A totally off-the-wall question: How to get past "boring" neutrals & solids?
01-10-2013, 12:05 AM
#11
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: S. W. Indiana
Posts: 7,484
First the disclaimer: I'm not ADD; I just can't stand "boring."
I see so many GORGEOUS, STUNNING works here, and wonder if any of you actually get bored while piecing whites, neutrals, solids, etc.
I have yet to start my first "real" quilt (by that I mean after studying so I do it RIGHT and not "winging it" like I did with my first 2), but I found that just putting a solid color backing on bored me to death.
My issue is how do I get past this "fear of the boring and uninteresting"...because it is these solid background colors, borders and edges-of-blocks that make the most LOVELY quilts!
Am I destined to have a room full of UFOs?
I see so many GORGEOUS, STUNNING works here, and wonder if any of you actually get bored while piecing whites, neutrals, solids, etc.
I have yet to start my first "real" quilt (by that I mean after studying so I do it RIGHT and not "winging it" like I did with my first 2), but I found that just putting a solid color backing on bored me to death.
My issue is how do I get past this "fear of the boring and uninteresting"...because it is these solid background colors, borders and edges-of-blocks that make the most LOVELY quilts!
Am I destined to have a room full of UFOs?
01-10-2013, 12:08 AM
#12
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: S. W. Indiana
Posts: 7,484
If you want to do something spontaneous, get yourself 20 wonderful absolutely gorgeous prints, geometrics, solids, textures that all somehow go together. Choose a color scheme you would not ordinarily use. Make a complex Turning 20 type quilt and just go for it. I do this once each year and I have to say that I love these quilts. One year the color was orange and this year it was a bright poison green or chartruese. It has flowers, dragonflies, birds, geometrics in that green, pink, yellow, white, etc.
It has helped to widen my horizons.
It has helped to widen my horizons.
Poison green????????? Never heard chartreuse called that before. Surprisingly, I use a lot of chartreuse in garments.
01-10-2013, 03:09 AM
#14
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Thornton, Colorado
Posts: 1,023
I am with others who rarely use solids. Tone on tones, blenders, marbles, and so on do add a lot of interest. Even the neutrals can be fun... white on white, cream on cream and very pale blenders are among my favorites when I need a background or something to go with other colors.
01-10-2013, 03:20 AM
#15
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,688
First the disclaimer: I'm not ADD; I just can't stand "boring."
I see so many GORGEOUS, STUNNING works here, and wonder if any of you actually get bored while piecing whites, neutrals, solids, etc.
I have yet to start my first "real" quilt (by that I mean after studying so I do it RIGHT and not "winging it" like I did with my first 2), but I found that just putting a solid color backing on bored me to death.
My issue is how do I get past this "fear of the boring and uninteresting"...because it is these solid background colors, borders and edges-of-blocks that make the most LOVELY quilts!
Am I destined to have a room full of UFOs?
I see so many GORGEOUS, STUNNING works here, and wonder if any of you actually get bored while piecing whites, neutrals, solids, etc.
I have yet to start my first "real" quilt (by that I mean after studying so I do it RIGHT and not "winging it" like I did with my first 2), but I found that just putting a solid color backing on bored me to death.
My issue is how do I get past this "fear of the boring and uninteresting"...because it is these solid background colors, borders and edges-of-blocks that make the most LOVELY quilts!
Am I destined to have a room full of UFOs?
While you may find it boring to piece whites, neutrals and solids, I find it mind-numbing to piece the same block over and over and over again, no matter what the fabrics are. My solution? I stopped doing it. I work with my own designs for functional and art quilts and haven't had a boring day in the years and years I've been playing by my own rules.
If something bores you, find a substitution. A different fabric, a way to avoid hand stitching, a different way to baste the sandwich, there are numerous ways to accomplish whatever it is you want to do in the quilting world...and almost everyone here can give you personal examples.
I have to say, I use solids extensively...along with prints, tonals and batiks that read as solids...because fabrics are my 'paint' and I don't want individual fabric designs taking attention away from the overall quilt design. It's clearly my style, but I have good friends who are all about big, bold, blasting prints and I love their work (just wouldn't want to make it). We're all very different, yet have much in common...and that's exactly as it should be, worldwide.
Bottom line: Trust your gut, experiment, never stop learning, and have a good time. Never be afraid to fail, for failure makes the path to success so much clearer. Not every quilt is a masterpiece, and not every quilt has to be finished. In fact, not every quilt even deserves to be finished!
Last edited by ghostrider; 01-10-2013 at 03:23 AM.
01-10-2013, 08:39 AM
#17
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: S. W. Indiana
Posts: 7,484
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