Drawing it out

​Hi everyone,

Thanks for all your lovely emails and comments after last week's video! I will do that a little more often as you all seemed to enjoy it so much. It was nice to hear from you all, I do often feel like these posts go out into nowhere so it was really lovely to know that you're actually enjoying them. More please :D

I've started a few drawings from some of the photos I took in Europe. The way this usually works is that I take hundreds (literally!) of photos, and I don't even look at them for weeks afterwards. Then I download them all onto my laptop, have a look through and delete any that I've changed my mind about being interesting. Sometimes I will sort them into other folders, but for now this lot is all sitting in a "europe trip 2024" folder, waiting to be flipped through when I feel like a boost.

These sketches may or may not turn into a quilt!! Sketching them doesn't mean I'm about to stitch them - although sometimes I do get excited and I start something straight away. There are a quite a few from this weeks sketches I did that will turn into appliqué, or parts of appliqué, for The Lemonade Stand projects.

This is a wooden panel in the drawing room of Hever Castle in Kent, England. Hever was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and many of the details in the Castle are original, but this panel was actually put in during the restoration between 1903 and 1906. The Castle was bought by William Waldorf Astor, and as he restored it he wanted to try to keep his additions as in keeping with the original detail as possible. So these panels are a new addition, but still charmingly medieval in flavour. 

I started by doing a little pencil sketch of the parts of the panel I wanted to use. I always sketch half, because if something is going to be a mirror image of itself theres no need to sketch both sides out. 

Once I have everything in place, or around about, then I go over the top in a black pen. I always correct the shapes to my liking with each new drawing, until I'm happy with them.

When I have the shapes I like, then I trace a new drawing out over the top of the pencil/pen drawing, which gives me a cleaner line. Sometimes I'm still correcting as I go.

Then when I'm happy, I duplicate the image and flip the other half, and put them together. (If the drawing is a mirror image that is! This one just happened to be). Then I can have an idea of what a complete block might look like. The hand drawn half block and mirror image digital blocks are the only parts of this process I would file away for later.

And once I have a complete block, I can start to play with it and think about what I might do with it. This might make a nice 4 block quilt (obviously the motifs would have to be manipulated to fit block sizes etc as they overlap a bit here). Or a medallion of course, I do so love a medallion quilt!! Mind you I'm also thinking about making a whole quilt of the lovely things I found at Hever Castle, so maybe they would lay out differently. We will see if this ever eventuates.

When I do come back to a drawing like this, I would usually start my quilt design by printing the full block out. At the moment its drawn up to about 8" square.  I would decide how big I want the finished block (or quilt) to be, and then plot that out onto graph paper. I use the photocopier to manipulate the size of the drawing up to down to fit it into whatever space I've drawn for it on my graph paper, and then trace out the full block onto the graph paper. Then I can see how large or small each of the pieces will be when they are in fabric, by assigning a size (1", 2") to each of the squares in the paper. 

Lastly I draw each shape out to the size they will end up being using the graph and my original drawings as guides. I make laminate templates from them, and. trace around each one to get a smooth line for Oscar to make the digital templates from - then its off to cut out my fabric!

Here's another little piece I was playing with this morning. This is an ivory inlaid Indian cabinet that I found in the V&A, circa about 1750 from memory. It's an amazing object and covered with flowers and leaves, as well as figures, birds and animals. So very beautiful!

Sometimes when something is really just a repeat of itself, I'll just draw it out until its enough of a reminder to jog my memory next time I see it, rather than going the whole hog like the Hever panel. So here is my little pencil sketch of the tree - 

And here is the pen overlay, with the leaf and flower shapes, and the bird perched at the top. This. would be a beautiful embroidery actually. Hmmm.

There are hundreds more to come... and they may happen this week, or next week, or in 2028. Who knows, but the photos are stored in a file all ready to make me think the next time I need a burst of ideas. Writing this process out for you has really made me think about it actually, I'm not sure that I ever really appreciated how many steps I go through before I put an idea in the bank.

Would it be faster for me to do all this on the computer? Yes and no. I would have to learn how, for starters. But I also get a lot of peace and enjoyment from doing it by hand. It allows me to think about each shape and how it will stitch out as I draw it over and over. By the time I sew things down, I am very familiar with how things sit and lock together, so that I can see how everything will work together as I cut and sew the fabric. So maybe it would be quicker, but I'm not sure that my quilts would really benefit from it. Plus it makes me happy, and it makes me feel creative and productive, and it makes me want to sew - so thats an important part of the process, right?

I came across this piece on Instagram today, from an artist I follow and enjoy, @lynn_guinta. I think this really sums this whole post up for me - my process gives me unlimited refills. Off you go peeps, make some art and you'll feel better in the morning.

Sarah x