The 'WOW' Factor...

I haven't made much of a progression with my L's House BOM. But in saying that I have learnt something. As I said in a previous blog I had set the L's House block up on a tray - the last few days I have kept looking at it and asking myself why did this particular array of fabric 'speak' to me. What were the factors that worked and why did they? Again, as I mentioned in the same blog I was going to make block for block using my inherited stash as the practice piece. Now while a good majority of the fabric from that stash is too co-ordinated I just couldn't seem to achieve the same results as the L's House BOM. I switched the fabric around that many times - then I studied each block more closely... Of course the design on fabric and the colour was the most critical factor but why didn't it work when the L's House was also co-ordinated. I think really it is in the 'eye of the beholder' and 'horses for courses'. What immediately takes the eye of one person doesn't even register with another.

And again in saying that I really like the material that I have inherited - in fact I chose it because I liked it - perhaps it is just not suitable for the type of quilt that L's House BOM quilt is. What appealed to me about the L's House quilt I think was its 'romantic look' and as I said at the time it was quite a departure for me...

I followed up a link from inaminuteago it was a blog called Sonji says. As I scrolled through her blog and looked her work I asked myself why it appealed to me. Was it the colours she used or the shapes as in the design areas. Was it the apparent 'freedom' and 'freshness' that I felt when I looked at them? I have thought of late about what quilts that I have viewed and which ones have stayed with me long after I have left the exhibition.

It has been interesting for me to note how my tastes have changed just in the short time I have been involved in blogging. Finding a 'larger world' which I could bring into my lounge room so to speak has allowed me to discover more diversity in the stitching world. I think until recently that I have been fairly dependent on what I have seen in craft/stitching magazines and while I am certainly not criticizing them, I believe that they cater for the the popular market. Which brings me back to what quilts remained with me after the exhitbition was over - mostly they were the art quilts and the crazy patchwork quilts. Whilst I appreciated the work, the precision of quilts like baltimores just to name one, it was those quilts that ' broke the rules' so to speak which excited me. To put into exact words is hard, but I guess the only way to say it is that I felt a connection to them - it was as though I resonated with some aspect of them. I could wax lyrical here but I would suggest that you who read this know what I m trying to say...

Now I am the first to admit that my entry into the world of quilting has purely been to this point, one of an 'appreciative viewer' rather than a 'maker'. And I will suggest, that I am nervous about venturing into these waters, as I am concerned that I may cut up all this fabric - just to leave it like that and never get any further!!!!!!

But time will tell what I end up doing and all this talking doesn't get my BOM any further advanced especially when the second block is due to 'land' here any day soon...