Have you ever been to a class and realized you left the most appropriate fabrics at home? This happened to me when I took a class from Elizabeth Barton. I learned a lot about abstracting and designing and had a great paper “sketch” I wanted to interpret in fabric.
Per Elizabeth’s instructions, I worked up my design in paper with three different value variations. I decided to work with the one on the left, above.
But, I didn’t bring enough of my two colors, blue-green and orange. As a result, I had to fill those areas with lots of different fabrics. I worked hard at getting them to play well together.
I tried ignoring color and working only with value.
I persevered and got this far.
But I just hated it. WAY too splotchy! At this point, I bagged the whole thing.
I still love the design and intend to use it for a quilt, but I’ll have a MUCH better selection of fabrics when I do!
I’m philosophical about this sort of thing. By being open-minded I’ve helped myself be more open-minded next time. And the things I learned will stay with me. I didn’t waste my time or my fabric. It was useful.
I saw a great quote, but I don’t know who said it: If you never make a mistake it’s because you’re not experimenting enough. Yes! I believe that. Here’s to making plenty of mistakes.
Ellen Lindner
Ellen, I’m fascinated to learn how your brilliant self works. Are those white or silver pinheads all over your pieces of fabric? On a design wall of foamcore? With fusible underneath? Do you mark the rough side of the fusible as a cartoon to follow? Or eyeball your sketch to enlarge it? Or work in the same scale? Is this on a wall or horizontal surface? And when you report you “bagged the whole thing”—is this not ripe for cutting up and using elsewhere? I can never follow a plan the way you can! Point me to a former post that explains?
Hi Eleanor. Good questions. The article on this page will answer many of them:
http://adventurequilter.com/main_page/articles/process/fabric-collage/
But, yes, all those white dots are pins. (Elizabeth Barton was totally distracted by the white dots.)
I was working on a vertical design wall, with a base piece of fabric. (This was a wonderful workshop run by SAQA’s Florida region and each student was provided with a 3′ x 3′ design wall and the Command strips to mount it for class use.)
Yes, I did draw the design on the muslin, but I don’t always do that.
I LOVE to recycle stitched projects! But since this one was just pinned it wasn’t really a candidate for that. I took it apart and saved the muslin, which has the design already on it. Useful if I continue with the same size.
I deliberately don’t take my “best” fabrics to a class because a) I need to concentrate on whatever I’m trying to learn and b) I always get a little overwhelmed in class – lots to take in, and lots of distractions.
And there is often a long period before I actually use a technique.
Like you, I always learn something and I enjoy meeting with other quilters.
We’re on the same page, Michele. When I take it class it’s more to learn a process (thought or otherwise) than to complete a project. (Although I sometimes have to remind myself.) But, at other times I totally embrace it and mostly ignore my own project so I can follow the teacher around and learn from her interactions with others. Either way I learn and enjoy it!