Simple, dimensional shapes: Joen Wolfrom Designs

We've always been partial to dimensional quilts, and Joen Wolfrom is a master of the genre. Joen has been part of the quilt-teaching and designing scene for 30 years, and she is known for her expert use of color and her simple, clean design lines. Joen is the owner of JWD Publishing, a pattern company that publishes high-quality patterns for quilters of all skill levels and interests.

Northern Lights, by Joen Wolfrom, at JWD Publishing

Northern Lights is based on a simple rail fence pattern, made with 1-3/4" strips. The variations in value and color from one block to the next make this quilt's beautiful, yet simple design vibrate with energy. "Northern Lights" is also a stunning example of a rainbow quilt.  We took this photo last year at the 32nd anniversary of The Cotton Patch in Lafayette, California (the quilts were hanging from the trees !)

Stepping out, by Joen Wolfrom, at JWD Publishing

The shading of four-patch and square-within-square blocks gives an interesting optical illusion; the warm four-patch blocks in the lower right advance, while the cool four-patch blocks in the upper left recede.  The variations in value, and the color contrasts, keep the eye moving across the surface of this quilt. See if you can identify the focal point.

Tropical Morning, by Joen Wolfrom, at JWD Publishing

"Tropical Morning" is made entirely of simple half-square triangles.  The lattice arrangement of light, medium and dark values creates a variety of three-dimensional shapes, from pyramids to prisms.  You probably know about Joen Wolfrom's popular books on color in quilting... this quilt is a striking example of the use of analogous blue-green and green-yellow color schemes.

Image credits and links: For more information, see Joen Wolfrom's website. Her latest book, Adventures in Design, will be released in the fall of 2012 and joins Joen’s other books, including Visual Coloring, Color Play, The Visual Dance, and many others. Joen Wolfrom is also the inventor of the popular 3-in-1 Color Tool.  You can also find JWD Publishing on Facebook.

Cubic construction

One of the beauties of tumbling blocks patterns is the seemingly infinite, and interesting, variations that are possible. Today we're showing several of our favorite contemporary quilts that incorporate tumbling blocks in some form: small or large, hollow or solid, floating or tessellated.

Hollow Cube, by Carol Capshaw



In Hollow Cube, the faces of the large tumbling blocks have been cut out, leaving a frame around the openings. The openings are filled with triangles, which are shaded to represent the back, floor, and sides of the cubes. The olive green and dark blue background has been rendered in textured batiks, giving it the quality of a landscape. We love the quilt, and the name of Carol's blog, To Be Fearless. We hope that Carol's workshops at OQSO include tips on fearlessness!


Blue Cubes, 65 x 76, by Martha Borders



In Blue Cubes, Martha has separated the tumbling blocks from each other so that they appear to be floating. The beauty of this elegant quilt comes in no small part from the hand-marbled cottons, which are arrayed in colors ranging from forest green to teal and turquoise blue. The swirled marbling reminds us of the deep blue sea.

Note added on December 22, 2010:  the website at marthaborders.com has closed.  See a profile of Martha Borders at Smollin.com.


Twin Towers, 32 by 24, by BJ Reed



The two large blocks in the quilt above are a remembrance of the Twin Towers in New York City. The blocks are constructed with crazy patch piecing, using fabrics in shades of rust and blue with red accents. BJ combined hand-dyed and painted fabrics, commercial batiks and geometric prints, satins and lames. The linear quilting on the building surfaces adds shading and dimension. The pattern for this wonderful quilt can be obtained at Piecemaking, LLC.

Hexagonal Rhythm, 1 meter square, by Jane Wilson at Jane's Quilts



In this original wall hanging, Jane has combined hexagons with tumbling blocks and elongated cubes, all in muted primary colors. The juxtaposition of shapes, and the angled arrangement of the houses, gives this piece a lively sense of movement or "rhythm". For more information and detailed views, visit Jane's Quilts.

All images are courtesy of the artists.

The hollow cube pattern is from Sara Nephew's Big Book of Building Block Quilts, available at Soft Expressions.

New dimensions

Today we're featuring the fabulous quilts of Arnout Cosman, who has taken dimensional quilts to... well... a new dimension. Arnout is one of the leaders in the field, not only for his delightful imagery and outstanding use of color and form, but also because of the sophisticated computer programs he uses in creating his designs.

