I have a little tidbit of knowledge I wanted to share with you today. It's about the "movement" of fabric and how it relates to quilting.
Before I go any further, let me clarify by saying I've never taken a class or anything on this subject ... I'm not an expert by any means ... these are just opinions I've developed over my quilting years.
When I started quilting, I'd hear the term used and was left scratching my head. What the heck is fabric movement?
Eventually, I learned that most prints have a direction (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, etc.). Some are more obvious than others. And this design element in the fabric can be used to enhance the design of a quilt. Whether you are aware of it or not, the way you position any print in a quilt will affect the finished look ... sometimes in a very dramatic way, sometimes not so much.
I quite enjoy using fabric direction as part of my own personal quilting style and I play around with it a lot. (Sometimes maybe too much.) My hexagon diamonds gave me the idea and inspiration to write about the importance of this subject.
Below are 4 diamonds made with the same small check.
Top left is diagonal, top right is vertical, bottom left is random. Can you see how they all look different? Ignoring the colour, each block has its own personality which results from the way I oriented the lines of the print.
The bottom right is also vertical, but if you notice the two hexagons that are side by side just above the bottom point, you'll see that the fabric was basted to the template a little crooked. So even though most of the hexagons are vertical, those 2 slightly crooked ones affect the appearance of the entire diamond. It looks a little wonky, doesn't it?
Ooh. I just got an idea. I'm going to make a block with all the lines going in the same direction ... except for one little errant hexagon. :)
Here are 3 more diamonds with the same plaid print but the lines oriented differently.
Notice the first one ... it's supposed to be straight, but it looks really crooked. That's because the strong red line is obviously misaligned from one hexagon to the next. So even though all the lines are parallel there is a funky sort of attitude going on in that block.
In fact, the block on the left feels more tense to me ... like the hexagons don't quite fit together properly and were forced into position, whereas the block on the right looks and feels more relaxed, even though the lines of the plaid are going every which way. (I actually worked a little on the green block, making the lines match up as best I could ... that's why it looks more orderly than the yellow one.)
As a quilter, do you notice that sort of thing? If you do, does the wonky bother you or are you totally zen and let things go as they please?
My personal bent is towards order. I can drive myself crazy trying to make sure the prints in my quilt are all going in the right direction. It's sometimes like nails on a chalkboard to me if I see a print that's upside down.
That said, I've found myself more recently drawn to the playfulness of random. This is hard for me to do. But whenever I've studied antique quilts - or even just really interesting contemporary ones - and noticed how the makers didn't always care about "perfection", it makes me think that I should just relax and not be so controlling about things all the time.
Oh sweet irony ... this means I need to PRACTICE being DELIBERATELY random.
October 14, 2013 
