Beth/Lyric Project Week 10 (Unity through Repetition)

As a reminder to those of you that don’t normally keep up with my blog (if you do, skip to the next paragraph), I have started a project that I’m calling the Beth/Lyric Project. In the spirit of the movie “Julie/Julia,” (i.e. Julie working through Julia Child’s cookbook) I have decided to work through the exercises in Lyric Kinard’s “Art + Quilt, Design Principles and Creativity Exercises” book. My goal is to get at least one of the exercises done each week. I’ll be posting my progress on Sundays. I’d love for you to work along with me. If you decide to do that, please post and let me know how you’re doing—send pictures too! If you have trouble leaving a comment on my blog, email me at bschnellenberger@gmail.com.

This week’s exercise dealt with “unity through repetition.” I had to choose a contrasting piece of fabric to my background, cut out a number of identical shapes, arrange them in a repeating pattern on the base fabric, and rearrange them several times until I could find a pleasing composition.

• “How much repetition is too much?”
• “What would make this composition more interesting?”
• “What would happen if you varied one color or shape?”
• “How much can you vary each shape and still have a unified composition?”

After considering the questions, I was asked to do the exercise again adding the maximum amount of variety without losing unity. This is what I came up with. I think it is more exciting than the first piece. It is a “happy” quilt; it makes me smile.

Next week's exercise is on "Focal Point through Placement, Isolation, and Contrast." Join me...I'm sure you'll learn something. The exercise is on Page 59 in Lyric Kinard's "Art + Quilt" book.

This week, I will be taking a class that Lyric is teaching at the AQS Quilt Show in Paducah, KY. I'm hoping to have some pieces to show you from that class. I'm very excited to be able to learn some of her surface design techniques. FYI...Since I'll be gone a lot of the week, I will probably be late posting my exercise for next week.