You Give Me Fever

A couple of months ago I took a class on Weaver Fever quilts.  This quilt, designed by Jackie Robinson (seriously), is a twist on bargellos (strip piecing and cutting to make a detailed and often illusional quilt).  I chose to create the "weaver fever threever" requiring a light, medium and dark tone of two colors, with a neutral fill tone.  

I signed up for the class on impulse, but I am unable to impulsively select fabric.  This time I dragged my mother and sister along to my local fabric shop, and we spent around an hour selecting the seven beautiful fabrics.  Now, I am a calm and subdued person and so the bright cover of the book was immediately a turnoff to me (I truly only wanted to try out the technique).  Having just returned from a vacation in LA, I channeled my inspiration from the ocean.  I chose very calm greens and blues, with a fill color of grey.  These colors make me sigh and feel at peace.  I could not imagine snuggling up to watch my latest Netflix documentary under a wild mad, mad, mad, mad quilt.  

Now you color theorists are thinking, "she's going to be doing a lot of cutting and piecing and ironing and she's not going to get a lot of visual 3-d out of her fabrics."  And you'd be right, to an extent.  I showed up for the class and the instructor nearly audibly winced.  My fabrics do have shifts in value, but they are subtle.  This presented a clash among the group, who enjoyed predictable and traditional fabric choices.  I think the quilt I am creating is more modern in its color schema and because quilting is such a traditional technique there is this juxtaposition I truly enjoy.  More to come on the class materials, instruction and--God Willing--my finished piece.