A Technique a Day – A Quilter’s Month-long Journey into the World of Quilt Art and Design

My passion is quilting and the change of season from Summer to Fall, with its abundance of color and vibrancy, has inspired me to do something crazy. I have decided that October would be the perfect month to explore art quilting by challenging myself to study a design technique each day. As someone with zero art background (with the possible exception of a class in computer graphics in college), I am understandably nervous. I have a number of quilt design books and magazines in my quilt studio but never seem to make the time to actually do the exercises given in the books and articles. I also have lots of really cool paints and notions that I couldn't resist when I've gone to quilt shows and still have not used as well as stuff I bought during classes that have languished in drawers never to be seen again.


In preparation for my month long odyssey of quilt art, I spent some time going through my books and magazines and created a list of possible exercises or areas to explore and play. The list below represents my possible tasks for the month. If you would like to try the exercises I am doing, you will need to buy the book for a full description of the task and the steps as the information in the books is copyrighted.

• Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Maopust & Brett Barker (C & C)
• Art + Quilt by Lyric Kinard (A + Q)
• The Quilting Arts Book (QA)
• Paintsticks on Fabric (PS)
• Portrait Quilts, Painted Faces You Can Do by Bonnie Lynn McCaffery (PF)
• Optical Illusions for Quilters by Karen Combs (OI)
• Design a Balitimore Album Quilt by Elly Sienkiewicz (BA)
  

Below is a list of possible design and technique exercises I plan to do during the month in the order in which I plan to do them.

• Art quit in a box from APNQ auction - Oct. 1 and Oct. 31
• Circle Play – A day long class with Reynola Pakusich - Oct. 2
• Quilt design study at the La Connor Quilt Museum - Oct. 3
• Visual Texture (A+Q, page 26) - Oct. 4
• Actual Texture (A+Q, page 27) - Oct. 5
• Value + Contrast (A+Q, page 47) and Color Relationships (page 43) - Oct. 6
• Focal point through placement, isolation and contrast (A+Q, page 59) and Motion through line direction (page 78) - Oct. 7
• Illusion of Depth (A+Q, page 71) - Oct. 8
• Scale - taking a simple motif and playing with scale to create a composition - Oct. 9
• Compound motifs - taking a simple motif and adding to it - Oct. 10
• Border design - border design for Circle Play quilt - Oct. 11
• Background construction using technique from Circle Play - Oct. 12
• Hand embroidery - Oct. 13
• Paintsticks – Direct color application on white, black and color on color (PS, pp 8-9) and Using Rubbings and stencils (PS, pp 10 – 11, 18-23 and QA, page 94) - Oct. 14
• Portrait quilts (QA, page 122 and PF) - Oct. 15
• Foiling and Angelica fibers (QA, page 87) - Oct. 16
• Discharge painting (QA, page 98)- Oct. 17
• Resist printing (QA, page108) - Oct. 18
• Slash and sew - what to do with a crappy composition - Oct. 19
• Fiber tiles (QA, page 112) - Oct. 20
• Reverse appliqué (QA, page 48) - Oct. 21
• Quilting design - Oct. 22
• Machine quilting feathers - Oct. 23
• Landscapes (QA, pp 126 - 131) - Oct. 24
• Sheer fabrics for shading - Oct 25
• Design a themed Baltimore Album quilt (BA) - Oct. 26
• Bead collage (QA, pp 66 - 69) Beading a composition created earlier in the month - Oct. 27
• Composing with line (C & C, page 26) and Composing with shape (C & C, page 29) - Oct. 28
• Linear design with strips (C & C, page 48) and Nonrepresentational design (C & C, page57) - Oct. 29
• Binding techniques - Oct. 30
• Fabric collage (QA, page 52) - Oct. 31