I’ve spent the past three months collecting an obscene amount of men’s dress shirts for my quilts. I picked up half the shirts at the Goodwill outlet in nearby Queens. The other half were the result of losing self-control on recent vacations to Maine and Michigan. There was no reason I needed so many shirts (I can’t quilt that fast!), and both my carry on luggage and checked baggage hated me.

I approach a new quilt design from two angles, and depending upon where inspiration strikes, either approach comes first. One angle is the layout of the patchwork, which begins with a hand sketch and evolves into a digital mockup. The other angle is the color palette, where I cut small swatches of the shirts and arrange them in color palettes. This is where the complexity enters: one shirt only has so much yardage, so if I want a big patch of something like red, I have to collect many shades of reddish shirts and make sure they are a harmonious combination. And color is all relative, so when multiple colors are introduced, I have to make sure the figure-ground relationship is clear.

Today I cut swatches from my inventory of 100 shirts and laid them out to evaluate my craziness collection. After arranging them all by hue, I re-arranged the swatches into mini palettes and photographed them to inspire my next quilt.

The last two quilts I’ve made from men’s dress shirts are here and here. With the holiday season approaching and winter hibernation kicking in, hopefully I’ll have a new quilt to share soon.