I suppose I should note that these "plan" steps are ones I jotted down as goals for October. Not necessarily to finish any one thing in October (although that would be nice), but that these were things I should start addressing now. There are the "unfinished business" projects, always lurking in the back of my consciousness, but there are also new ideas that haven't gotten beyond the muddle in my mind. Time to start fleshing out some of those by sketching and perhaps even drawing out designs to size.
I think most of us imagine that these ideas floating around in our heads are fairly well formed, but in my experience, I'm only deluding myself that they are. To prove that, I only need to take pencil in hand to realize I don't really know where I'm going with it. In this case, I want to use the shape of this piece of metal, picked up by the side of the road, in the design, and also incorporate the piece itself. The fuzzy idea in my head is to suspend it within a cutout in the finished quilt. The second fuzzy idea includes stamping or discharging that shape on the fabric surrounding the cutout. I'm thinking random placement...until I actually sketch that out.
The random arrangement was actually my second sketch. The first one was ordered but not good, which was why I immediately went to random. But I wasn't too keen on that one either. Well, lets just line up rows of the shape and see what I think. And that was it - I could immediately feel my interest increase and unbidden brainstorming start regarding technique, variations on a theme, embellishing. To thine own self be true, I thought. I keep going back to randomness in my quilting, not so much because I am drawn to it as I am being influenced by whispers that I am not spontaneous, that I need to loosen up, it would be so much more interesting if I'd ditch my need for order and balance. There's definitely room for all of that in my journey, but there's no denying where my heart lies when it comes to design. And that is where I will start my exploration with this particular idea.
I think most of us imagine that these ideas floating around in our heads are fairly well formed, but in my experience, I'm only deluding myself that they are. To prove that, I only need to take pencil in hand to realize I don't really know where I'm going with it. In this case, I want to use the shape of this piece of metal, picked up by the side of the road, in the design, and also incorporate the piece itself. The fuzzy idea in my head is to suspend it within a cutout in the finished quilt. The second fuzzy idea includes stamping or discharging that shape on the fabric surrounding the cutout. I'm thinking random placement...until I actually sketch that out.
The random arrangement was actually my second sketch. The first one was ordered but not good, which was why I immediately went to random. But I wasn't too keen on that one either. Well, lets just line up rows of the shape and see what I think. And that was it - I could immediately feel my interest increase and unbidden brainstorming start regarding technique, variations on a theme, embellishing. To thine own self be true, I thought. I keep going back to randomness in my quilting, not so much because I am drawn to it as I am being influenced by whispers that I am not spontaneous, that I need to loosen up, it would be so much more interesting if I'd ditch my need for order and balance. There's definitely room for all of that in my journey, but there's no denying where my heart lies when it comes to design. And that is where I will start my exploration with this particular idea.
2 comments:
and sometimes you need a certain restraint of order to be truly spontaneous...
I like that thought, BJ. In fact, if I think about it, I know from experience it's true for me. Thanks for reminding me!
Post a Comment