SpyGirl: How I Became a Pattern Mixer

Sunday, July 22, 2012

How I Became a Pattern Mixer

Pattern mixing is one of the big trends this year. Some of my blogging cohorts have written great "How To" posts on the subject (see links at end). I love to pattern mix (have you noticed?) and I got to thinking: what is MY method?

Um, sorry, I still can't verbalize it. [This is why I teach technical classes and not design or fine art].
Throwing like colored garments into heaps sometimes helps:

Too bad these are all tops. They'd make a great mix.

What I HAVE figured out is how I acquired my skills -- I was the "go to" girl for jean patching in high school!
It was the early 70s. One patched one's jeans -- more patches = more cool. I inherited a pair from Allison, pre-patched (some by me). They required constant repairing.

Xmas, 1971

I went to a girls' boarding school and even though we were allowed to dress casually, there WERE some arbitrary dress code standards. Eventually, the above jeans were banned from the dining room (along with a camisole that I made -- more on that later). Since they were already loaded with so many patches, I figured they were a great start for a crazy quilt. I was crafty that way.

The quilt today -- every patch holds a memory.

The quilt itself has been through many permutations. I no longer have the original section with the jeans, that part went missing in Santa Barbara while I was working on an extension to it in upstate NY the summer of 75. It was in constant usage until about 2000, when I finally tired of repairing it. Oops, I've taken a detour down memory lane! Anyway, it was while working on this quilt that I developed my eye for pattern mixing. I still recall the joy I felt when I'd find "the right" scrap for an area that needed a new patch.

I imagine that starting a project such as this is WAY overwhelming. You just want to mix stripes and florals and not look like a clown, right? Click on one of the links below. These ladies explain it better than I ever will!