Month: December 2024

Design with a friend – part 4

collaborations, improv process, techniques

I compared my past photos of scraps and seeds (exercise on composition) and my past quilts. And I discovered that I have some recurrent composition preferences.

So, I started to wonder. Do I repeat myself?

Thus, I checked my backlog of photos.
I found at least 15 composition types, here below are shown the most evident types.

This reassured me: maybe I’m not repeating myself too much.

Thanks to the quilting friends who sent me a small white envelope with their quilting scraps. One day I received two letters in the same afternoon, by Linda @flourishingpalms and Gigi @gigi.v13. It’s wonderful to be connected in this way even if we are overseas.

The two images below use a rotational symmetry and echoing of a shape, that was created by somebody else: in this case a shape from a small piece received by Ally Ryde. I didn’t choose on purpose to use this format of composition: it was spontaneous, at the beginning; but now, in retrospect, I find interesting to discover that I was influenced by somebody else’s shape.

These scraps will be valuable for me, to continue exercising on composition types. Maybe I can find more ways to fill the space. It’s impossible for me to totally repeat myself, if the scraps I’m using are different, because they are your scraps and not my scraps.

So, with your input, I’m safe!

Design with a friend – part 3

collaborations, improv process

My series of photos with scraps and seeds, is a way to exercise on composition.

In the past years I had the impression that my exploration, on quilt composition types, was very slow. I manage to finish one, or only a few, quilts per year. I felt this completion rate as a problem, respect to the need to learn.

On the design wall, at work in progress phase, I can try different composition options: that’s the beauty of doing quilts improvisationally. But I also need to see the finalised effect on a completed quilt. And this requires months.

Now, by making compositions with photos, I can potentially see a finished composition every day. I hope that, with this photographic practice, my experience with compositions will evolve.

For example, by comparing my past photos and past quilts, I discovered that I have some recurrent composition preferences.

One of my favorite types of image, evidently, is an image including the presence of a flow. Like the one I used in the quilt Sealights (shown at QuiltCon in 2022).

Another type is a composition containing rotational symmetry. Like the one I used in the quilt Night lights, shown at QuiltCon in 2024. It was a funny discovery to find these compositional solutions again in my photos, not made on purpose, but reappearing when checked in retrospect.

I invited quilting friends to send me a small white envelope with quilting scraps. The fragments should be small, such as the seeds and berries that may become included in the picture.

Thanks to Carla @falcolupo, who sent me some remainders from her quilting and sewing work. It was so special to have the opportunity to keep in my hands the same material she was recently working with. A warm effect: from digital to real!

Here below you can see a photo composition I made with her sewing scraps. For the first time I felt the inspiration to use plenty of different seeds and berries, instead of only one or two types maximum. The variety of her stitches influenced me! This initiative “Design with a friend” shows how can we influence each other with our creative examples, even with small pieces. Would you like to join?