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Title:
Art & Inspirations - Ruth B. McDowell Author: Ruth B. McDowell Publisher: C & T Publishing ISBN: 1571200150 |
Book Review by Sandi Marshall
When I opened this book and saw the two-page spread showing Ruth's quilted depiction of a bleeding heart flower plant, I knew I was going to love her designs!
This book may start you looking around at objects you considered ordinary and realizing they're great subjects for a project design. Ruth shows you, in this book, how to use symmetry, fractals and repeat patterns, combined with color patterning, to turn a simple subject into a wonderful design. She charted a basic bull frog shape, for example. When you first look at that quilt, you may think "That's a wonderful color arrangement", then you begin to realize that it is an arrangement of bull frogs cleverly put together in a pleasing color and shape pattern.
Her "Herb Quilt" series evolved after she took a pad of graph paper into her garden to see what was there.
| You may surprise yourself with what you'd come up with if you carry a pad of graph paper with you when you're looking at a subject that interests you. |
Crocheters and knitters, as looking through this book inspires within you some new designs of your own, you could think not only of the color patterning you would use within your new design but of texture stitch patterning, as well.
This book can be a valuable resource to anyone who creates designs in any craft medium, for knowledge and inspiration on shape arrangement, as well as color patterning. I, myself, found the book to be very inspiring!
| The designs presented are not there to be copied exactly, but to serve as a point of inspiration from which you would then develop your own original work. |
Whether designing for their own enjoyment or for profit, crocheters and other needleworkers charting designs after studying the Art & Inspirations book series are bound to be much more imaginative in their approach to their own design process.
Feature: Design/Color Inspiration from Other Craft Mediums - Quilt Books
Cover image by permission of C & T Publishing
