Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Nedra's Interwoven - Not Your Average Nine-Patch



Try as hard as I might, I could not think of anything other than weaving fabric or colors together for this theme.  I was determined to do more than that I continued to tell myself.  I sketched out a couple in which ideas and fabric wove together to form blocks or a portion of a quilt.  I carefully filled them in with colored pencils.  These didn’t come out quite as I envisioned however.  Sooo instead of fighting it, I embraced the idea of weaving something together, and planned to add other design elements to make it special.

I started with a nine patch, gave it an asymmetric placement and then enlarged it to fit the 12 X 12 dimension.  My chosen palette was the secondary colors, violet, orange and green (but  I preferred how a blue/green shade of fabric looked so went with it).  I wondered if I could add the look of transparency, so I experimented with the placement of different shades of my color choices. When I was happy with the basic layout and color choice and placement, I worked other fabrics and colors into the design. Using bias strips of the blue/green and black/white fabrics, I moved them around until they looked "interwoven" and then machine stitched those in place.  I machine quilted with clear thread to accentuate the interweaving and voila we have my unconventional nine-patch!!   

8 comments:

  1. Love your unconventional nine-patch! It is graphically striking, and the fabrics and colors work so well together. I appreciate, too, your description of the construction process. It is concise and clear--so clear that I think I could sit right down and follow your directions to make another quilt like this!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an exciting, bold, colorful, graphic art quilt. I like this so much I want one! You've inspired me. Bravo.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very graphically pleasing. I am glad you didn't "fight it."

    ReplyDelete
  4. The transparency is perfect and your wiggly woven pieces are so fun! It makes me think of a swatch of fabric under a microscope. This quilt definitely has the smile factor!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love the use of the traditonal in a new way. Lovely design.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for this twist on a nine-patch, Nedra. I love the bold and muted color combination and the "freedom" reflected in the nterwoven bias strips.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think this is your best 12 x 12 yet! From the color combination, to the illusion of transparency, to the wiggly bias interwoven stripes ( especially the black & white ones! ) which give great movement, I think this is an extraordinary successful piece.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is a really great piece ! Loved the bold and graphic design, the transparency of your 9-patch block fabrics, and the surprise of the black and white fabric and turquoise fabric interwoven twists.

    ReplyDelete