Solids, Attempts Number One and Two

So, even though I said I didn’t like fusing, I decided to give it a try.  I had a bit of an idea in the back of my mind, and a picture in a magazine that was intriguing, so I went ahead and picked out some of the fabrics I wanted to use, and pre-fused them with Wonder Under, Melody Johnson style.   Ack.  Did I mention I don’t like fusing?  Anyway, I carried on, and finished fusing this little piece.  I left the middle blank because I wanted to feature this verse that I just love:

“And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart, till the Devil whispered behind the leaves ‘It’s pretty, but is it Art?’”–Rudyard Kipling

Isn’t that the fear that most of us have–“Is it art?”  Anyway, I am happy enough with this little piece.  I will finish embroidering the verse, and add some more embroidery touches, then add the back and quilt it a bit. And then it will be done.  I think it is a very unbalanced piece, but somehow that seems perfect for the tentative question in the verse.

Oh, and one more thing.  You might be looking at this and saying, it doesn’t LOOK like solids to me.  And you would be right.  I ‘allowed’ myself to add a few batiks into the fabric choices, and then they were basically almost all the fabrics I chose to use.  So now the batiks have been banished to the cupboard so I will be FORCED to work with solids!

So then , before I finished this little piece, I came up with what I thought was MY BIG IDEA.  I was very excited about the prospects of this project.  It involved doing some strip piecing for the background and then appliqueing circles and shapes on top for my perle cotton embroidery.  I love the work of Marianne Burr.  I actually was fortunate enough to take some lessons with her last summer.

I re-organized my piles of solids into lights for the background and medium darks for the foreground, with the third pile (in the background) available for accents if necessary.

I finally had a free morning and I got busy cutting strips and piecing them back together.  I put them on the design wall and then plopped some of the darker fabrics on top to see if there was enough contrast.  Meh.  I didn’t really like what I had done that much.  Sometimes I will leave something on the design wall for a while to see if it grows on me, or if maybe I’ll get the NEXT BIG IDEA.

At this point I was quite discouraged with myself, so I took the doggies out for a walk, and then I came home and sat in the big chair thinking about what a failure I was.  Finally I picked up a pile of old quilt magazines and thumbed through them looking for ideas.  I cut out little pictures of what I liked, ideas that might work with solids.  That was Fun!  And eventually, I came up with the NEXT BIG IDEA.  But you’ll have to come back tomorrow for that one!