A friend and I just went to a 4-day retreat at Jittery Wings in Newberry, South Carolina, and it was terriffic!
I mentioned Jittery Wings and Mitzie Schafer last week as one of my favorite color resources. She has a unique approach and the purpose of attending her retreat was to learn her method.
This is the “first draft” of the quilt I am making from the retreat with Mitzie
Mitzie designs and makes quilts that are colorful, and much more complex than they appear. She has a specific method for choosing and arranging colors; you can read about that on her website and get her free workbook to explain further (click on the little box that says “get the workbook”.)
Here’s the palette I selected with Mitzie’s help. I don’t have the colors exactly in the right order, but you can see that they do flow.
Mitzie is a woman with many talents. She is a former marathon runner and potter, but she switched to quilting about 10 years ago due to medical issues. She quotes Tula Pink saying “It takes 10 years to become an overnight success” and it appears that Mitzie has accomplished just that. She has grown her pattern business while developing her own unique style of choosing and arranging colors, which she calls “color flow” and “controlled improv”. It looks to me like she has put in 10 years of hard work while keeping her “day job”, and I love the result!
Here are some of Mitzie’s quilts. This first is “All the Good”; my version is in last week’s post.
This is Mitzie’s pattern “All the Good”; photo courtesy of Jittery Wings.
Next is Mitzie’s quilt “Caper”. Believe it or not, that’s the pattern for my quilt at the top of this post. Color and block arrangement make a big difference!
Mitzie’s quilt “Caper” she arranged the colors in rainbow order for this version; photo courtesy of Jittery Wings
This third quilt is Hush Punk.
“Hush Punk” by Mitzie Schafer; photo courtesy of Jittery Wings
This final quilt is “Tambo Star”. The friend who went to the workshop with me chose this pattern, and we soon learned the arrangement of blocks is rather complex. Mitzie was there to help! Look closely for the stars.
“Tambo Star” by Mitzie Schafer; photo courtesy of Jittery Wings
As soon as I got home I joined the Jittery Wings Hive, primarily because Mitzie offers guided practice in her color and design principles. It also happens that the Hive includes courses on making her Hush Punk and Cosmic Sass patterns. I bought both of those at QuiltCon but haven’t made them yet, so stay tuned!
Have you made any of Mitzie’s patterns? Send pictures!
That’s an amazing use of colour
Her process is pretty interesting; I enjoyed learning about it.
What fun – a retreat doing what you love best and with a quilter buddy as a bonus. You are the ultimate ‘lifelong learner’. I love reading of your new discoveries and seeing your experiments. Question: do you personally find working with 100% solids a bit one-dimensional?
Aha! Great question! In fact I would prefer to use fabrics with visual texture for designs like this. I think batiks would be ideal because they flow together without so much effort! However, Mitzie has tried prints and people didn’t care for them, and after all she’s running a business.
I do like to use all solids when I’m doing a graphic design, which is more usual for me than this flow idea. Now that you ask, though, I may use batiks when I make the next Jittery Wings design–thanks for sparking the idea!
Wow I love the quilts made from solid and your one in progress looks amazing. Sounds like a wonderful retreat 🙂
I love the quilt pattern name “All Good” and what a good quilt it is!
Her “All the Good” quilt was one of the things that got her business off the ground, and I do see why! Always good to hear from you 😀
What an inspiring retreat! Are you going to make one of her patterns or adapt the concepts and create an original?
Ha! I’m using her pattern and re-arranging the pieces. Lots of little identical pieces are not my style, so I doubt I’ll adapt her design ideas for a completely original one. Thanks for visiting and commenting!
I’m just wading back into reading blogs after my trip and this was one of the first ones up. Wow! She really does have a way with her colors and the way she places them together in her fractured, flowing designs. This would keep me busy for a while, but I’m guessing you whipped it up quickly. It’s so wonderful!
Mitzie has done a great job of developing her own style. Thanks for your comments.
WOW!! I am blown away by this feast of colour. It must have been a fabulous retreat.
It was, in fact, wonderful 😀