Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Cut!

One of the things I have noticed about a lot of quilt (and other) art, is that many pieces could be improved with some judicious cropping. I have been sorting through small pieces and preparing some to display at the Open Studio event that happens in a couple of weeks. When I showed that less than wonderful piece of the Santa Barbara Mission tower awhile back I speculated on some possible crops to improve it. Today I went for a pretty radical one and I think it improved it greatly.


I also had a small study I had done for the Nasturtium piece.


I think this crop improved it.



It is always disheartening to cut big hunks of fabric and stitching off your work, but it usually makes it better. Same with photographs. I wish I could better anticipate those things. Better planning. Better sketches.

Today's over dyes.


Oh yum. I'd like about four more of those red and white stripe shirts.

7 comments:

  1. I agree with you.
    Too much bordering is not usually a good thing.

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  2. That nasturtium crop takes it from "a bit blah" to "hip hoorah!" and I love the overdyed stripes--so much energy right there.

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  3. I'm loving your over-dying. It's making me want to dump a bunch of fabrics in a dye pot!

    As for the little quilts, I think it's better to chop off a bunch of stitching and get to something you like than to leave it alone and never be happy. Looking at that little nasturtium piece in both it's incarnations, I really like how it extends beyond it's borders. Perhaps there is a kernel of something there that would help give some life/excitement to your architectural pieces (my first thought is corners or spires extending beyond an edge or border).

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  4. Hmmm, now I'm thinking I should go through my stuff and start chopping/cropping away! Love those stripes!

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  5. Oops! Clicking on the link to the original mission tower quilt takes me to the Quilt National site.

    When I look at the original mission quilt, I think the column details below the red-orange roof draw your eye away from the tower itself. Cropping reduces that roof to secondary status.

    Dot

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  6. Yep, those colors are nice. Can't wait to see what you come up with for all these stripes.

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  7. Beautiful colors and I love the quilt square pattern itself! I LOVE to quilt and would love to have some input - check out my blog at sewuniquelyyours.blogspot.com and have a wonderful day!

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