Fibermania

Begin and Begin Again

The thumbnail, which is often the beginning of a new piece, can be the roadmap for composing. Or it can merely be a hint of where the work may go. It all depends on my confidence when I enter the studio. It is pretty small, no more than 3" in one direction, but it contains all the elements of my idea.

I know I want to use sunny colors of the summer so I began to make this piece with a very large second drawing, which I started twice and then abandoned. I figured I would make a few of these 'buildings' and then find ways to put them together.

And I would need some background assembled fabrics too.

I did not end up using any of these constructed pieces!

While my sister and niece were here, we dragged this table up into my studio so we all could have a place to work. It has stayed and has been the perfect spot to pile up the fused fabrics without having them all on my work surface.

It turned out that I drew a new pattern and worked directly from that instead of working improvisationally.

I finished the top this morning. I am not sure of the title yet, and of course it has yet to be quilted. I'll attend to that after I put away the huge pile of scraps that have resulted from this top.

Untitled, fused cottons, 20 x 21.5"

Now I know I will be hit with comments about this being a Ton Schulten looking piece, but if you will kindly refer to this post from November 2005, you will see that 'great minds' think alike.