Adventure Quilter

After altering the background of my quilt, so it didn’t completely copy the sketch, I took a different approach as I added the various elements.  I decided to copy them fairly closely, but to give myself PLENTY of latitude when altering them.  This is the sketch.

And this is the background.

I added the two large flowers, my favorite of the elements.

Then the brown semi-circle.  I wasn’t too sure about using it at all, but I thought I had to at least audition it.

My first brown cut was too skinny, so I added another line beside it.  But, I HATED the shape of it!  A change was definitely needed!

Back to a single line, with a shorter shape.  And another partial circle nestled in.  As you can see, I also added some orange shapes on the right.  I thought that color needed to be repeated somewhere, so I let the sketch suggest the location.

I really disliked the hash marks, especially since they were done in a muddy olive-green color.  But, again, I felt like I had to at least try them.

I made mine skinnier and more irregular.  Perhaps they weren’t so bad, after all.

Looking back at the sketch perhaps you can see a faint whitish circle in the lower left corner.  It was made with a white paint stick, which served as a resist to the wet paint added later.  I wanted to add something similar to my quilt, but decided to alter the location.

I like the faint sketchy character of it.

Finally, I shrunk the size of the right orange shape and added white lines to the flowers.

I’m really loving this!  Next will come some hand stitching and quilting.

Ellen Lindner

Oh boy, have I been having fun!  Remember my “Paint Mojo” exercise and the three sketches it produced?  I loved one of them so much I had to immediately try to recreate it in fabric  use it as the inspiration for a quilt.  (Did you the notice the shift in my thought process there?  I want to produce work LOOSELY.  If I just copy a loose sketch it’s still copying.  Not what I want.)

Here’s the sketch I was working from.  (The yellow-orange is more orange in real life.)

Since I wanted to work loosely I set some limitations for myself, so as not to accidentally copy.  First, I studied the sketch closely and selected fabrics that exactly matched my colors.  I also studied the composition, knowing that I wanted to emulate it, not actually copy it.  And then I put the sketch away.

Working on a muslin base, I began to arrange and layer fabrics.

 I knew I was deviating from the sketch and I figured that was a good thing.  I switched the center shape to orange.  I love orange with blue-green.  (Although the orange is much softer than it appears in these photos.)

Once I had the muslin covered it was time to do A LOT of tweaking.  I spent a good bit of time on the shape of the central orange element.  I thought it was important for it to undulate and for the width to change in an interesting way.  I also added a thin yellow line to the edge of it, in places.

I completed the background without ever looking at the sketch again.    And I was very happy with it. In my next post I’ll show you the addition of the graphic elements.

Ellen Lindner