Baby Quilts as Idea Stimulators
A quick and easy way for fiber artists to test project designs. Do them small first. Baby quilts are relatively small and can be finished in a week or two. This quality makes them especially attractive for fiber artists who want to quickly test out a design concept for a larger project but still end up with a saleable product. During the latter part of the 1970’s, I was studying jewelry design and lost wax casting at Bob and Gina Winston’s studios in Tempe, Arizona. If you’ve never seen their work, you’re truly missing something extraordinarily beautiful – but I digress. Back to testing design concepts. Tie tacks. Small. 14K. With or without semi-precious stones. This was how Bob tested out his designs before creating full-blown pieces for clients. Quick to make. And quite saleable if he had chosen to sell them. But selling them was not the main purpose for them. They were attached to a 4” x 8” piece of black velvet and kept handy on his design-table. He used these small, quick and easy-to-make pieces as idea stimulators for larger, more lucrative projects. Fiber artists can easily adapt this same idea for our projects. It only takes about a week to make a small 30" x 42" quilt whereas a king or queen (±100" x 100") could require three months or more. Making a baby quilt is a quick way to see what your larger finished product is going to look like before putting considerable time and effort into, say, a king or queen size bed quilt or large wall hanging.
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