sketchbooks,crayons, paints and radiator covers.

This morning the sewing machine was evicted, I mean relocated to the landing, as I need to push on with my girl quilt. I should name it now because girl quilt sounds rubbish. I will have a good look at her and see what name she suits.

I think she's a little bit severe and 'hard' looking at the mo. I need to soften her up a bit and un pout her lips. She's too unhappy and I want her to be happy. 

This is a pretty bad photo. My excuse is that there is a strong light source coming from one side and the top corner remains dark even with the flash on. And I know I should source large sheets of paper instead of piecing 8 sheets of A2 paper together. Anyhow, I have worked out the general layout of the quilt and the placement of the figure. The quilt will be 56 by 44 inches.The figure is behind a circle and behind her again is another circle. I might break the edge of the larger circle somewhere. Within the circles I want a repeat design, decorative, like a screen or tiles, or wallpaper effect. So that is what I have been working on this morning.

We have a radiator cover in the hall with a fretwork panel on it. I took a rubbing on brown paper, which I love working with, using ordinary crayons. I then added more colour and detail with pencils pens and paint. I love the ribbed effect you get with brown paper. I am not sure how this lined effect could be translated onto fabric. Perhaps just with lines of stitch quilted on and paint rolled on? Or corrugated cardboard painted and printed onto cotton? Or taking a rubbing of the corrugated cardboard onto fabric using fabric crayons? I will have to investigate. I also love acrylic paint on brown paper, especially pale colours and white.

Above -- Patterns drawn, then traced and repeated. Used pencils, paints and crayons. In the second image I have placed corrugated cardboard under the sketchbook page and rubbed over with crayon. 

I looked at other fretwork designs  (see above) on the internet and on Pinterest  www.pinterest.com/ . I am seriously addicted to Pinterest at the moment. so much inspirational images and ideas for quilts and textile art. And tutorials for patchwork.  I also find myself oohing and aahing at cute puppies,  pugs dressed up as Darth Vader, baby ducks, baby birds and cats and kittens galore..And I'm not that into cats. Have a look, you will see what I mean. I do waste too much time on it. But not this morning because I have been good, and productive, working away in my sketchbook.    

I had a look on line for some tile/ wallpaper ideas too and and printed off the image above, which I then traced, altering it in the centre. I quite like the scrolls and curves in this.

So leading on from that I will possibly put some sort of scroll work on a largish scale in the bottom left corner of the quilt. This will be intertwined with flowers, leaves and tendrils. And it will probably be these that break the curve of the larger circle in one or more places. Something similar to this.  

I can see it all in my head. I just have to work out how to get there and do it.