Seasonal Sparkle
Pattern below for a 90-inch square quilt
using William Morris reproduction prints
Red & green are the traditional seasonal colors for the end-of-the-year celebrations. The colors have long been popular in Germanic folk arts where many of our American Christmas customs come from.
Becky Collis
Center wreath for Baltimore Belles & Rebels
See more here:
I've been sorting through the reds and green prints in past Morris collections because we're planning a red & green applique block of the month series next year at my Civil War Quilts blog. Model maker Becky Collis is working with Morris prints in the traditional color scheme. Her knock-out version makes you appreciate the classical red and green palette so popular in American applique. Their trick was stitching reds and greens to a white or light-colored background.
You do not see antique quilts with red and green appliqued to a red background or a green one
like this sketch.
Because the color scheme creates visual chaos.
Not only are the prints fighting for dominance but also red and green are the same value.
They "clash" because they have similar relative darkness or lightness.
Six Morris prints in greens and reds and a value scale showing green's and red's
common relative lightness or darkness.
Our vision has a hard time with this combination.
One should probably take look at a black & white rendition
of one's designs to see how the value is distributed throughout the
composition. If the values are too close nothing stands out
and sometimes our eyes make a visual mush out of it.
This is the old art teacher talking. The old art teacher also says:
Subdued Chaos in
Seasonal Sparkle & Morris Prints
Inspired by this quilt from Julie Silber's vast inventory:
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