Abstract in Aqua

 

Great excitement! Today after a year and a month of languishing in a drawer, the quilt that I started in March, '09, at Quilting Adventures, came out of its hiding place. I lacked quite a bit of appliquéing to complete it, but after all my practice with appliquéing using invisible thread on the Jubilation quilt, finishing this one felt easy. This quilt is small, only 27" by 29".  And a funny thing happened once again. One reason this quilt has been lying in a drawer for13 months is that I hated the quilt when I stowed it away! Now that it is appliquéd, I love it! I am naming this one Abstract in Aqua.

A bit of background about how the design evolved: Teacher Katie Pasquini-Masopust had us do numerous types of exercises prior to deciding on a design. We began with three of us at our trio of tables assembling an all-white still life. First we drew it using the blind contour drawing method. Then we drew it while viewing the still life. We made a water color painting of the still life. And this is just a small sampling of all the exercises we went through. Finally in the middle of the week we chose two designs we liked best and put them up on our design walls. I pinned up an abstract drawing, painted in aqua, based on the very first exercise and one other, a positive/negative version of another still life. I chose the first to turn into a quilt.  Thus, "Abstract in Aqua" had its origins in a still life of a tall vase with a spray of leaves, a fat vase, a plate behind the vases, all in front of cardboard folded and draped with scrunched up fabric! I can "see" the round plate, and I see the leaf shapes, the short, plump vase, but not much else! But that's not important; coming up with an abstract design was the aim.  I love the design, an abstract in my favorite colors!