Retreat Quilt Revisited

I started a quilt at my PTA retreat a couple of weeks ago - a piecer I am not, but I'm actually having a lot of fun with this piece. I've been working hard on my daughter's wedding gown but every now and then I need a break from "white". I love the fabrics in the wedding gown, they are luscious, but I miss working with color more than I would've imagined. So now and then, I return to this piece. The fun is working with the color - moving from dark to light to dark. I also always seem to turn to the muted or grayed colors. I'm loving the pinky browns
to the very lights on top.

Bottom left corner - it was a struggle getting points to match.

I make use of all kinds of fabric when making a quilt. I'm influenced by color and texture, not necessarily fiber content. This next piece of fabric was a damask tablecloth in a former life. I love to hunt for these at flea markets; they dye beautifully and have the most interesting texture with the "tone on tone". I dyed it black but didn't use the "double recipe" the book calls for. I like it lighter to show some of the pretty texture configurations. Can you see the wonderful texture from the "tone on tone"?

This is some marbled silk from my stash which works well color wise

and some very finely woven wool gabardine

and silk charmeuse.

Some fabrics are hard to control such as the silks, so I iron a piece a fusible knitted interfacing on the back to give it extra body and make it more manageable.

I'm not really a purist when it comes to fabrics and quilts; my art quilts are never washed so I don't hesitate to use whatever works.