The next section of Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter involved cutting and stitching the same still life but using scissors and the sewing machine instead of paper and pencil. For this first photo I stitched while looking mainly at the still life although I could look at the stitching as often as needed. The book said, “We don’t want you to sew over your fingers”.
Then for the contour cutting I chose appropriate fabrics for the fruits and cut the shapes out looking mainly at the still life, only occasionally looking at the fabric and scissors. I then fused and stitched over it too.
This last arrangement is an abstract arrangement of the cut pieces from the still life. Again, they were fused and stitched.
I think these were great exercises to work through. I have seen a change in my thought process while I am designing other projects already.
Now …to eat the fruit!
I don’t have a finished Journal Quilt Page to post for April 
I was just merrily designing along and came up with this drawing of what I wanted to do. I was so excited about it and rolling along; chose the fabrics and drew up the templates. Then all came to a screeching halt.
There were almost 250 templates… for an 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece.
Many of the pieces were too small to even write placement numbers on them! So obviously this was to be a much larger piece.
I’m still excited about the idea but I have run out of time for JQC. So I will probably go back and simplify, big time, and have something for May. In the meantime, I’m also thinking about a larger version, maybe 17″ x 22″ ( in all my spare time!).
It is good to learn my limitations. Now, back to the drawing board!!
David’s Doodle is done! I did some simple stitch in the ditch around the diamonds and some echo quilting in the centers of the diamonds for the quilting. I’m very pleased with how it came out.
I am working through the book Color and Composition For The Creative Quilter with a group of quilters at Quilt Studio. For the first three exercises we were to assemble a still life with 3 pieces of fruit. We then were to do 3 contour drawings (line drawings with no shading):
Blind contour; looking only at the still life, not looking at the drawing
Semi-blind contour; looking at the still life mostly, looking at the drawing only when beginning a new contour
Contour drawing; Focusing mainly on the still life but looking at the drawing more than in the previous exercises.
I enjoyed these exercises. They reminded me of my college days, when the greatest responsibility I had was getting to my drawing class on time. Those were the days!!
In the first chapter of the book the authors write about the right brain/left brain issue and how the left brain will try to stay in control of the drawing. I find that my left brain does that mainly through the use of time; it keeps reminding me that “the kids will be up soon,” “if you would hurry up you could finish before Christina wakes up,” “remember you need to get a shower so you can start school on time”… I just keep reminding myself that I have already spent X amount of time on the drawing and if I don’t continue until it is the best it can be then that time will be wasted.
“If I don’t have time to do it right the first time, how will I find the time to do it over?”
Judy Laquidara of Sunshine Quilts will be hostessing the Quilts of Valor Mystery Quilt starting this month. I am looking forward to assembling one of Judy’s designs. They always are so interesting to look at, yet look simple to assemble.
I chose red, white and blue fabrics to use. So creative, huh? Sometimes my creativity amazes me. (Sacrastic grin!).
The Appalachian Trail stretches 2000 miles across our country’s wilderness. It must be wonderous to hike all those miles and to be able to say “I did it.” and to have the memories of what it took to do it.
I’ve thought about hiking sections of it but decided that I’m too old; my hiking days are over. Here is an article about a woman who did hike the entire trail in her late forties. Maybe I’m not too old after all…
I had a lot of fun making this crazy quilt thank you note last year. My sister-in-law and family put my family and I up in Houston in October while we were there for Quilt Market.
Luckily, I got pictures of all the folks there. I printed the pictures out on some muslin and started cutting them out, moving them around and sewing it all together. The lettering is also printed on muslin and then appliqued with a blanket stitch. Some buttons, beads and embroidery finished it off! The finished size is 9″ x 9″.
The next section of Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter involved cutting and stitching the same still life but using scissors and the sewing machine instead of paper and pencil. For this first photo I stitched while looking mainly at the still life although I could look at the stitching as often as needed. The book said, “We don’t want you to sew over your fingers”.
Then for the contour cutting I chose appropriate fabrics for the fruits and cut the shapes out looking mainly at the still life, only occasionally looking at the fabric and scissors. I then fused and stitched over it too.
