Monday, November 28, 2016

Week 3: Wholecloth Quilt Challenge

 The "Today I Feel" Quilt is my ongoing large wholecloth quilt project. I'm writing one post every week about the past week's phrases, which answer the prompt, "Today, I feel...." You can read more about the project on Week 1's post and my daily expansions on each phrase on Instagram under the hashtag #todayifeelquilt. The threads are generously sponsored by Aurifil Threads.

The quilt is half done now, after writing 1 encapsulating phrase each day for three weeks (has it really been three weeks since I started and since the election?)! It helps that I've been filling in the surrounding negative space every weekend. The project will take me right past my birthday on December 17 - which was completely unintentional, but I'm glad of it!


Week 3 was Thanksgiving week - my favorite holiday. I had a 4 day weekend and spent lots of time with family, friends, and food. It was probably my most "relaxed" week yet.

Today I'll explain how to use thread color to create contrast. As I mentioned in Week 2's post, this quilt is very much a day-to-day experiment. Since I quilt a different phrase each day, I naturally want to change thread colors. Ideally, I'd like each phrase to read on it own. So far, I'm happy with the overall look!

 I love to add details like that little star over the "i." It makes the words even more special.

When I started out, I wanted the color palette to stand out well against purple but also complement it. I've thought of popping in lime green thread a couple of times but it doesn't seem to play well with the other colors. Also, most purples are a no-go because they blend too easily.


When choosing a color to quilt in, I think about what the phrase means to me. Is it a happy, sad, or angry phrase? Whenever I get stuck on a color, I choose light gray (2600) or white (2024). Never underestimate the power of neutrals! Sometimes I simply choose a color because I haven't used it in a while; I look at the words nearby and determine which would highlight it best.

Later this week, I'll post about specifically using different weights of thread to create contrast in a quilt! In next week's wholecloth post, I'll discuss variation in word size. So much to explore on a seemingly simple project!

6 comments:

  1. I love watching this grow; it's pretty perfectly halfway quilted. :)

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  2. This is such a fun challenge. I think you are going to end up with a really amazing quilt. Maybe you can give some tips on burying thread ends, since it looks like you have a challenge ahead in that department.

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  3. I really dig this! I'm doing a quilt for my mom who was diagnosed w/breast cancer. I'm embroidering family names on squares, & am going to add encouraging words! Awesome...thank you for the inspiration two-fold.

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    1. Thanks, Trista and best of luck with your quilt! It sounds lovely and so personal - she's going to cherish it.

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  4. This is so fun to see come together! The fillers in the blending color are perfect around all the colorful words!

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