Giving Advice

Slow Down
Are you better at giving advice versus listening to others or heeding your own advice? I am reluctantly raising my hand in the affirmative. This past Monday, while spending some virtual time with fellow fiber artists, I heard myself recommending ways to approach how to quilt “that” quilt. It really doesn’t matter what the quilt is. The basic advice applies to all quilts. Do I follow it? Rarely. However, since the next step in my process is to quilt that quilt, why not slow down and give it a go?

Breathe
So, I took a deep breath, slowed myself down and made a mini sampler of the scraps left over from piecing the background I was about to quilt. This way I can test out threads and motifs off quilt in order to determine what appeals to me most. I’m so glad I took the time. I chose not to use most of the motifs and one of the threads. If I had simply gone directly to the quilting with what I was imagining it would have worked. However, what I eventually chose to do is more dramatic and less jarring.

Remember all the work I did last week, with the help of my husband, to work out the piecing pattern? The goal was to nail down the perspective of rising stairs and distance with a perspective/vanishing point drawing. Note how the quilting on the risers and treads enhance the perspective. I purposefully contrasted the straight line stitching of the stairs with a more undulating motif for the wall. This is easier to see from the back side of the work.

Focus
Next week I will focus on creating the cat. Just as I did for the quilting. I am experimenting with the cat. This won’t be the fabric I use. I want to be certain of the scale and techniques before I make the real thing. So far, so good.

I am linking up with:
- Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Fridays
- 2022 Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC)
- Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday (TGIFF)
Beautiful colors, and your quilting choices are perfect. Thanks for linking up to TGIFF!
Thank you, Becca. I appreciate the opportunity to link up to TGIFF. I always finish some portion of my work. This time it was the quilting. 🙂 Finishing the full piece is rare.
Your perspective is really great. The stairs look perfect with the piecing and the quilting. I can’t wait to see the cat.
I’ll be working on the cat next week. Meanwhile my mind is zipping around as I think, rethink and perhaps overthink how to proceed. Thank you for your kind words, Chris.
Beautiful work. I will email you soon.
Take care,
Sandra
Thank you, Sandy. Looking forward to hearing from you.
It is coming along very nicely. I always wonder how pple choose their subjects, it fascinates me. I’m pretty much ‘try a technique’ artist with no message to convey.
Actually, I started out more as a try a technique or answering “what would happen if…?” questions I posed to myself. Now that I’ve been at for nearly 35 years, I still haven’t run out of techniques to try or questions to answers, however, I have much fuller tool box to use. I believe this gives me the freedom to try work, like Lola on the Stairs, because I am confident in my technique and design principles in ways I never was decades back.
This is going to be such a fun piece — I love the moody energy of your color palette. And yes, I’m guilty of that, too — giving advice to other quilters that I ought to consider following myself!!
Today, I’m pushing myself through one of those nothing is working, this is frustrating, I stink days. So, those kind words were just what I needed to hear. Thank you, Rebecca.