Dilys The Quilt: BLOG 430

Blog 430

Another week; another blog! I can’t understand where the time goes. We are three weeks into January already and there are still bits of tinsel being hoovered up with the dust around the edges of the room! The plus side of this swift progress through January is that the days are drawing out very slowly. There are lambs in the local fields, daffodils about to flower and occasional bursts of warmth in the garden. That said, we had a couple of inches of snow last week and, while it looked pretty, it had the effect of preventing me from moving far from the fire. Therefore, I needed something to do on my lap so I used a beanbag tray covered with an ironing cloth and I set up my small clover iron on a little table beside me. With a traced pattern on parchment paper and some prepared fabric scraps close to hand, I was able to make modest progress with some foliage. Each leaf is done separately and then they are attached to form the finished plant. So far so good!

Foliage In progress

When I eventually got into my studio again, I tried to make progress on the design wall and audition fabrics for a potential background/foreground. At that stage, I had to step back and ask myself what I was trying to achieve. That’s the trouble with trying to work free-style; it is very hit and miss as to whether the individual parts of the pattern are going to come together to make a pleasing ‘whole’. I wasn’t convinced.

Auditioning a background

Composition

Preferred foreground

I decided that I needed to draft a master pattern that would give me a better idea of my end product but which would give me space for flexibility within it. This meant moving to the kitchen table, the only surface large enough for this pattern. The flower pots were the starting point for this wall hanging so they were drawn around and the brick pillar was added.

Master pattern

I decided that I would draw a stone wall behind the flower pots and drape a colourful shrub over the top of it. A foxglove was added alongside the pillar and a cat was drawn on top of the wall. I feel as though I am making progress now and the design wall and a phone camera are both crucial to this creative process. Photographing at regular intervals allows me to see the whole design building up from a distance and I can appraise my work as I go; it’s a great design tool for me!