A NAME I CALL MYSELF - TIFC May

The May challenge concept is a question I ponder all the time. What do I call myself when trying to explain my creative endeavors? When I tried to work through The Artist's Way , polite arguments in my head erupted into battle. Considering myself an artist won out for the time being, but that word itself is inadequate to describe the scope of activity in which I engage.

I invisibly wince when an outsider responds, "Oh, you do crafts!". My body reacts with an inward cringe if they add, "Me, too!" My inner snob and judgemental self silently separate that crafter from me and my artistic values. For me the difference has to do with creating from within, compulsive self expression, following a whim or instinct rather than a pattern. For me the barrier has nothing to do with technical proficiency or aesthetic appeal. My TIFC above, albeit an exercise, is a piece of art because it is a piece of me. It's not pretty, doesn't show proficiency, but it's not intended for anyone but me.

Let me explain my interpretation of both concept and palette for this month's challenge. In a nutshell, I'd resort to looking in a crystal ball to find a suitable name for what I do.

a. needle artist

b. fiber artist

c. textile artist

d. mixed media artist

e. all of the above

f. none of the above

g. some of each

Most of my artistic pursuits involve thread or fiber, some kind of needle or hook. For sake of convenience I generally tell people I'm a fiber artist, leaving them to presume I spin and weave (I don't -- yet) and no inclination that I bead. I have no commercial goals; I keep or gift everything I make. I love to learn new techniques and share what I learn. I have fun. All the time. And to those of you reading this, you will understand why I call myself

FIBERDABBLER. I don't know that there is an answer to the May concept question. Dare I suggest it doesn't matter semantically how others perceive us? I'm evolving, and I love the mystery of not knowing what comes next.

TAKE IT FURTHER CHALLENGE - FEBRUARY

Given the choice of basing design on a memory (my earliest being when dirt was formed) or designated palette, I chose the latter:Hmm, is that gray or slate blue? What's that dark color? Indigo? Purply blue? Again I worked entirely from stash. The two pieces of ivory satin that resemble vanilla caramel swirl (yum!) are from a piece of white silk/poly blend that I rust dyed. The teeny, tiny rust colored silk at the bottom left is dupioni. Why isn't there more? I could fib and say I was conserving a favorite fabric, but the truth is I miscalculated with the stitch, flip, cut technique. The slate piece is a piece of ultrasuede, the dark blue (with a tinge of purple) is moire, the print is from a gentleman's tie. The remaining three portions are light blue charmeuse. Confused? The upper right is overlayed with a blue sheer that has been machine stitched to resemble punch needlework, and if you look closely you can see it is printed to look like hand painted , concentric curves. It's from a lot of embellished sheer sales samples I caught on eBay!

This a work in progress picture I took, cropped and printed out to give me a clearer idea of my borderlines and guide me toward envisualizing embellishment placement and scale. At this stage that center seam treatment is looking pretty gimongous and my other stitching too dainty -- and puny. I continued adding and subtracting until I think I have it where I want it, although I may yet do a little tweaking.

I DUNNO...

... perhaps I should have left it alone. There's not that much different; I just filled in a couple of gaps.

With the exception of a cotton thread or two and the yellow cord, flosses and perles are silk and hand painted by Victoria Clayton. The feather stitching is done in perle and the chain
stitches are the same colorway done in 2 strands of silk floss. I'm not sure of the name, but it was from Vicki's dragon series. The chenille is also hers, and most of the silk ribbon, too. I used a bead soup of assorted sizes to fill in some of the negative space between the feather stitches.
On the far right the little flowers are purple sequins with size 8 triangle beads, which stand up in the center. The two purple pailettes in the center top are dyed shell, rough sides up.

I really came to enjoy this palette challenge and was surprised that I was able to work entirely from my stash.

FINISHED? NOT QUITE!

