100 Days of Tiny Abstract Appliqué

Two years ago I took part in my first 100 Days Project. This is a free global art project that takes place online every year. You can read about my first project, 100 Days of Organic Appliqué, and the subsequent fabric book I created in this post. The 100 x 4″ blocks I stitched became the basis for many of the Dream Flowers patterns (which in turn led to the Dream Birds and onwards…).

This year I have chosen Tiny Abstract Appliqué. I am using scraps from recent modern quilts made with solid fabric, and the blocks are smaller than before at only 3″ (finished). The idea is to create simple abstract shapes. I am trying not to ‘depict’ any particular object. Though this is harder than it looks as even very simple shapes start to remind me of a pizza oven or some french fries! Though I could just be hungry… 😉

I started off with a daily practice regime but then March was so busy and I was away quite a bit. So I spent the first half of April catching up and restoring the daily regime.

Now I am almost two thirds through the project I am feeling confident about finishing!

I will be making these blocks into a fabric book as before with nine to a page (and one spare on a page of it’s own). This will be an exhibit at my Festival of Quilts gallery alongside the first 100 days fabric book and my Temperature fabric book. FOQ are building some plinths specially to display the books.

I’m really enjoying coming up with the different designs for each block. If I’m wondering what to do I just look around me and find shapes and geometry everywhere. I great source of tiny abstracts are the app icons on my phone! I wonder if you can recognise any that have found their way into these blocks? Or sometimes I just use my scraps as a starting point and build more of a collage.

This is just the sort of playful experimenting I like and hopefully the finished fabric book will be packed with ideas for future projects that I can return to.