Whirled

I decided to explore further with curved piecing, beginning with a print I overdyed in the centre. I am pleased with how it's come out.

Trial and Error

There is new growth in my yard and it seems to bloom into beauty so effortlessly. Whereas the growth in my studio today is a beginning bearing dubious results out of very focused effort . I finished sewing four curved pieced blocks yesterday, and tried arranging them in every possible manner and decided this one was the best, albeit still not to my liking. The brown shapes are too bulky and I had envisioned lovely flowing curves and an interesting design. Maybe that is why some people plan designs out first on paper!

So I decided to try again, still winging it and sewing four curved pieced blocks, but with less of any one colour so that large dominant, awkward looking shapes would not occur when I put them together, hopefully. Well - I cut and pieced and auditioned this or that and I still had awkward shapes with some of them too dominant - only they were smaller and mostly different from each other. When I cut and resewed, I realized how important similiar shapes are for unity and this is what I have now - whittled down to about a third of the fabric I began with.

I will improve with practice - and - I am enjoying pushing my growth edge.

Today's Yield

I felt like machine piecing, today, and made this by deciding what to sew where, one piece at a time: I also started making some curved pieced blocks and have two sewn, so far. I'm interested in seeing what happens when I put them together. I have been wanting to do this for a long time, so I'm pleased to finally experiment with it.

And yesterday after fibre artist Gloria Daly's presentation at the Victoria Quilt Guild meeting, I went up island to see a mixed media show - 'Thread and Paint Revolution' by Lara Scarr - only the gallery was closed during their open hours - too bad!

Fabric Inspiration

This piece came together quickly when I was refreshing my memory of what hand dyed fabrics I have and I came upon this mauve and blue piece I coloured a few years ago. And now I'm choosing theads... I also tried some curved piecing and sewed the sleeve onto 'Coming Together', today. And I figured out how to make a slideshow set to music on my computer - something I can use here on the blog sometime.

Screening at Last

I'm finally using the silkscreen that I bought at the beginning of this year, although I haven't printed on any fabric yet, because I'm trying the 'deconstructed' method. After duct-taping the screen, I added thickened dye over texture I placed below the screen - a peacock feather, rubbing plate, puzzle pieces, and a spongy grid from a fruit box. Once the dye is dried on the screen, I will use print paste to transfer it to fabric. Although I used very small amounts of the dye thickener, I still had some left over, so I used it to do monoprints as well as paint on several pieces of cloth, and they are batching right now. I also tried this curved piecing technique in the photo directly above, which I found tedious but doable.

Ugly is in the Eye of the Beholder

At my last art quilt group meeting, we tried out Pentel dye sticks on freezer paper and transferred it to muslin by burnishing with a utensil of choice. I was aiming for a cave art style and reproduced it a second time by recovering the original after the first transfer. The top of the photo is the freezer paper version I drew and beneath it is the transfer. One member of the group had asked us to bring an ugly fabric which we are to transform for the better. Mine is the grey one. Of course, some people's 'uglies' were attractive to me. This is proving to be interesting - I've been thinking about how to mute ugliness in general - covering it up, amplifying beauty near by, altering in some way - or - exploring and potentially changing my perceptions. I wanted to try things new to me, so I went with a more traditional approach (measuring and quarter inch seams) - first choosing the Japanese yellow, grey and white fabric because I like it, then adding lighter and darker values for contrast, cutting all into 4 inch squares, then cutting further and repiecing. I still find that grey fabric terribly ugly, but it's at least muted by the addition of other fabrics and a decrease in size. When I was recently buying supplies for an upcoming class on making placemats that my quilt guild is offering, I started by trying to match a tablecloth that I have, and was successful in finding a potential border, base and backing. But the more I looked at them, imagining working with them, the more my energy dropped and I knew I had to instead choose fabrics that I love, so I did. When I brought them home, I saw they match a different tablecloth that I have, so that is a bonus. I've also found new storage space for my silks by combining the contents of two drawers into one.

Style and Limitations

I've been wanting to practice further with piecing, so today I cut a few curves and when I pieced them by carefully matching registration marks and pinning every half inch then keeping to about an eighth of an inch seam, I still had several spots that were pinched. I got out my seam ripper and then resewed these portions but I found myself wondering if I will ever be able to do this. Any curved piecing I've done in the past has been more gentle and I didn't encounter problems even though I didn't do any pinning at all. So then I consulted one of Ruth McDowell's books on piecing and it looks so deceptively easy. I just sat and enjoyed the photos of her quilts and her incredible skill with putting fabrics together, though, because I've tried one of her pieced squares with detailed instructions - and I still couldn't put it together properly. Which brings me to a question. The other day I heard a quote on the radio saying that our style is a reflection of our limitations. The quote was directed at musical composition, however, I wondered if it might also apply to fibre art. My current limitation is this piecing business - and it's a challenge I want to meet and overcome. The quilts I've made to date are largely collaged and appliqued, although I do have several that are pieced. The pieced ones were made as I developed them, not with a pre-existing plan. So one aspect of my style that could be a result of limitations is to not preplan. If I was an excellent piecer like Ruth McDowell - would my style change to one where I pre-planned quilts? If I keep attempting to learn piecing and master it - would I still naturally gravitate to working without a plan? Maybe certain people are just more likely to be drawn to one way or the other, based on what comes most easily. I imagine that those who are impatient to get their ideas concretized - like me - choose methods that are the quickest.