This month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge is to work with neutral value scraps. Or is that low volume scraps? Whatever you call them, they can add contrast to a quilt block or be used on their own for a muted, textural quilt.
Case in point: a quilt in all neutral value fabrics by Alex Anderson (from Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! The Complete Guide to Quiltmaking by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes). I love the soft texture created by the use of white and off-white in this quilt.
The bad thing about neutral value quilts is they are very difficult to photograph! This quilt was the result of a challenge among members of the Treadle On email list - a group of vintage and antique sewing machine enthusiasts.
The challenge was to figure out how to use one or more of the antique attachments for our machines. Inspired by Colette Wolff's book The Art of Manipulating Fabric, we used unbleached muslin for our challenge blocks. Many participants created textured blocks inspired by techniques described in the book.
I set the blocks together using a variety of off-white print fabrics. The fleur-de-lis block in the upper right corner is mine - I made it using ribbon and the under-braider attachment.
So today, as I made some Pinwheel blocks for the RSC, I couldn't help but think about making another low volume/neutral quilt!
For more neutral scrappy inspiration, check out the other RSC participants at Angela's SoScrappy blog.
