Size matters. At least as far as fabric prints and birds go.
We live in New Hampshire, and feeding the birds in the winter brings life and movement and color to backyards. I gave my husband new feeders for Christmas, and we've been enjoying watching the growing community outside our dining area.
This year I added a suet hanger for the first time and the woodpeckers are coming! They are amazing in their black and white outfits.
However, they do take over. Smaller birds find a number of ways to counteract their size. They might dart in and out, dive in and push another out of the way, arrive in a horde with their friends, fight with the squirrels to eat dropped seeds on the snow, or light on top of the hanger and hover closely until they can have a turn.
Quilt fabrics work much the same way. Scale and size matters. Larger flowers are going to lord it over smaller ones. They will take all the look-at-me focus, much like the woodpeckers.
Large scale florals (such as many of Kaffe Fassett's) may have blooms that are 4" to 8" wide. Small scale florals are, well, smaller. When only large scale florals are used throughout the quilt, the fabrics look like they all belong, and the quilt design keeps your eye moving all over the quilt, with little place to rest - which is totally fine, if that is your intention. When the larger scale prints, the majority of which are florals, are mixed with some smaller scale ones, the large florals will pop out and the small scale fabrics will move more into the background, depending on color and value.
Smaller birds use flashes of color and speed to get noticed. Smaller scale quilt fabrics can use color, value, and other fabric characteristics, such as intensity and distribution to draw your eye. A quilt can use scale alone or in partnership with other fabric qualities to reach the feeling and design of the whole.
Quilters know that cutting up fabrics can give a look totally different from what the whole fabric looks like. Three inch squares cut from a large scale fabric will look very different from 8" squares. You only see a small part of the print and likely unrecognizable graphics unless the pieces are large enough to showcase more of the print. A smaller scale fabric's features are more likely to be visible when cut up.
One can use fabric scale to advantage even without using very large scale pieces, since it’s the relationship of fabrics that matters. A medium scale fabric can get noticed if the others around it are smaller in scale. Or, the medium scale can recede to the background if the small scale fabrics use other characteristics to enhance their noticeability, as seen in m quilt Snips & Snails. A combination of color and intensity helps to bring focus to the vines rather than to the really cool Tula Pink print (covered in turquoise and pink snails!).
The most important part of fabric scale is how it changes the relationships of the fabrics in the quilt. Whenever fabrics with different characteristics, value, or color are placed next to each other, the relationship of the fabrics is affected. Larger scale fabrics often take the focus, which works for many patterns. Finding ways to help the viewer’s eye move around the quilt, landing on the large scale fabrics and then moving on because an intense color or a light value or a stripe draws the eye, brings magic to the quilt’s design.*
Make your quilt your own by choosing fabrics with scale in mind and you'll be making #nomorequiltclones.
*Want to learn more about color and fabric so you can bring more magic to your quilt’s design? Start by joining my email list. Take a look at my other blogs and videos, connect with me and other quilters at the monthly A Quilt Conversation (live on Zoom), consider purchasing my book Conquering Color and Fabric, and watch for my online course. #NoMoreQuiltClones