Not just drooling over the photos!

Hello,

     For once I am going to use one of my many quilting books for something other than drooling over the photos.  I have joined a group that is working our way through Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker.  This is good!  I am trying to become more disciplined in my art.  There was discussion of right brain/ left brain and trying to bring more of one into the mix.  I won't go into a lot of detail since I don't want to give away all of their secrets in the book.  

     There are some interesting drawing exercises, the first of which you try to draw

 a still life while blocking your view of your paper.  A blind contour drawing!  That one was not pretty!  I think I did better art in kindergarten but, pretty wasn't the point so that was OK.  It was an exercise to help with that right brain/left brain cross over.  There were several exercises each leading one step further.

First is the photo of my fruit I tried to

 draw and later re-create with fabric.  A banana, an orange and a kiwi split in two.  I didn't want anything too complex but I thought the kiwi added a little punch.  Next is my first blind contour.  If you look closely and squint (maybe) you can sort of see, oh never mind!

     The next photo shows my drawing of the fruit while trying to look at my paper only 25% of the time.  (I think I may have looked a little more than that--it was hard to judge)  It was also hard to make myself not look at my paper.  If you have this book pull it out and give it a try.  It's very interesting.

Finally I have a re-creation of my

 photo in fabric (at the top of the page).  I also made an abstract of the fruit and a contour drawing with free motion stitching.  So, I have three small finished journal size quilts.  These will give me an excellent opportunity to practice the binding techniques I learned in my class on Wednesday.

     The binding class was so much better than I expected it to be.  If you have a chance to re-visit some of the basic skills for quilters, jump right in.  I had several Aha! moments that I know will make me a nicer person to be around when I'm trying to bind my quilts. Practice will be good so that it comes more naturally for me. Have a good day everyone! Janet