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Monday, February 27, 2006

Am I on the path yet?


cqclassblock
Originally uploaded by Jam_mam.

Thank you all for your support during my wobbly half hour. It was wonderful to receive such a generous chorus of "don't fret, Pet" and boy, did I need it? I even shed a few tears over being such a dunce *shock horror* What a silly woman, you may say, and you may be right :) But I guess it just goes to show how much this cq course means to me. Alternatively, it might just mean I hate being 'wrong'. VBG

Anyway, after my little tantrum, I went off with my printout of the block - I did one in black and white too to see if that was any help - it wasn't - and ...

I started by drawing some circles on the areas of the block which drew my attention.

Then I linked these areas in what seemed a logical sequence, making little notes to myself as I went in the margins.

I also added some ideas about a 'theme' for the block and how it might be expanded.

The seam treatments I have drawn in are not difinitive, and will probably change as I stitch - these ones were from memory and I will be getting my books out to find inspiration for the real thing.

Lastly I added Linda's 'triangles' - and these made much more sense than the path I was searching for.

In the stitching things will, I am sure, become a lot clearer and there are still several weeks of the course to go. But I have already learnt a great deal from the forum too.

One thing I learnt was that the paths are not the seams! Doh! I was looking for a way for the seams to draw mw around the block. Some kind soul posted a picture of her drawing of paths on her block on the forum and it was a light bulb moment.

I had already seen serveral similar drawings but not realised that the circles and ovals are actually in the blocks or across the seams not on the seams themselves and the paths do not follow the seams but lead from one motif or focal point to another. Eureka!

All of which didn't actually help me to 'see' anything in my block but did make me feel better that I might actually be looking in the right place - eventually *rolls eyes*.

So enough yabbering - and thank you once again for the encouraging words and for helping me to not loose heart - time to go sew :) I think I will make my February 6X4 lives sampler a record of my seam embellishments for this block. Maybe this will be fun again, after all.

PS Of course SharonB's response to my post on the forum made me feel much better too, but I didn't read that until this morning :) *waves to Sharon* Thanks teach. Promise to stop being a silly moo, but will probably be asking obvious/silly questions again ... okay ... will definately be asking obvious/silly questions again. VBG

2 comments:

Sharon said...

J - what is one of the fundamental things we don't do as a rule... Answer- ASK!!!! I would bet you a cache of the most expensive stitching bits and bobs - that for every question which is asked there are at least 6 people who breathe a sigh of relief because that was the question they weren't game enough to ask. These days I figure if I don't ask I won't know... This is all very new to me and I feel like I am blindfolded, in the dark and definetely off 'the path'.... Like you, my 6x4 lives, reflects sharonb's class and because I am not too precious about it has been loads of fun even with its glaring mistakes (my piece - not the class!!!)....I figure at this stage if I just keep going, that things will start to appear with more clarity and that things that seemed a little 'lost' will make more sense... You know the feeling - you do something 100 times without question and then on the 101 you go 'oh is that why I do that'...

Digitalgran said...

I love the way you sketch on these printouts. It's a great idea.