I love the word serendipity. It was the first word
that came to me as I contemplated the challenge. I kept saying to myself, “You
can’t use that…it came to you so automatically…you need to think about this. It
haunted me. Clearly, it was meant to be the next word.
Happy accident is the concept that has inspired me
all along. It was a sequence of happy accidents that eventually led to this
piece. I’d been playing with some of Jean Wells’s piecing techniques in some 3 ½
x 5 ½ minis that I’ve been making. Then, I read about Gwen Marston’s book, 37 Sketches on the blog
seehowwesew.wordpress.com. Had to have it. Gwen doesn’t do credit card sales,
so I popped my check into an envelope, waltzed down my driveway, and left it
for the postman to whisk away. Went directly to my computer and checked e-mail.
Well…there was an invitation from Carol, one of our challenge group members, to
join her for a “Sketches” class with Gwen Marston. Really??... I just mailed
her a check for that book! How could I refuse? Not only would I be traveling to
Carol’s place for the class; her husband would simultaneously be traveling north
to take a painting class that my husband was teaching. When he’d registered for
the class, he wasn’t aware of that happy
accident.
Gwen was delightful. I managed to sew together a
bunch of strips during her one-day class. Many of the components are waiting to
be plunked into other sketches. There’s a 3”x7” chunk in the middle of this
finished piece that I’d completed that day. The rest I did at home during
several days after the class. It’s no accident at all that periwinkle and
chartreuse figure in…they’re my 2 favorite colors. It will be good for me to
work with some less familiar colors as we go along with our challenges.
This piece doesn’t comply with our minimum dimension
guidelines! It’s about 9 ¼ x 11 ½. I struggled to stretch the width, and
inspiration just didn’t arrive. So here it is. I enjoyed the sketching process and
I intend to keep playing with it!
Deborah, I love love love it!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think you should continue working in these colors since you love them.......they really complement each other............keep on going! Bring pieces to show me when you come in May!
ReplyDeleteI wrote a comment last night and it didn't publish, for some reason, so let me see how much of it I remember. I love the colors in this quilt! I particularly like that vertical piece just to the right of the curved darker purple--the one where those two thin strips of chartreuse sort of hug that interestingly textured blue fabric and they are all set off by that slice of reddish purple at the left bottom. And that curve of purple border at the top that dips down into the body of the quilt is lovely.
ReplyDeleteLove the colors also. These brights I've been doing are not the real me. I admire Jean Well's most recent work and may now order Gwen Marston's book, so thanks for sharing. I envy you people who have many workshop opportunities near you. This is Sher. I'm not sure I'm being identified. I probably logged in wrong.
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