Jane Adams
Gaudy Lady Quilt Kits
GAUDY
LADY QUILT KITS was born when one more person said, “I love your
quilt, but I would never have thought of putting those fabrics
together.”
I love color and find a lot of freedom designing quilts in color combinations that I might not personally wear. One day half of the ladies in our local quilt club said their favorite color was purple, but I looked around and only one or two were wearing it. So I think quilt design is a great place to let our creativity loose and let color soar.
I have been a dedicated quilter since 2000, but I have played with fabric and color since I was a kid. My sisters and I made doll clothes out of scraps of brocades, lace, silks and taffeta left over from our mother’s dressmaking business. We lived at Travis Air Force Base in California and military pilots brought gorgeous fabrics home to their wives from Asia. What fun for us.
My own taste in quilting fabric runs to large multi-color prints and generally a wide variety of fabric in each quilt. I like simple patterns and complex prints that do the work for me of visually breaking up the surface area and adding texture. Whether prints are large or small, if they are multicolored (not “reads as a solid” from a few feet away), they will add a lot of interest and vitality to a quilt. It is almost like throwing a handful of confetti across the quilt top. This photo is of the two color wheels I use in my classes to illustrate this point.
I’ve taught a lot of beginners to quilt and I think there are only three rules that have to be followed.
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Accurate cutting
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Accurate ¼ inch seams
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Have fun
If quilting isn’t fun, why would we do it? Everything beyond these three rules is tips, hints and suggestions. “This is what works for me, use it if it works for you.”
My strongest desire as a teacher is to help others tap into their own creativity. Designing with color is fun when the patterns are easy and the chocolate is flowing. “Becky Unleashed”, one of my first students, would tell you this is true.