I thought I was done, but I think I'll play some more. Meanwhile I want to share another Flickr pix that shares our January palette challenge. The photographer seemed intrigued that we actively seek inspiration for fiber art in nature. This picture struck me particularly because it seemed to portray strata of color and I had used a stripe for my foundation.
Lake in blues & yellows - Acadia, by Zombie37

TAKE IT FURTHER CHALLENGE

First, if you haven't heard of the Take It Further Challenge, you should check the link. It is Sharon Boggan's 2008 challenge, and I have just started on January, along with 293 other registered participants. I'm going for the color palette:

As soon as I saw it I was reminded of a sweater I've admired for awhile. I've drooled over the picture and pattern so often, it looks like my copy of Knitter's Magazine, Spring, 2000, has been left in the rain. The colorway is not exactly the same, but similar with the play of greens and purples. What looks like grays & blues in the picture is really sage and teal . This is the Mitered Mozart, designed by Candace Eisner Strick, and believe me, I would have made it by now if only I could wear a short cropped garment. I searched the Ravelry site and found a beautiful example. I saw the sweater the summer of that year made up and displayed in a yarn store; the main color chosen was a royal blue, best I can remember.

Another thing familiar about Sharon's palette are the mint green and what I know as medium leaf or jungle green. The two almost seem at odds, the mint being cool and the leaf much warmer with yellow, and it bothered the heck out of me when we had our house painted a few years back (the trims were supposed to be medium and light leaf). In time I've either gotten used to the contrast or the sun has mellowed the mint to light leaf and now appears the identical color to the lichen on our trees. Such is my peripheral view out the window when seated at the computer.

To start the challenge, I gathered up my paint color cards and attempted to match the given palette. I have an abnormally large number of greens because I'm always questing that elusive silvery green of... Well, it wasn't long before I was waxing nostalgic and singing my college alma mater in my head:

"Where the Truckee's snow fed waters fall from mountain's crest,

Where the mountains meet the sagebrush by the sun caressed,

Cradled by the silver mountains neath the western blue..."

Oh, it got worse. I started searching for sagebrush on Flickr and found these wonderful pix.

I hope you'll take a minute or two and take a peek, especially if you're intrigued with the purple and green palette or just great photography:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckharvey/865663969/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29446253@N00/137908560/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anitagould/9617059/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinb/26115112/

Next I copied Sharon's palette into my Paint accessory and used the eye dropper tool to pick up the individual colors. I tried to play with a design, but best I could do was see how the colors could interact. Now if you'd like to see the real magic worked by someone savvy with a sophisticated application, Francoise's blog Creatilfun is pretty amazing.

Now for my favorite part of any project, picking through stash. Mind, I still had no clear picture of what I might make with the palette, but I found plenty in my CQ fabric pieces, thread assortments and beads to provide plenty of latitude. At last I opted to do a small, do-able CQ piece and wrestled with the ideas of using delinquent TAST stitches and even combining that with my even more backlogged BJP. Crazy quilting is the format; we'll just have to wait and see what develops beyond that.

Right off the bat I found my verifying fabric, that's the one that contains the entire palette so I know everything can work together. It was a small square of batik. In the interest of keeping the project simple and do-able within a couple of weeks, I did minimal piecing.

I began with the green dupioni and placed it right sides up together with the lavender satin (I think hand painted by Karen South) and cut a gentle curving line. Next I put right sides together and machine stitched matching hills & valleys. My plan was to repeat the procedure with the next pairing, the purple and yellow-green dupionis. Unfortunately I forgot to allow sufficient width to allow for a second seam. Waste not! I seamed what I had and left the curved edges raw and overlapping the outer edges of the starter pair. Not wanting to repeat the mistake I simply straight seamed the end colors, on the left a silk velvet, on the right a crinkle-textured irridescent that flashes yellow and lavender. Too bad you can't see the latter; it's a piece I received in a squishy and it has the most marvelous handpainted flower that I'm reserving for another use.

Once the strips were sewn I fused a medium light, nonwoven interfacing to the back.

I have started the seam treatments, dealing with the raw edged pieces first. My intention is to use embellishment for "curving" the straight seams.

THE ICE BLOSSOM PRINCESS

The first thing you should know about Ice Blossom is that it is cold where she comes from. She is not having a bad hair day; she is wearing an fur hood (faux, to be PC), Arctic fox dyed to match her ensemble). She's not fat, I mean fluffy, she's bulked up in layers for the freezing climate! To Ice Blossom each snowflake is a unique and magical flower. She was made as a gift of friendship to teach her new owner to make bouquets in the wonderland of winter instead of pining for spring bloom.

Ice blossom was created for a holiday friendship doll exchange within the International Crazy Quilt Group. Guidelines stipulated she must be pieced and embellished CQ style with an emphasis on beading.

