Process of Play

I'm calling the process of growing a tiny quilt "playing". One often uses the phrase "working on" when referring to a project. Making a tiny quilt is "playing on"!

The process of play:

1. Thinking - this is the fun part - observing the surrounding landscapes, feeling the colors around me, creating shapes in my head.

2. Sketching - ok, this is really the fun part. I love having a sharp pencil and thick paper in my hands. I have sketches back many years and often review them for new twists. Recently I started using Penultimate on my iPad and am having fun with a new toy.

3. Choosing Fabric - more fun! I have fabric in bags by color family. I usually have some idea where I want to start, but I still like to get out all my bags and lay the pieces of color next to each other. Or I look at color cards I've collected from the manufacturers and start online shopping.

4. Mechanical Drawing, Cutting, and Basting - the full size pattern is drawn on paper, cut out, traced on the fabric and sewn down near the final stitching lines.

5. Sewing - this is really the best, most exciting part! The appliqué IS the play. The shape becomes fully defined for the first time.

6. Quilting - batting and backing are added with a line of outline stitches to give texture.

7. Binding - the final framing up, some straight seams and mitered corners.

8. Photographing - nothing is finished until the documentation is complete, right?

9. Blogging - introducing the tiny quilt to the world. What's its name? What's its story? Why did this design grow from sketch to fabric?

10. Then what? Probably rolled up in the sock drawer with its buddies while I play on the next one.

This is where each tiny stitch reveals the new shape of the figure against the ground.