Sunday, February 17, 2013

Unveiling The First "Monumental" Design

Hello again Internet People!  Well, it ain't perfect, but it is good the fuck enough.  So here is a photo of my design plan for the first Flower Basket art quilt : 



Not too bad for someone who cannot draw!  The paper is 18" x 24".  I started with a piece of foam core board which I marked with a 2 1/4" grid.  I used my big, four foot level to mark out the lines and it just happens to be 2 1/4" thick, so it made a good grid to work from.  As I mentioned yesterday I drew the basket out first and then laid another piece of paper over it and traced it through.  Then I took the templates for the pattern pieces and traced them into the pattern.  The basket and the branches were the only things drawn "freehand" (I did use rulers, a straight one and a bendy one, but no templates).

The bare sticks are flowering branches and they will have leaves and flowers on them in the finished design, but after drawing them in on the one branch (the Mexican Orange Blossom - upper right) I decided it was unnecessary to draw them all in at this time.  The lollypop looking things are just the centers of the Jonquils and Daffodils, the petals are 3-D and drawing them in was just too distracting.  You can kind of see what I mean if you look at the three circles at the lower left, those are the Eranthis, I tried drawing the petals in lightly for them and it is just messy looking.

After staring at it for a while last night I have decided to flip the Pansies on the right with the Grape Hyacinth on the left.  I don't want to try to re-draw either of them, so I am just making a mental note for that change.  There will also be a pile of Forget-me-nots in the lower left corner, beside the basket, which I didn't draw in yet.  

So today I get to trace out a whole bunch more circles for more of those teeny tiny yo-yos, I need 30 purple-blue ones for the hyacinth, plus however freaking many white ones I need for the Lily of the Valley.  Then there are all the petals for all the flat flowers, I haven't even started on any of those.  Oh, and I still have to go find my basket fabric which is outside somewhere.  I have some ideas I want to play with for the basket fabric, fortunately I have like four yards of the stuff, so there is lots of it to fuck up before I figure out what I am doing.  I was thinking of maybe trying some discharge dyeing on parts of it, so the basket itself is a lighter shade than the handle and the trim.  I have never done any of that before so I am not sure what it will turn out like, but I have plenty to work with so there is no harm in trying it out.

I think my biggest challenge at the moment is going to be transferring the placement lines for the basket from the paper to the base fabric.  Its too damn big to fit on my light box that's for sure!  I have a couple of windows that are big enough, but they are a pain in the ass to reach because there is furniture in front of them.  Oh well, I will find a way, I always do.

For now I think I will go get to tracing circles onto fabric so I can get back to sewing again.  I have spent the better part of a week developing the pattern and haven't had the time to sew, so now that it is done, I do.  And I am.  Until next time:


                                       


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