Speedy Designs?

My friend Mary wrote this:
It still amazes me that you can knock out a design in such a short time.  Fusing quickly, I get, but to be fast on the design is incredible.
Here's my non-secret secret to speedy design.
Do whacha done before.



Way back when in the early 90's I made this 5x7" postcard quilt. You will note the leaves on the right side are skeletal? It was fun and kinda accidental design at the time, but it worked and I figured I could do it again only bigger.

 

I used the same basic accidental layout again for this larger 18x24" version, and thus began the idea of re-doing a previous design. Series work, it's called.

I had a sketch of these same fern shapes in my sketch book and so when I wanted a new quilt I just copied that sketch out, larger. This version is all silks. Yummy silks.

And then nearly the same quilt in cottons.

Detail of the ferns.

Later I made a really gigantic version, Crotons, 72x47" in cottons, hand dyed specifically for this quilt.

Here are those ferns again in Topiaries,
 ...and again in Sunflowers II

  and finally in Ferns and Tulips.
It's like reaching into your pantry and pulling out your favorite ingredients and making a new dish.

Every one of these is fused, and that does speed up the process, but design-wise, it is familiar territory.
But the one important thing in all this is that the ideas happened because the process was fast and easy and SMALL at first. With fusing you can bring your ideas to life and see what they look like without worrying about how to get them made. I can't imagine trying to work out an idea like this with hand applique or piecing. It had to be cut and paste.
And as I have said a zillion times, the design is paramount to the technique.