Back in July I bought this beautiful painted piece of fabric from Pat Pauly.
Isn’t it gorgeous? I knew it could be the start of something wonderful. The only problem is that the scale of this fabric is much larger than I normally use. Which meant that I didn’t have other similarly scaled fabrics to work with. Still, I thought I could feature this inspiration fabric and add simpler fabrics to it.
First, I had to figure out how much of this fabric to use and a rough idea of the size of the quilt. I decided to use half of the fabric.
Then, I auditioned how I might cut it and reassemble it. Folding helped me visualize the new shape of the fabric.
So, I did this. The piece on the right has been turned 180 degrees.
Next, I began to audition other fabrics. I thought these looked pretty good.
At every turn, I used the starting fabric to help me make decisions. Such as the angles for the side pieces. I wanted them to enhance the angular nature of the starting fabric’s pattern. See what I mean?
Here’s the left side completed. (That is, pinned.)
And here’s the entire background when I THOUGHT it was finished.
I decided that one of the yellow fabrics on the right showed up too much, so I had to address that. Trial and error!
Thus far, I’ve shown you only the background. But I was also working on an idea for a foreground motif. I’ll show you that next time.
What would you do?
Ellen Lindner
I love the fabric and the idea of designing my putting things on the wall. The larger scale is actually a great way to push yourself to a new kind of designs, too. Have you considered, instead of putting something in front of/on top of this, seeing what lies beneath it. I mean imagine what is UNDER it and perhaps do reverse applique where you cut through to “find” it. I did this way back when, and it changed the way I think of designing and envisioning what dwells inside my piece. I actually do both — things on top and things from beneath. All of a sudden theres another world!
My two cents…
What size is the original piece of painted fabric, and what size is your piece after cuttiing the original and adding sides to it? Looking good!
Thanks Becky,
The original fabric was a “generous yard.” I never actually measured it, but the yard was definitely wider than usual. Right now my composition is about 44 x 34. Good questions. Scale is such a big deal.
Wow, Candace, you have rocked my way of thinking. With a “gridded” fabric like this there would be many obvious places to cut through to reveal something below. I still have half a yard left, so maybe I’ll try that on the next piece. You’ve really got me thinking, now!
I don’t know how you could bear to cut that fabric! I don’t know if I could bring myself to do that.
You’re right, Lif. That was the most challenging part! It helped that I auditioned my options with folding, photographing, visually merging, etc. Plus, I saved half of it.