Wow!

The last couple of weeks have been frantic both in the studio and on the home front.  Home front issues have been resolved for the most part, but since stitching is one of the ways I relax, there has been a lot of activity on that front, as well.  I continue to work my way through the Maria Shell book Improv Patchwork.  I've created samples of most of the techniques discussed, and am now putting together an actual piece using those techniques.  Obviously, my design is heavily inspired by her work, especially this first piece.  I'm sure there will be more of myself in any further pieces I may produce.  Here's my progress so far.  This picture was where I was last week.  I had figured out the design, but was having trouble getting any concept of the actual size of the various techniques, once they're assembled.  The center section is put together, and the triangles added against one side gave me an idea of what the actual measurements of the final piece would be--about 30 inches wide by 60 inches long.  Not a good size for anything, so I needed to add more width,  aiming at about 45 inches.

This meant adding another technique between the center section and the triangles.  I decided to make what Maria Shell calls "Polka Dots".  I chose red as my dominant colour and considered light green, yellow and touches of black for the "dots".  The idea is to have the dots almost appear to float against the background. This required putting together sections of strips,  I made three, all different. Then cutting them apart crosswise.

These narrow strips are then joined together, end for end, to create 60 inch strips.  I needed six 60 inch strips.

The next step is to join each narrow strip to a strip of red, and then join them all together, with a wider red strip on each side.

Here is the piece as it stands now.  The center section is not yet stitched to the red, and the triangles will have to be assembled as a separate section and then added. The bottom edge is yet to be determined.  But that is another day

 I'm constantly amazed at how different this is from my usual work.  I've been having a lot of self doubt about my art lately, but I'm finding so much challenge and excitement in making this piece, that I feel a real confirmation of my recent decision to make what I want, and not worry about my future as an artiste.