Me? Working with Solids?

Shockingly, I’ve decided to make my next quilt from solid fabrics. Something I NEVER thought I’d do!

And what’s equally unusual is that I’ll be making this quilt about frozen (dead) plants. What? We had a bad freeze here in Florida, back in February, and it killed some of the tropical plants in our yard. Surprisingly, they took on some interesting colors on day one: purply, dusty rose, and dull gold. Those colors quickly turned to an ugly mess of brown and rust that hung there for months. But, I saw them on day one and thought they’d be interesting in a quilt, especially if showcased against a black or dark background. So, these are the fabrics I purchased.

I was aiming for “ugly, but in a good way.” Is there such a thing? Did I hit it? I plan to have fun figuring it out.

Of course, when selecting fabrics it’s ALWAYS about the combinations. This is what my initial stack looked like on the cutting table. Although my camera altered the colors some, you can easily see that the third fabric shows up as blue among the others. It was really a grey. But, clearly not the best grey for this project. I replaced it with a dark brown.

And what about that bottom gold fabric, above? Too bright, right? It also went back to the shelf and I tried out a few more things. Gee, that was fun!

There was no pure black in the store, but here’s where my experience as a sewer/quilter came in handy: I knew the back of one of those fabrics would have to be solid black. And sure enough, I found it. The “right” side of the fabric is the folded triangle. But the back is just what I need!

Oh yeah: I plan to piece this quilt, even though it will have a lot of curves. Not totally new to me, but not my norm.

Lots of experimenting, which means lots of Adrenaline. I love it!

Ellen Lindner