Yay I completed the piece

So got the second exercise piece of week two with Nancy Crow class sewn together....The ending size is 38 inches wide and 43 inches high. And YES I like the piece. It is amazing how the finished pieces can shrink from design board to completed pieced quilt top. When I designed the piece on the design board it was 4ft by 4 ft.......so lost hmmm 10 inches width wise and 5 inches of the height. Very interesting...... ;-) at least to me;-) {smile} now back to sewing......

Exercise #2 Week 2

So let's talk a little process while I continue posting about QBL 2010

So I'm trying to think in terms of showing my process, [ I have always felt I included loads of process in my past postings] yet now that I took "The Pledge" here goes.....
During my second week of QBL Nancy had us begin with a black and white exercise and then quickly we continued on with an exercise that was to be two high contrast colors one being a dark and one being a light.
Next we made our fabrics. Here are/were mine:

The next step was: We were to cut our fabrics into units of line and shape and create a successful composition that was Abstract and Asymmetrical. Here are some photos of my work in progress.

shapes pinned on design wall during process

Final design I decided on

So I ran out of time and did not get my piece sewn together before Nancy introduced new design exercise to complete. One thing I have learned from my classes w/Nancy is a camera is quite handy not only to see our designs in black and white, but to print out the design before you begin constructing or sewing the final units together. I continue my post with photos that hopefully explain what I mean. I began sewing the piece together today.....thank goodness for the printed photo to guide me and keep me straight.

design on my flannel portable design wall

photo on my sewing table for while I construct

So back to work I go.....will post photo of completed piece as soon as construction is complete.

Okay so now back to my QBL 2010 report

So back to my postings of QBL 2010  (This past week I've been busy visiting with my 11 month old grand-daughter and 3.5 yr old grandson and their mommy but they've now gone home to PA and I hope to play catch up around VA before I'm off again! Retirement is great yet busy! lol.)
As I already have mentioned I took two weeks of classes with Nancy Crow this year during QBL.
I cannot express how much I have learned about construction through my classes with Nancy.
Remember I am really a beginner seamstress so though I might not be able to claim I am a beginner quilter anymore since I am now going on my 5th year of quilting?(though I DO CONSIDER myself still a beginner)  I never learned how to sew as a youngster nor was I given much time to experience a sewing machine, so though I have in the past been able to piece some of my ideas together it has not always by the proper 1/4 seam, iron, etc. etc. I MUST share it becomes so much easier when you start to understand some basics of sewing. ;-) lol and much more enjoyable.
So during my first week as I've already shared we began the week learning of figure/ground and completed a black and white exercise design.  My completed piece is actually up in Maine being dyed in indigo by one of my roommates, she dyed hers, it looked so interesting AND she volunteered to dye my piece so YAY!  I plan to quilt my piece in gray threads ;-))) I am anxious to have it returned and get to quilt it to see how the gray thread quilting might make it pop. ;-)

So now onto my fabrics I made for our final design exercise piece during week one.
So after spending a couple days creating new fabrics we were given the Design Exercise. ;-) and then we got busy..Very Busy!!! I really wanted to experiment with the line/shape/figure/ground process so I made the decision to cut lots of lines to include in my design...of course this meant more sewing for me.....lol
I'll include a few photos of my piece as it evolved.

Trying out fabrics

Creating composition

It's getting close to completed design

Final sewn design. (41" wide - 58" tall)

http://pearlstreetroad.blogspot.com/

Completed by Susan Selden (roommate)

So end of week one and onward to week two. I would post more of my classmates work but it was discussed over and over not to share other work unless permission is given so with permission here are two of my buddies final designs..Susan was one of my suite mates and Kathleen was a class buddy. Check out more about Kathleen on her blog: