Saturday, February 04, 2017

Back to School

My online class with Elizabeth Barton -- "Mod Meets Improv" -- started last week.  True to form, EB produced an information-packed lesson (saved and printed) and requested both drawings and a finished top (not necessarily quilted).

She began by defining 'Modern' quilts as a genre and talked about the characteristics of a typical modern quilt.  She asked us to design three pieces, and gave some mathematical guidance (i.e. the use of a constant etc.) for doing so 'to scale' so that we could then extrapolate a finished size.

I made my drawings 4" W x 6" L, so I could fit two on a page, and copy it easily with my home copier and printer, thus:

Designs #1 and #2
Meant for two colours


Design #3
Meant for 3 colours

I chose Design #3 to colour in a few different versions, based on the fabric I had on hand -- and knew that I'd have to buy white fabric as I didn't have enough on hand (i.e. in quality and size of pieces) to make it work.

Here are my colour selections,  in sketches:

Blue Set #1 and #2

Blue Set #3

Purple Set #1 & #2

Purple Set #3

I think you can guess why most of us liked our three-colour designs best!  :-)

Reviewing my fabric, I went with the blue/orange/white and the blue/yellow/white combinations for construction.  It turns out my "purple" was really more "magenta" and didn't play so well with either the orange or the yellow!

Oh...and my blue all along has been navy, not 'royal' as in the photos...I just don't have a navy marker for colouring!

So here's the finished duo:

Navy combos - side by each
And the other way 'round... 

I have a feeling I'll be finishing these so they can be displayed either way 'round... I can't really decide which I like better!

Or...perhaps they'll be hung on their own, rather than as a pair...Again, either way 'round...


OR...



OR...




OR...




My cyber-colleague Chris is in this class with me...and she's an astronomer.  She said they reminded her of the concept of a Doppler shift (aka 'Doppler Effect' -from physics).  She thought I could use that as a title for the pieces.  Now, physics was the one science class I could never quite get my head around (I have a B. Sc. in Nursing, and preferred biology, genetics, and organic chemistry myself...), so I had to look up the term 'Doppler shift/effect'...and can't say as I can really relate.

I'm thinking of something more like, Shift Happens, or A Shift in Perspective...Time will tell!

Meanwhile, I'm going to link this up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday, and turn to Lesson 2!

"See you" soon -- and thanks for reading!

P.S. Title ideas and other thoughts welcome...  :-)


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a good class (why am I not surprised?)

Everything in me wants to mix the red and gold in either of the finished pieces.

Judy Warner said...

You are off to a great start, Margaret!

Pat said...

Fascinating.

elle said...

WOW! Looks like another great class! :)

Anonymous said...

I look forward to following along as you take her class. These are wonderful, whichever way you decide to orient them.