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From Sketchbook to Art Quilt

Published at August 14, 2008 in Books, Journals, Learning from the Masters and Quilting. 0 Comments

(You’re gonna want to scroll down for this one.) So what does all this stuff about sketching have to do with quilting? It prepares you for the single moment that inspiration strikes. I want to make a quilt of a house, a bird, a cup of coffee. I want to make a bow-tie quilt, log cabin. I can’t wait to use that new fabric. Now you have a rich repository from which to draw images from. You’ve “filled the well” as Julia Cameron would say in her seminal work, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition] .

Here’s one path from sketch to original art quilt. I started with several thumbnail sketches, not really sure how I wanted to capture this gorgeous valley.

First Thumbnail

Second Thumbnail

Third Thumbnail

Fourth Thumbnail

I went with thumbnail #3, as I loved the vertical composition and the feeling I was at the top of the peak looking down. I captured the image on muslin using watercolor crayons, and here it is being auditioned for a border to serve as a frame:

Final Piece: Which Border?

And here it is on my design wall ready to be quilted:

Art Quilt on Design Wall

All the preparation in my sketchbooks readied me for this quilt. Funny, it didn’t feel like preparation. It felt more like time was flying by, being the in flow, capturing the images and moments that held meaning for me. Truly, the best part of being an artist. Dreaming, sketching, and quilting.

I love my job, don’t you?

Note of interest: The tiny building in the background (best seen in Thumbnail #1) burned to the ground months after I did this sketch. It was a local restaurant that held many memories for me and neighbors in my community. Now it has been immortalized in a work of art. See what I mean by capturing meaning? I had no idea of the unfortunate event that would come, nor do you ever know all the layers a work of art potentially holds. Until you actually create it.

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A Rich Sketching Resource

Published at August 13, 2008 in Artist Dates and Journals. 0 Comments

Thumbnail Sketch by Maria Peagler

If I’ve peaked your interest in sketching, check out Katherine Tyrrell’s blog Making a Mark. Katherine is a pastel and colored pencil artist who has developed a wealth of lessons on sketching and keeping a sketchbook. She doesn’t include quilters or fiber artists in her blog, only drawings and paintings, but don’t let that stop you. Her lessons apply well to our medium, and I know I could happily get lost in everything her site offers.

Pastels and Pencils - How to Sketch - advice and information by Katherine Tyrrell ASGFA

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Capturing the Moments

Published at August 12, 2008 in Artist Dates, Books and Journals. 0 Comments

A family day at a Braves game

At some point in my sketchbooks, I stopped using them as a place for only my ideas and inspiration, but also as a place to capture the daily moments of my life by drawing them. My husband had given me the book How to Make a Journal of Your Life , and it really enhanced my journaling style. Dan Price has been detailing the minutiae of his life for decades, drawing things as simple as the interior of the car as he rides with friends. His drawing style is simplistic and far from perfect, but that’s what makes it beautiful. He’s not attempting to create a masterpiece; rather, he’s making art of his everyday life in his own hand, his own style.

I still drew only sporadically until last year, when again my sweet husband gave me another book for Christmas: Danny Gregory’s Creative License, The: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are . Danny begins drawing his days after his wife is hit by a subway train and becomes a paraplegic. Like Dan, he draws the little details that make up our lives: what he has for dinner, his dog, the interior of his medicine cabinet. And he is insistent that you make drawing a daily habit: do bad drawings, sketch things wrongly, but just do it and learn as you go.

I don’t sketch daily, but weekly, yes. Sometimes more than once a week. I draw more often when I’m on vacation, as I have more time and I want to remember the places I’ve been and what we were doing.

Eating out in St. Simon's Island

This journal I made by hand, after reading on WhipUp about a great book called How to Make Books (see the link in my sidebar). I made this little journal from old blue jeans, drawing paper and watercolor papers. It is always with me in my purse, and holds my sketches, summaries of books I’ve read, and even my grocery list. It’s a little journal of my life.

And now I draw things I would never have imagined as important or even beautiful.

Items on a side table next to a plan for a medallion quilt

But they are beautiful, because they are my life.

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Imagineering in My Journals

Published at August 5, 2008 in Artist Dates and Journals. 1 Comment

Mind mapping my future

I’ve always thought Disney had it right in calling their employees Imagineers. What a cool job title - getting paid to bring imagination to life. I do my own imagineering in my journals, using two techniques I talked about in my podcast: mind-mapping and 100 Questions.

Mindmeister is a great online resource for mind-mapping, but I must confess I enjoy the old colored pencil and paper method best. A wonderful book on both techniques is How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day .

This book really transformed how I approached ideas, and I must say I now delightfully imagineer far more ideas than I’ll ever be able to do. But a girl can dream, can’t she?

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My Journals’ Evolution

Published at August 1, 2008 in Artist Dates and Journals. 2 Comments

As I continued to keep journals, I started adding my own ideas, designs, and dreams to them. I would still sometimes cut and paste from magazines and newspapers, referring to color schemes or styles of art I liked.

Here I liked the African women repeated across the page. Simple design, yet effective.

Images as inspiration

I also like to cut swatches and selvedges from fabrics I buy when I travel:

Who needs travel photos?

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My Journals’ Humble Beginnings

Published at July 29, 2008 in Artist Dates, Books and Journals. 0 Comments

Abstract drawing from my journal

Keeping a journal has transformed my art. It’s hard to believe initially I resisted keeping a journal of any kind, as writing is my profession and I didn’t want to do more of it at home. Surely I keep visual journals and sketchbooks as well, but I started by keeping a simple journal of things I was grateful for every day.

I tried to list 100 things to be grateful for in my life - went well over!

I got this idea from Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach, and also the idea of a Discovery Journal. From these humble beginnings came my sketchbooks and quilting journals I’ll be sharing with you later.

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Keeping a Journal Podcast

Published at July 26, 2008 in Artist Dates and Journals. 0 Comments

It’s here! My podcast is here! I’m excited to share with you the first Quilts and Creativity Podcast: Episode 1: Keeping a Journal. I’m new to podcasting, so it’s just me, no background music or other fancy additions. Just great content. The Keeping a Journal podcast talks about how to keep a journal, different types, and the progression I’ve seen in my art since dedicating myself to journal keeping. I’ll be posting photos and links that I discuss in the podcast, so tune it and enjoy!