Thankful for Modern Quilts and Technology (sometimes...)

We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a Safe Journey to those Traveling.

jill....On the intrigue list of modern design elements that inspire me is transparency.  Well executed transparency adds a level of sophistication, a sort of trick the eye phenomomen.  Our pattern Flatbread is a good example.  

Transparency really isn't that hard to execute and sometimes it even occurs by happenstance.  You can practice this technique with a simple nine patch block.   Pick one color in a light, medium and dark value (having them the same intensity helps).  A white 9 inch block background is also helpful.  Place a three inch strip of dark vertically through the center, add a 3 inch light strip horizintally through the center over the dark.  Cut a square over the shape where they intersect in the medium value; the colors have appeared to mix.

Recently, in a personal design challenge, I created the following examples:

This one is confusing, not really a value transparency since the light is in the middle of the darker purple and the medium red violet texture.

Okay... this one is not the truth but seems believable (medium and medium do not make a light) but there is a visable change in value.  The intensities are similar, the textures dissimilar.

This one is more accurate for value.  The textures are closer.

This will work more successfully once there is more of a purple line in the medium.

When I first started experimenting with transparency, Bill Kerr of FunQuilts offered this advise:  For best  results, make it large enough to see the intersection.  The colors don't alway have to produce the "truth" to create the effective outcome.  Good luck with your experiments.  Please share your pictures with your examples of transparency technique.

Ahhh,  our friends at FunQuilts just launched a new book.  Quilts Made Modern by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr have a perfect example of a quilt named "Tranparency".  Check it out!

Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are.  See you next Tuesday.