Diamond Divas and Drama Queens: Bring Out the Bling in Your Quilts
August 7, 2024
Hi!
They say “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend…”, well, turns out they can be a quilter’s special friend too! So how do you add bling in your quilts without adding tons of tiny crystals? You make a quilt of the ‘bling’, and that’s just what quilt artist MJ Kinman does.
You make have seen some of her stunning quilts online, or you may have been lucky enough to have seen them (or MJ) in person at a quilt show or lecture, and today’s blog post is a reprint of a wonderful article MJ wrote for our Premium Online Quilt Magazine. She shared how to ‘bring out the bling in your quilts’, and a look at how the light works to attract your eye to certain things within the quilt, to help achieve this. It’s well worth a read…
“Diamond Divas and Drama Queens: Bring Out the Bling in Your Quilts
We all know the type.
Gorgeous, glamorous, and glorious. They light up a room and sparkle in the spotlight. They love the red carpet and snag all the awards.
No, I’m not talking about last year’s Oscar winners. I’m talking about the quilts you dream of making. I’m referring to the quilts that give you whiplash when you spot them in your peripheral vision and demand your attention from across the room. These are the “divas” and “drama queens” of the quilt world. There’s nothing boring about them. They simply sparkle.
Photography: Geoffrey Watt (Mayer & Watt)
I never, ever start a new project with the intention of making a boring quilt, but – believe me – I’ve made my share of them.
What’s ironic about that is my subject matter for the past 25 years has been diamonds. When you end up with a diamond that doesn’t sparkle, you know you’ve got a problem.
In my attempts to avoid making quilts that look like lumps of coal, I’ve spent hours looking for images of dazzling stones – divas and drama queens in their own right – to use as inspiration for my diamond quilts.
Whether they’re showing off with a bold splash of color, flirting with a flash of brilliant light, or sporting an amazing cut, these lovely stones have taught me a lot about how to add “bling” to my work.
Photography: Geoffrey Watt (Mayer & Watt)
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not always successful in coaxing the light from my designs first time around, but I’ve learned a few tips about how to fix flat diamonds and lifeless gems.
While your passion may not be diamonds, I think some of these tools might help you to punch up the bling in your own work.
Blush (2014) Series: Angle of Repose Artist: MJ Kinman
Lights! Camera! Action!
“Brilliance” is a gemological term that refers to the bright, white light that a diamond reflects back to our eyes. It’s the pop of light that captures our attention. When you turn a diamond from side to side, the sparkling effect you see is called “scintillation.” Scintillation is simply brilliance in motion.
For a diamond to be truly brilliant, though, it needs more than just brightness. It needs contrast. It needs the dark bits.
Imagine a blank white sheet of paper and a chessboard. The sheet of paper returns twice the amount of light to our eye than the chessboard, but the chessboard appears brighter. Why? The contrast provided by the black squares on the board make the white squares pop. This contrast between light and dark refers to one of the primary elements of good design: value contrast.
You can use the idea of “brilliance” to make your work sparkle regardless what type of quilts you create. Whether you make traditional, modern, or art quilts, you can use the concept of value contrast to turn your next project into a real diva.
Bring On the Bling
Brilliance can be used in a quilt design to achieve a number of dramatic effects. When you understand these effects, you can take your quilts to a whole new level.
Effect #1: Shimmer
Imagine you’re gazing out across a lake while the sun hovers over the horizon in front of you. See the millions of tiny sparkles shimmering on the surface? The combination of the brilliant light and deep shadows creates a mesmerizing effect.
By combining light and dark pieces in a symmetrical fashion throughout the surface of your quilt, you can add the same kind of shimmering brilliance to your work, particularly for those quilts that aren’t intended to have a defined focal point. Many traditional block quilts fit this category.
While I usually spend studio time exploring my diamond designs, sometimes I get the chance to put together a traditional quilt.
I recently made the pinwheel quilt shown below for a friend using clothing from her late father. I intentionally placed light and dark pieces next to one another to create maximum sparkle across the top.
Artist: MJ Kinman
Effect #2: Traffic Lights
You can also use the placement of light and dark fabric to direct your viewer’s eye across the quilt.