Spring is in the air, 2006



Arnout is a Netherlander, and Spring is in the air was inspired by the spring green grass and colorful Dutch bulb fields of his homeland. The dreamlike imagery brings to mind the surrealistic style of René Magritte. The quilt was designed with The Persistence of Vision Raytracer (POV-Ray), a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics. Among its other uses, POV-Ray was the first ray tracer software to render an image in orbit (from the International Space Station!) Arnout had the vision to apply this approach to the design of art quilts, and the results are indeed stunning.

Colorful Dreams, 2005


Colorful Dreams was inspired by a photo. In Colorful Dreams, relatively few fabrics have been used to create the image of the sleeping woman. Her face, eyes, hair and shoulders are apparent, and yet the effect is like that of an abstract painting. Both the design and the quilting pattern were created on the computer using QuiltAssistant, an ingenious software tool that allows the user to divide a photo into pieces of arbitrary size and shape, and convert the pieces into a quilt pattern (see the links at the bottom of the post).

Menger's Cube, 2004



Curiosity about the name of this quilt inspired us to look further. Here's what we learned: the object known as Menger's Sponge was first described by mathematician Karl Menger in 1926, while he was exploring the idea of topological dimension. Cosman's cube is similar to Menger's sponge (see the far right image, below). However, in the quilt, the big cube has been hollowed out, and the remaining corner block appears to be floating under the overhang of the larger structure. Cosman has even created shadows underneath, as if the sun is shining on the structure from above.

In a nutshell, construction of Menger's sponge starts with a Rubik's cube:


1. Begin with a cube (first image).

2. Divide every face of the cube into 9 squares, like a Rubik's Cube. This will sub-divide the cube into 27 smaller cubes. Then, remove the cube at the middle of every face, and remove the cube in the center, leaving 20 cubes. This is a Level 1 Menger sponge (second image).

3. Repeat steps 1-2 for each of the remaining smaller cubes. The second repetition will give you a Level 2 sponge (third image), the third repetition will give you a Level 3 sponge (fourth image), and so on. The ultimate Menger sponge is what you are left with after an infinite number of iterations.

Quilt images are courtesy of Arnout Cosman. Visit his site to view a gallery of his quilts, and to vote for your favorites. In addition, Arnout has made available a free, downloadable version of Quilt Assistant. To top it off, Arnout has compiled a directory of quilt shops in Europe, along with their GPS coordinates!

Menger's sponge diagram, see Wikipedia.

Quilts of illusion

When it comes to optical illusions in quilting, Karen Combs wrote the book (literally). Her most recent book, Celtic Pieced Illusions, includes her stunning Celtic Rings quilt.



To make it easier for quilters to create 'quilts of illusion', Karen also designed the Shade Cascade fabric line. The collection includes 21 bright colors, such as teal (as seen below), shamrock, iris, paprika, and others. The fabric line solves the problem of "finding" a light, medium and dark fabric within a color family. Each fabric has four gradations, from light to dark, across a bolt.


In order to see how Shade Cascade can be used to create optical illusions, we created tumbling blocks in six different colors, using the first three shades from each bolt to create the three sides of each block. The illusion of three-dimensional blocks was convincing, as shown here.


Another Karen Combs fabric line is Crystal Fusion, which comes in 26 colors. We love the bold Crystal Fusion quilt pattern, below.



Images, courtesy of Karen Combs at Karen Combs Studio. Shade cascade fabrics, see Karen's Online Store, local quilting stores, and Blank Quilting. Crystal Fusion fabric line and quilt pattern, and other Karen Combs fabrics, see Avlyn, Inc.

Tumbling blocks divided by 4 or 9

We're continuing our series on tumbling blocks variations, and the artists who have inspired us with their creations based on this versatile pattern. In the versions we're showing today, each side of each block is made up of four or nine different fabrics. The tumbling blocks are oversized, allowing for each side to be divided into fourths or ninths without each "tile" becoming too small. The use of multiple fabrics in a single block adds to the mosaic appearance of the quilt.

