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Windows and Sketches–Exercise your Imagination!

Download is available here: Windows and Sketches PDF.

The September issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited is now hitting mailboxes, so I thought I’d share the cover:

productimage-picture-mqu-september-2009-22_t280

My article this month is about texture:  both literal and visual texture in machine quilting.  Quilts can be old-timey puckery like the 1930s quilts we know and love, but they can also be (literally) flat, like the fabric postcards made on Timtex or Peltex (a rigid stabilizer sometimes used in cap brims).  But there is also visual texture…what the eye thinks it sees depending on the type of line created by the quilting.

One fun exercise is to give yourself 30 minutes (at most!) to fill the 12 small boxes on a page.  Fill each square with a different “something” from around your house and garden; for a change of pace, take your sheet (or another one!) into town, walk in a park or look at the downtown buildings, and look for images that might make good quilting designs.  Check out the article for more information!  It is in the September Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine (ask your local quilt shop to carry it!) or order an issue / subscribe at www.mqumag.com.

Here’s the Windows and Sketches workpage I shared in the magazine:

2009.08.Blog.WindowsSketchesFilled600

You can download a blank template of this form using the link at the top of this post or here: Windows and Sketches PDF.  This is what the blank looks like:

2009.08.Blog.WindowSketches

4 Responses to “Windows and Sketches–Exercise your Imagination!”

  1. Caroline Says:

    They dont do international subscriptions because of the postage costs, as far as I can gather – such a pity…

  2. Lida Letey Says:

    Sarah, what a great way of see things different for quilting ideas. learn to open my mind thanks Lida

  3. Grace Says:

    I knew you that you wrote for MQU magazine but I was nicely surprised to see a friend of mine, Nancy Cook, featured on the cover (she also happens to be a part of the art group I belong to along with Susan Knapp).

    I am so delighted for both of you. Great article BTW. I go around with my camera instead cause I’d be way too hung up on drawing the image “right”. Ha!

  4. shirley Says:

    I find the windows and sketching exercise a very good way to see things in a different light. This will get my imagination going. I look forward to seeing more on your blog. Shirley