Fabric Sketches
Fabric Sketches - Structures Series
I very rarely preplan my quilts. The designs generally emerge as I am working directly with the fabric.
On a rare occasion I’ll sketch out an idea on paper but that usually happens during meetings at work when my mind is wandering. Although most of those drawings end up pasted into my sketchbook and rarely, if ever, turn into an actual quilt.
At times I also make fabric sketches. It’s all fine and good doodling out a pencil and paper drawing of what I want to do but it’s much more helpful for me to actually see the idea in fabric. Not only do I see a concrete example of what I had in mind but it also helps me work through how I will actually construct the idea in fabric.
I have to admit I tend to restrict most of my fabric sketching to workshop situations, and in fact first learned of their usefulness from Nancy Crow during a class, but I have done a few at home also. I never finish my sketches into actual quilts as their purpose is not a completed product but just a quick try at a new idea.
The above sketches are all about the size of a piece of notebook paper (maybe 8" x 12"). I made them in the fall of 2005 in Sand Point, Idaho at the Nancy Crow workshop. One of the things I was thinking about at that time was leaving more open space in my work because I tend to fill up all available space with lines. These sketches were working through some ideas I had about how to go about doing that.
I never followed through on many of these but while hunting around in my studio the other day I came across them. There are still a lot of good ideas in here that I will think about more and maybe they will eventually show up in some finished work.
The sketch below was made a few days before making my first Markings quilt. I had the idea of doing the parallel lines, like cross hatching in drawing, a few months before hand but I needed to see it in fabric before I started off on the first in the series. Sometimes it takes a few tries at making a fabric sketch of an idea to get a good handle on my thoughts. But for the Markings series this one sketch was it. One quick fabric sketch and I was sure I had and idea I wanted to explore.
Fabric Sketch - Markings Series
Posted by Lisa in: Making Abstract Contemporary Textile Art, Quilting Process
cynthia said,
April 6, 2007 @ 7:35 am
Your fabric sketches are very cool…I was sort of blown away when you said that these were only 8″ x 12″. It feels much larger than that on the screen. I really like the first 2, there’s something very abstract, current and fresh about them, particularly the 2nd with the chartreuse square in the lower right corner.
I know I need to give more attention to my sketch book myself. Last night, I had the good fortune to get a glimpse of a wood worker/furniture designer’s sketch book and I was really impressed the way he works out his ideas.
Alyson B. Stanfield said,
April 6, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
LOVE the black-and-white and I’d like to see you do something in b&w.
Diane Clancy said,
April 6, 2007 @ 7:03 pm
It is fun to see your sketches - I should do more of them for my paintings also. I so much appreciate that you share your process with us.
~ Diane Clancy
Rachel Simons said,
April 9, 2007 @ 9:14 am
I absolutely love these sketches. I think they could be works in their own right.
I’ve really enjoyed your blog, especially your posts about the workshops you’ve taken with Nancy Crow. I’m going to her barn in October for a week, and from what you’ve said I should get lots out of it!
Lisa Call said,
April 17, 2007 @ 4:08 pm
Thanks everyone.
Cynthia - each of the rectangles in the photos are about 8×11 - so the first photo has 3 of them - the next 12 - so they are bigger than you think