Thoughts on Creating a 12" Composition Each Week:
The 12" square size proved to be very achievable within a 7-day deadline as I always had a finished quilt by Sunday. Most weeks I even managed to add a label and write a blog post within the week, although there were a few weeks when I needed an extra day to complete these last two steps. To stay on pace, I needed manage my time, minimize procrastination, and oftentimes I simply had to move forward and make it work. However, there was plenty of wiggle room to allow extra time to process or work through some of my design dilemmas. But I absolutely loved having the opportunity to play with each aspect of the quilt design process on a weekly basis, including choosing fabrics, printing new fabrics, layout, machine stitching, hand-embroidery, and finishing.
- Color: Over the course of the series, here are the dice breakdowns by color: Red-2 rolls, Orange-3 rolls, Yellow-2 rolls, Green-2 rolls, Blue-3 rolls, Purple-2 rolls, and I did not roll for the final composition. Red proved to be one of the harder colors as I created those fabrics early in my mark-making journey and discovered some favorite, new techniques/mediums later in the mark-making series. Of course there were several color combinations to incorporate more color and pattern:
- Color + Black & White- 5 pieces
- Complementary Colors - 6 pieces
- Analogous Colors - 3 pieces
- Design Guides: Whereas each design guide was featured at least once, some were more easy for me to use as a jumping off point thanks to their more structured approach: Layered Landscapes, One Amazing Line, Third Plus, Symmetrical, and Grid. The Modular, Dancing Grid, and Magic 3 design guides proved to be a bit more challenging as they feature a looser structure but I still enjoyed creating with them.
Favorite vs. Most Challenging Steps
Each week there was always one or more steps that proved to be more challenging than others. Most often it was finalizing the layout before I could fuse it all into place. There were brief moments of panic when I hadn't fused everything down by Wednesday or Thursday, but I would simply continue playing and refining until it got sorted. The other challenging step oftentimes was coming up with a fun and whimsical quilt titles, but thankfully I had some help from various Instagram followers who responded to my pleas for title suggestions, as well as my mother who is great at brainstorming and wordsmithing. And when all else failed, I turned to a Google search for puns and idioms that were usually reworked to fit the theme. Picking fabrics and transforming with stitched textures was usually my favorite steps, but there were certainly weeks when I struggled to finalize fabrics, choose free-motion quilting motifs, and add hand-embroidered details.
Personal-Critique
Part of my weekly blog was to include a personal critique as a way of examining my work through the use of the elements of art and design principles. During this step I turned to Deborah Boschert's books and checklists, as well as Lyric Kinard's Critique Cheat Sheet and Pocket Guide to Critique as a reference. While it was hard to be totally objective about my own work, I tried to analyze each piece using these elements and principles, and was sure to highlight those areas that were more successful than others, oftentimes with a focus on color/value, contrast, movement, and all that amazing TEXURE!
Staying Motivated
Part of the challenge of participating in a 100 Day Project is ensuring that you create every day for 100 Days. There were a few strategies that helped provide some accountability and motivation. The start of my project coincided with the start of SAQA's Jump Into June with fiber artists all over the globe creating daily for the 30 days of June. During July, I was on my own until SAQAs kicked off their 100 Days Reboot which started August 3rd. It was wonderful to have lots of creative company for the final ~40 days of my 100 Day Journey. Of course posting to Instagram, my blog, and monthly newsletter kept me accountable to all those who provided encouragement along the way via likes and their wonderful comments. Two of the compositions were made for entry deadlines: SAQA's Benefit Auction and SAQA's Trunk Show. I am delighted that Dancing Leaves of Joy was purchased by a fellow SAQA member and helped raise money to promote art quilting! And the 7" x 10" trunk show format was perfect for one last 2-day finish: O-FISH-ial FIN-ale.
A Few More Lessons Learned Along the Way:
- Edit and Simplify: Oftentimes my struggle was trying to pack too much into the 12" space. Once I started to remove elements, there was better flow and focus to my layouts, with space to add stitched textures.
- Add Some Bling with Sequins: During Week 4, I discovered a love of incorporating sequins into my designs, usually with a central colonial knot. Of course, I also had to be mindful not to melt them when I went to fuse on the quilt back and/or faced edges! Luckily I had plenty of practice as I went onto incorporating sequins in 6 of the 15 pieces.
- Refining my Facing and Finishing Process: All but one of the finished compositions were faced (ARTiFISHial Sea Life had painted edges as I was afraid to get an iron anywhere near all that single-use plastic!) Week by week I worked on improving my faced edges, especially the corners. Plus I had some fun on the backside of each quilt by finding the perfect quilt backing fabric to tie in with the frontside and/or embellishing the labels with leftover fused elements.
- Using 10" Fabric Swatches to Create 12" Compositions: Early into the series I realized the challenge of creating 12" compositions when most of my Mark Making fabric was done on 10" swatches! This was especially challenging for creating backgrounds and amazing lines that crossed the entire piece. Some weeks I played with mark-marking on larger pieces of fabric, other weeks I pulled from my stash, and sometimes I added side borders to achieve the 12" finished size.
- Monday Reset: In order to prepare for a new weekly composition, I used Mondays as a day to reset my brain and studio. There were a few weeks that this involved wrapping up my weekly blog post. But mostly it involved tidying up the studio: putting away unused fabrics, scraps, supplies, and notions. This way I had a clean slate to start the process again. Mondays were the only days that I got an early start on my daily practice where I oftentimes rolled the dice early in the morning. That gave me the day to brainstorm potential design ideas before pulling fabrics later in the evening. And I will share that most Monday evenings were a bit restless as I was giddy about the week ahead.
- Recurring Themes: Initially flowers were featured in the first three compositions.
- Overtime, I expanded to include other nature scenes: leaves, trees, fish, and starry skies for a total of 11 compositions.
- Two of these nature-themed compositions addressed environmental impact of single-use plastic and global warming.
- The remaining 4 compositions were fairly abstract featuring arches, circles, and mod pop shapes.
What's Next?!?
Links to all 16 blog posts:
- 100 Days of Composition: Goals and Set Up
- Week 1: Thistle Be Fun!
- Week 2: Daisy Dance & Delight
- Week 3: Flower Power Grid
- Week 4: Dancing Leaves of Joy
- Week 5: ARTiFISHial Sea Life
- Week 6: A Rosy Composition
- Week 7: Mod Blues + Orange U's
- Week 8: Twist and Sprout
- Week 9: LEGO DOTS & LOTS of KNOTS
- Week 10: Mod Pop Purple Magic
- Week 11: Arch U Plaid?!?
- Week 12: Daisy Chains & Cloched
- Week 13: Wildfire ReLEAF
- Week 14: Stardust & Wonder
- Week 15: O-FISH-ial FIN-ale
It's been so fun discovering your blog and following along with your dice challenge! I loved reading about your processes and seeing them evolve into the finished projects. This wrap up is great. Your skills and fearless creating inspire me to try one of these dice challenges this winter when I have a few months to myself. Thank you for your generous sharing of all this eye candy and I look forward to seeing what you dream up next.
ReplyDeleteAwww...thank you! I am so glad you are inspired and hope you will try rolling the dice as part of your creative journey this winter--for a week, a month, or a few months. It really adds a fun factor and stretches me outside of my comfort zone. I hope you experience the same joy and creativity in your project.
DeleteExcellent summary {as usual}, Mel. I really liked the idea of self critique and appreciate the links you supplied. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ann. I found it helpful to step back and examine what is working (or not working) in each of my pieces. The resources are excellent resources as they provide a checklist and brief descriptions of the various elements of art and design principles. I referred to them frequently.
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