From Fabric to Work-in-progress

So this is how I work. Get the main colors and basic "bones" of the peice laid down, then audition lots of fabrics.


Once I have my stash of fabrics, I start adding the elements at random. When I add one element, my instinct is to balance it by placing a similar sized element or color else where in the piece.

I don't want to have any large unbroken blocks of color, because a large unbroken block attracts too much attention and unbalances the piece, so I added some dark blue blocks to the big swatch of yellow. Compare this pic to the one above - it's getting much more interesting!
This is probably the most time-consuming part. But once I have my main elements nailed down (or ironed, as it were...) then the rest of it usually falls into place easily.