Changing It Up: From Christmas to Industry
I posted an image of my recent modern Christmas wreath quilt on Instagram, and a follower named Karen saw “urban-industrial style Christmas.” What a great description!
Oh, Christmas Wreath by Diane Harris; quilted by Julie Lechner @beenquiltin
Her thoughts moved me to play around with this design and purposely go for an industrial look. So I moved away from Christmas entirely, to these possibilities.
A little bit different, but it still feels like the same quilt. Sashing is wider and all of the background and the border is one color.
Here I moved to a darker background color. I kind of like this idea. In terms of fabric, I’d use a lot of variety in the Bow Ties. (Ha, they don’t even look like Bow Ties now!)
More playing around. I’m not sure how effective this really is. But you never know until you try, so I don’t rule anything out when I’m experimenting, especially if it’s just in EQ. Even in fabric, play is the name of the game.
Whoa. This happened by accident! The background is the same color as one of the Bow Ties, so that piecing disappears and they look like weird C’s. Now we’re getting somewhere. In reality you wouldn’t actually piece the C’s, you could just use a solid patch in the same fabric as the background. I love this one, and surprisingly, it looks Christmas-y to me once more.
I had one more thought. I changed the gray to another green.
Like I said, you never know until you mess around!
A note about Electric Quilt design software: I resisted upgrading to EQ8 from EQ7 because I thought I didn’t have time to learn a new program. But when I did upgrade, I was blown away by how easy and intuitive it is. I spent almost zero time learning EQ8 because everything felt natural and logical. I love it. If you’re interested in designing quilts, you should get it. Well worth the investment!
Today, I wish you the courage, the curiosity and the commitment to play.
Let’s Talk Quilts! Does your quilt group need a speaker for 2019 or 2020? I’m booking entertaining, energizing, inspiring trunk shows now.
Tags: christmas wreaths, electric quilt, EQ8, jingle bells trunk show, modern quilts, quilt design, trunk shows
Quilter Kathy
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Very cool!
I’d like to have all those things… courage, curiosity and commitment to play!
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Marilyn McGahan
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Very creative. However, if I play, then when will I get all those UFO’s and “never started” projects done?
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Rebecca Grace
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Ooh, you’re an EQ bandit, too?! Now I love you EVEN MORE. I shake my head when other quilters say that designing in EQ wastes time that could be used quilting. There is nothing worse than cutting and sewing all of the blocks for a quilt, laying them out together, and realizing that it just does not work in real life the way you thought it would in your imagination. That used to happen to me before I went over to The Dark Side of EQ software, and it seriously sucked the wind out of my sails. However, previewing my ideas ahead of time in realistic computer mockups gives me the confidence and excitement to proceed, and keeps me motivated to keep working toward the finish line on those multi-year magnum opus projects. EQ8 is the best quilting tool I ever purchased, hands down. Also, I dig your modern Christmas wreaths. Fascinating how such a homely little ancient bowtie block can feel so new, so fresh, and so industrial!
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Diane Harris
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Hi again, RG. It sounds like we should be real life friends. Thank you for your comments! You made my day! And yes to all of that on EQ. It’s the BEST. And I’m glad to hear you also have “magnum opus” projects. That will help me keep on keepin’ on. Happy sewing to you!