More block talk - Sharon Boggon

Ever see a block and you just can't stop looking at it.  What about the block makes it so captivating?  I was asked to feature more blocks, specifically brighter blocks and I will.. But before I do I must lay out the basis for how I look at blocks...  Several years back I took a three-day workshop from Sharon Boggon and before she addressed technique, fabric choice, seam treatments, etc.,  she talked about design elements of a harmonious block and to this day I use the notes from her workshop.

It is mainly four parts...

1. Contrast - not only light/dark but also rough/smooth, shiny /dull, soft/hard, quiet/bold etc. (Contrast adds interest.)

2. Echoing - repetitions and variations

3. Movement including directional elements and rhythm. 

4 Focal point and/or theme.. not all blocks have either a focal point or theme..

And my definition of a harmonious block is when all parts complement  each other and the whole. 

And what better block to look at but one of Sharon's.  If you follow her work you see she rarely uses printed images.  I can only think of two examples.  The best word I can use to describe her work is BOLD!!!

Here the focal point of the block is the mass of embroidery lower right.  She uses these large floral clusters on a lot of her blocks and I love them.




But since it covers such a large area Sharon chose to have the entire upper left with quiet unadorned space to balance out the block...  The large print upper right look like a heavier weight and it is contrasted with the pinkish satin/silk and the gray linen.  Not everything needs to be silk... a point to keep in mind.

And the elements in this floral mass are not random.. each flower and bead works to move your eye around the block.

All the little floral beads are like musical notes whisking you along.

Notice the large print of heavy decorator fabric upper right.

This had to be her inspiration piece as all the colors of the fabrics, thread and ribbons are drawn from this one small patch of fabric.  It is a very bold print and Sharon leaves it open.

This is a great way to pick a color palette for a piece of needlework.  Just find a print that speaks to your heart and use it as a guide.

So this is a limited palette and very soothing.  But a limited palette can also be vivid and energized as I will show you soon.

We don't have to look far to see echoes and it is the flower in the  inspiration fabric.. it is repeated in various forms all over the block.

And the triangle/fan shape is repeated again and again in the seam work...  I swear Sharon can do a bullion in 2 seconds..







Her style is very unique and different than most stitching in the United States.. She wrote a wonderful article for cqmagonline and not only should you read it but print a copy as well. As I show you more blocks I plan to show you many different styles of CQ but you can find contrast, variation and movement in all of them.. 

Ritva's block - Artist RR

I wanted to get this started as it is a small and easy   project to carry along.... I have the flower pots done and even on a hoop the satin material puckered a little so  foliage will be necessary to camouflage it... I couldn't resist adding this delicate lace I dyed.  It will be in an area where there's a lot of foliage so I couldn't help myself...  No one  else had added lace but sometimes it just happens....

I have some lovely new cotton perle thread that I bought online from Maureen Greeson before CT and am anxious to work with it...

I'm hoping to do a lot of bullion roses on the left and maybe other bullions elsewhere.  I have to admit to being incredibly slow and clumsy doing bullions... I was standing stunned watching Sharon whip those threads around the needle.  I've decided I have difficulty because I am trying to do it with my middle finger.  Does anyone else use their middle finger to wind the thread?  Of course how many other people cut off their index finger?  Anyway I am going to really concentrate on speeding up the process or give it up...

Tonight I let the time slip by and it was really really dark when I went to check on all the sheep and shut gates etc. The trees and foliage are dense between the house and where the remaining sheep are locked up...  I heard a noise in the brush and my heart had stopped until Morris came bounding out... He had probably gone in after a rabbit...  I can tell the cougar has been back every night  cleaning up his last kill... so it will be looking for fresh food soon...  I'll not be going out when it's so dark ANY MORE!!!!

Georgia's on my mind!!

This is Gayle's block for the Artist RR and she chose Georgia O'Keeffe as her artist.. I'll share some of my thoughts as I started on this block... First I wanted the seams mostly to add texture and didn't want them to stand out.. I put radiating lines in each seam because that symbolized desert heat to me... I know that's silly but when you're stitching it is nice sometimes to think you have a purpose even though no one else will ever notice.

Next she had that lovely little black patch in the center which I didn't want to cover.. That meant the main elements had to be off center... and of course since it was Georgia, it had to be BOLD and graphic.

I chose a poppy and used a technique we learned in Allie's class in CT. We used silk ribbon in class but I used a peach silk strip which worked just as well... I painted it with dyes, gathered it and then spritzed it with water and pressed until it was very very flat. Then I singed the edges with a candle. It is very batik looking.

