In my previous post, I walked through the initial design process I used to create the quilt Prairie Grasses.  I started with this photo, drew sketches to simplify the design and started on looking at value studies.

My first two value studies, shown below, were of the original sketch.  I liked each of these, but I thought it would be more interesting to combine them in some way.

I started by converting the grayscale images to greens so that I’d have a better idea of the final design.  Then I started combining the images in different ways.

For the two options below, I combined the designs in different sizes, alternating the two different value schemes.  (Since I’d done the sketch in Adobe Illustrator, I was able to quickly make changes and see lots of different options.)

With this next one I alternated the value schemes, but kept the design size consistent so that the grasses extended across the entire design.

I rather liked this design, but I frankly had no idea how I’d be able to make this into a quilt that wouldn’t take forever to piece together.

I started over, using circular cut-outs rather than rectangles.  After playing with a number of options, I settled on the two variations below.

I liked both of these designs, sort of night and day versions, and I decided to make a quilt from the design on the right.

In my next post, I’ll go through the process of constructing the quilt based on this design.

Creativity has more to do with the elimination of the inessential than with inventing something new.
Helmut Jahn