....for my patchwork coverlet mostly came via this very colorful afghan I picked up at a thrift shop, sometime in the last year. A myriad of many-colored yarns was used to make this crocheted little gem; every time I look at it, I wonder whether its creator carefully preplanned the color scheme before starting it, or simply went along as scraps of yarn were uncovered around the house... Do you find yourself asking similar questions when you pick up a thrifted handmade treasure? I'm always doing it --- part of me also feels sad that such beautiful creations are no longer with their original owners...
In this case, I'm thinking that the afghan was a merry-go-along-as-you-find-yarn-scraps project because there are so many non-repeating little bits of different colored yarn in this piece. Amazingly, it all works together beautifully and the colors... oh, the colors -- what a joyous jumble!...
Because I love his afghan so much, I decided to draw inspiration from it when I started putting together my latest patchwork design (also meant to be for my daughter Alexandra's bedroom, which is painted in a very light shade of pink). The first thing that struck me when I looked at the afghan was the wide range of colors in it; without this afghan as inspiration, I would have undoubtedly put together a safer, more conservative, more controlled color scheme. For one, I doubt I would have thrown in the lavender print in there along with the pink and the very sharp red one; I'm not normally big on combining shades of lavender/violet with pinks... But, I think, with the strong reds and greens as well as the black/grays, it works well, giving it more of an old, scrap patchwork feel...
In the past, whenever I've put together one of these patchworks, I probably used half of the number of prints I used this time; for a coverlet of this size which is made up of 8 x 11 squares, I would have used about 12 different prints as opposed to the 24 I used this time -- twice as much! The afghan with its absolute riot of colors inspired me to be freer with my choice of prints as well as push the constraints I usually impose on myself -- I've always thought that for the design to work, I needed to use at least 6 squares of the same fabric -- not true, a 2-3 square repeat may also work! By incorporating more colors and prints, I think the overall look becomes a bit edgier, scrap-like, perhaps more bazaar-style...you know what I mean, right?!...
Drawing inspiration from my treasured afghan has surprised with an invaluable learning experience -- it made me think out of my usual "safe box"... and that's always a good thing!...
