by Kathleen Barkley
NATURE'S STUDIO
by Joan Colvin
A QUILTER'S GUIDE TO PLAYING WITH FABRICS & TECHNIQUES
Publisher: Amy Marson
Published by: C&T Publishing
P.O. Box 1456
Lafayette, California 94549
To quote author, Joan Colvin, "What is joyful, what delights me about fabric composition is that colored and textured fabrics have their own symbolism. Though they may speak in different contexts, they lie in wait for me to find their meaning and voice through juxtaposition. A fabric flows and vibrates".
Colvin covers how our choices in design and fabric determine our style. She discusses how quilt makers get to figure out how to form fabric and thread into lines and spaces using different assembly methods. Lines can be straight or curved and spaces can be geometric or organic. Colvin covers the techniques for producing soft or hard edges by the assembly of lines and spaces. Your choice of batting, stitching, density, and thickness of thread can affect the quality and size of the shapes you make in your quilt top. The various weights of your thread can give fine, medium, or thick lines. Colvin includes paragraphs on depth, perspective, light, shadow, value, texture, and color. She encourages finding your own style by choosing a familiar subject to begin.
Colvin devotes several pages of examples of what she calls her "Woodskin Series", showcasing a look at trees made out of fabric. I found this section to be of particular interest because her composition and assembly method were so detailed and realistic. Some of Colvin's trees had leaves and she details how to make leaves of color, how to stiffen the fabric, and how to place the leaves. She also devotes a couple chapters to birds and their nests in trees and bodies in fabric as subject matter.
"I wish for you the joy of discovery, the release of emotions that comes from sharing, and a lifetime with this tantalizing substance-fabric."
With Love,
Joan
