Sylvia Schaefer - The Quilters Negative Space Handbook: Step-By-Step Design Instruction and 8 Modern Projects

Publisher: Amy Marson

Creative Director: Gailen Runge

Acquisitions Editor: Roxane Cerda

Managing Editor: Liz Aneloski

Editor: Christine Doyle

Technical Editor: Nan Powell

Cover/Book Designer: April Mostek

Production Coordinator: Zinnia Heinzmann

Production Editor: Alice Mace Nakanishi

Illustrator: Aliza Shalit

Photo Assistants: Rachel Holmes and Mai Yong Vang

Style photography by Kelly Burgoyne and quilt and instructional photography by Mai Yong Vang of C&T Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted

Published by Stash Books, an imprint of C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1456, Lafayette, CA 94549

Dedication

To my husband, Adrian, who carries my bolts of fabric and doesnt judge the size of my stash.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to my family for their love and support of all my quilting endeavors: my husband, Adrian, and my mother, Karin. Thank you to the Cotton Patch Quilters of Athens, Georgia, whose questions about modern quilting and negative space sparked the ideas in this book, and to the Athens modern quilting group for their tireless cheerleading along every step of my journey, especially Marybeth Tawfik.

Thanks to Robert Kaufman for providing Kona Cottons for Northern Lights and to Cassandra Ireland Beaver for quilting it. Thanks to Frances Arnold for allowing me to include a photo of her mothers beautiful quilt. Last but certainly not least, I am so grateful to the entire C&T team for giving me the opportunity to share my ideas and for making this book a reality!

Preface

After giving a presentation on modern quilting to my local traditional quilt guild, the quilters were particularly intrigued by the idea of negative space. Could I come up with another program for them focusing on this aspect of modern quilting?

While thinking about what I could tell them that would actually be useful, I realized that many members were what I like to call modern-curious: appreciative of the modern quilting aesthetic but from a traditional quilting background and a little intimidated by the idea of trying to design something with a lot of negative space. What they needed were concrete steps to take something they were familiar witha traditional block or existing quiltand modify it, step by step, to include negative space.

I suspect that my friends in Georgia are not the only ones who aspire to design their own modern quilts but dont know where to begin, so I would like to share these ideas with you, too. Ill take traditional blocks or quilt patterns and go through the design process step by step. Each chapter will focus on particular concepts to apply to your design, such as removing elements or disintegration (my personal favorite!). Youll also find chapters on fabric, quilting choices, and more to help you turn your idea into a reality.

I used to get into creative slumps where Id sit in my sewing room wanting to sew but unable to decide what to make next. Ever since I came up with the ideas in this book, Ive had a vast backlog of project ideas. I hope that you, too, will find a flood of inspiration in these pages. I cant wait to see what amazing designs you come up with, so lets get started!

The Quilters Negative Space Handbook

Introduction

What Is Negative Space?

If you have picked up this book, you probably already have a good idea of what negative space is, but its always good to start with a definition. In art, negative space is defined simply as the space surrounding or in between the subject or subjects of the artwork, and its every bit as important as the positive space, which is occupied by the subject. The point of negative space is to give the eye a place to rest, but it should also help the eye move across the piece and draw attention to the main subject.

The bricks that the shoes rest on are the negative space. There is plenty of detail in the bricks, yet they are clearly not the focus of the painting.

Photos: Public domain, Creative Commons Zero (CC0) from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The walls are part of the negative space; the tablecloth is too, since it fills the space between the real subjects of the painting, the apples.

When it comes to quilts, its easiest to think of negative space as the background of your quilt.

This could be the background of the quilt as a whole or just the background within individual blocks. Many beloved traditional quilt designs incorporate negative space, often within a block.

Modern art and design, where negative space is also sometimes referred to as white space, place a particular emphasis on minimalism, and extended areas of negative space are common. Modern quilts, too, often have expansive negative space. While definitions of modern quilting range all over the place, a quilt with extensive negative space, particularly if that negative space is asymmetrically arranged, tends to read as modern.

The red clearly reads as foreground with the white as background or negative space.

This is a traditional pattern, but it incorporates large areas of white negative space across the whole quilt.

Photo (left): Public domain, Creative Commons Zero (CC0) from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

How to Use This Book

The goal of this book is to give you the tools to design your own modern quilts that incorporate negative space. You need a starting point, though, and if youve never tried designing your own quilt before, you might be wondering where to find that first spark.

Here, you will use two possible starting points.

The first option is starting with a traditional quilt, in which you can change the colors or remove elements to create negative space (Chapter 2). This is the best place to start if you are completely new to modern quilting.

The other option is to start with a traditional quilt block and develop it into a modern quilt by surrounding it with negative space. This might seem a little more daunting at first, but you will explore a number of different ideas for arranging or modifying your chosen block (Chapters 3 to 9), and I hope you will find a world of new options opening up to you.

Of course, the design of your quilt is only the beginning. You also need to choose fabrics, figure out how to make the quilt, and eventually, how to quilt it. An overview of some of your options is included (Chapters 10 to 12).