Variations on a theme – 2023.08.26

I have been working on a trio of art quilts in complementary tertiary color pairs (yellow/orange with blue/violet, yellow/green with red/violet, and red/orange with blue/green). I love tertiary colors, but I always want to to use ALL the tertiary colors, not just a pair of them.

Later this month, I’ll be heading to Penticton BC for the annual conference of the Fibre Art Network.  As usual, we will have an artwork exchange.  The theme is ‘Anything Goes’ and the only criteria is the outside perimeter or circumference cannot exceed 40 inches.

I decided to use the same pattern I created for the trio of quilts, reduced to 10 x 10 inches, and include all the tertiary colors on a background of black felt. As I love a scrappy look, I divided the pattern in half, so I could include 2 fabrics of each color.

I started in the center with yellow/green, then following the color wheel counter-clockwise, I added yellow/orange, red/orange, red/violet, blue/violet, blue/green and finally green/yellow. I know that last one is really the same as yellow/green, but there are only 6 tertiary colors and my design has 7 sections. So I used my favorite color twice – in the center and on the outer circle.

This came together quickly, as I already had a lot of tertiary fabrics out for the other project.

Here are a couple of progress shots. I cut most of the fabrics on the bias so the straight edges would be less likely to fray.

It is important to remember not to set the iron on high, so as not to melt the felt! I set it at medium, use a press cloth and keep the iron moving. This seems to be hot enough to set the fusible without shrinking or melting the felt.

Here is ‘All the Tertiary Colours’, just under 10 x 10 inches. I’m not sure which way should be up, so I positioned the label diagonally. I will include a couple of my hanging clips rather than sewing on a sleeve.

I really like this, and I think I will make one for myself.

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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