09 Aug Abstract mini quilts

I forgot to tell you about the class I took at GAAQG’s Quilting Unlimited last weekend!  After teaching Bias Applique on Friday, I took a class called Abstract Mini Quilts from another guild member, Debra Gash, on Saturday.  It was a fun day to play and do something different.

about 12″ square

We worked exclusively with fused fabric – no sewing in this class.  The first picture is the mini we made in the morning.  The idea was to start with big chunks of black, white and another color and add from there.  Debra’s sample was very organic and she gave us tips along the way to help us shape our design.  It was a fun process and working with fabric to which fusible has already been applied gives you almost instant gratification 🙂

approx 9″ x 12″

For our afternoon project, Debra had a big pile of National Geographic magazines and we each picked a picture that we loved and then abstracted our design from there.  I chose a picture of the Roman aqueducts.  Rather than spending time choosing colors and applying more fusible, I decided to do more of a “sketch” using the fabric I had already prepared.  Debra had encouraged us to give some thought to positive and negative images, so the first bit where the lighter blue is dominant is a simplified version of a piece of the aqueduct.  The second part where the darker blue is dominant is a kind of reverse image.  While this “sketch” definitely needs some changes, working on it was lots of fun!  I love architectural elements and this exercise gave me some food for thought as to how I might incorporate some of those ideas into a future quilt.

Overall, it was a really fun day – so great to work differently than I usually do!