SPIRIT OF FRIENDSHIP DOLL EXCHANGE

This pretty lady journeyed from Colorado to be with me. She was created by Leslie Ehrlich and has found a comfortable stance next to my computer and seems to want to keep an eye on me. Well , actually I'm not sure what her intent is. It's like she's totally absorbed in whatever I'm doing. Could it be she shares my eclectic taste? I've named her Delilah Delightful as she is an amiable companion. Or guardian -- I'm hoping she'll protect me and my technical lifeline from evils of the internet.

There is a site where you can see pix of Delilah's and Rose's friends gathered for a garden party. Crazy Quilters International (CQI) keeps a blog gallery. Labels appear on the left sidebar. While visiting the gallery do check eye candy entries and winners of a recent purse contest!

DERBY SPIRIT DOLL

Derby Fever is a malaise peculiar to Kentuckians in the spring when their immunity is at its lowest having just recovered from March Madness. The primary symptom of March Madness is the inability to talk about anything but basketball followed by compulsions to visit sports bars, pick favorites and party. Derby Fever has been around much longer so there has been more documentation of it. Visitors come from around the world to study the phenomenon only to succumb themselves. A month long whirlwind of associated events causes rapid spread of the delirium. Everyone can suddenly talk horses, pick favorites, know a bookie and party shamelessly. Folk remedies abound, and everybody has a secret recipe for Derby food and drink. At least one day at Churchill Downs is recommended as therapy.

Obviously I was feeling the onslaught of Derby Fever when I started making my spirit of friendship doll for CQI's exchange. I chose her fabrics to represent jockey silks (I later found this site online where you can create your own!). All the women wear derby hats to match their outfits. Although the roses the horses run for are red, my doll is wearing pink ones, so I named her Bluegrass Rose. Here is part of the message that accompanied her:

"May I present to you BLUEGRASS ROSE,your hopefully kindred spirit from Derbytown, USA. She can always pick a winner! I just know she'll love it there with you. It is her mission to bring you the warmth of friendship, and if you heed her powerful intuition, she will guide you to wise choices and good fortune."




Above is the front view of Rose. I suspect she's covering her face because she enjoyed one too many mint juleps! Here's the back, her hair a tad disheveled possibly for the same reason.

Below are more Derby related links:


Queen Elizabeth
Her Majesty
royal millinary

If you'd like to have my favorite version of a derby style pie, email me
kroushl@insightbb.com

P.S. I was out of town during this year's Kentucky Derby!

TAST 18 - 20

In the interest of catching up, I did three weeks in one small sampler. The outer ring is butterfly chain, the foundation straight stitches done in Caron's Watercolours
"Painted Desert" and the wraps done in #8 perle cotton with size 8 seed beads strung in between. I later added French knots in the Watercolours.

Again, in the same thread I used Basque stitches for the inner circle. I would have preferred the colors were more evenly distributed, but a guessed wrong when beginning a new strand.

I did like the look of the resulting frame, then had to think about what to put in it that would utilize wrapped or woven wheels. In reviewing Sharon B's Stitch Dictionary I realized spider web roses were an option, and I'd never tried them before. Although I used 4mm silk ribbon for filler leaves, the ribbon used for the flowers was 2 mm ribbon of unknown content but with subtle sparkle. Given more time I might have been a little more select in the colors and may even have added some tiny beads around the floral spray. I enjoyed these versatile stitches and plan to utilize them in broader experimentation in later projects.

It was fun catching up on what others have been doing on the Take a Stitch Tuesday Group Flickr site. Everyone is doing so well and is obviously benefitting from the commitment, but I was blown away by Lin Moon 's flowers, truly inspirational.

CROSSINGS

Here is the first of my TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge) samplers for the cross stitch, a simple stitch with many variations and seemingly infinite possibilities for combining and fracturing.

This very bright 18ct Aida is from my first dye session, the batch dyed with straight Procion MX bright yellow. Quite a contrast to the "yellows" below in my last post! Reminds me of lemon custard ice cream, a gone but never forgotten treat from my childhood. Normally I would eschew a color like this, which to my mind belongs on an Easter egg. I prefer my colors warm and on the muted side, but we are constantly challenged to leave our comfort zones. With this in mind I had purchased some Caron Watercolours #021 with bright yellow, hot pink, fuschia, etc, I thought would be interesting to play with, those shades being so far from my usual tastes. And, as serendipity would have it, it matched the yellow of my Aida. You see it in my sampler in the outer border and center stitches.

I have to digress just a bit more on this colorway. Since buying the thread I have observed similar color schemes and have found them visually appealing (I couldn't/wouldn't want to wear them, but...). Doing homework for Maria Peagler's graciously free online workshop Develop Your Personal Pallette, I went through magazines and was amazed at how many photographs with that colorway caught my eye. In particular was a National Geographic cover I kept going back to. I couldn't find reference to the issue online, but the picture showed two Oriental women with parasols walking along a collonade on large stone cobbles wet from rain. It was an amazing shot representing a symmetry and balance of softened tones of fuschia, coral, taupe, and National Geographic gold. It has a place of honor in my color journal with similar colorways from lava flows, beetles, and undersealife. Nature triumphs again. Oh, and on the cover of the Caron Collection Color Selection Guide? Indeed! The same colorway muted down to mauve, rose, color, orchid, lavendar and wheat. Need I mention the lettering on the cover is pretty much NGS gold.

Back to the sampler. Outermost border is satin stitched (think about it, half of a cross stitch), then long arm cross stitch in a variegated DMC floss, cross variations in bright pink rayon floss,

then Montegrin cross in a handpainted silk floss from Vicki Clayton. In the center rectangle top and bottom are rice stitches with variegated silk buttonhole from Victoria Brown at Ribbonsmyth. I broke up the two center rows, but the stitches are Smyrna and another version of rice stitch, wherein the four ends of the initial cross are crossed.

SUPER FLY -- stitch for TAST 8

This piece of linen began as something else, so I have one row on this sampler that is not fly stitch. It is the curving line of greenish backstitch woven with two colors of purl loops. Everything else is composed of fly stitch and variations, which I added in rows, not planning ahead. In other words, it was a dull exercise; even the colors were bland, and my hearts were upside down. Maybe I was just feeling off because we had just learned that our beloved teacher Sharon Boggan was ill and would require surgery.

I think silliness took hold with the beaded flies which reminded me of bird tracks. At this point I started having fun. I decided to turn this TAST sampler into a get well card. I stitched "Speedy Recovery" using only fly and the occasional straight stitch. I stitched it freehand, and it looked it. But I could go back later and do it right. Meantime I decided to try stick figures after playing around with a motif that used a combination of plaited and reverse fly stitch. I liked the look of these petroglyph styled characters (that may, however, be an alien in the center) and decided they should be raising their arms in joy, exhuberant with get well wishes -- they should be dancing! A hunting dance! They're going to track some giant, now extinct, flightless bird, and I'm going to leave my grafitti in naive form. Somewhere along the way I flipped the sampler, so my hearts are right side up. Originally they were there just because they could be. Now, of course, they represent our love reaching out to Sharon . I'm declaring the motif on the left side to be a mandala of healing. It is so ancient, part of it is buried. Corner flora symbolize medicinal plants. It's a shame my example of closed fly stitch is obscured by fronds.

I think I'll let the linen fringe beyond the deliberately rough border stitching. I may let the bird take a step or two out of bounds on the right. I'm happy. I'm optimistic about Sharon's recovery. I 'm even pleased with the colors now. I hope I've left the viewer with a hint of the

primitive expression I'm so fond of.

TAST - FEATHER STITCH

Feather stitch, oh feather stitch. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways -- or try to.

A feather stitch by any other name would still tickle -- not to mention give me endless delight. I do love this stitch. It can meander all over the place, it can be light and delicate or substantive. It looks beautiful on its own but also begs for embellishment in myriad ways. Did I play? Oh yes. Here's what I tried going from left to right:

Column 1 - 3 rows of feather stitch

I started smaller at the top and let the stitches elongate as I worked down. Then I turned fabric 180 (upside down) and worked the same way in reverse, larger to smaller. Had I worked the stitches in precise counts there probably would have been a pattern, but I liked the irregular look and thought it might have abstract or freeform potential. I turned the fabric 90 degrees to the right, then worked from left to right, connecting to ends from the second pass. I kept the "C" stitches in line to create a boundary from the next column group. What I really, really liked was the negative spaces that formed from the distorted stitches. It struck me as something organic, the look of something growing unexpectedly and with abandon.

