Saturday, June 13, 2009

Finally Some Fabric



Cutting into the fabric is sometimes really easy and sometimes really hard. This time it seemed daunting. So many questions were running through my mind. Were my fabric choices correct? Was the scale right? Did the houses need to be edited a bit? Would blue and orange really carry the piece? Finally, I just "manned-up" and pulled out my favorite scissors. I mean - gosh - its only fabric right? Little by little, the piece has come together over the last few weeks. Time in the sewing hole is hard the last month of school.

I'm really having fun playing with value this time around. I did a value sketch - several in fact - but ditched them all. I decided to do it by eye. I'm sure I'll have to tweak it at the end though. I do like Vikki's method, but next time I'll put the Pellon I'm using, as the foundation, right onto my wall rather than my design wall. Keeping the pins in the pellon and out of the flannel wall is a pain. I'm very glad though, I didn't go the rough edge applique route. The nice clean edges of the houses work to achieve the feel of diversity I'm trying to create. I want them to look like a community of individuals even though they are the same simple shape. Hopefully the shape and palette will unify the piece, while the value adds the interest. We'll see!

I have 17 hours into this piece over May and June and I really need to get my act together. I'm hoping to show it at the end of the month. Plus there is another UFO (Unfinished Object) that I finally want to get done. I wish I could buy discipline at an on-line quilt shop. The owner would make a small fortune.

2 comments:

Joyce said...

Beautiful. Will you fuse it or do you applique? I really liked the one you showed earlier on your blog too.

Nina Marie said...

Thanks Joyce! I'll use a varied form of applique. It has a pellon foundation,so the pieces will be top stitched onto that. I try to stay away from fusing if at all possible. It tends to "flatten" my work and I like the texture of the fabric to read clearly. Plus when I add later thread work, the thread can sink into the fabric if necessary. The previous post talks about the angst on making those decisions.