World-class quilter brings her colorful kaleidoscope
Internationally-known quilter and teacher Freddy Moran displays her quilt "Lone Tree" at Picket Fence Fabrics in Cave Junction.(Photos provided by Picket Fence Fabrics)
Internationally known quilter and instructor Freddy Moran, of Orinda, Calif., brought her enthusiasm for colorful quilts and exuberant design to Cave Junction last week for a series of classes geared to experienced and beginning quilters alike.
Moran’s visit was sponsored by the Mountain Star Quilt Guild of Southern Oregon, and hosted by Picket Fence Fabrics at Caves Hwy. and S. Old Stage Road. Local quilters, as well as those from as far away as Mount Shasta, attended the day-long sessions which presented Moran’s ideas about incorporating bold colors into eclectic quilts.
“I think I have always been far more color tolerant than a lot of people,” Moran told her students. “I consider ‘red’ a neutral, and I find ‘beige’ depressing.”
Cave Junction quilter Nancy Hinds concentrates on her piecing during last week's quilting class. Freddy Moran's "Lone Tree" quilt, featuring rows of colorful houses as well as a lone tree, is in the background.
Indeed, her bright quilts seem to explode in a kaleidoscope of color when displayed on a crisp white wall. Swirls of reds, greens, blues and yellows are contrasted with slices of basic black-and-white prints. The extremes of the black-and-white fabric help calm the color cacophony.
“After you look (at the colors) for a while, it can become confusing to the eye,” she said. “The black and whites keep your eyes moving around the quilt.”
A Freddy Moran design titled "Dot Com" features swirls of color punctuated by polka dots of every persuasion.
Moran, 77, has taught quilting throughout this country and around the world. She has been featured in national and international publications, as well as on HGTV as part of its Artists in Residence series, and on HGTV’s Simply Quilts.
She also has written several quilting books, the most recent with her friend, Gwen Marston, of Beaver Island, Mich. It’s titled Collaborative Quilting, and they’re now working on their second book, she noted.
“Gwen is a better designer, but I am a better colorist,” said Moran, who majored in art in college. “We took the best of both of us to collaborate on the book,” she said.
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For her local classes, Moran used her quilt titled Lone Tree as the pattern for lessons in loosening up the color palette as well as the quilter’s imagination.
“Just pick out fabric and start sewing,” she told the group.
“It’s amazing what will come out of that. You get to touching the fabric and working with the fabric, then something just clicks in your brain.”
The artistry of her quilts is not about straight lines and a handful of hues.
“If you want perfect, you can buy it,” she said. “But spontaneous quilts like this, you cannot buy.”
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