Inspired by Hawaiian Appliqué

Really trying to get into the habit of blogging again. It’s been a while since I posted a regular blog, what with that instant gratification of the ‘Gram and all. I do love that format, but it’s nice to have a bit more space to tell the story don’t you think? Anyway, no promises that I’ll keep this up, but let’s see.

For DesignMatters TV, I’m always trying to come up with new ideas, projects and processes that we can feature in workshop videos. It’s at times quite distracting, but on the flip-side it can be the catalyst that drives work in a new direction. I’ve certainly done lots of things that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, and I’m finding that I’m getting better at letting those diverse pathways fit in with my main strand of work.

Recently we’ve been asked for videos using the iPad as a design tool for quilt makers. I love working on my iPad and was happy to oblige. I like to work on Procreate which is a drawing and painting app with lots of capability. In the workshop Inspired by Hawaiian Appliqué I showed how you can use the tools in the app to draw a beautiful ‘snowflake’ type design and then fill it with colour, or image of your choice. It’s a neat little process with potential way beyond Hawaiian style patterns. If you’d like to see the class it’s available on the website

Watch the class

I made three versions of my favourite design…

I love working digitally, but for me it’s always important to get things off the screen and into the hand, whether that’s work on paper or fabric. For these Hawaiian style designs I wanted to print them on fabric to make some cheat’s appliqué.

Here’s the first test prints coming off the printer. Please excuse the weird lighting in these photos. Lots of work happens here after dark!

One of the best things about working digitally is how quick it is to play with scale. Without too much effort at all, you can try out a design really big, or repeat it on a teeny scale. As you can see that’s what I’m trying here.

I suppose it’s got a lot to do with the scale, but the small ones look like Spanish or Portuguese tiles to me.

I printed a few metres of these test prints so I had enough to feel comfortable with chopping some up and experimenting. I’ve used them in a couple of projects which are still work in progress but I’ll show you how they’re coming along next time.

Talk soon,
Laura
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