Mostly Quilts » Barbara’s Design Tips

Watercolor stash builders

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:02:26 +0000

Yesterday I gave tips on selecting watercolor fabrics. For those of you who would still rather not pick out your own fabrics, I have added 3 sizes of “jelly rolls” to the pattern section of my website. These are bundles of 2″ strips ranging from light to dark with everything in between. Having the right fabrics makes a difference in the success of your design.

Watercolor fabric selection

admin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:01:55 +0000

Saturday I taught the Holiday Tree class in Salado, Texas at A Sewing Basket. It is a wonderful shop with lots of different fabrics and friendly staff. Anyway, we reviewed do’s and don’ts on buying watercolor fabrics.

Some of the do’s:

Size: Medium to large scale

Shapes: Curvy designs like flowers, fruit, paisleys

Color: Fabrics with 3 or more colors

Some of the don’ts:

Size: avoid prints that are too small, calicos

Shape: avoid straight lines, geometric lines, strips, plaids, dots

Color: avoid tone-on-tone

The reasoning is that the eye needs to move from one 2″ square to the next. Your 2″ square should never be small enough to show the entire design because that will stop the eye. The goal is to have an image that looks like a painting.

Getting Started

admin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:12:22 +0000

It’s helpful for beginners to read the basic instructions for watercolor quilts in one of the excellent “how-to” books available. I particularly like the books by Pat Magaret and Donna Slusser. Their color photos of the fabric swatches are helpful in understanding basic watercolor quilt concepts.

Watercolor Designs

admin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:10:49 +0000

Watercolor design invites you to put on your “artist” mindset. Let your creativity flow, color outside the lines; in fact, try to make the lines disappear!

Focus on strokes of color and wavy lines that move the eye to create a mood, feeling or image. Even when working with straight-lined patterns, like Eternity Cross, create flow and movement within the cross. Watercolor design is very liberating and tends to capture your attention for hours on end!

Just keep moving those squares around, take a break, look again, and you will see something different each time. Give yourself a few days of looking at the design occasionally and when it feels right, go ahead and sew it together.

Remember, there are lots of different “right” ways to use this technique; enjoy yours!