In my dotage, I'm easily overwhelmed, especially visually. Or maybe it's all the reading I've been doing on the minimalist lifestyle. Printed fabrics are getting a bit too much for me, both in the wardrobe arena and in quilt-making. I don't mind a little accent of printed fabric here or there, but mixing printed fabrics in a quilt gets too distracting.
Besides the visual clutter of using multiple printed fabrics in a quilt, prints are a snapshot of current fashion. This enables a fabric historian to date a particular print based on the trendy fabrics used in the quilt. It also means, like clothes, the prints "expire". They become so last year, or last decade. I like to think that solid colored fabrics, like the Amish quits, have a little more staying power, in addition to being easier on the eyes.
I do have a bag of prints left over from previous quilting ventures, so I am trying to use them up before I start collecting (stashing) some solids. I wanted to experiment with a technique for switching foreground and background in appliqué, so wanted to use up some scraps to try it out. Here is the result. I don't like it because it's too busy. I may do the design again in solids so I can actually see the shapes. The technique worked out well, though. I'll post some more details on that in the future.
"Spikes up the ying yang"
2013, 10" x10", hand appliquéd and hand quilted
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