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Variations on striped backgrounds
                  There are many ways to vary a striped background and still keep it fairly simple! Curvy stripes, wonky but still straight, or pieced stripes. Here are some examples of each of those.
 
Curvy stripes
The Tundra Caribou quilt uses a gradation of colors, as well as some decorator fabrics in addition to quilt fabrics for some added texture. The owl quilt uses fabrics that are pretty much all the same value and similar colors. The mini leaf wall hanging has vertical wavy stripes. There will be instructions in Lesson Three for how I do these, no curved piecing.
 
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Create a world with three fabrics! (or two, or four, or…)
               One of my favorite things about curvy strips (or even straight sometimes) is that the right choice of fabrics makes it really easy to make something that looks like a landscape. As long as the top one looks at least a little bit like sky, it automatically looks like a ‘world’. I usually recommend at least three, but the polar bear greeting card gets by with only two in the background. If you make your curves a bit pointy, they become mountains! The polar bear quilt has mostly straight stripes, but the mountains plus very skyish fabric clearly define this as a landscape. If there is water as a 'stripe', the top edge needs to be straight, unless it's obviously waves, as that is how water looks in the distance. (camper card) There will be other examples of creating a world with fabric throughout this class… most of my sample quilts use more than one of these techniques, so I have to choose where to put them in the class!

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Moonshadows-kit available for card and wall hanging
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Wonder Lake, kit available
Straight but wonky stripes
                  For these, I cut the stripes straight, but stitched them together with one strip at a bit of an angle. If you alternate which way you slant them on each strip, it will still end up roughly rectangular, and you can trim the crooked edges off.
 
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Pieced stripes
This quilt has straight stripes for the background, but some have been pieced in different ways. I also added a pop of color to match the décor of the recipient.
 
Plain stripes are totally fine, but you can see that each little addition of detail adds a lot!
 
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4. Confetti or collaged background
   The ‘stripes’ aren’t as obvious in some of these, but they still roughly go from one color or value to another, so it can help to think of them as stripes. Generally these are lighter at the top and darker at the bottom, but that isn’t a rule. 
   This type of background is starting to depart from the 'super simple' category, but I thought I'd include at least a mention for anyone who is interested. I now have a whole class devoted to just this technique! Called Framed Collage Class, it goes into much more detail than I will here. Basically, you cut up small to medium sized pieces of fabric, lay them on your batting, usually in a gradation from light to dark, but not necessarily. Then cover the pieces with a layer of netting/tulle, pin well, and quilt it all together. 

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This is by no means a comprehensive list of ways to do backgrounds, but it gives you several different options that are all pretty simple to plan and do while you are getting started! 
Now, on to Foregrounds! 
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  • Home
  • Shop Online
    • Art For Sale
    • Store - Wall Hangings/Table Runners >
      • Sandhill Sunset Wall Hanging
      • Moonshadows Wall Hanging
      • Serenity Wall Hanging
      • Summer Dragonfly Wall Hanging
      • Summer Dragonfly Table Runner
      • Moonlight Moose Wall Hanging
      • Moonlight Moose Table Runner
      • Autumn Leaves Wall Hanging
      • Autumn Leaves Table Runner
      • Night Owl Wall Hanging Quilt
    • Store - Quilted Greeting Cards >
      • Out On a Limb Card Kit
      • Wonder Lake Card Kit
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      • Whale Tale Card
      • Moose and Willows Card Kit
      • Raven Card Kit
      • Wild Iris Card
      • Northwoods Nisse Card
      • Boreal Botanicals Card
      • Winter Trees Card
      • For the Birds Card Pattern
      • Wild Flower I Card Pattern
      • Wild Flower II Card Pattern
      • Wild Flower III Card Pattern
      • Wonky Heart Card Pattern
      • Whimsical Heart Card Pattern
      • Black-Capped Chickadee Card
      • Three Leaves Card Pattern
      • Let it Snow Card Pattern
      • Happy Birthday Card Pattern
      • Tundra Swan Card Pattern
      • Milepost Card Pattern
    • Store - Coffee Kuspuks/Quilt Panels >
      • Season of Hope Velvet Panel
      • Screen Prints
      • Coffee Kuspuk
      • Moonlight Moose Potholder Kit
      • Chickadee Menu Planner
      • Spring Flowers Coaster Pattern
      • Trish Stuart Collection
      • Teresa Ascone Panels
      • Scrappy Baby Bib
    • Molly Molecule Book
  • Online Classes
  • Tutorials
    • Grace quilt tutorial
    • Sewing Machine Needle Organizer Pincushion
    • Organza silk screen tutorial
    • Polymer Clay button tutorial
    • Birch Tree card tutorial
    • Coffee Shop greeting card
    • Free Motion Stitching Tutorials >
      • Free Motion Tutorial
      • 10 minute project tutorial
      • Valentine Coasters
      • Grape hyacinth postcard
      • Advanced free motion projects >
        • Sparkly 3D dragonfly wings
        • Inktense Frog quilt
        • Dream Big flower panel
    • Journal Cover - Book Tutorials >
      • Quilted Book Cover Tutorial
      • 1000 Gifts Journal Cover Tutorial
      • Quiet Book Tutorial
    • Tutorials for Our Kits >
      • Moonshadows Video Tutorials
      • Summer Dragonfly Video Tutorials
      • Serenity Video Tutorials
    • Video Tutorials - Screenprinting, Inktense, Quilted Card Binding
  • Beret's Blog
  • Art Quilt Gallery
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  • Classes
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  • Return Policy - FAQs