Designing

Here are two more of my silk dupioni blocks that I have been working on. 

They measure 14 -1/2".  This brings the total so far to 9.  Although I feel like I have been working on them forever, it really has been about 1 month.

I have been asked to share my design process many times.  It is not fancy and it is not complicated.  

My first step after I come up with an idea is to do some sketching - some very rough sketching.  Usually this is done on a very small scale.  That seems to be the easiest for me.  

Then I enlarge the design to the finished size.  Sometimes it is technically done with something like an overhead projector or the copy machine at an office supply store.  

Other times I just redraw it free hand to scale. 

In this instance, I hadn't planned on creating this silk floral quilt when I packed up my supplies in Pennsylvania and didn't have any drafting paper, so I headed to the CVS that is a block away from our place to see if I could find some drawing paper.  I did not want to tape together the paper from the printer.  I came home with a roll of the plainest gift wrapping paper that I could find.

I cut it up into 14" squares.

For this project, once I had a few blocks designed, I started stitching.  This usually happens because to me, that's the fun stuff.  I can't wait to see my drawings stitched in fabric, but fabric can be a quirky medium.  It's not always predictable how my color selection will work. 

 Fabric value and hue are properties that affect the interaction, or lack thereof, of my color choices. The only way to find out if they are successful is by auditioning them or as I normally do - just plowing ahead.  Then I deal with the consequences. This happened with the second block.  I didn't take a photo right away when I realized my block needed something, so this is part way through the fixing step.  the block was dull and flat.
 The addition of the yellow dots on the petals gave it a pop and brought it to life.