Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Going Back in Time, Part 2: Color Commotion and Jettstream

 COLOR COMMOTION

 Anyone who knows me at all from a quilting perspective knows that my favorite fabric of all time is Oakshott shot cotton.

I have been privileged to correspond fairly frequently with the owner of Oakshott, Michael Oakshott himself, who is extremely generous. He gave me a deep discount when I made an MCC quilt one year using Oakshott, and when I place an order I will often find "surprises" that he has included. 

He contacted me earlier in the year about a possible collaboration using a bundle that is slated to be called Jett. 

He sent a bundle of 12 colors, with the color threads going one direction, woven with black in the other direction (the warp and weft). One thing I love about Oakshott fabrics is that their dimensions are all larger than the quilting cottons we buy here in the US. For example, we purchase fabric by the yard, which is anywhere from  40" to 44" wide, a fat quarter is about 18" x 22" and a fat eighth is 9" x 11". Oakshott is woven by the meter and is 54" wide. So their fat eighths are a generous 10" x 27" and fat quarters are 19.5" x 27".

I had decided that my Charm Parade pattern would once again work nicely with these fabrics. Each block would have four different colors, with a consistent "lattice" strip of black to tie everything together. 

I made quite a few blocks before I realized that Michael had sent me a generous amount of fabric. 

I sketched the layout to see what it would take to make 20 blocks, cutting the fabric to the exact dimension that would be sold as a fat eighth, and realized I was short the fabric needed to cut the center square. By the time I realized this dilemma, I had made all the blocks. What should I do? 


I decided that the easy solution was to remake all the blocks and use black in the center of each block. And I decided I liked this version much better anyway.

Then I decided to go all out and add a border to this one. I had this cool batik that had a lot of colors that were in the blocks. Ugh.

I switched it to black. Ahh...so much better. If you are wondering what the color is in the black border--I had Darby quilt with colorful variegated thread--just to add a little more "color commotion." 
I had some great fabric in my stash for the backing. Also, a cute label.


We took the quilt along on our trip to Oregon in July 2022, and in this small town of Point Arena we found this colorful mural.


It was a windy afternoon but we got some fun shots.




Title: Color Commotion
Pattern by: Me (a Charm Parade variation)
Date Completed: 2022
Size: 46" x 56"
Quilted by: Darby Myers

JETTSTREAM

Jettstream is a collaboration with Oakshott Fabrics. I rewrote my Charm Parade pattern to specifically use a fat eighth bundle of Oakshott called Jett. 

It's "sister quilt," Color Commotion, uses the same fabric, but the center squares are each a different color rather than black. I actually like this version better as I think the black calms everything down a little.





The Charm Parade block is a simple one and gives you the opportunity to play around with color. It then creates a secondary design where the blocks come together.




I  put the extra blocks on the back, including a couple from Color Commotion. Also, notice the cute label.


When we were in Mendocino, California, in July 2022, we passed a temple and knew it was perfect as a backdrop.

Title: Jettstream
Pattern by: Me (Charm Parade variation)
Date Completed: 2022
Size: 40" x 50"
Quilted by: Darby Myers

3 comments:

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Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said... #

I love the locations you find to photograph your quilts. And it's really fantastic to see the difference in Color Commotion and Jettstream; the small change of adding a consistent black center square is really striking to see so clearly with the quilts shown here one after the other.

Susan said... #

That last photo is perfect! Your quilt is fabulous!

OPQuilt said... #

It's really interesting to see these two beautiful quilts next to each other: one with the colorful centers and one with the black centers, and to compare the effects of each. I love the results of your experimenting, but also love the original!

Like the others, I also love the mural and the color buildings of the Mendocino location. You really do life a colorful life!