Thursday, August 21, 2008

Watching the River Run


I have not been able to make it to my ongoing Practical Design workshop in several months, due to vacations and family events and such. So this Sunday, I'll be getting back to it and I'm really looking forward to it. I've talked about it before, but basically we work with an artist/leader and she guides us through work on various design concepts. There are assigned themes each time, which we can choose to do or not as time and energy permits. And because I've been gone so long, I was determined to complete a piece for this class.

This month's topics are line and applique. Another ongoing aspect of the workshop is that we select artist mentors who have worked in other media -- I chose Andy Goldsworthy because I love how he uses organic shapes and natural objects and simple designs to create striking pieces of art.

Luckily, I just happened to have this little piece I'd done for another exercise. I love the fabrics and the line shape, so my challenge to myself was to turn this into something.



As you can see from the result above, I bordered it with some other fabrics -- which required some creative piecing, as I didn't have enough of the graduated hand-dyed piece I wanted to use and was determined to make it work. I fused and machine appliqued "pebbles", and then continued the theme with machine quilting (which was VERY fun to do.) You can see a detail here.



I really enjoyed this exercise and am very pleased that I managed to turn a little UFO into something I really like. Very satisfying! Oh, and Francoise, the size is 26 x 28 inches.

6 comments :

  1. Great quilt Diane!
    What size is it?

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  2. Fantastic! I am convinced that simple and elegant is your path. The quilting really complements the composition wonderfully.

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  3. Oooo, I really like this. The textures I see are fabulous and the colors so earthy and rich.

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  4. Fantastic. I love every single thing about it... the color palette, the line, the stones, the quilting, the line extending into the borders, the asymmetry, the subtle repetitive color changes in the bottom border. Great job.

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  5. Diane, this is wonderful! Such fluid movement and the border quilting is a perfect compliment to the piece. I especially love how your river goes from edge to edge! Great composition here.

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