Nellie"s Needles

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Playing With the Leaf Piece

The side panel that had the leaf rubbings had begun to bother me. It was pulling my attention away from the square of pounded leaves. I thought it worked because the pattern is nebulous and secondary to the pounded leaf piece. Even though my eye came back to the focal point I felt there was too much pull.
So, I began to think about other elements that would complement the leaves ... how about tree trunks? I got out stripy fabrics and auditioned. This one works well. It repeats the red tones in my two leaf fabrics and I like the gray blue stripes that look like glimpses of sky between tree trunks.
The dragonfly strip looks better at the top ... after all they are flying, right?
The bottom looked skimpy. One of the fabrics I had pulled from my stash for the side panel audition is a shaded dark batik. It makes a wonderful base for the composition and those glass leaves are showcased. This may be it.

8 comments:

Diane Cransac said...

I definitely like the now composition better and I agree the bottom border accentuates the little glass leaves. Very nice piece :)

Joyce said...

Every change you have made is for the better. Those beads at the bottom are perfect. Love it!

Kay said...

I agree that this is an improvement. The first side panel seemed so light in value that it did compete for attention. I was very interested in your explanations about the way you made the fabrics for this.

Nellie's Needles said...

Kay, thank you for pointing out about the light value of the other piece competing with my focal piece. I had not consciously thought of that as the problem, but it was a big part of why my eye was so strongly attracted to that side of the quilt.

Anonymous said...

I love watching your creation unfold. Enjoy!

FARBTUPFER said...

Wonderful compositon,
regards
Waltraud

McIrish Annie said...

The new side piece is better but I still feel myself pulled from your center medallion. Really like the other changes with the dragonflies and the glass beads.

Nellie's Needles said...

McIrish Annie, the stitching that is yet to be done will affect the visual balance. The quilting pattern for the leaf pieces will have complexity while the striped panel will have just straight lines. One factor about the choice for the striped fabric is that its value blends into the light AND the dark values of the large section.