The center repeats the black and is clipped threads and is 3D even though it doesn't show that way in the photo... I didn't want it to sit like a lump in the corner of the block so I used the bud and stems to bring it all out into the block... So we still see most of my radiating seams (LOL) and the little black patch.

One thing I adore are cordings, especially satin cording and even more especially gold satin cording... Whenever I can find it I buy LOTS. We went to a fabulous bead shop in CT and there was an entire shelf of cording and I really loaded up..
It is great on seams and as an element to add movement and interest... The ends were always a problem because they fray. I used to either hide them or satin stitch near the end and clip close...

But Sharon shared this SUPER technique... You start at if you were going to make an ordinary knot in the end but you wrap it 4 or 5 times through and then pull tight. You then clip right at the knot and it doesn't fray or come undone...truly magic!!!! I just love this... and will use it over and over. Cathy K. said she knew it as a quilter's knot.... whatever it's mine now.

Do you like the new header?? I've been painting ladybug buttons for several days..

Symbiotic relationship between shape and needlework

Sharon Boggon spent a good deal of time the first day explaining the differences (historically and now) between Australian and American crazy quilting. I am so sorry I didn't take better notes..but it was very evident that it affects her approach to crazy quilting..

She had 3 large pieces there (along with numerous smaller pieces) but I was immediately enamoured with the all-over floral areas which were different in that they defined a shape of an entire patch and in turn, the patch defined the shape of the floral area.. I know this sounds obtuse but there were so many examples that it took me a while to put my finger on why I noticed them... They were definitely not motifs or floral work as we use here. In this first one please note all the contrasts in color and materials.. I especially love the little pinwheel flowers.. they are so unexpected and delightful.

This is another example combining SRE and beads...lots of beads... Notice that it's the little burgundy roses that carry your eye across....

So much of our SRE and floral work here in the states (myself included) is roses, roses , and more roses. Seeing her pieces made me excited about expanding the types of flowers I include and how I use them.. Again this needlework is clearly defined by the shape of the patch and the shape of the patch is enhanced by the texture of the needlework.. This was on her tumbling-block quilt where shapes of the blocks was critical to the overall piece.

This is another example that was on her long sampler and the photo was taken by Susan Elliott.. the same symbiotic relationship between shape and needlework.. There was a lot of cast-on work and bullion stitches in this patch..

I was absolutely AMAZED when I saw Sharon do her bullion rose...her finger moved so fast it was whizzing thread around that needle like an electric mixer. I was in total awe. Notice how it is the little purple centers that carry the eye across.

She brought her unbelievable 75-foot sampler band with her ... Susan Elliott did a whole post on it so I won't repeat it. Sharon is doing sections of it on her site (which is in my side bar) but to see it all laid out in one piece was amazing

This is favorite photo of Sharon as I unintentionally got her bare feet into the picture.. Her shoes went off first thing in the morning... In a few days I'll do a summary post on this workshop and how I think it will affect my work...

Sharon definitely not a snob about trims...

Throughout the workshop we were continually using this quilt as a primer and no matter how often I looked at it I found something new and wonderful.

Sharon uses every single kind of ribbon, binding, braid, cording, trim, and lace that is out there and she not only uses it, she embellishes it.. But what delighted me most is the rickrack. She started using it because she was told it couldn't (or shouldn't) be used.... too tacky!!

Obviously she is up to any challenge because rickrack was EVERYWHERE on her work and spectacular in every case...

Follow on down the page for a few examples..

Not only is she not a snob about rickrack, she has embraced the inexpensive nylon and cotton laces that true lace snobs would abhor... AND when she is finished embellishing them ... WOW

Notice the two laces on this block... one handled simply and the other has beads, SRE. buttons, and embroidery. Sharon continually features these blocks on her blog so follow along and be especially aware of the trims and what she does to them...

Just as an added note I have always been in love with all kinds of trims... I have always been fascinated with embellished folk dress including European, Middle Eastern, Far East and especially the Gypsies...In the mid 90s I was occasionally doing some CQ and on a trip to NZ wandered into a shop specializing in trims and silk for saris.. I could have bought out the store (and tried)... I am still using some of them....

I soon discovered doing RRs that stitchers were reluctant to add trims and it's impossible to add them after the stitching is done... so I add all my trims BEFORE the block leaves home. So follow along with Sharon as she showcases this quilt and look closely at all the trims.. If you are not using them ... experiment and you MUST use rickrack....

p.s. I was overly optimistic in thinking I could do a synopsis in three posts from Sharon's workshop so more will follow of her workshop and of the other classes (Betty and Allie). It all was so inspiring...

