Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
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Taking simple elements, such as letters and making something out of them is a great place to start if you are creatively stuck.
Yes, this could have been a Moon prompt response as well, but it isn’t. I almost bought one of those round hatbox suitcases once and didn’t. I always wonder if my life would have been different.
I was out of the house almost all of last weekend, which is not my usual routine. While I had fun, I was disappointed not to get to spend copious amounts of time working on my projects. Still, as I mentioned on Wednesday, I did fit in a bit of work around the edges on the Tarts.
I played around with different looks for the piece of pie. I drew one, first, that the viewer looked at straight at, e.g. the viewer did not see the top of the pie at all. It didn’t really work for me. I didn’t like the look, so I reworked it so that the view had a more angled view.
I didn’t have a good pie crust color that I wanted to use (‘wanted to use’ being the critical phrase, here) The orange makes the viewer do a double take, IMO. I will do something, perhaps, with the quilting on the piece to tone down the orange a bit. The orange does blend in with the other orange fabrics in the whole piece.
After I place everything the way I want it on the background, I stitch it down. In the last few pieces I have also been topstitching in addition to the machine appliqued zigzag stitching. I don’t think you can see the topstitching in this picture, but people who are able to view the piece in person will be able to see it, I think.
I picked the background to make a triangle with other purple pieces at the top of the piece. I picked it after I picked the ‘filling’ fabric. I wonder if they don’t allow each other to shine? I think this particular block looks better as part of the whole than by itself.
I left a bit of the fabrics above and below showing so you can see how it fits in close up.
Here is the whole current piece. I kind of miss that big white rectangle at the bottom and am having trouble assimilating the pie. I think I will manage to get used to it. I can’t imagine a big white rectangle in the piece would be a great design decision.
Am going to try to get to some studies for the silverware next to the red cups. I am also thinking I will add a few more black and white squares to the checkerboard on top of the frothy drink.
Are you on a creative journey or a journey that involves planes and luggage?
What inspires you when you travel?
Here is a lovely poem about a journey which I found at Poem Hunter:
Journey to Be by Mark Slaughter
I think I’ll journey out some day to wondrous lands afar,
Or even chart a journey to a distant blazing star.
But rest assured that where my journey sees to take me to,
Always know that when I go, this journey takes you too.
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We’ll start our journey out from here by horse and cart of old,
The seaside docks – and journey pauses – where we shall behold
A noble schooner for the journey primed to launch as planned:
To sail with dolphins cross the seas then journey back on land.
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And so our journey goes by foot to conquer mountains tall:
A chapter hence the journey reached, with scenes that should enthral.
But when we tire, let’s rest our journey, stretched in fields of flowers,
And bathe atop the mountain from the journey – autumn showers!
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Refreshed our journey takes a turn – we’ll venture back for home,
But first we’ll let the journey take a tangent just to roam.
And in the winding route, this journey’s bound to bide content,
But most of all take heed – let’s make our journey life’s event.
See the Creative Prompt page if you want to know how to participate in this project.
Post the specific URL or deep link where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted in the comments area of this post. It is an easy and good way to keep all the artwork together.
There is more information and inspiration on the Creative Prompt Page.
I did the first moon prompt response after doing one of the drawings with the facade of the building. I wasn’t terribly happy with it, especially as I did more drawings and became one with my PITT pen.
I have to say that I kind of like doing the same drawing over and over with minor variations. It gives me the opportunity to work through some kind of drawing. I would love to do series of quilts and I have some, but they take so long that I don’t really see it as practical. Of course, I’ll never be bored!
I did a second moon prompt response after I did the sun drawing, because I thought they needed to be a set.
Anyway, I received an email from Liz and Beth about the fun tour that their editor, Kent, is doing of Europe that sent me to their blog. I laughed so hard when I saw these pictures that I just had to share. Take a look.
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The weekend was filled with picnics. Both Saturday and Sunday included hot dogs and potato salad, chats and a bit of sun. It was nice to be outside, but I was pretty tired after all the sociability. Also, I didn’t get to work much on my projects.
Sunday was a beautiful day to be outside. After greeting lots of people, I was able to sit and do some hand stitching. I had some of the block (right) finished, but did most of it at the picnic. The completion of this block means that I have only two blocks left to make for the center of the Flowering Snowball quilt.
I still haven’t designed the border, but put an idea into the Sun Creative Prompt response. I know what I want; I just have to figure out how to make it a reality.
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I have been staring at this quilt on my design wall for months. I am glad it is progressing; the end is finally in sight. I will be very glad when I get it sewn together and off my design wall!
