Saturday, February 25, 2017

About Windows...

No, not MS Windows which, blessedly is working just fine on my computer (I have Windows 8.1).

Rather, for my "Mod Meets Improv" class, I'm struggling with creating a piece that has "windows" or window-like shapes as its motif.

As I reported when I posted my attempts to EB on the Academy of Quilting classroom for "Mod Meets Improv", I enjoyed making my last piece so much -- using a ruler rather than free-cutting -- that I decided to use the ruler again.

Hmmmm.  Somehow, instead of it making my work easier, I found the more precise cutting influenced the way I looked at the pieces, and that I was beginning to fuss over them.  I should say here that unlike "Off the Rails", I wasn't creating blocks this time.  Rather, I've been making free-sized pieces and trying to fit them together, like a puzzle -- some rectangles, some squares...that sort of thing.  It's made for a higher level of frustration than I experienced with the Rails piece.

Still, I've managed to come up with two designs which you can clearly see aren't stitched down yet.  NOTE: the background is actually more purple than you might see on your screen.  :-)


"Through Any Window" - V. 1



"Through Any Window" - V. 2

I prefer V. 2...but E.B.'s opinion is that it has 'too much' going on.  I can see where she's coming from so have replied that I will likely settle for something in between.  :-)

From there, it will be on to Lesson Four which deals with taking what EB calls 'motifs' and turning them in to quilt art.  This dovetails beautifully with the other class I'm taking...

To whit...

In my "Abstract-a-licious" class with Lyric Kinard, we've also been looking through windows -- using a small 'viewer' cut in paper to look at our environment and then make thumbnail drawings of what we see.

It began with lines...

Thumbnails 1

Thumbnails 2

We were then to use shades of black and grey to add values -- but not colour -- to our three favourite thumbnails:

Thumbnails with Value Added

My very favourite of the three above is the one on the far left...but making it in fabric would be a definite challenge.  Do-able...but a challenge.  This weekend I am working on adding hues (colour) and values thereof with a thought to translating this to a fabric sample.  Looking at them as I write this post, I just might try it with all three thumbnails...so stay tuned!  :-)

Meanwhile, I'm linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  This week she's talking about negative space which -- as you can tell from my recent posts -- is of great interest to me as a key component of what I've been studying in my two current online classes.  Nina Marie enjoys working with it, and you can see it in her work.  I, on the other hand, would like to get better at using negative space but have to admit that I usually have trouble separating the trees from the forest...

On that note...have a good rest of the weekend!

1 comment:

elle said...

These are sew cool! Great concept!