Mod Drunk is finished! It was my exploration of the design element, EMPHASIS, as part of Savor Each Stitch Book Bee. I started this quilt in October 2015. I described my process in a previous post.
I’ve been hand quilting it since last year and concentrated my efforts during the 100 Day Project. It is my favorite design from the Bee.
Texture was the the last chapter in Carolyn Friedlander’s Savor Each Stitch book and the last chapter of our Book Bee.
Maybe because it was the last chapter and because a myriad of other commitments this summer, I am still working on this chapter quilt.
Carolyn’s project in the book was inspired by Crazy Quilts. I took that inspiration as well.
I have a Bernina 560 and it has dozens of embroidery stitches. I bought some linen and linen/cotton fabric and started stitching those embroidery stitches.
I had a basket of thread from my mother’s stash. She died 20 years ago this year,
and I liked the idea of using her thread in my Texture quilt.
It was fun to see what was on my Bernina. The stitches were narrow and at first I made straight lines.
A fellow bee member said it looked like I had created my own fabric. I made some more “fabric” and didn’t travel in straight lines. Then I experimented with meandering with the embroidery stitches until I was tired of it.
I played around with my own Crazy blocks and added them to my embroidery blocks which I had cut into 6.5″ squares.
That’s where I am. I feel my Crazy blocks aren’t that crazy and I’m unsure if my “fabric” blocks mesh with the improv blocks.
I looked back at Carolyn’s blocks and there is a sophistication to them, and I see that in my fabric blocks, but not in the Crazy blocks. Lots of texture and tension, for sure. I’m going to take a break from them and see where I want this quilt to go. I looking for a better ending to this chapter.
The Savor Each Stitch Book Bee was an enriching experience. By focusing on Lines, Contrast, Scale, Color, Emphasis, Volume and Texture, I learned to trust my instincts, and I saw my design skills improve. I learned so much about myself, and I really enjoyed the experience with amazing quilters who were generous in their comments. I even got to spend some a few days with one of them last year at this time. Susan — you are the best.
I made a collage of my quilts, minus the Color one, to see if there were any trends. I have not finished quilting the Emphasis quilt (far right top).
Use of solids
Improv with structure
Curves with a nod to tradition
Some risk taking
Top Left: Lines: Date Night; Middle: Contrast: Contrast Material; Right: Emphasis: Mod Drunk; Bottom Left: Scale: Roses and Right: Volume: Solitude!
SCALE was the third chapter of the Savor Each Stitch Book Bee. Carolyn Friedlander’s book has a photo of bales of hay in front of a house and tree.
The caption reads, “Scale is relative to everything around it.”
On June 2, 2015, I wrote this in the book bee community:
I don’ t have a design in mind for Scale. I pulled some prints — large to small to inspire me. CF’s Circle Lattice is interesting and I like the idea of a large applique piece.
I had pulled some Kaffe prints and I sketched a large applique:
At the same time, my daughter was home for the summer from college and we visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibit: Van Gogh, Manet and Matisse. The Art of the Flower. The exhibit was very crowded and the art was displayed in different rooms in chronological order, beginning with the early Impressionists. The early works were so real. The ladybugs on the leaves looked like they were alive right there on the paintings. Van Gogh’s work wasn’t lifelike but the paint was three dimensional . By the end I felt I had traveled through time, and I felt dizzy and overwhelmed by FLOWERS.
That experience stayed with me and I made a large applique flower (no photo). BUT, I didn’t like it.
I liked the Kaffe prints so I made a tote bag as a Scale warm-up.
Since I liked the idea of a large flower, I created a large improvisational “flower” using solid scraps.
I didn’t like how the small flowers were interacting with the large one.
On July 16, 2015, I wrote:
My Scale study has taken another turn. I decided to make some large and small improv “flowers.” I did that and tried to assemble them. Hated it, then slashed and reassembled them, and I think I’m getting somewhere. Now to decide if I need a border and how much border. I think it needs some “breathing space” — not sure what would be best. Blue perhaps.
That’s the story of SCALE.
