10 August, 2010

Concept Evolution

One of these days I will actually have some quilt stuff to share with you. Just haven't felt much like playing with fabric lately. But I have sketched. Afterall, I have those wonderful markers to play with.

I wanted to share with you the evolution of a design today.

We live rather close to the Rocky Mountains, I can see them if I'm in the right part of the city and the weather is right. And they are less than an hour's drive away. Sadly, though, we only get there every couple of months. But they are there, taunting us with majesty and the possibilities of fun (I used to mountain bike and until recently, ski).

On a trip to Banff last year, for work of all things, I snapped a couple of photos. The colours and details on that trip were very inspiring in the face of a boring work trip. In the 9 months since, ideas and colour and shape percolated though my head. That trip may have also started my fascination with grey and the accumulation of grey fabrics in my stash!

The Rocky Mountains are young mountains, formed when shifting continental plates pushed the layers and layers of sedimentary rock up. As your drive through them you see, literally, folds and thrusts of rock. You can see layers, where millions and millions of years ago there was once water flowing, depositing the silt to create the rock.

Up close, you can see the shards of shale, the moss growing, the bits of life that emerge from a rocky landscape. From a distance you are awed and made to feel miniscule in the grandeur. Up close it is a slow fascination with life.

So those ideas bubbled around and I finally sketched them out on our recent road trip. Strong diagonals, layers, loads of grey and that little bit of orange. To be honest, I don't know when I'll ever get around to fabric with this, or if I ever will. But the concept evolves.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope you do get to fabric! It's a great concept and beautiful!

Live a Colorful Life said...

I would like to see the next step in this quilt's evolution!

Victoria said...

I enjoy this type of inspiration and process... looking at the land, slow peculation, incubation and gestation... not knowing what will eventually be born, but feeling it grow inside of you.

I also like your sketch. I think it would look pretty cool printed on fabric!

Corinnea said...

I love your inspiration and where you have taken it thus far... the grays and oranges are particularly appealing to me right now.

Lee D said...

i did a quilt with orange and greys a bit of black and white too. they really do look great together. mine was simple blocks, not as abstract and as majestic as your idea. PS we are heading to Jasper Friday!

Unknown said...

I love this post. Your thought process and your pictures/sketch are truly inspirational. :) In college, geology was my favorite class. So fascinating!

Katherine said...

Mmm... I can't wait to see where you go with this. I'm loving the colours and the strength in your design process.

brown robin said...

completely inspiring... love your process!

K said...

Could be a very cool quilt. You should keep playing with the idea.

I love the photo of the rocks. I drove out to BC at the end of June and some of my favourite bits of rock were ones like that -- here's my photo.

sulu-design said...

Love this post, love these photos, and hope to see more like it, even if they never evolve into a fabric stage. Just seeing what strikes your eye and interests you is neat to me.