shadows and light

"Where there is light there must be shadow, where there is shadow there must be light. There is no shadow without light and no light with out shadow."

--Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

I cannot shake these words. Too often, I am a black or white thinker -- the whole world, today, forever, past and future, is either light or dark. How hard it is to grasp that we need our shadows in order to shine. We are all bursts of sunlight into the dusty, unswept corners of the world, and we are all smudges of thunder on the summer evening skies. Simultaneously.

This quilt -- still just a top -- was born from that thought. A translation of words into fabric.



Spot the red?

(A selection of these blacks available as a bundle at WestwoodAcres)

in progress: inverted +++

Just a little peek at what's up on the design wall (um, kitchen wall) today. The black and white obsession continues.

I've put together this collection of "high-volume" blacks over the last month or so, with a Before the Dawn bundle from WestwoodAcres, and a lovely parcel from the stash of generous Bijou Lovely.

+ all finished +

These twenty-three crosses are all packed up, and headed across the country to their new home.

It took me ages to work out how to quilt this design -- swirly stippling didn't seem to go with the geometric design, but I couldn't bear to sew through the black crosses with white thread. In the end (thanks to a little quilterly advice), I used straight lines, but skipped over each cross. The crosses are then outlined with a line of black thread. Time-consuming and oh-so-much turning, but finished at last.

On the back, a gingham-ish black print, broken up with a line of low-volume prints from the front.

Such a pleasure to sew with this collection of all time favourite fabrics, and experiment with low-volume prints like this. When I look at the quilt from a distance, new patterns seem to emerge in the background, from where the pure whites or the greyer fabrics fall, or where the little fox heads pop up. And, of course, just a little bit of red.

+ + +

A quilt of black plusses -- paying hommage to the lovely Pia Wallen blankets I see and love in Scandinavian-style homes. The idea was inspired by Film in the Fridge's colourful take on the Marcelle Medallion quilt, using only one part of the border from the original quilt to make an entire design. I loved her use of low-volume whites for a more interesting background, but decided to do away with the multi-coloured plusses in favour of simple black.

I couldn't resist throwing in some low-volume prints with just a little colour -- some favourite red dashes (from the Walk in the Woods line), and a little yellow Lotta, too. From a distance, though, it is simply a black-and-white design, and the prints and variances are only apparent up close.

After posting a photo of the blocks for my quilt on Instagram, I got a request for a custom quilt in the same design, and so I'm overjoyed to get the chance to make this -- my favourite top so far, without question -- not once, but twice!