Those incredibly shaped spaces begged for filling. I was going to leave them blank to better show off the experiment, but compromised and did a few so I could try different effects. My inclination was to go for a crazy patchwork and using different colors and textures to differentiate the segments. These are my fillers from top to bottom: 1) woven silk ribbon; 2) cross stitch in #8 pearl; 3) satin stitch in #5 pearl; 4) twisted bugle beads with Delicas; 5)beadpoint with #8 seed beads; 6) horizontal straight stitches in #5 pearl; 6) beadpoint with #8 seeds in a raku-like matte finish to counter the irridescence of the other bead section. I randomly placed a few Delicas and seeds on the tips of the conventional feather stitches.

By the way, I tried some other things with this area, but wanted more variety. I used straight stitches vertically, horizontally and diagonally, first with a single strand of floss in a light color, then darker. It didn't do much. Next I worked the straight stitches in a bright, #8 pearl as seen in the finished (6) above. I liked this a lot; I saw patchwork without the outlines of the spaces obscured. I worked the basic stitches in Caron Watercolours (1 strand), so I thought it might be better to use several shades for the straight lines. That worked well, too. Still I'm pleased with the variations in texture I started, and I like the way the conventional stitches gradually give way to the freeform.

Column 2 - single row of feathered up and down buttonhole

I suppose feathered feather stitch would be redundant. I added extra feathers . I like this effect for pine needle clusters or bamboo leaves. I worked them in 2 strands of silk floss. I like them best left as was, but I had to add a lighter accent because that area looked too dark. I wove a single strand of rayon floss and added French knots.

Column 3 - single row of beaded feather stitch

Since we're practicing stitches, I thought I might practice the bead embroidery too. I worked half up, half down. Embeadery by Margaret Ball was my resource. She gave several methods for the feather stitch. The one I chose turned out to be fairly easy and fast and kept the stitches flat for the most part. A method I'll save for when I want to build up more dimension has the bead strings crossing.

Column 4 -feathered up and down buttonhole

I went for a dainty look with 2 strands of silk floss and some small beads.

Column 5 - mirrored featherstitching with fillers

Left row is done with rayon ribbon shadowed with 2 strands of silk floss. The right side has a base of wool/silk yarn, overstitched with this incredibly smooth and slinky thread I found in New Zealand. It's just called Glitter Cord.

Can you handle another surprise? I took one look at the spaces between the two rows and saw hearts!!! Look closely, there are two large hearts and one small heart in the middle. It was a freak accident, but one I'll want to remember. The smaller one resulted from my habitual disregard for counting on these samplers. Note, I went from a series of 3 stitches to 2 in the middle.

I attempted to place Rhodes hearts in the centers, but all those feather points got in the way. My mettalic cord hearts are a bit misshapen, but they fill the space as do those little straight stitch crosses.

Column 6 - 2 rows single feather stitch

I like to use pearl for this stitch. I think I used #8 or #10. The body of the thread allows for a slight curve at the end when the "feather" is angled. When paired as opposites a diagonal space is formed. With this combination there are many, many possibilities for embellishment. I opted to keep it simple in this treatment , as the columns to either side are so strong.

Column 7 - 2 rows feather stitch joined

Same principle as Column 1, except I went from longer to shorter and kept the consistently spaced (I counted!). What a difference. These are also stitched with Caron Watercolours. I used rayon floss (2 strands) for the French knots and #8 seed beads in the center. If I'd had the right beads I might have gone for color gradation to work with the subtle change in stitch link.

Recent News

I've returned from another trip west. On the flight out I had fun chatting with the woman in front of me who also had knitting in hand. I did finish the front for my sweater while I was out there, but not having the back with me, I couldn't complete the project. I since have and will post a picture shortly.

I see TAST has begun with a flourish. There's even a ring and a Flickr group. I'm looking forward to getting settled in with the challenge. I have doodled all stitches to date, but what I hope to start doing is creating a mini sampler each week. And of course I want to refine and complete the ones I did in conjunction with Sharon's online Joggles class, Developing a Personal Library of Stitches.

When I first checked my email I found a thread about Stash Guilt in full discussion mode on one of my e-lists. Right after that I received a link to the latest edition of http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/FEATcollection.html
and one of the best and therapeutically funniest articles I have ever read relevant to stash. I applaud author Kate Antonova , and encourage everyone to read it, for even though she speaks of a yarn collection it could be a stash by any other name. I see it as a miracle regimen for SGS (Stash Guilt Syndrome). This article is so liberating I think I'll stitch an homage to The Stashbuilders' Creed, shamefully adapted by me from the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition:

#10 -Greed is eternal!
#242 -More (stash) is good; all is better.
#97 -Enough (stash) is never enough.
#6 -Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity (for stash acquisition)!!

