Grab Bag Challenge

I’ve been too busy with my day job lately. I haven’t had time to work on the latest Grab Bag Challenge. A week or so ago, I decided I better get started on it since it’s supposed to be done by June 1st. I have a photo that is to be used for inspiration and a bag of fabrics and embellishments. Many smallish and medium sized pieces means I am doing piecing instead of the whole cloth painted quilts that I’ve been doing lately.

I made a few sketches, laid the fabrics out on the table, and have been letting myself have an hour or so now and then to do the piecework. I let myself have most of Saturday to work on it, and now it is well on its way to looking like something. I am interpreting the photo rather abstractly, and am using the sketch as a guide rather than making a pattern.

I was discouraged last night as a laid out a large piece of hand-dyed fabric with lots of color variation behind the main shapes. It wasn’t relating to the composition the way I had intended. The darker colors weren’t in the right place, and were hiding behind the foreground shapes. This morning I gave the background fabric a quarter turn, and now I feel good about it again. The dark area is now at the bottom of the composition, and adds a lot of depth to the piece.

There are a few more colors I want to piece in. I will get out my paints to add in a few shadows, and I will probably get out my paints again after it is quilted.