Those Glorious Neutrals

Most quilters realize that neutrals play an important role in making quilts.  Neutral fabrics are crucial in quilting because they provide balance, allow featured fabrics to stand out, and create a sense of calm and sophistication. They act as a grounding element, preventing a quilt from appearing too busy or overwhelming, and help to define the overall design. In the past, neutrals usually referred to gray-, black-, white-, or cream-colored fabrics.  This definition has changed over the past several years, and now we see almost any color can be used as a neutral – as long as it does the job of a neutral.  However, for this blog, we’re primarily going “old school” and discussing the use of white, cream, black, or gray neutrals.

Traditionally, neutrals are used as background fabrics for brightly colored or patterned patches to help them stand out and create a visually appealing contrast.  They are also used to create negative space.  Sometimes these areas are smaller, like in “traditional” patchwork quilts, but more contemporary quilts incorporate large areas of neutral fabric for negative space and surround them with a few pieced blocks.  This can highlight the design elements within the blocks and create a modern feel.  With this blog I would like to take neutrals and place them in unusual places in traditional blocks so we can study the effect of changing things up.  Most quilters like to change a few things in a quilt to truly make it their own.  Substituting a neutral for a print is the easiest way to do this and it’s relatively easy to do. You just have to think out of the box a little bit. 

Let’s start with a easy, traditional block – the Nine Patch.  Conventional Nine Patches look something like this:

There are squares of color fabric separated by neutrals.  However, when you flip the script and have squares of a neutral separated by squares of colored fabric, you get this look:

And when you combine them in a quilt, it looks something like this:

Now lets take a bit more complicated block, the Bear’s Paw (also called Hand of Friendship).  Traditionally, the block looks like this:

But when you begin to remove the focus fabric from the larger block units and substitute neutrals, the block looks like this:

You also can substitute the block’s rectangle units  with a neutral and get this look:

Or this look:

Both of which can result in quilts that look like this:

Now you can begin to see it’s really easy to re-design a block simply by switching up fabric placement: Substitute a neutral for a colored patch of fabric.

Let’s continue on and do a little more “radical” replacement.  By taking a block with many units and substituting a neutral for several of those units, you can come up with a completely different look.  So, let’s take this block:

And begin to replace some of the colored fabric with a neutral to change its look.

What you’ll find is not only do the blocks take on an entirely different look, but when those blocks are placed in a quilt, the results can be stunning. 

When you set them on point, the look is even more striking.

If you decide to try this design idea, there are a few neutral fabric issues to keep in mind.

1.  The sky is literally the limit.  Pair a soft cream with a deep charcoal to create a striking impact or use subtle variations in tone, like ivory against light gray, to add movement and energy.
2. Incorporate neutral prints with small motifs such as polka dots, stripes, or florals to add visual interest while maintaining the neutral palette.  Solid colors can appear “flat.”  Tone-on-tone or neutral-on-neutral adds movement and interest.
3. Consider undertones.  Neutrals, like gray and beige, can have either cool (blue, green, or purple) or warm (pink or gold) undertones.  Match the undertones of your chosen neutrals to the dominant colors in your quilt project for a harmonious look, or experiment with contrasting undertones to create visual intrigue – for instance, pair a warm neutral with a cool color palette.

As always – remember there are no do-or-die rules in quilting.  There are lots of good suggestions, but no hard and fast rules.  Personal preference plays the most significant role in quilting.  Experiment with different combinations and see what feel right for you and your desired aesthetic.

Until next week,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix