Yesterday was perhaps not the best day to go shopping for new glasses frames...
I spent an inordinate amount of time cutting and arranging and rearranging squares on my odd re-worked sunprint yesterday morning. I'm so tired of thinking and saying this, but I really wish I could envision better how fabrics will actually work together. I seem to have fallen into my usual trap of too much blending. What I thought would pop off the background really doesn't.
Here's one fabric option that, in spite of it looking pretty good on the screen, just wasn't working. I did rather like it turned "on point," especially with the couched thread running through the points, so will store that idea for another time.
Here's the second fabric option which picks up better on the colors in the background fabric. In the picture, the blue pops a bit more than in real life, but the pink looks pretty true. This is such a funny batik - one I've found very difficult to work with. When I cut pieces out of it, the colors look bright and clear, but when placed with other fabrics, they go muddy and toned. Regardless, this is what I decided to use and spent so much time arranging and trading out different squares.
The satin stitching around each square will be done in dark thread and help delineate it, but will it be enough to make this interesting? Also perhaps blending in a bit too much is the decorative thread I wanted to couch across the squares. I may need to use something from my collection of navies.
This little exercise did not leave me with the same excitement and urge to keep working that I felt on Saturday. It just made me tired and a bit discouraged, continuing in one of my several ruts. I decided that part of the problem is my need for measurable progress, progress that seems proper for time spent. Is that because everything I did last week could be measured that way? Or is it because spending so much time with so little to show for it feels like a luxury I can't afford right now, what with all I should be doing towards the move? I guess I envisioned working quickly and intuitively today, perhaps even getting some of the stitching done. I finally left the studio not even sure I'm going to stick with the final arrangement of the squares. Well, this project definitely needs to sit overnight and be reassessed with a fresh eye.
And then I went to try on glasses... After an hour and a half, including a break to walk around the rest of the store per the patient salesperson's suggestion, I'd narrowed it down to a pair I still wasn't sure about. Part of the problem is that I can't see well enough without my glasses to really tell how they look, and the friend I'd brought along to help was hedging. And I'm purposely trying for a change, something very different from my current look, so of course, I can't tell if I'm hesitating just because they DO look so different or because I don't really like how they look. They're expensive, too, wouldn't ya know, so I ended up doing the same thing as I did with my grid design - asked the girl to hold them for me, and went home to sleep on it. I'll probably check another store with a bigger selection too, more time "rearranging and trading out" as it were to be sure I've considered all my options and have truly chosen the best one. Sometimes I feel hopeless!
I spent an inordinate amount of time cutting and arranging and rearranging squares on my odd re-worked sunprint yesterday morning. I'm so tired of thinking and saying this, but I really wish I could envision better how fabrics will actually work together. I seem to have fallen into my usual trap of too much blending. What I thought would pop off the background really doesn't.
Here's one fabric option that, in spite of it looking pretty good on the screen, just wasn't working. I did rather like it turned "on point," especially with the couched thread running through the points, so will store that idea for another time.
Here's the second fabric option which picks up better on the colors in the background fabric. In the picture, the blue pops a bit more than in real life, but the pink looks pretty true. This is such a funny batik - one I've found very difficult to work with. When I cut pieces out of it, the colors look bright and clear, but when placed with other fabrics, they go muddy and toned. Regardless, this is what I decided to use and spent so much time arranging and trading out different squares.
The satin stitching around each square will be done in dark thread and help delineate it, but will it be enough to make this interesting? Also perhaps blending in a bit too much is the decorative thread I wanted to couch across the squares. I may need to use something from my collection of navies.
This little exercise did not leave me with the same excitement and urge to keep working that I felt on Saturday. It just made me tired and a bit discouraged, continuing in one of my several ruts. I decided that part of the problem is my need for measurable progress, progress that seems proper for time spent. Is that because everything I did last week could be measured that way? Or is it because spending so much time with so little to show for it feels like a luxury I can't afford right now, what with all I should be doing towards the move? I guess I envisioned working quickly and intuitively today, perhaps even getting some of the stitching done. I finally left the studio not even sure I'm going to stick with the final arrangement of the squares. Well, this project definitely needs to sit overnight and be reassessed with a fresh eye.
And then I went to try on glasses... After an hour and a half, including a break to walk around the rest of the store per the patient salesperson's suggestion, I'd narrowed it down to a pair I still wasn't sure about. Part of the problem is that I can't see well enough without my glasses to really tell how they look, and the friend I'd brought along to help was hedging. And I'm purposely trying for a change, something very different from my current look, so of course, I can't tell if I'm hesitating just because they DO look so different or because I don't really like how they look. They're expensive, too, wouldn't ya know, so I ended up doing the same thing as I did with my grid design - asked the girl to hold them for me, and went home to sleep on it. I'll probably check another store with a bigger selection too, more time "rearranging and trading out" as it were to be sure I've considered all my options and have truly chosen the best one. Sometimes I feel hopeless!
1 comment:
Hi Sheila-
I really like your first take on this- the nine darker squares in the straight 9-patch set. The only problem I see is that the background fabric is too dark. I wonder if you placed a piece of tulle over the background and under the squares, would it tone down the background color enough to let those squares command attention? Anne Wiens- Sweetgrass Creative Designs
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