Line

Line, shape, value, color and texture are the variables we play with in creating quilts.
(Yes! I know some people add gradation and direction , but since you achieve those with line, shape or value anyway, I prefer to think about the basic five.)
My earliest quilts were all about colour and light – I wanted to get the effect of light shining through windows as I have always been entranced by that.
I wanted the glow, and colour and value were my tools.

Probably this was a result of growing up in cold grey gloomy Yorkshire. When you grow up in a place with such varying light quality every day, it becomes very important - like breathing! I think what fascinates us visually must be laid down in the brain very early.
And I notice I keep going back to those early visual memories.

But for the last year I've been really focussed on line - hungry for it!!

My hometown is largely medieval, though whole sections are Roman (about 2,000 years old). So the lines aren’t straight! And, as a result ( like Hundertwasser!) I’ve always been a bit wary of very straight lines! Could never achieve them anyway, either literally or metaphorically!!
I love the lines the old timbers make in the buildings, both inside and out. The warping of lintels, the wearing of stone steps........


the sagging of roof trusses. So, I was very interested to read in Robert Genn’s newsletter that he feels that LINE is the most important element; that there is an “energy in line” that shape or value doesn’t have.
Lines can be sensitive or direct, straight or curved, appear and disappear, hesitate and break or strike out boldly. Not every subject demands an emphasis on line, but my current focus demands it!! I’ve made (well, almost made!) 12 of these pieces so far and I still feel hungry for more.

And if you have been………………………………………..thanks for reading!Elizabeth