Button Dumps

They're often referred to as "button clusters" but most often look like "button dumps". A pile of buttons plopped on to fill a space and most often without much interest . Even worse they are contributing nothing to the design of the block... I really cringe when I see this missed opportunity...

Using buttons is something that Sharon Boggon excels at and on the left are 3 examples I photographed at her workshop... Look closely at them... Notice contrast, contrast and contrast... She has used great variety in size, texture, shape, color, support details AND direction... These are buttons that are making a fabulous contribution to the block they are on...

Also noticed how she has added various sizes and colors of beads to add contrast and give the arrangement direction.. On the middle example she has added bits of lace as well. The beads and lace both act as support elements for the buttons adding excitement and shape. In addition if you have buttons with larger shanks the beads can be used to hold the buttons in position.





Each arrangement of buttons has a direction.


Just after I got home I heard from my friend, Susie W. who sent me the following photo of her Hearts to Sendai block... She had never been too enamored of button clusters and she was doing her very first one to fill the upper right hand corner... Being an artist herself she instinctively knew it wasn't working... It was too much the shape of the SRE on the left and she felt the rose button was just too much..

So she sent me a photo and we had a chat about it.... I told her forget "cluster" and think "trail" and also add contrast in all elements and add beads.... Also I personally loved the rose button and felt it was the button above (see arrow) that needed to go...

Well she reworked it and look at it now..

She did indeed think trail, added beads, lots of contrast and variety... It just "sings."

I just love what she did and now the button trail has a direction and leads the eye right down into the center of the block...becoming a critical part of the design of the whole block....

Here is a picture of the entire block which is spectacular... Susie is a stitcher "extraordinaire". Check out all the lovely motifs and seams... I am willing to bet she uses many more button "trails" in her work now... And Heaven knows we all have lots of buttons.....

The eyes have it!!

The good news is that the eye activity in the type of creative needlework we do improves both our cognitive skills and our memory... Sharon referred often to eye tracking studies and someone wanted to know how it is done...

So here it is... The eyetracker is worn on a helmet with an eye camera recording the pupil position, and a scene camera recording the view in front of the subject. The head position monitor allowed calculation of the gaze position of the eye even during head movement.



There are many studies on artists creating and also on people observing art....This study was done on a portrait artist wearing the helmet and a similar monitor was attached to the artist's pencil. It's pretty technical but the illustrations show how often and where the artist looks at the model and how he puts what he sees on his canvas...


So the information Sharon shared was based on such studies. Her main point was that if the block is too busy or congested the eye doesn't know where to land... Likewise it needs quiet areas to pause and take in even more detail.... And that is really all we need to remember... So this is probably way more information that anyone wants or needs but I find the fact that they can do this kind of research is interesting.

Contrast in seams

Those of you who follow will remember I outed myself in February and made my big confession on how I make all my blocks.... (http://olderrose.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-confess.html) The only drawback to this method is that due to the assembly of sections I always end up with this extremely long diagonal seam.. (see white line).. This is always something that has to be address with strategically place motifs and buttons and sometimes I extend another seam visually to break it up...

Of course Sharon saw this immediately and wondered how I was going to handle the problem... I loved the first day but the second day was even better because it was all about seams...all eight hours..

Not only did we talk about building seams (stacking, combining stitches etc.) and seam variations. She spent a great deal of time discussing "expanding seams" and "condensing seams." She urged stitchers to create contrast in and with their seams a on every piece.

Seam treatments 1.2 and 3 are the pesky long seam. On 1 and 3 I did an expanded treatment which draws the eye outward and away from the seam...which keeps your eye from following down the seam... On seam 2 I did a very condensed treatment which hold it in place. She was also emphatic on letting seam treatment leave the seam line and wander across seam lines into other patches... again moving the eye and creating interest...

Seams 4, 5 and 6 are treatments to use to embellish quiet areas... Seam 4 is a valour rick rack (discovered in the barn) finished with ribbon and beads... Seam 5 is my favorite on the whole block... It is stacked herringbones laced with variegated silk ribbon and finished with bead.. quiet but elegant... Since it is such a bright and busy block I chose to keep the lower corner quiet... but not empty... I used gold thread to stitch the pattern under the lace motif and a tiny gold braid embellished with single row of beads for the seam.... If I have to choose one thing that will influence my stitching the most from now on, it is attention to creating interesting quiet areas on blocks...

The last day was spent on motifs, flower sprays and trims etc.... I will get to that also using some of her blocks... Although I will do a bit more on this block I am very tired of it.. Rushing through is not my style... I like to plod and think and rethink and rethink.. so a rest from this block is due.