Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Design Process



It was a very quiet 4th of July here, most of the celebrating was done on Saturday so I hardly heard any fireworks on the 4th which is just wrong because our Independence day is the 4th of July not the 2nd!!  There are somethings that just shouldn't be messed with like the National Anthem, Christmas carols and the 4th of July.  I'll get off my soap box now.
Lots was accomplished in the sewing room during the quiet 4th of July.  I have been thinking about how to quilt this from the time I started it.  I want to enhance the piecing, after stitching lots of quilting lines in my head I got out the paper and pen and printed a photo of the quilt.  Tracing paper is so useful.  I started by swinging an arc in each pinwheel blade with a continuous line.  I drew horizontal lines then vertical lines to hit each of the six blades.  The second was diagonal and vertical lines through 2 of the blades which meant moving the entire quilt under the needle three different times.  Then I tried vertical rows with lines in each blade the old draw the X in the box without lifting the pencil trick.  None of those ideas were thrilling me.  Doodle time.....draw circles in and out of each pinwheel, try scrolls do I want them all going the same direction,  try baptist fans, try daisies, the daisies changed into saw blades with horizontal lines...........aha try saw blades and work in vertical rows!!! then I can stitch in the ditch.   Let it rest while I work on something else and look at it again with fresh eyes.  --Ann--

4 comments:

Ramona said...

I love your idea of printing a photo of the quilt and using tracing paper to plan the quilting design. Thanks!! And you will come up with the right one. (I am with you on having the holiday on the actual holiday!)

Judy S. said...

I'm with you, too, about the holiday dates! There are some things that need to stay constant! Love your quilt.

Vic in NH said...

Here,here! holidays shouldn't be messed with. Love your sharing of this very clever and inspiring design process.

Joyful Quilter said...

You should move to my neighborhood. The fireworks were still getting set off on the 5th of July (the extra loud ones). Love the quilt doodles - I do like the saw blades.