Having seen the Pilgrim/Roy Collection "Quilts in Color" exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, I decided it would be fun to do some color studies in quilts of my own.

There is a quilt in the exhibit call Crosses and Losses. It has blocks with bars (Losses, I guess) and alternating with 9 Patch blocks (Crosses). Up close the quilt is nice, but from the far side of the room, it was really pops. The colors in that quilt are neutrals with yellow and orange accents. It's an easy pattern so I decided to use it as a basis for my first color study.

I exchanged the 9 Patch block for a Wonky Modern Cross block and varied the widths of the bars in the Losses block. I chose 2 analogous colors (colors next to each other on the color wheel) and the complement to the cyan which is red-orange.

Modern Variation of Crosses and Losses Quilt pattern with triangular accents and Mr Fox in his vest!

Yes, this quilt vibrates. You should see it in real life! I consider this a success.

I took about 8 photographs of this quilt top with my mobile phone and a camera. In the photographs the margins between the cyan and red orange appear blurry while the blue and green seams appear sharp. I thought I had wiggled…but all the pictures show the same thing. Fascinating.

Sly Mr. Fox, in his red-orange argyle vest, wanted in on the action. He was hard to argue with since he met all the criteria for the color way except for his grey background. Adding him makes this a fun baby quilt at 35 inches square. The fox block actually calms the vibration in the quilt and gives your eyes a place to rest. I made a third red orange triangle block but when I auditioned that block in place of the fox, looking at the quilt was almost painful. (Put your finger over the fox block on your screen and you'll get the idea of what that quilt would have looked like).

This was a great project. I'm looking forward to quilting this top.

I think I have an idea for a design for another color study quilt.

To be continued.