Backing Day is Friday, December 31st!

Here's a reminder from your friendly neighborhood Cotton Patch that Backing Day is this Friday, December 31st!  

If you're new here and don't know what Backing Day is...

Bring in your finished quilt tops (100% complete, no more borders to add, done) on the last day of the month and receive 25% off your backing of choice, even Clearance!

The usual rules apply:

• If the last day of the month falls on a Sunday when we're closed, then Backing Day is the day before (Saturday). 
• Discount valid on single-fabric backings only.  Sorry, this is not valid on several cuts of different fabrics for a pieced backing.  
  
• Sale prices not combinable with any other offer (this includes deals from Five Stars, redeeming points, and coupons)
• Sale prices good in-store only on the sale day and limited to stock on-hand. 

We can't wait to see what you've created - see you on the 31st!

The Principles of Art (in Quilting!) Part VI: Emphasis

Every time I hear about Emphasis in art, I immediately think of this scene from "A View from the Top:" 

Sure we're not talking about spoken language here, but it's still funny (to me).  Annnnnyway...

Emphasis is the focus of the piece which is achieved by arranging the other Elements and Principles of Art in such a way that the portion you've chosen is the first thing you eye goes to upon looking at the work. This is the thing you want viewers to pay the most attention to. It is the focal point. 

This art quilt is called "Tom" by Margaret Abrahamshe - she used color and quilting lines ot create Emphasis on the subject's face, which is just slightly off center in the quilt.  The eye is drawn into his face and gaze.  

Most commonly in quilting, we use contrast in size, shape, and color to create emphasis.  Think about the accent colors you use to pop and draw the eye into your quilts.  

This quilt uses yellow to emphacize the solid lines that create a broken woven texture in the quilt overall.  Your eye goes right to that yellow and sees that weave before it really registers all of the black and white prints in the background.  

This quilt emphacises the flower appliques

Backing Day is Tuesday, November 30th!

Here's a reminder from your friendly neighborhood Cotton Patch that Backing Day is this Tuesday, November 30th! 

If you're new here and don't know what Backing Day is...

Bring in your finished quilt tops (100% complete, no more borders to add, done) on the last day of the month and receive 25% off your backing of choice, even Clearance!

The usual rules apply:

• If the last day of the month falls on a Sunday when we're closed, then Backing Day is the day before (Saturday). 
• Discount valid on single-fabric backings only.  Sorry, this is not valid on several cuts of different fabrics for a pieced backing.  
  
• Sale prices not combinable with any other offer (this includes deals from Five Stars, redeeming points, and coupons)
• Sale prices good in-store only on the sale day and limited to stock on-hand. 

We can't wait to see what you've created - see you on the 30th!

The Principles of Art (in Quilting!) Part V: Pattern/Rhythm

For the Principles of Art you might see Pattern and Rhythm interchanges, but most often you'll see it defined as Pattern. This is the repetition of the Elements of Art we talked abut before, but with the intention of creating consistent intervals.  It goes hand in hand with Movement. Pattern and Rhythm guides the eye as the artist chooses, and if used in a particular way, can give the impression of Movement or depth. 

Pattern is prevalent in quilting, from the prints on a fabric and the placement of colors in a block, to the repetition of the blocks through a quilt.  We see it most in the fabrics we use and in how we repeat blocks.  Here's a few examples, some more literal than others:

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!

Backing Day is Saturday, October 30th!

Here's a reminder from your friendly neighborhood Cotton Patch that Backing Day is this Saturday, October 30th! 

If you're familiar with Backing Day, you might be saying to yourself, "Hey self! Why isn't Backing Day on Halloween?"  that's because Halloween this year is a Sunday, and well, we're closed Sundays! So, it's the day before.  

If you're new here and don't know what Backing Day is...

Bring in your finished quilt tops (100% complete, no more borders to add, done) on the last day of the month and receive 25% off your backing of choice, even Clearance!

The usual rules apply:

• If the last day of the month falls on a Sunday when we're closed, then Backing Day is the day before (Saturday). 
• Discount valid on single-fabric backings only.  Sorry, this is not valid on several cuts of different fabrics for a pieced backing.  
  
• Sale prices not combinable with any other offer (this includes deals from Five Stars, redeeming points, and coupons)
• Sale prices good in-store only on the sale day and limited to stock on-hand. 

We can't wait to see what you've created - see you on the 30th!

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.