Sewing and Beyond with Mary Anne Ciccotelli

This past week we (Village Squares Quilters) had Karen Eckmeier as our speaker at our monthly meeting. She did a wonderful job. I decided to take her workshop to learn something new and also to be able to observe her teaching style. The workshop was Happy Villages. You can see examples of Karen’s villages at http://www.quilted-lizard.com/collage_gallery.htm. During the workshop I was trying to do exactly what I was told and found is kind of hard to work with this restraint. The next day I worked with the project and now feel that it is my own project – thus the name “Enchanted Islands”. I am going to share picutres of my deisgn/thought process of this project and how it transformed into my own project.

This is how my project looked when I got home from the workshop. One lady at the workshop said that she thought it reminded her of Disney Land.
I really don’t like the light blue houses, too much like water.
Why not change the building to water (or a better put – a lake). Also, I don’t know if I like the Yellow Castle(middle of piece up against the mountains) with its orange something. The steps don’t seem to be working for me. Karen told us that we needed steps so people in our HAPPY VILLAGE can get around to see each other.
Rocks and more water development.

More light blue buildings change to water and some other colors changes to water. Like the boat house, dock and especially the BOAT in the bottom right hand corner.
Lots more water – I wonder where I am headed with this?
How about a stream between the two mountains.
Distant view of the stream. Before going to the workshop I had thought of putting a waterfall in my piece. But it just didn’t seem to work out following Karen’s insturctions. The stream may not be a waterfall, but I like it anyway.
A sandy beach is just what this island needs. Makes for some fun summers. I have decided that my “Happy Village” will not have stairs, but boats will be used to get from island to island. (Note to self – need to make sure that every island has a boat.)

More Sand to make it a nicer island. Also, I think the Yellow Castle should be on an island by itself. Should there be a LARGE rock cliff?
Or maybe a smaller rock wall?
Or a rock wall with the water inlet showing?

Or yet another idea – less rock and more water showing.

Right now this is how this project looks. I think this is how it is going to stay, with maybe a few minor adjustments. I don’t know what to think of the tree in front of the rocks on the bottom of the piece.

Since I need something to cover the batting where the tree is I am wondering if you have any suggestions?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Quilt: Enchanted Islands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.