The Negative Space Challenge

Our next challenge: The Negative Space Challenge

What is negative space? In basic terms, negative space is the space around and between the focal point of an image, work of art, or quilt. In quilts, it tends to not only surround our quilt blocks but is often also a part of the blocks themselves. Negative space is often a key element of composing modern quilts, and is useful in defining the focal part or parts of a quilt. In quilts with busy fabrics or intricate piecing, negative space is also important, for providing the eye a place to rest and therefore increasing the appeal of a quilt in a subtle way.

Negative space can also be a key element of a quilt design. Rather than making a repeating block pattern, many modern quilters "float" a block or blocks on a quilt top using lots of negative space, or create various improv pieces that they then separate with lots of negative space. Take a look at the examples and inspiration below, and see how the negative space enhances each quilt...

1. Mid century modern house quilt, 2. Colorsplash 2012, 3. Star Light, Star Bright, 4. Baby Math Quilt Front, 5. ffa2 quilt top #1, 6. Warm Spring: Front, 7. Orbs Away, 8. Scrappy Stripes, 9. Triangulate, 10. John's Birthday Quilt, 11. Colorbrick Quilt, 12. Blue Wave Quilt Front, 13. Cosmos quilt14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

Our next challenge will run through our January meeting, and the challenge is simple: make a quilt top using negative space. It can be a small quilt top, a large one, whatever you like. Bring it to our January meeting for the challenge. Feel free to work on your project at our Sew Days between now and the January meeting. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to let me know!

September Block Workshop and Challenge Winner

Congratulations to Carol for winning our first guild challenge, the Name Tag Challenge. Carol made a great nametag using patchwork and fabric markers, and she won a lovely fat quarter bundle of Dear Stella's Bukhara collection.

The September Block Workshop went very well, with six of us in attendance and lots of sewing completed! We will work some more on our blocks for this charity quilt at our next meeting, in October, scheduled for Saturday October 20th at 12pm.

 

Stay tuned for details on our next guild challenge!

Our September Block Workshop

Are you excited for our September Block Workshop yet? For the month of September, rather than having a standard meeting, we'll be working on mastering the improvisational stitch-and-flip technique to create beautiful interlocking wonky stars for a charity quilt, and we now have some gorgeous fabrics to do it with, thanks to Dear Stella Design!

If you are interested in bringing your own fabrics, you're welcome to work on blocks for yourself as well. For your own fabrics, plan to bring 3 1/2" squares of your background fabric, 3 1/2" squares for your star centers, and various 3 1/2" wide rectangles ranging in size from 2" to 5" tall for your star points. I will bring precut fabric for us to work with during the workshop to maximize our sewing time.

Please be sure to also bring your sewing machine, thread, as well as a handy pair of fabric scissors and a rotary cutter.

And don't forget about the current guild challenge: the Name Tag Challenge! Bring your finished nametags to our September Block Workshop for a chance to win a prize :)

The Block Workshop will be held on September 15th at the Jimmie B. Keel Library from 1:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon, in the Community Room, which is at the front of the library, prior to entering the main library. Please be sure to RSVP by commenting here on this post or within the Facebook group. See you there!