I’m having great fun working on my latest quilt. It’s inspired by a photo I took on an outing with some friends. Click any imagerfor a larger view Don’t you love the way the spiky palm fronds cross? I think the contrasting values and the resulting shapes are very interesting. Although the photo already had […]
My latest quilt, York Wall, is now complete. I’m thrilled with it! Click any image for a larger view I worked (and reworked) very hard to give it the feeling of reflected light, and I’m now happy with the results. This quilt was inspired by a photo I took in 2002 and I started working on […]
In my earlier post, I showed you a sketch that was inspired by the shapes of a completed quilt. Did you figure out which quilt provided that inspiration? This photo should tell you: The quilt is called Hopes and Daydreams, and it’s one of my favorites. (You can see it on the home page of my […]
This is a special view for me. It’s the view from my parents’ home, looking across fields and pastures toward the barns of their dairy farm. (Actually, they raise beef cattle now, but I still think of it as a dairy farm, since that was its function when I was growing up.) I always […]
Recenlty, after completing a problematic quilt, I just wasn’t ready to tackle the next one. I wanted some instant gratification, plus I felt like I needed to exercise my creative “muscles.” Knowing the value of design and creativity exercises, I decided to spend some time working through a few. First, I played around with abstracting a zinnia. In […]
More photo inspired from a recent “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” class. Winnie’s inspiration photo showed a busy forest floor with dappled sunlight and pink flowers. She cropped way in, focusing on just two blossoms. Much more effective (and easier to construct as this scale.) She also darkened the background fabrics, allowing the pink flowers […]
In my class, “Design Your Own Nature Quilt,” each student starts with her/his own inspiration photo. It sure is tempting to perfectly replicate a photo you’re in love with! But, after learning some design principles, they almost always find something upon which to improve. Our class motto, “Be inspired by your photo, not owned by it,” was […]
Addie came to our “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” class with a wonderful photo, shown below. She decided to work with the existing composition, but to add interest with her fabrics. She did an extraordinary job of letting her fabrics work for her. (Click the above photo to see an enlargement.) Plus, the light shining […]
In my “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” class, students start with their own inspiration photos. Sometimes, the students interpret the photo’s composition almost exactly. But frequently, the design is better when the image is closely cropped. This allows the maker to focus on the most important elements. I already showed you one example of this, […]
Have you ever made a quilt that you liked more as you worked on it than after it was nicely finished? I’ve done this enough times that I’ve finally learned how to deal with it. The issue is one of composition and proportion, and it’s especially dramatic with small pieces. When creating a collage, I […]
