Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, we're talking about quilting and other good stuff. I'm glad you stopped by ... look around, add a comment, become a follower if you feel inclined, tell your friends about me, and come back soon!


Saturday, January 8, 2011

Black and white

I was looking at a co-worker's black and white photo of her daughter when I thought that sometimes b&w images show more detail than color ones, isn't that interesting?  From there my mind went (naturally) to b&w quilts I've made, and I realized I have very few of em.  Yet, I'm always collecting black & white fabrics! Go figure.
 
Here's a Sunbonnet Sue I keep at the office that I made shortly after I started quilting; she's paper-pieced and I call her Amish Sue, AND she's wearing leather shoes from an old hand bag. I remember buying the pattern from Cottonseed Glory in Annapolis, Maryland, and I enlarged it since it was only 6".  The one on the right is from the same pattern - actually I think I made that one first.

Now here's an interesting phenomenon - for this one I elongated a foundation-pieced cup and saucer pattern in EQ4. 

The fabrics were all the same shade of black when I made this, but after hanging in my office for a lot of years, it faded something awful!  You can see the damage, I'm not sure if it's from light coming through the windows or the fluorescent lighting, or a combination of both. 

I pinned the backing up to show the difference in the color... it's the same fabric as was used in the middle cup - what a difference!  I think it's interesting that the saucers and both cups on the right hand side didn't fade, or if they did it's very subtle.

Here's one I thought I'd throw in at no extra charge, just because it's hanging on my office wall. 

I had this silhouette made at a Renaissance Festival in 1978, oh my how I've changed!  The little man who made this cut it at 4 inches, this is an enlarged version I made on a copier. 

I still have the original in a drawer someplace, I'll probably commit it to fabric sooner or later.

5 comments:

  1. Some blacks fade terribly and others not much. It makes you wonder about the printing process. I recoginize some of those in my collection and now wonder if I should use them. My self portrait quilt has some fading on the black fabrics so I have put it in a dark closet to preserve what is left. When I had my quilt shop (1980's) we were told that fluorescent lights would fade the fold line on our bolts and to keep alternating what was on the top shelves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I second Wanda's comments, and raise you an "I've got examples of blue being faded from sunlight that was reflected off our vehicle and into the north facing window."

    : )

    That said, my first glimpse of the quilt I thought you did this on purpose, because it looked so pretty!!! The color reminded me of those fancy coffees that you would find in such tall cups!

    Love your silhouette! So pretty!

    ~ Ronda

    ReplyDelete
  3. Darling Sunbonnet Sues...
    I can't believe how much that black had faded! Wow! That is incredible!!
    Great silhouette! 8-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those are really nice--I need to start collecting blacks sometime--I've been collection solid fabrics lately

    ReplyDelete
  5. OHOHOHOH...love these cups..this quilt...ok, now that I would love to make...coffee obsessed as I am lol
    love that in a mug rug...or a cuppa cozie...lol

    oh LInda..how about a tut on that for STash?>???

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for your comment, I like getting feedback! I can't promise to respond by email, but I do appreciate your visit.