Day 5

Doesn’t seem possible but I’m already working on Day 5 of my journey to create my Mystery QAL original art piece. So many things have already been accomplished and yet there is so much left to do. I’m so thankful that I took notes as well as many photos. Without them I would be lost when it comes to sharing my progress.

Let’s Get Started

Yesterday I had so much fun exploring the technique of creating and stitching curved strips As a result, I decided to continue my experiment by making two more blocks today. Using a section of this recently made multi-colored, strip for the center

I first surrounded it with a border of dark blue fabric. Next I cut and pieced orange curvy strips on the outside edges. This is how the first block looked when it was complete.

The second block was made pretty much the same way with the same center strip only this time the first border was fashioned from magenta colored fabric. Added next were curvy strips of lime green. Take a look at the second finished unit.

I am absolutely thrilled with the outcome for both of them. The color combinations as well as the curvy lines will add so much interest. These two blocks will make awesome additions to my original art piece.

A Facelift

After finishing those two sections I decided to work with a previously started block. You can see it in its original state in the photo below. If you look toward the center of the design wall you will see an angled, strip-pieced unit surrounded by a magenta border.

Mystery QAL Day 4, Design Board

To finish the block off I decided to use some of the curvy, pieced strips I had created previously. To the top and bottom edges I added my blue and purple curvy, pieced strips.

I’m much happier with this block now that I have given it more attention.

Let’s Compare Day 4 and Day 5

Mystery QAL Day 4, Design Board

Mystery QAL Day 5, Design Wall

The above two photos show my design boards from Day 4 and Day 5. I’m sharing both of them to make it easier to notice my changes. Comparing the two you will notice that in the Day 5 photo I have created and added five more units, including the three described above. I’ve also subtracted the random sections of the multi-colored strips and moved most of the building blocks to new areas. These changes have begun to make my original art piece look more organized.

Color vs. Mono Tone

One of the very helpful tips I learned while studying with Rayna Gillman is to not only take color photos of your work but to also take additional photos using the mono feature on your camera. The mono version helps to visualize the distribution of your light, medium and dark colored fabrics. Ultimately an even distribution would provide the best possible outcome. This arrangement encourages your eyes to travel around your piece. Having too much of one intensity in an area tends to keep your eyes from moving about the art piece or quilt. This creates stagnation.

Mystery QAL Day 5, Design Wall

Mystery QAL Day 5, Mono Version of Design Wall

Shown above are two photos. The one on the left is my Day 5 design wall in color. The photo on the right is the same photo only seen in mono tones. As I look at the photo on the left it appears that I have done a pretty good job at distributing the rainbow of colors. It also looks like my lights, mediums and darks are equally as well disbursed.

Now lets take a look at the photo on the right. When I look at the photo on the right I get a totally different feeling. In this photo I obviously can’t see color. I do see line movement as well as color value. With all of the pretty colors removed its much easier to analyze the impact of my art piece on my eyes. It’s as if all the prettiness has been striped away and all that remains are the conflicts created by my fabrics values. To put it another way, there’s no makeup to coverup the flaws.

The photo on the right shows that while the top half of my art piece appears to have a fairly evenly distributed arrangement of color value the bottom half tells a different story. In that section the darks are more concentrated.

This comparison helps me to not only look at color and value but it also helps to identify my problem areas. Locating what otherwise might be overlooked gives me ample information to formulate my next moves in the days ahead .

Thank You!

Anyway, thank you so much for sticking with me and allowing me to over analyze my design. I really appreciate the time we had to spend together and I look forward to our next visit. Talk with you soon! 🙂