Scale and Proportion

Big Tree Crib Quilt

by Ernest Haight

Collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum.

I remember how impressed I was when I first saw this quilt by Ernest Haight in the 1980s. Three block sizes: an exercise in relative scale or proportion.

http://www.quiltstudy.org/collections/quilt_of_the_month/quilt_of_the_month.html

St. Thomas Spinning Fish by Doreen Speckmann

 Doreen Speckmann did similar experiments in scale.

New York quilt top

late 19th century

It's not a new idea to change the relative scale.

In fact it's an old idea

with medallion quilts popular before 1865

Many mid-19th-century samplers 

are built around larger blocks.

But they certainly don't look modern.

In fact changing the scale is a difficult thing to do

because the small parts can look like visual clutter.

Or the large parts can loom like a wall cloud on the Kansas horizon.

There's a lot of potential for visual disaster,

Dream Catcher by Kathy Doughty

http://www.materialobsession.typepad.com/

Which makes you appreciate successful experiments in changing scale like these contemporary quilts

Princess Feathers by Kim McLean

http://www.gloriouscolor.com/store.php?cat=129

Dustin Cecil

See his Flickr photostream here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustincecil/with/6067138265/

Leek by Linda Frost

Here's Linda's blog:

http://www.13thstreetstudio.typepad.com/