Deb Geyer, Quilter

Shape is the element of design I will be dealing with in February. A shape is a self contained, two dimensional area. It can be organic or geometric. A shape can be created by line or by color and value changes which define the edges. A positive shape automatically creates a negative shape.

So my challenge this month is to depict a house using mostly just shape. I have chosen to use this house( Thanks to ADNA for the use of the photo). I want to focus on the shapes on the house and some of the negative shapes that are created .

I’ve done some sketching but haven’t really come up with a direction yet. I think I will probably fuse this piece as it seems it would work well with shapes. I don’t have a lot of experience with fusing. So I need some practice.

625 Main Street is my first page in an informal quilt journal to record my exploration in the elements and principles of design as they apply to quilting and the needle arts. Each page will also use Victorian Architecture in my hometown of Anderson Indiana as inspiration.
In January I have focused on line; exploring thick lines, thin lines, straight lines and curved lines. The home that I used this month was

built at 625 Main Street and was a wonderful example of Stick Architecture of the early 1900’s. It is a shame that the home was demolished in order to make way for the growing business district. King Solomon explains in the Bible, though, that there is “a time to break down and a time to build up” (Ecc. 3:3)
This journal page is 8 1/2 ” x 11″. It includes both machine stitching and
hand stitching. Materials are all 100% cotton. To see a photo of the original house and details on the construction process please see JQC2006 January.
Thank you to the Anderson Downtown Neighbors Association for the use of their photo!

Journal Quilt Challenge 2006 is a challenge to produce a series of journal quilts with only two requirements; the size; 8 1/2″ x 11″; and the rate; one per month. 33 online quilters accepted the challenge. A web ring was established with their sites and a Webshots site was set up to display all of their work. Please visit these sites to see all of the wonderful work these quilters are doing. I decided to accept the challenge and to use it as a way to revisit the elements and principles of design and to explore how they can relate to my quilting. I used images of Victorian Architecture from my childhood hometown of Anderson, Indiana for inspiration. The following links will take you to posts detailing my Journal Quilt Challenge responses.
January
February
March
April
May
June
August

I’ve had an idea for my January journal quilt page that I would like to run by you.

I was thinking about adding a border around the whole drawing but I didn’t like fencing in the top of the tower. It looks like it is reaching up to the heavens and I don’t want to restrict it from that. So I started just sketching the border around the bottom. The border started looking like the spandrel on the porch (the decorative work spanning between the posts). Additionally, I was thinking of using the address as the title of the page so I was trying to figure out where I could put it.

Then I had this idea…break the spandrel posts, turn it upside down and put the address, upside down, like it had been hanging between the posts. Breaking the posts and turning it upside down symbolize the fact that the house was demolished and no longer stands.

Is this just too weird? I’m a little uncomfortable with it but I don’t know it that is because it doesn’t make sense or if it is because I don’t usually put symbolism in my work. So, what do you think?