Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Solution Found!


I wasn't going to work on this today, but in the process of clearing the detritus of it from around my sewing machine, I got pulled in again. Then, as I stored away some of the rejected purple batiks in their basket under the table, there was something lying on top. Oh, yeah, the batik I used on Jockeying for Space, a fat bundle I wasn't sure I was going to stuff into the basket with the rest. That's when it dawned on me that the solution to my purple quadrant quandary had been staring me in the face the whole time. It doesn't show in the portion that I used on Jockeying, which is still propped against the wall, but this batik has yellow leaf-like motifs across purple that matches the purple I'm using in the mosaic. Some of it is quite orange, but if fussycut just right, the yellow to orange looks amazingly close to that in the yellow quadrant.

I cut a few swatches without fusible just to see if it would be too loud, but I liked what was happening. So I cut four squares with fusible and traded out the other vine batik that didn't feel quite right. Yes, we're getting closer. But I thought I needed more than just 4 squares and I'm just about out of the fusible. What if...those famous words...I added back in one or two of the first batik? And that was the answer. Click on the picture for a larger view and see if you can tell which is which. The new batik with the stronger yellow and orange now makes the lighter yellow and green in the first batik fit, and the two together gives a tad of variety that more of the new batik would not.

After I took this picture, I changed the placement of the batiks and one of the fake batik squares a bit and replaced a few of the hand-dyed squares with a different value or texture and now I think I am thoroughly happy with the arrangement. I think I'll be shifting the whole thing over some more - I didn't allow for some of the background to show as a border and now I think that's what I want. Plus, I think I want to space the squares a little farther apart. Just minor tweaks before I permanently fuse everything down and start the quilting.

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