Another Knitty article well worth sharing is Cheating at Color Theory by Julie Theaker. It promises a foolproof method for determining color value.

Fiesta! Beginnings

Fiesta! Beginnings 2, originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.

My block began with embroidered fabric from a recycled dress or beach cover that looked like it could have been from south of the border. After piecing, I couldn't decide if it looked like a musical note or the embellished pantleg of a charro. Whichever, it would be festive, hence the fireworks print. Bright colors made brighter in contrast to the black shout excitement and celebration. In deference to the charro theme I used scraps of faux leather in red and black for a masculine touch and in anticipation of later equine motifs.
This is only a segment of the basic block. You can view more, along with detail shots of the finished project at my Flickr site in my Round Robins set. Click here for a brief history of charros in Mexico and the SW . Also click here for links to info about charros.

FIESTA DEL CHARRO

FIESTA DEL CHARRO, originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.

This is a completed round robin block I previously called Fiesta!, and if you follow the link you'll see the collaboration of 6 other stitchers. It would have been a beautiful block left at that; I intended merely to add a charm or two and finish up a couple of naked seams. Obviously encrustation lessons from Sharon Boggin took hold, and although I tried to balance busy spots with a few sparse ones, I may only have succeeded in gilding another lily. I do like to think the work of my talented fellow players stands on it's own, my finishing touches secondary. My only changes to previous work was to reposition a button and a charm, and regretably had to redo ole, which was originally rendered in a very pretty variegated thread.

La Vida Laredo

La Vida Laredo, originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.

When I first decided to try crazy quilting I had zero stash: no fabric, no threads or fibers, no beads, ribbons or embellishments of any kind. One of my first acquisitions was a wonderful fabric assortment from Karen South. The woven stripe you see in two of my patches caught my imagination right away, and from the first I knew I would someday use it in a Mexican theme, and over the next years I gathered embellishments suitable for such a project. A while back
I hosted a Southwestern swap followed by a round robin. The desert landscape fabric is one I contributed to the swap, but my most prized goodie from that exchange was the geometric patterned fabric that I immediately interpreted as a stylized desert landscape. And the colors! So close to my equally prized "serape" fabric! Instant color palette!

For the round robin I pieced two southwestern blocks, this one which I called Desert Sunrise (or was it Sunset?) and another in a completely different colorway I called Fiesta. It was the latter which circulated through the round robin and to which I am presently adding finishing touches. Desert Sunrise/Sunset I kept. I'd decided it would be one of two blocks that would represent a bit of family history. When I find the stash I set aside for it, I'll piece the companion; meanwhile Desert Sunwhatever has morphed into La Vida Laredo and represents the years my paternal grandfather lived there with his first bride (I descend from his second wife). Strictly according to family lore, she was from a wealthy family in Nuevo Leon, grand or greatgrandaughter of one of the original Spanish land grantees. In the pictures I have seen, she is a beautiful young woman, elegantly attired. One of the photographs was taken in Paris, where she may have been a student. Tragically she died young in childbirth in 1911. I've often wondered how they met.

I placed symbols on the block to represent my grandfather. There is the initial S for the surname we share, a button representing the railroad for which he was a conductor, and another button in the shape of a miniature Winchester rifle bullet to suggest his reputation as a fine hunter. There are two stars, one to symbolize his Texas birthplace, another tributes his special appointment to the Texas Rangers.

lt's finished!!!

finished block, originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.

At last my block for Sharon B's Encrusted Crazy Quilting class is complete! I enjoyed every stitch of the adventure and look forward to Sharon's next course offering. I learned a new approach to embellishing a block; instead of completely embellishing one patch before moving on, we were encouraged to think ahead and work on the whole in specific stages. I think this keeps our focus on the entire block and helps us work toward a creative goal. Another thing that falls in place with this method is
unity, better balance of line, color and motifs, all the while maintaining paths for the eye to meander along.

Please take a look at the 4 detail shots that follow and feel free to comment or ask questions.

detail1

detail1, originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.

detail2

detail2, originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.

detail2

detail2, originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.