Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Dance of the Sea Nettles Step 2

I have finally finalized my first drawing of my composition. There will be three jellyfish in the composition. I am going for the maximum size allowed for the challenge which is no more than 25" on any side.


One of the tough decisions was to determine the color placement. Orange is dominant but the fabric will not allow the large jellyfish in the lower right so it has to the the one in the upper right. The green fabric is the best scale for the largest jellyfish in the lower right so that one needs to be green. Then the purple one will go on the left. The two orange fabrics and the lighter green are the challenge fabrics so I will really try to showcase them in the compostion. The purples are things I found at the quilt store and they work well with the challenge fabrics. I have quilte a few other fabrics that I will put together with them to complete the design. Each jellyfish will require quite a variety of different fabrics and those are best chosen as I work with the design.

With these important decisions it is time to make my freezer paper templates for the three jellyfish. I will use my high tech light box...............................my window and trace each of the three jellyfish separately. The freezer paper needs to be a mirror image of the final design as shiny side will be pressed to the wrong side of the fabrics. For those pieces that will need to be outlined on the right side of the fabric I will do that with my light box. The pieces that are to be pieced need to be marked on the wrong side and those that require applique will be marked on the right side. Sounds complicated and yes I guess it is. The freezer paper pieces will all have registration marks on them as well as numbers and letters that will correspond to the master designs. Each piece will need a unique designation so I will know where it is to go. This is a critical part of the making of these pictorial art pieces but it is worth the time to do these things because they ensure the accuracy of the design.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Dance of the Sea Nettles Step I

If you were given this fabric for a challenge that needs to measure no more than 25" on any given side what would you do? Well this is what we got to work with this year for our guild challenge. Now I know there are going to be lots of flowers so I do not even want to go there. I came up many ideas but could only figure in two of the three fabrics....................until I remembered a card I had purchased years ago that had Sea Nettles on it. Then a search on the internet and I found some photos of them:


A bit of sketching and I had my own origional version of sea nettles. Not really like the phtos but also different from the card.

Then on a trip to Sedona I went into the LQS and found the dark orange fabric in a purple colorway. Yes green, orange and purple are a triad on the color wheel. I am going to do three sea nettles one in each of the colors. Between my stash and LQS I came up with some fabrics that will work. Before I am done I will likely toss some out and add in a few more but at least it is a start.



Since the Sea Nettle is a sea creature the background needs to be ocean. What better than a shiney fabric found in JoAnns in with the fancey fabrics. Even better is the fact that is has tiny sparkles.



This is the front and back of the shiney fabric...................I am going to use both sides to make a very simple background. Basicly I will use the back and aplique one or two pieces to the shiney side to look like a current of water...................not you cannot really see a current but the line will later be enhanced with quilting.



Now the next step in this process is to do a scale drawing of each of the three sea nettles and also of the lines in the water. I am off an running on this project now. My deadline is the 4th Monday of August and the clock it ticking.