Double Vision Quilts: Simply Layer Shapes & Color for Richly Complex Curved Designs

By Louisa L. Smith

Learn how to turn squares and rectangles into circles and ovals with no curved piecing—it’s easy! Take an artistic journey with 11 mind-bending quilts that fool the eye with innovative layering, playful patterns, and delightful color choices. The best-selling author of Strips ‘n Curves shares three simple construction methods for endless possibilities. With something for every type of quilter, this opulent collection will inspire you to see your fabrics in a whole new light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C&T Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781617451249

Book preview

Intermediate

INTRODUCTION

Bright and bold; soft and subtle; shiny, matte, and everything in between—this book will show you new and exciting ways to use gorgeous fabrics and incredible colors. Whether you are a traditional quilter, art quilter, or modern quilter, there is a method and style for you in this book.

•  Layers of shapes and colors fool the eye, allowing you to create dynamic quilts using easy construction techniques.

•  Interactions of color and pattern will delight you.

•  Three different construction methods can be applied to endless design possibilities.

Throughout this book, you’ll explore options for color, style, scale, and construction. Start with one quilt and you’ll soon be on your way to a series.

After reading this book, you will never look at fabrics the same way again.

HOW IT STARTED

HUGs and KISSes

When we are traveling by car, my husband is most often at the wheel and I am free to doodle. The time spent in a vehicle or on a plane always seems wasted to me unless I am piecing, beading, or doodling. For me, doodles are often the start of a new design. This particular doodle (below) became quite important, as it led to a wonderful series of quilts I call Double Vision. If you take a look at the doodle, you can see that when I disguise the corners of the squares with simple designs, wonderful circular shapes appear and the squares virtually disappear. I began to refer to these designs as cornerstones (or KISSes), and Double Vision was born.

My original doodle

The First Quilt

I created my first quilt, Double Vision, right after I made the doodle. I soon realized that the addition of these cornerstones made the grid disappear. But as I was working on this first quilt, I immediately had an idea for the second one, Bird of Paradise, in which I mixed the cornerstones with a grid. In that second quilt, I emphasized the grid by sewing ribbons right on the seams.

Bird of Paradise by Louisa L. Smith, 45˝ × 45˝

It was not until I discovered that by adding both KISSes (cornerstones) and HUGs (circles), the negative and the positive shapes started to change places. That was a great discovery. But please refer to Circular Anomaly for the perfect example of going from KISSes to HUGs. In fact, that was the first time I realized that it would create an Escher-type composition, because all along the idea that the negative and positive spaces trade places was evident. M. C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who is well known for his tessellating designs and the use of negative and positive spaces that trick the eye. One quilt led to another and another, and the series grew and grew. Summing up this wonderful procedure is easy with just three little words: HUGs and KISSes.

HUGs and KISSes

Familiar Shapes Are Everywhere

The HUGs are the circles and the KISSes are the cornerstones. Another way to describe the idea is to take a good look at the gift bag (next page, top right photo). See how the circles (the HUGs) create the negative white spaces, which look remarkably familiar because they are the same shape as my cornerstones (the KISSes)? It is these negative spaces that actually inspired me to make most of the quilts in this book. And you will see these shapes in the quilts in many different ways, so keep an eye out for them. Even though I created this procedure, I soon realized that these familiar shapes were popping up everywhere. And I mean everywhere. So you create circles by adding a KISS-like shape or adding quarters of that KISS-like shape to the corners of your blocks. More about that later.

Working in a Series

Working in a series means making a number of quilts all stemming from the same idea or design. I always work in a series because I have discovered over the years that when I create a new style of quilt and I am busily working on that quilt, ideas keep coming for the next quilt or quilts. I am always wondering, what if? What if I use larger blocks? What if I elongate the shape? What if I use several different sizes of the shape? What if I don’t use blocks? What if I quilt it first? And it just keeps evolving. When you become familiar with a subject, ideas keep coming, and, most importantly, your technique improves. It improves because it is more familiar and you learn how to handle and solve the problems that may arise. All my books have been the result of quilt series.

Read on to explore the quilts and some of the possibilities these HUGs and KISSes create. Maybe you’ll get so inspired that you’ll come up with your own designs based on this technique. I am a bit smarter now, so I try to keep a notebook or sketchbook handy at all times. I even have one next to my bed, as I sometimes get my best ideas in the middle of the night. And if I don’t write myself a note or make a sketch, I may not remember the idea in the morning.

I am sure you will get hooked on this technique and make lots and lots of quilts. I have found that this technique makes wonderful pieces of art, yet it also makes wonderful baby quilts and bed quilts in a fabulous modern style. So, you see, it all depends on what you do with it.

THE LAYERED APPROACH

There is nothing I like better than circular shapes—they are so satisfying. All the quilts in this book are made using one basic technique with many variations. Once you learn the basic technique, the possibilities are endless.

Using Multiple Layers

When I came up with this design idea, I realized that it was the use of multiple layers that made it so interesting, because the viewer is not quite sure which layer