During the last Quilting…for the Rest of Us Design podcast and my accompanying post on Line, I suggested some homework exercises. I did the exercises and thought I would share my work with you.
Exercise #1
I said that you would need the following supplies:
- piece of blank paper (can be the back of junk mail)
- catalog or magazine pictures you are willing to cut up
- paper scissors
- drawing or writing implement (You can use anything, but one with a smooth line is great!)
- glue stick
And I said that you should take the following steps:
- Find a picture in your magazine or catalog and cut a 3×3(?) square out of it.
- Take a piece of blank paper and lay it on the table in front of you
- Glue the 3×3(?) square somewhere towards the middle on the paper. There should be at least 2? of white space around each side of the magazine picture.
- Turn the paper upside down so the image is upside down.
- Continue the image out from each side of the paper using your pen
- “Simplify the design in the square and its drawn continuation.” Use the cut off edges to make a new design.
- Perform this exercise over and over on different pieces of paper with different pictures until you are happy with the result.
- Use the simplified design as a starting point for a quilt.
(adapted from Fearless Design for Every Quilter by Lorraine Torrence, pg. 63)
What I did: I have a relatively large pad of white paper. For what purpose I originally bought it, I don’t remember, but I find it useful for photographing projects that need a white background and drawing out appropriately sized applique’ patterns. It also came in handy for this design homework.
I pasted the square onto these pages and drew the lines. I think the designs would have been more effective on an 8/5″x11″ piece of paper. The large size of the paper diluted the design, I think. Still, it was fun.
And then, on to:
Exercise #2
You can do exercise #2 with free motion quilting as well using a 3×3? square of fabric on top of a small (11×11? or so) quilt sandwich.
I told you that the supplies you would need were:
- a charm pack OR
- a group of approximately 50 3-5″ paper squares of all colors and designs (junkmail works well, you could use a scrapbooking paper punch if you have that) OR
- cut a group of 3-5″ squares of fabric (approximately 50)
- notebook or paper (reusing junk mail is just fine)
- pen or other writing implement
Directions:
- Put all the squares on the floor or on a table right next to each other. Do not arrange them yet.
- Look at them and see if you see any dominate lines. Make a note of how the lines show up (because of the color? because of the design on the fabric or paper? Other?)
-
Line: Exercise 2 (2) If you have a camera, take a photo.
- Rearrange the squares in some kind of order.
- Look at them and see if you see any dominate lines. Make a note of how the lines show up (because of the color? because of the design on the fabric or paper? Other?)
- If you have a camera, take a photo.
- Based on what you saw in the squares of your fabric, draw simple lines in your notebook or on paper.
- Optional: think about and take note of design ideas that are suggested to you by the images you have created.
What I did: The Young Man took a scrapbook square maker and punched some squares out of some catalogs for me. Above in the first photo, I put all the squares on the white piece of paper in a rectangle. I removed some of the squares that were too obviously faces or letters, but otherwise didn’t rearrange the squares.
In the second photo, I arranged all the squares in color order in lines as much as possible. I didn’t see any designs that intrigued me right at the moment. I did really like the squares in the bottom lines, but I liked them individually not so much together. I liked the curved edges shown on some of the squares. I also liked the arrangement of colors.
Exercise #3
You will need:
- notebook or paper (junkmail is fine)
- pen or writing implement (colors are fun)
Directions: Draw different kinds of lines:
- zig zag
- curved
- broken
- straight (ish!)
- continuous
- fat
- thin
What I did: I just drew different lines on a page of my journal. I thought this was a really boring exercise, though I can see its usefulness.
