I love being able to share things with my friends. It is fun, it is helpful…especially when they give me feedback…and it helps me keep things on track.. So I thought I would show you some of the various stages of my drawing and what I now think is the completed applique pattern drawing. I would still like your feedback if you see something that really stands out that needs changing.
Here is the original one I used for the first quilt “Waiting…”
I thought I should change her for the new Waiting… quilt 2. So I tried drawing several new women drawing.
Then I decided to go back and recast the original one.
After some feedback I realized the hair was not right and the clothes are not colored properly. I also drew a little girl. Here are some of the stages of that process:
So after some tweaking and moving and so forth, here is where it is now. Keep in mind when looking at this that it is just a pattern. The only thing printed will be the faces and hand. The rest will be created from various textures of fabrics, thread work, highlighting and lowlighting from inks or paints, but I do work best when I have a pretty good idea of how it really will look when finished. The woman’s dress, cloak, and hair are still not quite right, but that will be changed as I work through making the applique.
I am so looking forward to getting these put together now. I will make several versions of both the woman and the child and see which ones look best, and, after talking it over with Beth, my DIL, I decided to print out multiple faces and hands on a single sheet of fabric and set up a practice sandwich with it so I can figure out the best quilting for those. The faces are not large, but always the most difficult to quilt.
Sew there you are. These appliques are so important to the overall quilt. They aren’t easy, and they have taken a lot of time. I need them, though, to make the quilt I see in my head. I also have gotten together most, but not all, of the special pieces of fabrics I painted, pulled from my stash, and ordered for this. I am only waiting on the velveteen for the girl’s and woman’s coats and hat and the furry yarns for the edges. Time to sew!
Sew happy everyone! Have a great week. Please comment on my blogs.
Addendum: After some feedback, I made the girl smaller, the woman’s chin less prominent and did a few other changes to the hair. Here it is.
I’m enjoying watching your process and progress. I’m curious, at what point did you think about this being a series? I’ve never worked thru a series but I have this idea in mind, and too many various directions to try to incorporate in one piece. I’m leaning towards ‘sorting’ the ideas into what would work together for each of the images that move within my mind. Do you have any suggestions for sorting out one’s thoughts, ideas, etc etc. ? Thanks for sharing,
Luann
Hi Luann. Well, I have several series going on. I think I decided on making some of them as a series from the start, but this one came about because I had several things I wanted to change on “Waiting…” and I think it is a good enough design that, with these changes, it might really move it over the top as a winning quilt. So then I realized I had several quilts in my head about women down through history keeping the home fires burning while their men had to go to war or to sea or other dangerous situations. Now, I know, the situation is often reversed, but from the historical perspective, it has usually been the women doing the waiting for their return. I wanted to capture the excitement and passion that the last little wait just before they arrive, while maybe even you could see the ship or plane or some such as it comes in. So I have at least one more quilt after this one in the “Waiting…” series. Probably more. And it will be different periods in American history. I first, though, wanted to redo the first one with changes.
I use lists mostly on Excel or Word. I also have a pretty little journal I keep notes just to myself in that help me keep ideas as they come to me. I think you just need to start sketching. It’s what I do…just sketch out the ideas, and decisions will probably be easier then. Cheers.
You applique designs are looking wonderful! My only comment would be that, to my eye, the girl looks a little too big compared to the woman. I think it’s because her head seems to be bigger than the woman’s. I would probably either shrink the girl a tad or grow the woman a bit. But that’s just my eye, so you really should go with what looks right to you. Looking forward to seeing where you go from here!
Thanks Nancy. I’ll take a look at that. I had it right earlier, but probably didn’t shrink her enough when I redid it.
Comment: I agree with the comment about the size of the girl’s head compared to the lady’s head. Plus, I think the lady’s chin/jaw is too strong/big. Maybe cover it with more hair?
Ok, see the addendum…I made some more changes. LOL. Thanks for the feedback.
I like that you went back to the original woman and made some changes to her and that you added the girl and tweaked her size a bit. Amazing!!! Gobstopped! I think that is an expression of awe and amazement tied into one!–Terry
Thank you Terry! I appreciate that a great deal.