The Principles of Art (in Quilting!) Part IV: Movement

 Now some of you might be thinking...MOVEMENT...in a quilt?  That thing is stationary!  Well...yes...you're correct (unless you're in the habit of throwing quilts from place to place).  However what we mean here is visual movement.  This is all about visual "flow," how the eye moves through the piece and the feeling that movement triggers.  More dynamic movement in a piece gives the viewer an impression of excitement, volatility and energy. Static movement gives a sense of seriousness, calm or quiet.  

There are entire quilt techniques built around this concept. Bargello quilts give a sense of waving movement, like a flag. Watercolor quilts have a cascading movement. It can be achieved in so many ways that a quilter must carefully (whether they actively think it or not) consider fabric choice so as not to create vibrations of a busy print in an otherwise calm piece, for example. 

You can also create movement quilting and with color choice.  See the watercolor quilt above?  The quilting choice also forces the eye to move to the brighter spot in the quilt.  The wavy quilting below moves the eye in a different way than the very stark, linear piecing it is paired with:

It can be done with color choice, too  The eye doesn't want to focus on bright yellow, so throwing bright yellow in a quilt will force the eye to bounce around.  Using a pattern in a sashing might guide the eye around the quilt in a different way than a solid one.  Using wavy stripes will have a different effect than straight ones...see below:

The yellow makes the eye move around what is otherwise a very calm quilt. 

Now, what would happen if those regulars triped were replaced with the stripes below?

Do you have any quilts you've done that are good examples of movement?  Sharre them in the comments below!