Perhaps the greatest benefit I’m getting from the City &Guilds Patchwork and Quilting course is that I'm learning to create a process of my very own for developing a quilt design. With each course activity, I gain a wonderful new tool for finding inspiration sources, developing my ideas, exploring design options, experimenting with different techniques and materials, and solving problems. I like this soooooooo much better than going straight to fabric. It's fun, too!
Before I started the course, I might do a simple sketch of what I wanted the finished project to look like, and pull a stack of fabrics from my stash, but that was the extent of my design process. It was all centered on that finished product, it happened mostly inside my head and on the fabric. My decisions were made in terms of how the end product looked at various points along the way. Those decisions often took a very long time to make, for fear of getting it wrong, or ruining what I had done so far. Often those decisions were never made, which accounts for all the UFO’s around here! I felt that I had so little control over the work I produced, and felt so unsure of myself at times, that my successful quilts were, at least to me, mostly lucky accidents.
Now, I can work out the whole idea in my sketchbook. I write, I sketch, I paste in photos and other references. I paint and experiment with colors, techniques, materials. I ask myself questions and answer them. I make small samples. Everything becomes so clear. It’s so easy to change directions, to try out and reject ideas without having to pick out seams! I just love working this way!
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