Playing around in a small way

                  In between larger projects, I have been playing around with a few compositional exercises.  While I enjoy and prefer working in a large size, I wanted to challenge myself to creating small compositions.  Compositions that relied heavily on line, value and the fabric patterns themselves to convey my subjects.  Plus a little bit of quilting to create details such as the trees pictured on the left.

As you can see by my original patterns, I tried to keep things very minimal and not draw in any actual details.  Both of these pieces measure 6" x 8" to give you an idea of the scale of the work and I did use piecing for the construction.

As it is the love of fabric and fabric patterns that drive me, it is fun to be able to play a little and concentrate on that aspect of designing.  And with only a dozen or so different pieces to each mini-quilt, every choice of value, color and pattern is important - there is no being lazy and hiding a poor choice amongst another 50 pieces of fabric!  But if one idea doesn't work, it is easy to start the next one when you are working on such a small scale.