100 Days of Dice Compositions: Week 3 - Flower Power Grid

 

This concludes my third week in my 100 Days of Dice Compositions. I am absolutely loving this series as I get to play with every step of the quiltmaking process. Creating a 12" x 12" finished quilt using raw edge fusible applique is proving to be very achievable within the 7-day time frame, with time to add hand embroidered details (which I am especially enjoying!) Join me as I share my process for creating this week's Dice Composition... 

15/100: Dice Roll + Initial Fabric Pull

I am super excited about this week's dice roll assignment:

• 3=Yellow
• 3=Grid Design Guide

Yellow is not a color I use often and certainly not as the focus color, so this week will certainly be an interesting challenge. Here is an initial fabric pull featuring a variety of yellow, black, and white prints laid out in a grid formation for a photo opportunity. 

We'll see which ones make the final cut and any new additions once I start playing with grid layouts...

16/100: Refine Fabric Palette and Back with Fusible

Spent some time refining the fabric palette. A few prints were removed from the initial fabric pull with a few new additions from my 100 Days of Mark Making, along with several black and white prints from my scrap bin. All have been fused with Pellon 805 Wonder Under and are ready to cut up and play within a grid layout!

17/100: Grid Play

Sometimes you just need to start cutting up fabric to allow all new design possibilities to emerge.

Yeah, those first few cuts are super scary, but once you do, it will unlock exciting new ideas! Once I trimmed out the individual flowers and cut strips to layer onto the large backgrounds, new ideas started to flow quickly! I started with a simple 2x2 grid layout and then started to play with little accent strips.

I was pretty excited by my progress although I am not quite ready to fuse it down quite yet. I will sleep on it and then do some finetuning in the morning. And then let the stitching fun begin!

18/100: Fine-Tune Layout, Fuse, and Start Stitching

• Fine-tuned layout...✔️ (see if you can spot the changes I made from the night before.)
• Fused Into Place...✔️
• Free-Motion Outline Stitched...✔️ (each of the layers/elements)
• French knots...✔️ (to embellish the flower dots on the left and the polkadots on the right below)

Rearranging and adding a few elements really helped create balance and unity within this composition.

Having lots of FUN!...✔️

19/100: More Stitched Details by Hand and Machine

While I loved the french knots, I was unsure what to stitch next. I raided my button jars for potential embellishment ideas. Here is just a small sampling of the various buttons I sorted. After auditioning various placements of the buttons, I realized that there was already a lot going on in terms of pattern and textures within the fabrics and I opted to skip the button idea altogether.

Instead, I returned to transforming each quadrant with more machine and hand-stitched pattern & textures using a combination of Aurifil and Wonderfil threads. 

Below you can see the before and after texture transformations of each quadrant...starting with the more subtle changes working up to the more dramatic transformations:

Quadrant 2: Stitched Stamen and French Knots on Polka Dots

Quadrant 4: Outline Circles and French Knots Around Flower Dots

Quadrant 1: Spirals and a Line of French Knots

Quadrant 3: Hand-Embroidered Details on Mandalas

These stitched details really add interest to the flowers and help them stand out from the busy background.

20/100: Backed, Trimmed, and Facing Prepped

Found this perfect backing print in my stash featuring a grid of yellow and white flowers. I carefully trimmed my composition (double and triple checking the measurements) before adding the facing strips. All that is left to do is hand stitch and label the back...

21/100: Hand Stitch Facing, Add Label, Photograph, and Blog

Last night I woke up thinking about quilt titles for my almost-finished Dice Composition #3. Some of the better ideas were "Flower Pots & Polka Dots" or "Flower Beds and Golden Threads." I didn't love either of them when I woke in the morning, so I sent a photo of my quilt to my mother asking for quilt title ideas. She messaged me back with "Flower Power." It's a pretty electric color palette in a grid layout, so I added onto her suggestion with "Flower Power Grid." This is especially appropriate as our Air Conditioning was working overtime to keep us comfortable during this week's record heat. I promptly made a label using leftover scraps and finished hand stitching the facing.

Ta-Done!!

Flower Power Grid, Finishes 12" x 12"

Personal Critique:

While I started with a traditional 2 x 2 grid structure, I set out to break the grid by breaking up the background squares by layering strips in different directions and placing the bottom right flower so it overlapped two quadrants. While the colors and fabrics have high contrast and energy, I somehow managed to tone it down (and/or simply got used to it!) Each quadrant was unified by using similar elements: coordinating color palette, a large focal flower, circles/dots, stripes, and stitched french knots. But if you look closely, you will see subtle changes from quadrant to quadrant. It might be a different skinny stripe, the changing size and scale of the circles/dots, and/or the placement of the french knots. It reminded me of the Sesame Street game "One of these things is not like the other." I am especially pleased with how the stitched details create strong floral features and wonderful details when viewed up close.

While I didn't set out with a specific theme in mind for these compositions, I seemed to have created a floral series. We'll see whether Week 4's Dice Roll will inspire more flower designs or perhaps a new direction?