"Tiles": a 100 Day Project and more
I’m 28 days into my 100 Day Project. In this blogpost I’ll talk about the project in more detail, what inspired me for the design and colors, and what it’s accomplishing for me in my artistic journey.
There are a two main objectives that guide me in this project. The first one is the discipline to create every day, even if it’s something small. The second one is to continue my studying of colors. This includes practicing to identify value, and making compositions where colors and value are in harmony.
Doing something every day has given me a rhythm to follow, and even on days where I didn’t feel like creating, sewing, or anything else, I felt committed to doing at least the one 6.5” block. So the sewing machine had to be switched on, the color combination selected, and the first cut made. It’s a process, even for such a small block. Cutting, pressing, squaring it up, then photographing it, running it through Photoshop to create the solid white background, and posting it on Instagram. This often triggered me to do more, on other quilting projects, or to go through some tutorials for Photoshop or EQ8. It’s hard to go slow on this and limit myself to one block a day. But my initial hope that a small project every day would keep me grounded in my creative work, and motivate me to start and finish other projects has certainly materialized.
In my broader objective of color study I’ve focused on value during the last few months. I’ve always been fascinated by color, loved fashion and modern art long before I started quilting, and this fascination has translated into my creative work. However, as a beginner quilter some 3 years ago I paid little to no attention to value. My first few quilts were charm pack squares and a few simple modern quilt patterns, and my color choices weren’t cognizant of value at all. Any harmony was a coincidence rather than deliberate. That has changed in later works and I’ve made it a major objective for the 100 Day Project.
On a visit to Germany a few years ago (before I started quilting) I bought a postcard with colorful ceramic tiles with little hearts. The colors and the arrangement spoke to me and I bought the card, to then forget about it until I rummaged through a drawer recently and it resurfaced. Now I immediately thought of a quilt. Not as a literal copy of the card, but to let the colors and repetitive nature of the tiles inspire me for a new quilt. The 100 Day Project had already begun to form in my head and I thought it would be perfect for that. I still love the geometry of straight lines, but I’ve become a real curves enthusiast, especially freehand cuts without the guidance of a template, so the concept of square tiles juxtaposed with curves was right up my alley. Unfortunately I don’t know if there is an artist behind this image. The card was from a Mediterranean-style homeware store in Freiburg but had no further identification on the origins of the image. The store no longer exists.
In my preparation, I picked a color palette that was loosely inspired by the colors on the postcard. To support the focus on value I included 3 shades of 5 different colors, a dark, medium and light value of each, for a total of 15 colors, and added a dark chocolate brown for an even 16. To stretch myself I focused on a slightly more muted palette since my tendency goes to bright, saturated colors. And just to practice my hand at freehand cutting I made a few test blocks prior to Day 1.
As for sewing curves I’ve gone through 3 stages over the last few years. I practiced my first curves during an online sew along hosted by Suzy Williams @suzyquilts for her Modern Fans quilt in 2018, and pinned everything from the center out. In the next year I learned from a video by Jen Carlton-Baily @bettycrockerass to use glue. What a revelation that was; I thought I’d never do it any other way and I used up quite a bit of glue in subsequent projects. But then during a recent workshop Jenny Haynes @pappersaxsten initiated me in the secrets of sewing them freehand, without pins or glue. I was intrigued and wanted to master that. It took a while, especially for the smaller curves included in her Hole Punch Ribbon quilt pattern, but I’m getting better at it. The daily practice for my 100 Day Project is definitely an asset to the (literal) learning curve. However you do it, either of these methods works totally fine and is a matter of personal preference. I’ve learned so much about curves at this point, and I’m grateful for all the teachers that have crossed my path.
A mockup of the first 16 blocks using the Layout app.
After I completed the first 16 blocks I arranged them on my design wall in different formations and took pictures. With only a few it’s hard to imagine what a whole quilt may look like with 100 blocks. And because I’m impatient and curious I used the Layout app to make a mock up, combining 4 pictures of the 16 block compositions, which I then flipped and mirrored to create an expanded view. The result definitely motivated me to continue. I’ve also since created an offshoot of “Tiles”, using cutoffs and scraps of the daily blocks, and I have additional ideas for following the tiles concept, possibly also using scraps. I like the idea of a no waste project or small series. All in all I’ve felt very productive and feel I’m training the muscle of showing up every day and creating something.
Thank you for following along on this journey. I’ll report about more progress in a few weeks. In the meantime I’ll keep curving away every day.
This is the first offshoot of “Tiles”, using cutoffs and scraps. It measures 28” x 42”.