If You Never Make a Mistake

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.

It Doesn't Always Work. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

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

 

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4 Responses to If You Never Make a Mistake

  1. Eleanor Levie January 3, 2017 at 12:26 pm #

    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?

    • Ellen Lindner January 8, 2017 at 8:15 pm #

      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.

  2. Michele January 3, 2017 at 1:16 pm #

    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.

    • Ellen Lindner January 8, 2017 at 8:05 pm #

      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!

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