So as you know, my mother gave me a 8 lesson online class with Katie Pasquini Masopust for Christmas. Every two weeks we are expected to come up a piece that reflects the lesson.
Lesson 1 - Make a design referencing the Color Wheel.
No, problem right? I mean every elementary student learns the color wheel and how the colors relate 36 colors that go smoothly around that wheel playing nicely with each other.
to each other. But now try to pull out 12 main colors in 3 different values and you'd need a third grader to tell you that's 36 colors.
Have you ever tried to get 36 unique individuals to play nicely with each other? It's hard. But once the colors where picked out, the design was relatively easy.
Lesson 1 - 24" by 12" - pieced background, fused rough edge applique, machine quilted
Self Critique Checklist
Variety: The petals where varied, as well as the negative space (the Background and flower centers)
Value: Full range of the values where used with both the Color Wheel colors and background. The lightest values of both were used to add accents through out the piece.
Balance: There is balance with the two smaller flowers balancing out the centrally located bigger flower
Composition: The accents of the lightest hues in both the flowers and and background move the eye throughout this asymmetrical composition.
What did I learn??
Welllllllllllllll, brown makes a darn good neutral. The richness of the color makes the other hues pop right off. Even with the complexity of the background the petals since shine off it. I learn that even after 25 yrs of quilting, picking out colors is hard because they are so relative to each other. What looks like primary blue in one design might look like blue-violet in another.
Also, I learned that the new Steam A Seam lite 2 really is easy to use. I repositioned those petals over and over and over until I got them just right. Also, although the fused pedals were a bit stiff, they did not gum up needles and quilted nicely. What I did need to do is clean all my paper scissors with Goo Be Gone because the glue residue did get on them. I wouldn't say that I've been lured over to the fusing camp, but for class lessons it helps speed the process along.
What Would I do differently?
I think that I would make the background not quite so complex and would make the petals bigger. That background really tended to take over the show (and yeah - I totally fell in love with it!). But the challenge was to make a design referencing the color wheel - not to showcase how cool browns look as a background.
All in all, I really liked the piece and was glad to get it done in the 2 week deadline. My studio looks like it exploded in hand dyeds but there are worse things in life than to put a good movie on and refold and organize pretty fabric. Katie critique was helpful and she liked the piece too - so lesson 1 complete!
Onto Lesson 2!!!!
So What Have Been up to Creatively?
This post first appeared on Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever By Nina-Marie S, please read the originial post: here
