Positive Result of Stash Culling

Going through those wonderful (and not so wonderful) fabrics in my bins is difficult because:

 

A. I have a limited amount of time

B. There's a lot to sort

C. Decisions are sometimes difficult to make

D. Organization of a quantity of fabric takes up space

E. Husband is generally understanding but sometimes gets testy (when my   piles inhibit his ability to get to something else)

 

Friday I discovered yet another very good reason to continue this self-imposed, monumental task.  It will surprise you that this never occurred to me when I planned this job.  I pulled out a plastic storage bag (I really should invest in them!), took it upstairs so I could see exactly what it contained, and found a UFO.  Why should that surprise me?  Well, I had this naive thought that I actually remember all the UFO's I have.

 

Boy, was that DUMB!

 

Anyway, this was a table runner I had started and didn't finish because I wasn't crazy about my choices of fabrics.  One block was finished, and here it is:

 

You see, one of the things I love to do is use disparate juxtapose elements that might surprise the viewer and that add a pow factor.  In the above block, you can see an Oriental fabric with metallic gold (the center and wing triangles), a dark ochre traditional or reproduction fabric - I don't remember exactly which) - in the squares and smaller triangles, and solid fabrics as foils* (the red-orange and the turquoise).  I remember both finishing that block and being vaguely dissatisfied with it.  Somehow the pow factor wasn't there for me so I put it aside.

 

Fortunately, I kept all the fabrics together, and when I found all of this in that plastic bag, I decided I'd finish it.  It was only a table runner after all.  

 

 

Here it is on my kitchen table, and I love it.  The Martha Negley for Rowan (know for super contemporary lines) with the crosscuts of wood with sparks of red orange and turquoise provided the pow.  For me this was an exercise in using the pow fabric, the "element of joyful startlement" (okay, I made that up; there must be a more elegant way to phrase that, but I can't think of it right now) as the background, the retreating fabric that causes the others to stand out.

 

The name of this table runner?  "Wood Pile".  You'll figure out why, and when you do, tell me your interpretation (hint - look at the whole piece not just the Martha Negley fabric).