Thursday, January 14, 2016

Turmoil with starbursts


Look what's happening to my red turmoil!  It has developed starbursts of pale striped piecing!

I wasn't exactly planning to do this, but it happened.  I had thought to lighten up the values a bit with pastels, and pretty soon I had a whole lot of piecing that reads as white/pale pink.  And then the bits of pale started being jagged triangles.

Right now I'm arranging them on the wall to make constellations or starbursts.  I don't know if they're going to stay in this configuration or if the pales are going to want to group themselves into a larger mass.  But I think I'm reaching the end of my mindless piecing -- the stage where I just make rectangles of strips upon strips.  Now I'm cutting and piecing the rectangles together into complicated expanses.  I think I'm only going to make new "fabric" as needed to make the whole thing go together.

The final putting-together process can be endlessly fiddly and take a whole lot longer than the early production phase, but it's also the most fun.  And I would say I'm at the beginning of the end for this composition.

Next week my husband is going to Florida for a week so I will be able to spend all my waking hours at the sewing machine.  I wonder how much I'll be able to finish before he comes home.

5 comments:

  1. This is a fascinating illustration of why I always find your work energizing and intriguing.

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  2. It will be really interesting to see where you go with this. I don't know about you, but I sure get a lot more done when Nate is not at home.

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  3. Ah ... the opportunity to spend all the hours of the day at the sewing machine while your husband is away! Do tell me how you managed that ...

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  4. I see what you mean about the pale bits - they draw the eye and will make this piece so very interesting. Can't wait to see how you configure all the parts.

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  5. I'm curious to see how you decide to arrange this all. So many possibilities....

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