FIRST THING I SEE ...

0915: first thing I see ... when I wake up in the morning is Miso snuggled in with her rabbit - the only toy that never leaves the bed. She snuggles in with that rabbit and nibbles just like little kids snuggle in with their favorite blankie. It calms her down and keeps her from chewing on the quilts, the pillows, or my sleeve.

But I also wanted to chat a little today about "the first thing I see ... and quilting." (It's a funny thing following the daily prompts from the Photo a Day list and making a connection to quilting. I love the mental challenge.)

The patchwork or the quilting ... like most beginning piecers when we first start out we see the fabrics and the blocks and possible secondary designs that help our eyes move across the top of the quilt. But it didn't take long after getting my longarm for my eyes to go immediately to the quilting design. Now my eyes will go back and forth noticing the interplay between the patchwork and the quilting.

My patchwork points ... do you find yourself being overly critical of your technical piecing skills? I have the worst time not shredding the fabric from using the seam ripper at times in my attempts to have PERFECT points, PERFECTly matched seam intersections, PERFECTly square blocks. It is important to do your best but it is also important to enjoy the process AND to have a finished project. LOL

Value differences with fabrics ... my eyes have gotten much better a discerning value differences - the lights, the mediums, and the darks, and all the subtle value differences across the scale. I love seeing a wide range of values used on a quilt top accentuating the patchwork pattern to it's fullest. It's kind of like finger painting when we were kids. At first we stayed within in the lines and used specific colors. Then we started mixing and found out how to make mud. After more practice and experimenting we learned how to use color and value as a tool to communicate with the viewer, to assign emotions to a piece or to help direct the viewers eyes engaging them on a deeper level while enjoying our quilting work.

Thanks for stopping by; leave a comment or thought about the first thing you see when you look at a quilt at a quilt show or when you look at your own quilting work.