First an exciting announcement: I have my computer back!! It’s been gone since last Friday for repairs and I thought I was going to gnaw off my own arms in frustration. But it’s back and I can do things like reply to emails and write blog posts again! YAY!
Second announcement: I suck at math. Seriously. I don’t know if it’s just laziness on my part or what, but subtraction shouldn’t be this hard. I announced last month that I had been doing Quilt Design A Day (QDAD) for 6 months when … well, that’s impossible since I started in February. In fact, THIS week was my six-month-a-versary and now I’m going to celebrate all over again. My apologies. More cake!
When I was working on my webinar, I had a lot of fun looking back through older designs and thought it’d be fun to look back at the last 6 months and hit some of the highlights. I’ll return to the normal QDAD posting next week, fear not!
Now vs Then

I’ve definitely become more comfortable with my style in the last 6 months. It took me a long time to get comfortable playing with things I thought were pretty. I’m not sure what it is about me (maybe it’s not just me) that makes it hard for me to want to pursue things I like. I’ve been drawn to e-textiles for years but thought they were the “cool kids” and was afraid to join in. Minimalist/abstract designs? Way too cool for me. Some part of me was afraid of being a “poser” and trying it out. (Wow, did I date myself with that term or what??) But like teenagers (or at least, what my friends express to me about their teenagers), we need a chance to try on different things creatively to find out what fits.
Going through my designs I definitely have found some things I “tried on” and thought it’d be fun to share some of them.
The “that should be a fabric” phase

Mostly I think this ends up being a question of scale. When you’re working on a small picture instead of the actual size, scale can get a bit confusing. For most of the “that should be a fabric” designs, I think the scale is just too small. Some of them I did actually make into fabrics. And found out the scale on some of them were too big. Go figure.
“Scale down and add white space” phase

For a while I would make a design, and it would look big and clunky and not good. So I would select all, transform each (an operation in Illustrator) to scale everything down in place, and it would add white space around each element. The added white space made it feel more modern to me. I recall it felt a lot like cheating, and it wasn’t quite the style I was going for so I moved on. Some of my favorite designs feature this effect, though! The cheating thing is interesting, I should think about that more, because it comes up a lot. We really do give ourselves a lot of extra rules that can get in the way sometimes!
“Bottom Right Corner rules, other corners drools” phase

We read top to bottom, left to right, so the bottom right is just a good place to put things. But really. Too much of a good thing maybe? I find it hard to put things anywhere else unless I want them to feel like they’re floating. (Then they go in the top right, natch.) I also seem to have had a “white background phase” for a while that you see from the last two examples.
“2-color” phase

Can I get away with just two colors? Yes? Okay. Let’s do it. This is actually starting to move into my current style although I often incorporate more colors now. It did get me out of my “white background” kick at least.
Current

I feel like my current style is something I really enjoy, but in the spirit of “success means it’s time to try something new”, I think it’s time to try something new. I’m not sure what that new thing is yet, but I suppose that’s half the fun!
I hope you all have a great weekend, I’m off to go get reacquainted with my computer!
22 thoughts on “QDAD – A Retrospective”
This is all incredibly inspiring, isn’t it funny how the brain works in stages like this? If my scraps of design paper had some kind of order to them I’d probably find trends too.
It was really interesting to go back through and see the themes! They weren’t all bunched together, they often went over a few weeks (or more!) and were interspersed with other things I tried. Some of them at the time felt like they went on FOREVER but when I went back I only found a few examples. 🙂 Oh brains, you are so funny!
Loving the look back and I want to see your spoon flower fabric in person. So glad you got your computer back and didn’t have to gnaw your own arm off because that might make quilting a bit challenging. Happy six months QDAD anniversary, I’ve got a whole week under my belt.
I only got swatches of the spoonflower fabrics, but I’ll see if I can find them and bring them on Tuesday. No guarantees, though! I’m woefully behind on the qdad group (no computer for a week + being gone this week), but what glimpses I’ve seen have been great! I’m so excited you’re joining us, I’m loving where your designs are going. 🙂
So fun to see the huge variety of things you’ve tried on for size. I love how there were ‘phases’ as part of the evolution too. When you find out how to permanently silence the ‘shouldn’t’s, let me know 😉 Happy Quilt-i-versary!
Thanks Julie! 😀 I’m sure if you looked through your beads you’d see some really cool phases. 🙂 I’ll definitely let you know if I figure out the magic of silencing the shouldn’ts. Don’t hold your breath though! 😉
You are funny. Right corner phase, heh. I like your current phase and it’ll be interesting to see what is coming up next.
Thanks Vera! ^_^ I’m currently playing with not using a square canvas which changes things up a surprising amount! (And is y’know, more normal when making quilts.)
My husband and I both have our own computers AND we both have laptops, just because too many times we went through issues where one computer would be down and we don’t share lol.
Love seeing the mix of your designs. I really want to go back through your posts and start pinning some! They’re all so inspiring (and the tulip one from a few weeks ago is still on my to-do list!).
When we moved into our latest house, it was just too small for me to have a place to have a computer, so I moved to a laptop only. I sometimes miss having a big monitor but I do like the mobility. Having a backup sure is seeming smart now though!!
If you end up making any of the designs, please let me know! I love seeing them made up in fabrics. 🙂 I wish I had time to make more of them!
Oh, with the bottom corner phase, it makes me think that quilts are (generally speaking) placed onto beds and the top part is often covered with pillows and a top sheet folded over. IMO, I think that’s a natural area to place a design as it wouldn’t be hidden by those things when made up on a bed!
That’s a great point! I’ve been trying to think a bit more about how a quilt would actually be situated on a bed lately, and trying to design accordingly. But I still need to work at that more. 🙂
that’s really interesting. Funny how the brain likes to go through phases and process the crap out of things before it can move on.
My brain definitely likes to eek out everything from a particular idea before moving on. LOL Looking back I thought it was interesting how much shorter my phases were at the beginning than now. I guess because back then I didn’t know how long I’d be doing it for. Now I don’t blink at trying out something for a month, when back there a week seemed like it was time to move on to something new!
Amazing to see how your own brain works – another reason to take up the challenge. I really like your July 15th!
I have learned a lot about myself and my creative process through all this, that’s for sure!! And also how much progress you can make on something with just a few minutes a day. 🙂
July 15th is one of the ones I want to actually make! I need WAY more time to make all these designs!
I really enjoyed your lecture on MQG. And I am going to try to do QDAD using my phone. See you here in Sept!
Thank you!! Amy @ badskirt posted some apps she used on her phone if you need recommendations. It’s on her blog or in the facebook group. It’ll be awesome to see you again!! I’m really looking forward to visiting. 🙂
I love seeing the transition from the beginning to current. I can’t wait to share my designs, I learned how to use TouchDraw and need to get back to playing with it every day. I love the white background too, that’s always my default. LOL
Oooh I’d love to hear how you like TouchDraw. It looks like a great tool for tablets. 🙂
I defaulted to white (or light grey) for a long time, but at some point it just went all color. Which is funny because I’m actually generally drawn to quilts with white backgrounds. 🙂
So interesting to see the progression, Anne! Thanks so much for posting this overview. Finding my quilting voice is something I look forward to doing. Much appreciate your sharing your own process. Count me as one who really likes your July 15, too!
Thanks so much, Susan! 🙂 I feel like I’m still finding my quilting voice. I keep finding other things I enjoy playing with, but I guess it is a process, not a destination! Good luck with your own journey, I’m excited to see where it takes you. 😀