take two

OK--I love this quilt. Part of my promise of mountains series. I find the colors haunting. And I love the  energy of the black and white stripes floating above the mountains.

 Indeed I had always seen this as part of a series. I knew I had to make a quilt based on this fabric.

 Isn't it wonderful? Such a lush combination of colors. But maybe I did not want to work with these muted colors in the summer when I think of bright reds and greens, pure blues. Or maybe I couldn't quite see the design of the next quilt. After all, I did not want to duplicate what I had previously done but wanted to push the design. Or maybe--and there is some truth to this also--I feared it would be hard to capture the same complexity of colors that I used in the first quilt. After all, just look at all the colors I had to use to create the overall effect.

In any case, I had not started this quilt until a customer of mine was searching for another quilt. Yes, the colors were just perfect. But the black and white block stopped them. And indeed in the particular space, it was not right.  Sure I could just remake the quilt without the black and white block--but that would not create the series that I envisioned.

And so I woke up early one morning and planned the new quilt. Plums and gentle burned orange. Muted greys and dusty greens. So lush it seemed in my mind. I forced myself to start. First the gentle plums. That was the color I was sure of. A bit of warmth but still toned down. Not too dark but still an anchor for the quilt. Nice, isn't it?

 Then the gentle yellows and oranges. How hard this is. I certainly wanted the colors to glow--but still they had to be soft and muted. A bit dusty. How few fabrics I had that worked. How careful I had to be in the color combinations.

 Yes, this seemed to be close. Now the entire row. It does create a color, doesn't it?

OK, now if I can just continue. Moving upward in the colors and keeping it warm but muted. Then one more row on the bottom. Perhaps a dusty green with just a hint of life to it. And the mountains--perhaps more rust orange this time. The sun has caught them at twilight.  Hmmm. I love it when I can't wait to get back to the studio and work with these colors, don't you? Won't the two quilts look good together? Maybe I should think of a third quilt in this series. Do you work in series? How do you plan them?