ZEN JACOBEAN QUILT

Just a little history about my Zen Quilts- there is no piecing involved so the entire quilt design hinges on thread, one fabric for the front, batting, one fabric for the back,  all tied together with stitches of color, color and more color. This is also known as a whole cloth quilt.  This is where my Zentangle skills come into play. Zentangle has opened my mind to a much wider variety of quilting patterns to make my quilts even more interesting. When a whole cloth quilt is entered into a judged show, because there is no piecing involved, all of the weight of judging falls onto the complexity and accuracy of the quilting. So, even though I am not spending time piecing, I have to spend more time and effort inventing intricate quilting. More about that subject  in upcoming blogs…

  Some beautiful thread colors to consider on pure black fabric.

Zen Jacobean quilt will be inspired by this beautiful ornate style of applique. Having chosen the style, my next choice is color. Jacobean applique typically sports bright, vibrant, dancing color which is what I like to design with. I love jewel tone colors which can work with almost any background color. My favorite choice for background for these vivid colors is rich pure BLACK.  Kona Cotton makes a beautiful pure black that I use in my little “Zen Quilts on the Dark Side” and for the binding on my little white “Zen Quilts”. The fabric has a good substantial weight and is black all the way through- unlike some fabrics that are dyed darker on top and have a milky, chalkey appearance on the back.

With this decision made- see you soon with my next design step!