ATCs 46-60

Starting to get more abstract - I like them. And I like the cruciform ones. The blue blob is meant to be the Water Cube in Beijing - it is truly awful. The last 2 ATCs are an interesting experiment. For the first one just grabbed 2 fabrics and did some freeform curved piecing - I like it! The second one I wondered if I could achieve the same effect with less work by just putting the fabric on top and stitching it down - but you end up with quite different texture - so (sigh) curved piecing is worth the hassle.

Following Twyla Tharp's advice

Thanks to Philippa this is a quote from Twyla Tharp re copying - "It's no different from a young person sitting with a drawing pad in a museum copying a great artist. Skill gets imprinted through the action.

If there's a lesson here it's: get busy copying. That's not a popular notion today, not when we are all instructed to find our own way, admonished to be original and find our own voice at all costs! But it's sound advice. Travelling the paths of greatness, even in someone else's footprints, is a vital means to acquiring skill.

When I started out as a dancer in New York, I became obsessed with studying every great dancer who was working at the time and patterning myself after him or her. I would literally stand behind them in class, in copying mode, and fall right into their footsteps. Their technique, style and timing imprinted themselves on my muscles. That's one of the ways I learnt to dance."

So here I am busy copying - today I am pretending to be Eleanor McCain. Such a simple quilt - playing with colour and the cruciform symbol. Easy and effective and enjoyable to make but I'm not sure its me.... The first photo is the original - the second is my copy. I thought that with more positive negative cruciform blocks the quilt would be more effective. I've made another ATC version using patterned fabric that is interesting. Will post that one soon.