May 202 min read

Wave Landscape Patchwork

Yesterday I had a one on one teaching session. My favorite type of class. She wants to learn ALL of my art quilt techniques. She wants to dance and run. I explained to her that she has to learn to walk first :)

So the first technique that she will learn is the Wave Landscape Patchwork Technique. It is the base technique for many of my other techniques and once mastering it she will be able to create using the other Wave techniques.

When I teach the students, I have a box of fabric strips and scraps from which they can choose fabrics.

This week I have been working on a project of mine using remnants from my last 2 art pieces. The color family is twilight.

She saw the fabrics on my table and asked whether she could have some pieces from there. I always agree :)

twlight colored fabric scraps in a pile on a table

I told her that for the practice piece that she is going to create she will need at least 30 strips altogether and to choose enough colors so that the piece would be interesting.

Every art piece created, no matter how small, should be a thing of beauty. And that sometimes, designing the piece and choosing the color layout takes more time than the sewing of it.

There is a beauty to randomness. but she wanted a specific look to the piece, and that requires some thought and planning.

I have students who always choose their colors randomly, and have other students that are very particular in their choices. It is interesting to watch how students choose their fabrics.

She spread all of the strips on the larger table and pulled these colors out. Then she searched for more strips in these colors and she found enough pieces.

I asked her what she envisioned the piece as. She said a twilight of course. I explained to her that when I work, I first create a colored sketch of my idea and then work with the fabrics.

So she chose pencil colors and did a small sketch.

colored pencil sketch of a twilight in purples blues and pinks

Then laid her fabrics out in this design. Darker on top and paler at the bottom

twilight colored fabric scraps laid out in a design

She chose purple thread for the quilting.

purple fabric scraps and a spool of purple thread

and began to create. She could leave it as is and frame it, or use it as a piece of fabric to create something else, a small table mat or a ziippered pouch or even use it as a panel on a jacket or a bag.

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