"Smooshing" Colors

I have art friends who talk about "smooshing colors" in their paintings. I think the joy of quilting is "smooshing" fabrics -- combining colors and fabric designs together.

It's time for my "Undercover Quilter" friends to gather again after a Christmas break. We will have a day full of fun as we challenge ourselves to make new combinations of fabric from sales, donations and our own excess supplies. We are constantly amazed at what we can do with what we have. It's really too much fun for one day and we often extend our creativity by working on quilt tops "off the record".

To me, it seems easier to make a backing first and then combine fabrics for the quilt top. I found a piece almost big enough for a backing and it did become the back with a border of a second fabric.

The remainder of the border fabric became the focus fabric for the front of the quilt. I tried my best to choose fabrics that coordinated with this focus fabric. At times, with the limiting selection, this becomes a challenge in creativity.  Certainly, this has spread into the rest of my quilting endeavors, making it even easier to "smoosh"colors together.

As I'm stitching the blocks and bits of block together, I'm wondering if smoosh is really a word.  It brings to mind the dreaded vocabulary tests we had in school and how I never appreciated my teacher's efforts. Well, Mrs. V., I believe I've juxtaposed my blocks with serendipitous results.

Maybe it was all a matter of context (and a good number of years of maturity.)