I made one tiny change to the arrangement of the Tarts Come to Tea. Can you identify the change? You can see the previous iteration on the June 4th, 2009 post. What do you think?
OK. I won’t keep you tortured in suspense. I moved the china cups up. I am still considering their new spot. It is less fabric and seams next to the twirly handle coffee pot. Also, it is fewer cups next to each other. The heart makes a bit of a break for the eye for the middle cups. My eyes were looking at all of those cups in a row and wondering if they would fly off the quilt.
As with the Nosegay, I wasn’t able to get the whole Eye Spy quilt in the photos. Still, I am happy that I finally got a mostly entire picture of the quilt.
The Child loves his quilt, which makes my heart happy. He doesn’t search out the pictures that I carefully fussy cut. He arranges the quilt and folds it carefully over him.
On Sunday, the sun was right, I had an assistant and time to fool around, so I went outside and made an attempt to take full photos of the Nosegay and the Eye Spy. They are large and hard to photograph in the house.
The session wasn’t quite as successful as I had hoped. I did get more of the Nosegay in one picture than I ever had before, but not all of it. I have to face reality that it is a HUGE quilt and I may never have the space to photograph the whole thing. I may break down and take it somewhere to be professionally photographed.
I took the opportunity to take some straight on detail shots. Right, is a corner – or most of the corner. There was a slight breeze that seemed to kick in just as I snapped the shutter.
This bottom photo is the center of the quilt. The whole reason this quilt is so big is because I put everything on point and had to have all the blocks spaced a certain way. I hope it brings tears to the eyes of quilt historians someday, because at this moment the quilt feels like a big pain!
I am glad I got the photos I did. I had waited for a long time for everything to be right to photograph this quilt.
So, this post is about what inspiration can do for you if you look at an inspiring object you long enough. I have been in that kind of mood lately. The “What if” mood. The light has been the way I like it, too, not too glary and not too grey. I have been seeing everything through this light and have been inspired by it all lately. The machine quilting I did on Beach Town last weekend was a direct result of some lines I saw while driving the previous Friday. It is a good reminder for me to look around.
I pulled this batik out of the blue bin for the variety of projects that require blue. For some reason, it ended up on my desk with the detail (left) front and center. For days it lay there. For days I looked at it. For days it lurked in my peripheral vision.
Then, the other night, I just sat down and drew it. When in doubt, what else do you do?
This is what I drew. It doesn’t look the same without the color, other motifs and thicker lines. Still, I like the various elements. It is clear to me that having a variety of sizes of tips on my black pens would be very helpful.
In looking at this version, I wondered what the design would look like if I straightened the lines out a bit.
In the drawing to the left, I started too far to the right and had to cut off my drawing. I am trying to go with the process and be flexible. Again the thickness of the pen was a problem for me, but I can always do the drawing again later with a thicker pen.
I thought I was finished, so I put the drawing book away and folded the fabric, though I left it on my desk. The way I folded it, however inspired me further.
I folded the fabric so that the detail motif (blue, above) was almost exactly in half. It made me think of a symmetrical version of the design. tried what was on my mind. Even though I didn’t finish the whole thing, I can see what I was envisioning. I just wanted to get the idea on paper.
As you can see, looking at something over a period of time can make your mind work with the inspiration in different ways.
Moonlight.
Howling at the moon.
Artemis is the Greek goddess of the moon.
You are the moon.
Paper moon.
Over the moon.
See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.
Post the direct link or URL to where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. blog or Flickr) in the comments area of this post. It is a good way to keep all the artwork together.
There is more information on the Creative Prompt Page.
I have been drawing studies in my journal as my designs get more complicated. I also have been doing studies of parts of the drawings as I try to work out the perspective and proportion of elements. In this drawing, I found that I didn’t know how to draw a bicycle. I had to go and look up where the main parts of a bicycle connect to each other before I could draw it.
I spent 10 hours in my workroom on Sunday. I spent most of it machine quilting Beach Town. The piece is relatively small, so I was surprised that it took so much work. The really surprising thing is that I have more machine quilting to go!
It was surprising, because I thought I did most of the machine quilting during my last session. It turns out that I really wanted the quilting much closer together. I filled in some areas I already done. The new areas were quilted much closer together – only about 1-2 stitches apart.
The skinny tree needs some more stitching. It is raveling away and I’d like to save it before it goes completely.
I really hope you can see the machine quilting in this picture, because that is how it is almost all over the piece. There are a few sections left to do, but the bulk is done.
I was thinking, for future Pamela pieces, that I really needed to get the machine quilting done before I start in on the hand stitching. Not that the hand stitching hampered my machine quilting at all. It just makes better sense to do the machine work first and finish with the hand work.
