Our trusty earthmovers dug a trench for a drain on Friday and excavated a large hole at the front which will eventually be levelled up with our spanking new drive way. They have removed tons of earth and a very dilapidated fuchsia which had long since passed its best and today they are in the process of levelling the hard core and tamping it down while the rain falls! They are coming back "dreckly" to finish it all off with nice chippings and Tarmac. "Dreckly" being the Cornish version of mañana! Still with it all levelled and hardened off at least we will not be paddling to the car through a muddy lake!
On the artistic front I have been busy. Yesterday I attended a workshop with Susan Denton learning about colour. Susan is a well known quilter who was a member of Quilt Art but has not run classes for a while. The exercises she set us were very challenging but she made sure that everyone understood the tasks and spent a lot of time helping us individually and as a group. Susan had provided us with all the fabric we were likely to need and everyone came away having learned a great deal.
Here are some photos of my exercises
We chose 1 light, 1 dark and 1 medium fabric. In my first sample I chose the lime green as my light fabric and in the second, as my medium. The result is that the medium fabric looks darker on the light fabric and darker on the light. This can be a useful way of manipulating the colour.
In the next exercise we chose two medium fabrics, one slightly darker than the other. In this way it is possible to make the two medium colours look as if they were the same simply by using a light or a dark background. Mine didn't quite work on the light fabric, but sort of did on the dark.
The final exercise was to choose 12 to 16 fabrics and grade them in even steps from light to dark! This is a black and white photo of my choices, which wasn't bad, but not perfect.
We then had to cut out small squares and triangles and stick them on a background drawn out as a traditional block.
The task was to place the fabrics in such a way that it moved from dark to light across the block, but in a random way. Not sure about my result so I may do another one before the next class on Monday.
Hard work, but my it was fun!!!
My quillt for the Quilters Guild "Green" challenge is finished and is winging it's way to Exeter and it does look quite good.
Next up is the serpentine panel which is giving me a few headaches but I think I'm getting there. This is the photo I'm using so it should be quite dramatic.
Watch this space!
We chose 1 light, 1 dark and 1 medium fabric. In my first sample I chose the lime green as my light fabric and in the second, as my medium. The result is that the medium fabric looks darker on the light fabric and darker on the light. This can be a useful way of manipulating the colour.
In the next exercise we chose two medium fabrics, one slightly darker than the other. In this way it is possible to make the two medium colours look as if they were the same simply by using a light or a dark background. Mine didn't quite work on the light fabric, but sort of did on the dark.
The final exercise was to choose 12 to 16 fabrics and grade them in even steps from light to dark! This is a black and white photo of my choices, which wasn't bad, but not perfect.
We then had to cut out small squares and triangles and stick them on a background drawn out as a traditional block.
The task was to place the fabrics in such a way that it moved from dark to light across the block, but in a random way. Not sure about my result so I may do another one before the next class on Monday.
Hard work, but my it was fun!!!
My quillt for the Quilters Guild "Green" challenge is finished and is winging it's way to Exeter and it does look quite good.
Next up is the serpentine panel which is giving me a few headaches but I think I'm getting there. This is the photo I'm using so it should be quite dramatic.
Thanks for posting details of your workshop Penny. I've done these colour exercises with paint but not with fabric. I really like your Green quilt and it's wonderful to see you producing work again :-) I hope you start to dry out soon. xx
ReplyDeleteInteresting workshop Penny. Have you checked out the Joseph Albers app for the iPad?
ReplyDeleteLove the green quilt and the serpentine photo is stunning. I know you'll do it justice.