The Principles of Art (in Quilting!) Part III: Proportion

Proportion mainly deals with the size of a component as compared to the sizes of the surrounding components. it goes hand in hand with Emphasis - larger items are emphasized more than something smaller by comparison. 

A good example of conscious use of proportion is with caricatures - they are drawn with a person's most identifying features (small eyes, a wide mouth, chubby cheeks, a prominent chin, a delicate nose, for example) being shown the most out of proportion with what one would expect from a portrait, either drawn comically small or absurdly large.

EXAMPLE: Hey Leonardo, your forehead is disproportionate with the rest of your face!

With quilts, this mainly is achieved with altering the focus portions of a block - stretching them in one direction or another, making one block very large while others are small, etc.  This often gives a more whimsical or fantastical feel to a quilt.  Check out these examples:

All of these have the proportion of the otherwise pretty basic and traditional blocks messed with to come out with something new and fun.  Note that none of these are super elegant - they all have more of an eclectic and whimsical feel to them.  

Would you ever want to try adjusting proportion in a project?  Let us know in the comments how you'd incorporate it into a project below.