Questions
I am grateful for questions, both yours and my own. In fact it was a question from Diann that inspired the focus of this post. She asked how I keep track of the individual pieces in Ciel de Noyer.
Ciel de Noyer
A technique I turn to again and again is the way I take photograph and abstract it. I was inspired to work this way in class I took with Hollis Chatelain approximately 20 years ago. No, my technique is not used by Hollis. The class she taught was on color and specifically value. We had to select a favorite artwork and interpret it using only 1″ squares of 8 different colors of construction paper on an 8″ x 10″ grid. The first step was to organize the squares from the lightest to the darkest. No surprise there were questions. Could the squares be cut? No. How do I include this crucial detail, say a necklace? You can’t. It is too small.
How I do it
Honestly, it didn’t occur to me until Diann asked the question, that how I piece my abstracted interpretations of an image is basically the same exercise I did in that class 20 years ago. Of course, I am not using construction paper nor do I limit myself to an 8″ x 10″ grid, either. What I do instead is start with a grid based on a traditional quilting block. Why you may ask? I enjoy precision piecing. I find it relaxing. In the case of Ciel de Noyer, the grid is as easy as it gets. It is based on the 9 patch. There are six blocks horizontally and six blocks vertically for a total of 36 blocks and therefore, 324 squares to fill. I do give myself some leeway. I can cut the square, but not too small.
Back to the original question, though. I blow up the photograph to a size I am comfortable working with. In the case of Ciel de Noyer, it is 18″ x 18″. I then create a 6 x 6 grid in pencil on the blown up image. Next, I build each 9 patch based on what I see in that square. Once I am satisfied with the 9 patch, I stitch it and place it on my design wall. So, yes, I do sew as I go. I also check off each 9 patch as I complete it. This saves time working out where I am when I return to the studio.
Rainbow Scrap Challenge
When I started my 2024 Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt, I questioned my sanity. There are 255 blocks with 2 stringed piece half square triangles in each. The whole point of the RSC is to eliminate scraps, not to create more. It didn’t take me more than the first block to realize that actually string piecing the blocks would result in lots of wasted fabric, be arduous and quite likely not do a god job of eliminating scraps.
By the second or third month of the year I realized I could build crumb fabric from my scraps, then using the resulting yardage to cut already stitched string pieced half square triangles. I even worked out the math in such a way that I end up with a small parallelogram, too small for another half square triangle to be cut, at the end! When a method works, I don’t question it.
I won’t bore you with the math. However, trust me when I say, I need a 52″ wide x 22″ wide orange crumb fabric. I used EQ 8 to work out how long each string/strip of varying widths needs to be. The colors above do not relate to the actual fabric. Think of them like a key on a map. The floating orange squares are crumb fabrics from early work. Might as well use them up, too.
I’m linking up to the following posts:
