Serendipity
Don’t you just love serendipity? Personally, I consider it one of my artist’s tools. I’m frequently delightfully surprised by seeing or learning of something that is perfect for what I am working on.
Fabric Finds
I am currently creating a very liberal artistic interpretation of the photo taken by Rosemary Williams of pelicans perched on a floating log. My go to technique is to take traditional blocks and use them as the piecing structure. I then “color” the blocks in a loose, but relatable version of the image I am recreating. My goal with the above image is to capture a sense of sunlight and shadow in the trees, hint at a gray sky and distinguish the bank of the river from the water and trees.
I rarely buy new fabric these days. Instead, I pull fabric from my stash, which is surprisingly small compared to most quilters of my acquaintance. My fabric is predominately commercial. However, I do have a collection of fat quarters that I have hand dyed, painted and used to experiment with a variety of surface design techniques. Who knew, 20 years ago or so, when I was playing with Shiva Paintstiks and stencils, I would create the perfect fabric for the bank of the river. Can you find it in the above image? Now that’s serendipity!
Rainbow Scrap Challenge
Just before I sat down to write, I was skimming through today’s Art Daily post. Imagine my serendipitous joy at seeing this book cover:
Isn’t this the perfect image for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge group? I particularly like how Goldsmith creates complementary color wheels of warm and cool colors. I’m definitely going to refer to this image as I continue to design my 2025 RSC quilt, titled Broken Hearted.
I can’t wait to find the time to finish designing Broken Hearted, but this time creating a double rainbow of complementary colors. Serendipity at its finest.
I’m linking up to the following posts:
That was Serendipity at its best for the fabric find and the color wheel inspiration!
Serendipitous moments abound. The trick is to see them. Yes, sometimes I just luck out. Thank you, Terry.
Broken hearted is going to be so pretty. And your latest project is going to be magnificent, so creative.
Thank you, Vicki, for you your very generous comment. I’m looking forward to getting started on Broken Hearted. But first…
Small stash eh? I haven’t been at Small for a long time haha!!
Your RSC is going to be amazing- I got a book on color theory too – jsut for fun, so thanks for the article!
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten beyond small. It is simply how I roll in life. I’m a minimalist. Hard to believe, since my work tends to be made up of thousands of pieces.
I never tire of learning about color. When I was teaching at guilds, it was a favorite class.
Have fun playing with color theory. There is always more to learn and experiment with.
Thank you for sharing your process for creating your version of the photo. The piece you’ve shown is simply stunning. Please share the finished project.
An artwork frequently takes me several months to complete from when I first draft the pattern to attaching a label. I do post my weekly process so you can follow along, if you choose to do so. I hope you will.Thank you for the kudos.
loved this post, the plan looks fun way to study our colors
I tried to name the color I’m working on today for the 12 RSC block of this year. Cranberry? Fuchia? DeepPinks
L.
I’m so happy you enjoyed my post. Experimenting with color never gets old, does it? Describing color is definitely challenging.
It’s fun to use hand-dyed fabrics, it adds interest to the quilt and also memories! Love the first steps of RSC. Thank you for sharing your creative process and reflections.
When one of my hand dyed or surface design creations fits, I will use it. I have fair number since when I first made them I saw them as too precious to us. Not any more. 🙂 I may actually need to paint a few more skies. I hope you have similar fabrics to draw from.
Amazing background work, Gwyned! And I love your RSC inspiration for 2025!
I’m trying to go simple next year. Who am I kidding. Something complex will occur to me and I will be tempted to give it a whirl. Isn’t that book cover great?
Your Broken Heart design is amazing. Will it be a pattern you sell? If not, maybe it should be.
I’ve debated about selling patterns over the years. Have opted not to for a variety of reasons. My pattern is actually a tweaking of a pattern I saw on Pinterest. At some point I will share the inspiration. That patterns uses stars instead of hearts and is bordered. Mine will be borderless, have blocks where the heart is actually “broken”. Of course, I will make the solid color lengths out of franken-pieced scraps in order to reduce my scraps. Thank you for the encouragement.
The color wheel is always a helpful resource for me, since I like to use all the colors. I’m enjoying seeing your ideas for Brokenhearted and look forward to seeing these blocks in fabric form, too!
Amazing what a difference substituting fabric for concept makes. This is especially true because Broken Hearted will be made up of scrappy rainbow colors. The random placement of scraps will add to the jarring, broken heartedness.
I agree, the color wheel is excellent tool to help with palette choices or other color decisions.
Love that book cover & can’t wait to see the final design. It will be lovely, since all your quilts are lovely!
Whoever the jacket designer for the book was deserves kudos. I suspect the actual color wheel is within the contents. Still, to synthesize a concept into such a strong representative images seems like genius to me.
It will be fun to see how this design plays out. Maybe I will go super gutsy (the idea literally just popped in my head) to create rainbow arches top and bottom. Now that will take some planning.
Thank you for your comment Sue. See how you’ve got me thinking.
I love the picture and I just KNOW I’ll love your Pelicans on Patrol. Your interpretations are always so beautiful. Thank you for sharing the cover of that book. The rainbow arrangements are inspiring & helpful.
I have my fingers crossed about Pelicans on Patrol.Your enthusiasm is certainly a confidence booster. I’ve simply learned to put in one stitch after the other and have faith.
I couldn’t resist sharing that book cover. It’s stunning. Sounds like a great reference book to have, too.
The Pelicans is going to be an amazing art quilt. Love the background, all those small pieces. I can envision Broken Hearted in rainbow colors, it would be stunning. Thank you for sharing the book recommendation!
Thank you for your comment on my blog. I was going to reply, but couldn’t since you are set to nocomment-reply.
It does look like a great book, doesn’t it? I spent some more time designing Broken Hearted yesterday. Still playing with the rainbow and how to break the hearts. Rainbows represent acceptance and hope in my work. One of the reasons I participate in the RSC. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for my work.
Hi Gwyned, it is wonderful when serendipity helps us create. Your interpretation of the pelicans is lovely. I guess that it’s time to look at new ideas for Rainbow Scraps Challenge. I like seeing how different and fun each one is. Thanks for linking up to Free Motion Mavericks 🙂
I never tire of serendipity. The key is stay alert for it. Like you, I love the variety of ways people approach the RSC and am blown away by the volume of quilts produced and often gifted to charities.