Thank you all for your quilty block inspiration ideas on my last post. Even though I haven’t completely decided on where to go with this quilt yet, I thought it would be fun (for me only perhaps!) to go through my process from absolute start to finish on a quilt.
So, I’m going to show how this little stack of Erin McMorris’ new Summersault line that I won over at Fat Quarterly will become a quilt for my god-daughter.
Even though I save a lot of tutorials to my computer, and I am a self-confessed geeky nerd, I usually end up working from a sketch of a block using good old analogue pen and paper. I don’t aim for beauty in these sketches, I’m just getting the key maths/shapes/values down for later.
I do a lot of this – sometimes I spend so long sketching and pondering a block that I don’t feel the need to make it! (A technique I’ve learned from reading recipe books - LOL!)
There’s something about the physical process of drawing blocks that helps me to visualise the piecing steps and, crucially, gives me a pretty good indicator as to whether I’d enjoy sewing it!
The red and white sketch (top right above) was going to be my Quilt for Japan … but it took me so long to sketch it that I’m afraid I wimped out of actually making it … one day … !!
So, if I see a block that I like,
I sketch it out and include some form of reference for later attribution …
I’ve noticed that all my notebooks now have squared paper, just in case I feel the urge to draw some sewing!
Next process post I’ll cover playing with colour values …
So, do you use a notebook to jot down block ideas? Are you a back of the envelope scribbler, or perhaps you use a computer program like EQ?
Do share …
