Quilts and Other Stuff from Frances

Using Negative Space at QuiltCon23

When I stepped into this Category area, I was expecting to see lots of quilts with small designs and tons of empty backgrounds with lots of quilting.

I was wrong….. Here is the directive for the category…..

USE OF NEGATIVE SPACE….. Quilt design incorporates creative use of negative space integrated into the composition of the quilt.

OK…..NOT blank space but new designs created by the background.

Take this first quilt for example…..

“Side Step” by Amy Friend

Amy improvisationally paper-pieced the blocks and then rotated the blocks to create fun “steps” in the negative space.

When I first saw this quilt, I didn’t notice the two different arrangements from the top right corner to the bottom left. It really adds interest to the piece.

Amy also created the next one in a similar colorway…..

“Reverb” by Amy Friend

I love the designs that show up in the lighter white/beige fabric.

Black and White dominate this 1st-place ribbon-winning quilt…..

“Modern Art (Working Title)” by Siobhan Fitzpatrick

The quilt was inspired by a wide range of modern and contemporary art pieces that date from the 1950-1970s.

The chartreuse added to this black and white quilt adds interest…..

“Crisp Wasabi” by Petra Kolkhof

This quilt took the 2nd-pace ribbon in the category and was the result of a 30-day improv sew-a-long. Nice result!!

This next quilt fits more with my idea of what a “Negative Space” quilt would look like…..

“Moving Parts” by Claire Victor

Claire designed the quilt in Procreate and used English Paper Piecing to complete the top.

As you might imagine, I am quite taken with the quilting…..

The final quilt is my favorite…..

“Crescent Radial” by Audrey Esarey

I originally thought that it was the same quilt that I had seen at Houston, but as I looked back, I found that I had actually seen two other of her quilts in a similar style…..

I am obviously a FAN!!!…..Is that weird??

Tomorrow we start looking at the “Modern X” category…. Be sure to come back for more.

If you are a fan of straight-line quilting, you might be interested in this online course teaching 8 (or more) ways to use a Straight-Edged ruler….

If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..

Click HERE for more information

3 thoughts on “Using Negative Space at QuiltCon23

  1. Thanks for the vicarious QuiltCon! Interesting way to think of negative space, though I’ll admit I find it hard to differentiate it from good composition. Worth pondering.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow Me

Share This Page

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
%d bloggers like this: