I love the window quilt block .....But!

   I love the window quilt block but, there is one thing that drives me crazy. Composition and the right choice in window design blocks.

   Which is the right choice to make a quilt using a window quilt block and how a nice fabric panel can be lost by the window block you choose to make.

    First, what is your purpose. Is it the learn the Block?  Is it to show the fabric you love?
The purpose of this blog is to show not the great workmanship of each of the quilts examples, but making the right choice.












  Here is two quilts using a panel. They made great use of borders to show off the total art work of the printed panel.



   Now observe the panel that was cut and pieced back into framed sections. Do you notice anything about the panels composition? Lets look at the same panel in another view.  Whats going on here?  It is small deviation. Do you see it? Or should I say, we don't see it. The position of the window is placed over the face of the deer to the right. Were as the other deer panel the deer faces are in full view.


   Lets look at another example. I love birds and this quilt again is a piece panel. What are we noticing? The Panel was cut to show the maximum amount of the the art work and effectively using a window frame. The Landscape panel next was cut into a few more sections. Was this too much? Do you see that too many cut sections could take away from the original panel?  We'll look at some more examples.

 

   Take a gander at some  quilt composition. Oh! not a quilt, right, but look at the window and composition. The cat is object that I would want to see first. If  a portion of the cats face, eyes,nose, mouth was blocked out by the frame, that would be a loss to the photo. 

   Another example of a  Window block quilt, using the block that shows the window dimension. I love the dimension or depth of this block. Careful choices need to be make when doing this type of block using printed panels. Do you want to show the window frame or the printed panel?

As before we want to make the best chose of a frame that gives the maximum show of the panel. 

Observe these next quilts. Different frame use of  a panel.

   What do you see happening with these quilts? Yes a bit of depth is now shown. But something else. Because of the depth portion the the window frame bits and pieces of the original  panel is now disappearing and its bodies or objects are off proportionally away from one another. I love the Santa print and the wood frame, just lovely done; but now a portion of the print is missing and what Santa is doing is missing. I would want to know what Santa has in his hands. So I would have not chose this type of frame block or I would have make the frame block with a very narrow dimension. These are tough call to make for the best look for the panel.

Here are some examples of what happens when there are too many window block cuts.Can you notice the difference where as now the art work of the panel is lost?

Cute Bunny Panel cut into way too many window blocks. I bet this was a great piece  for learning how this type of block goes together. 

These kitty's almost made the block , nine block division would have been closer to getting more of the panel in view.

The next  prints, wow, look at all the cut blocks that took away from the print and a window that might have been more realistic. Great piecing with all of these quilts.

See  how this panel was totally lost, in this nice quilted block.

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Well made quit but alot of  missed and

Now you see how caution  needed to which type of  block / frame and how many to use for a printed panel quilt.

 So now lets take a look again at some window quilts that are closer to the concept of a window.

I like this one with the pink tree flowers, it really pulls you toward the panel. Landscapes are good to work with window designs because the usually do not have a subject like a fish or something else in the foreground

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Here are some nice concepts for panels that have smaller scenes in them. There are no distraction here ,each of the small prints are showing the artwork.

A quilt that shows what is needed, the faces of the snowmen.

Halloween quilt with subjects in each pane. This was crazy quilting.

Ah.. Just enough in each and around the panes to make this cute little quilt.

 Each of the window panes have a subject totally in view.

Nice window quilt that showcases one subject.

 Lastly, take some time to envision  your panel and window quilts before cutting the panel. Ask your self  the questions. What do I need to see and make the main focus of the quilt?  Someones face or an object? What is the minimum about of blocks or frames that I can use, not the maximum.

Well that is my soapbox tutorial today on window quilts and composition.

Thanks for stopping in!