Empty Spools - Day Two with Ruth B. McDowell 03-27-12

Although today (Tuesday) was actually Day Three, I didn't take a single picture!  But I have those I took yesterday when Ruth was demonstrating how to develop a photo or drawing into a usable quilt design.  She pins up each student's design source, covers it with tracing paper and shows how it might be divided up into sections that can be sewn by placing the cut out fabric pieces face to face, sewing and pressing the seam. This drawing procedure is a complicated process and after making over 500 quilts and developing her original methods she is very quick and accurate.  With the exception of the full size drawing of the tree/corral all of these drawings must be enlarged and further work done to define seam lines and backgrounds and borders. 

Carole Garcia brought this picture of a solitary eucalyptus tree.  The dark lines are the sections that will be sewn together after the smaller pieces have been assembled.  The yellow is to help distinguish between the pieces that are sky and those that are tree. 

Toni Silvera came with a completed drawing and an idea to sew the corral section with straight seams and the overhanging tree with curved seams.  After the top and bottom sections are joined she plans to applique a group of people as the final layer before quilting.

Pat Thompson brought two images of egrets to choose between.

After some discussion about the pros and cons of each image the one on the left was selected and Ruth divided it up into sections and then continued to mark subsections.

Maria Lansberry brought a picture of a small girl collecting shells on the beach.  Ruth's hand with the pencil is pointing out a particular seam and explains why it is drawn a certain way.

This is the picture I brought with me - taken in Corky's neighborhood four years ago.

This is Ruth's drawing of the way it could be pieced.  I will need to enlarge the drawing and work on adding further piecing lines, background and border. 

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