Hand Painted Tumbling Blocks Quilt, by C. Jean Horst



Hand-painted batiks were used to create the above quilt, which was pieced and quilted by the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The tumbling blocks are huge. Each side of each cube is made of nine different fabrics, such that each cube is made up of 27 individual pieces (3 x 9 = 27). Notice that the three-dimensional illusion is preserved by careful arrangement of light, medium and dark values. We can't help but notice the perfect piecing. For more information, click here.


The Big Tumble, by Diana McClun & Laura Nownes


In the Big Tumble, Diana and Laura have combined bright solids with dots, stripes and other prints to produce a riot of color and texture. Each cube is made up of twelve different fabrics (3 x 4 = 12) but the textures and colors are carefully repeated throughout the quilt to avoid chaos. For the pattern and workshops, including strip piecing methods, click here.

Images courtesy of John & Arlene Volk at Amish Country Quilts, and Diana McClun & Laura Nownes at Diana and Laura.

Tumbling blocks... more illusions

We are fascinated by tumbling blocks patterns and other optical illusions. In a series of posts, we want to share with you some of the variations we've found, and analyze how the illusion is created!

The design above is a rug, done in the 1985 Ypsilon design by Vernor Panton. We've also found some wonderful quilts done in the Y-variation of tumbling blocks... like this Y? Why not! quilt by Kathy Klassen (below). This beautiful batik quilt was made from three light, three medium and three dark fat quarters, plus 0.5m background fabric. Kathy sells the pattern here, and teaches a workshop on her piecing methods.



Visualization of Ypsilon illusion: As in all tumbling blocks, the basic blocks (step 1) are made of light, medium and dark values. The shading creates the illusion of a three dimensional cube (we used 25%, 50% and 80% values). We took individual blocks and stacked them, one at a time, to form the Y shape (step 4). If you count the number of light, medium and dark diamonds in step 4 you'll see that there are 3 of each. The pattern is then formed by staggering the Y shapes, as shown (step 5).




Needless to say, this is a visualization aid, but not a piecing diagram! Strip piecing methods such as Kathy's, and other timesavers, are highly recommended. We'll feature some additional tools and techniques in upcoming posts.

ps. Kathy lives in beautiful British Columbia, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We hope she is partaking of the festivities (go, Canada!)

Optical illusions

The optical illusion known as 'tumbling blocks' dates back to ancient times, and is one of the most enduring patterns in quilting...and in mosaic tile! The use of light, medium and dark values creates the illusion of three-dimensional cubes, as shown below.


Tile floor, Pompeii



Tile floor, Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome



In quilting, fantastic variations of color, design and pattern have been applied to the basic block, creating a variety of special effects. In this and subsequent blogs we'll explore the universe of possibilities, and feature some of our favorites.

Amish quilt, 'stairway to heaven' variation, ca. 1935. This quilt was seen at the Amish Abstractions exhibit at the DeYoung Museum.



Tumbling blocks quilt, circa 1910: This quiltmaker included plaid fabrics, and varied the the light/medium/dark shading throughout the quilt. This adds visual interest as the eye wanders from place to place to resolve the pattern and figure out which way is up:



Antique orange and blue tumbling blocks quilt with prairie points, at Material Pleasures. In this beautiful quilt, the stripes add a contemporary feel:



Tumbling blocks quilt by Ann Moran: This harmonious design was created by repeating rows of blocks in complementary colors. Ann says that she is not a professional quilt maker ..."I studied many tumbling block quilts and then created my own":



Tumbling blocks quilt by Penny Halgren: In this charm(ing) quilt, each fabric was used only once. See Penny's website for her methods and tips:



Tumbling rainbows quilt by Lynn Harris as seen on Etsy. The calico prints really enliven this joyful quilt, and the block-shaped machine quilting further adds to the three-dimensional effect:





Image credits and links: Tumbling blocks graphics were created with 25%/50%/80% gray scale values, by Marina & Daryl at Quilt Inspiration; Tile floor at Pompeii, photo by Susan Gordon; Floor tiles in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, photo by Tino Warinowski, 2006, as seen at wikipedia; Amish abstractions poster, deYoung Museum (the quilt also appears on calendars, greeting cards, and jigsaw puzzles at the museum store); Richard Walker, photo of comforter in the "Tumbling Blocks" pattern, ca. 1910, from the exhibit Common Threads: 150 years of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters; at the Adirondack Museum, New York; Tumbling blocks quilt by Ann Moran, see Ann's site and her other projects here.