Assignment 3: composing

(You might start with the post from last week, which discusses picking the fabrics.)

I thought I'd try and tackle one of the compositions today.  I began by laying out the pieces by size and value, and it was kind of interesting to discover that not all shapes are present for all values.  The medium light and medium dark have fewer squares and I think there is more dark than anything, including some funky rectangles.

The distribution of values

The big dark square is a dominating force, but the squares in the next size down are also something to contend with.  I had to revise what I was doing after discovering that remaining gaps in the composition didn't match the shapes I had left.  Here's my first attempt, where I realized I had a 1" square left over, which is not supposed to happen.  I also noticed that I had a lot of activity in small squares at the bottom and alternating purple (medium) and navy (dark) blocks across the top. 

First attempt

I squeezed the remaining shape in and rearranged values and small shapes.  In the process, I lost a few small 1/2" squares, and had to make some new ones.  Below is where I landed.  I like it better because the balance of the values and sizes is improved, but it still seems a little busy at the bottom.  This is because I only left a couple inches below the large dark square.

Final version

This is obviously asymmetric balance.  I will try something that is symmetric next.  Good luck with your journey ...

p.s.  If you are working with fabric, I ironed one side of a sheet of heat 'n bond on the base 16" x 16" fabric, placed the pieces on this side, and then ironed the pieces I had placed onto that base sheet to fuse them to the base fabric. 

starting again

Greetings,

When I'm feeling down, sometimes I take refuge in working with fabric.  That's what happened today.  I ended up getting started on assignment 3, picking the 5 fabrics and cutting up all those tiny little squares.  I hope it really will form those nice square blocks that the book talks about.

My dark, med dark, medium, med light, and
light fabrics, sorted into the 3 piles

I found it difficult to pick the 5 values.  Eventually I found set that seemed to do the job, but I still wonder if I have enough contrast.  I also tried to stay in the same color series because it can be hard to judge value of contrasting colors (we'll work on that again in December).  And I tried to minimize the pattern in the fabric so that the composition wouldn't get too busy, although I now see that one of my fabrics definitely breaks that rule.  Anyway, I'm committed to this set.

I cut a 16 x 16" piece of fabric to set the pieces on.  I'm going to use the heat 'n bond fusing on the 16 x 16" fabric so that after placing the individual squares on the big square, I can just iron them down.

I am excited about starting to tinker with these fabrics now, and look forward to a little more time in my quilt room.

Sarah