to bring something so wonderful and powerful to Central Park... and boy am I grateful for a wild sister to make the journey with to see them in person.

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    2. A wild sister is a terrific asset! Non-introvert that I am, I always feel that un-shared adventures are empty.

      Soooo, is your next creation going to be orange/orangish?

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