The Design Process

OK, so this class was a challenge for me because I don't feel like I can draw (or design) very well.  It was a real stretch, but I was excited about it too!
The only idea I came with was gnomes and a mushroom house.  I made a gnome pillow Christmas decoration which I really like and just have a thing for gnomes lately.  There were also gnomes and mushrooms in my Woodland Whimsy quilt, which I just love.
So that was one idea.  The other idea was a collage of flowers and leaves, because I felt like I could probably draw flowers and leaves....

Sue was really good about going around to each student and discussing our design, and our questions and concerns (and there were 24 of us!)  When she stopped by my table, I was struggling to decide.  I told her my two ideas and she challenged me to go with the gnomes since that would be harder for me than the flower collage.  So, gnomes it is!
I ended up staying up that first night drawing gnome after gnome, trying to get them to look decent and be about the right size.  I also drew flowers and leaves and a bird and a mushroom house!  As in, over and over I drew these things, trying to get them just right!

I was only going to put one gnome in the design, but I actually had two turn out decent, so I put them both in!  I also added a little chick who just happened to hop into their garden 😊
I'm thinking of naming the piece "The Gnome Bros."

You can see my background layering, fabric, ribbon and rick rack.

Here I'm also working on the butterflies.

This class was about 5 1/2 days and it was SO nice to have the time to work on it all day.  Sue would also give information, and demo lectures throughout the days.  It wasn't really until day four that I was ready to do any embellishing.  Up until that point it was drawing, designing, layering the background, then appliquéing all of the wool and cotton shapes.

As you can see in the two pictures below, I must have spent two hours just trying to decide the right centers for the flowers!

Now for the really fun part (although it's been a fun learning process the whole way through - a fantastic class!) - the EMBELLISHING!! 😊❤️









I tried some Pearl and Loop on the flower in the photo below - love this stuff!

My plan was to clean out my sewing room, but so far I've been having too much fun working on UFOs.  I made my needle roll, finished my North Pole top and am going to pin it for quilting, and have been working on my gnomes!  Besides, all of this sheltering in place and staying home and not going out just makes me want to hang onto my sewing stuff - not get rid of it!  I was able to finish up my North Pole top, cut a backing, sleeve, binding, flange, and have enough batting to get it ready for quilting - all with stuff I had at home!  I should have enough thread to quilt it too!  

So, hmmm.... why "purge" as I intended??