You could say that these areas of light and dark act like traffic lights, helping your viewers visually navigate through your design.
Pathways of lighter colored areas invite your viewer’s eye to move across them, while deep pools of darkness slow down your viewers and give them a chance to rest and rejuvenate. As a result, your quilt comes alive with movement.
Here is Char #4, the first of two diamond quilts that I purposely designed to move the viewer’s eye in a deliberate way.
Char #4 (2017) Series: Bourbon Diamonds Artist: MJ Kinman
I fell in love with the gemstone that inspired the quilt above (Char #4) precisely because of the river of light that flowed through the center of the stone. I wanted to make sure that I captured that stream of light in my final design.
Photography: Geoffrey Watt (Mayer & Watt)
To achieve that effect, I deliberately positioned areas of pure white and lighter-colored fabric across the central portion of the quilt and surrounded them with areas of black and deep brown tones. As a result, your eye moves easily across the central part of the design.
The second example is my Bourbon Diamond titled Devil’s Due. While this diamond quilt relies on line and color to make a statement, it also relies on value contrast.
Devil’s Due (2016) Series: Bourbon Diamonds Artist: MJ Kinman
When I first pieced this quilt, I was less than satisfied with it. It looked flat and lifeless. Not only was it missing the brilliance I wanted, but the focal point – the tip at the bottom edge of the quilt – didn’t have the punch I wanted.
Once I replaced a few of the long facets in the lower left part of the diamond with pure white fabric, it all came together. The splash of white added more sparkle and the pathway of light moved the viewer’s eye more effectively to the focal point. Her inner diva came through!
Effect #3: Spotlight
Another way to incorporate the idea of brilliance in your designs is to highlight one or more specific places on your quilt. Areas of great contrast draw the eye to them and can create loads of drama in your work.
Lila is inspired by an image of crystal that I came across nearly 30 years ago. In the original image, the light appeared to dive into the top left facets of the diamond and explode out through the lower right facets. In my design, I created areas of pure white and lighter fabric to highlight those focal points. To boost the brilliance, I placed darker fabrics around the lighter ones.
Lila (2017) Series: Angle of Repose Artist: MJ Kinman
Shine On!
I hope these tips have given you a few ideas about how you can add brilliance to your own quilts, regardless of your style or subject matter. As you experiment with your own designs, don’t be afraid to be bold. Amp up the value contrast and transform your quilts into real divas and drama queens!”
Angels’ Share (2016) Series: Bourbon Diamonds Artist: MJ Kinman
Do check out MJ’s Jewel Box block series, featuring all 12 birthstones, as well as her dazzling Princess Cut pattern. Available now through Mj’s online shop. If you’d like to learn more about ways to add dimension and drama to your quilt projects, as well as how to create your own faceted landscapes, please visit www.MJKinman.com and click on classes. You can also follow MJ on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/mjkinmantextileartist and on Instagram at www.Instagram.com/mjkinman709.
About the Author: I like to tell people I make the biggest diamonds in the world. The adventure started 22 years ago when I discovered an image of a gorgeous gem. With only a basic understanding of quiltmaking, I was unsure how to transform that image into a quilt. I spent the next few years searching for the right techniques and, seven years later, I made my first gem.
My series entitled “Bourbon Diamonds” celebrates Kentucky’s favorite spirit. As a certified Executive Bourbon Steward, I am pleased to offer bourbon tastings in addition to classes. My work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and national competitions, and has been featured in Quilting Arts Magazine and on Quilting Arts TV. My gems are also included in private and corporate collections, including Maker’s Mark Distillery.
Bring out the Bling in your quilts – put some of MJ’s tips to use, and if you want to piece your own gemstone, you can find patterns on MJ’s website.
Enjoy!
3 responses to “Diamond Divas and Drama Queens: Bring Out the Bling in Your Quilts”
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Thank you for creating a beautiful and inspiring article for us to enjoy! Gemstones are not what I would have imagined being part of a quilt until now!!
It will be fun to try making a bit of a sparkle 💖 in my next quilt.
I agree.
Your ideas and inspiration are amazing, and I will TRY to add a little more sparkle into my creations. Sincere thanks for your encouragement.!