Applique Quilt – original design by Annika Kornelis
So, I practiced some more drawing applique in EQ. I did an online search for a picture of a swan silhouette to trace. I could not find exactly what I was looking for. My swan did not have a head and a really awkwardly bent neck, but I gave it a try anyway.
The downside of tracing a picture is that you are easily sucked into trying to incorporate too much detail. Since I was going for simple but elegant applique shapes, I tried ‘tracing’ the swan with the Bezier curve tool, instead of the Freehand tool. That way it is harder to control the lines, but they automatically curve nicely. I think it worked really well.
I made up a neck and face, and that turned out to be more duck than swan. So I am calling this ‘waterbird’ :-).
I put the birds in both square and rectangular blocks (landscape orientation). The quilt above and the first one below this text show square blocks. The third quilt shows the birds in wider blocks.
I thought the oblong birds perhaps fitted better in ‘landscape’ blocks. But I actually prefer the square blocks, they provide more swimming space. In the first and second quilt I added vertical sashings between the square blocks to give the birds even more space around them.
Next, I played around with resizing the applique. I created ducklings (waterbirdlings?) that way. And, I changed the proportions of the birds, by resizing differently horizontally and vertically. They turned out higher and less wide, making them look perkier and cuter. I did have to correct the squished heads after the asymmetric resizing.
Waterbirds ‘squished’ and resized – original quilt design by Annika Kornelis
Compare the birds in the quilts above and below to see the effect of asymmetric resizing.
The quilt below shows more naturalistic birds, in rectangular blocks, so there is less space above and below the birds. The swimming space is provided by rows of unpieced fabric. This design would make an easy kid’s quilt. Although perhaps the cuter birds above look more suitable for a kid’s quilt?
Simple Waterbirds Applique Quilt – original design by Annika Kornelis
Hmmmm…. Perhaps I have to put the squished birds in rectangular blocks, too.
Notice the difference between the ducklings swimming in a neat row with their parents (second quilt), or slightly ‘behind’ them (quilt above).
I normally use ‘center in block’ after finishing drawing applique. But that means that the underside of smaller birds ends up higher in the block than the underside of larger birds. If you want them swimming in a neat row, you have to move the ducklings to a place lower in the block, so their undersides are level with the undersides of the larger birds.
It is easily done by putting the larger bird block on the Block worktable, selecting the entire bird, right clicking and using the ‘convert to guides’ option. Next, when you add the block with the smaller birds to the Block worktable, the guidelines showing the larger bird help you place the undersides of the applique for both blocks exactly level.
XXX Annika
Stof Genoeg 