Sunday, June 13, 2010

Struggling for Order


Anonymous
Collage
5x7"

One of the quilt patterns that I particularly like is called Log Cabin, so it seems appropriate that I try this design in a collage especially since I'm committed to my Bits Basket this week. Log Cabin starts with a center square or two triangles and is built up by sewing strips of dark and light fabric alternately around the center until the block is the desired size. I started my collage with the museum stamp of a Matisse painting. Then I added the quilt image, then the blue, then the stripes (a bit of photo of one of my paintings)... and then it stopped working.

Log cabin is nearly always a square patch and I'm working in a rectangle. That was one issue to deal with. The other is that I chose too many different patterns and too many pieces of paper for such a small work.  And then I lost my focus on the patterning of light and dark and the concentric addition of strips.

I think the resulting collage is okay; it has some good features, and I kept to my red-blue-tan-black colorway but I much prefer the more simple designs, done with fewer pieces.

Back to the drawing board.

6 comments:

  1. Actually, I like when there's alot going on--to see something different every time--this collage is good for me.

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  2. Who am I to say, but if you cut off the right side of the collage and leave it to the edge of the word: Lapsig will give more focus to the Log cabin blocks.

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  3. Looks good to me!
    I love the log cabin quilt pattern too. I have heard that the little square in the middle, most times red, represents the home. Sweet.

    Hugs!

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  4. What a great collage. Love the idea of using the log cabin.
    Huggles
    Rita

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  5. I think a log cabin collage would be fun to try, I will do it and it square so that is maybe more visible that it is a log cabin... I like yours though, and yesterdays too - I have a scrap box now too! :-)

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  6. I'm with you, Diane. Sometimes more isn't enough.
    And Herm, you're right, cutting off the right side to make it a square makes the log cabin work better, but I'm keeping in the framework of 5x7 for my dailies.
    Mary, my quilting relatives in Arkansas said the red represented the hearth or the stove, the heart of the home. Either works for me... but the center does need to be red, in my book.
    Rita, I think that mnay quilt patterns would lend themselves to design for collage. After all, piecing quilts is assembling bits and pieces into a pleasant whole.
    Hanna, I'm so pleased that you now have a bit basket, too. I'd love to see what you do with yours.

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I appreciate comments and questions.