Quilting Cartoons?

When you say the word “cartoon” most people think of the funnies in the paper, but there are different kinds of cartoons – just for fiber artists!

Cartoons are a paper drawing or guideline that weavers and fiber artists use to guide their work.  You can go for a detailed, scale drawing or just a rough sketch.

In this case, I’m using a cartoon to help my decision making about the number of squares in a baby quilt.

I shared a few different fabric picks in my fabric post yesterday and I’ve decided that I’m going to use the cloud print and yellows as the framework for my quilt.  I’m going to use the other colors are random accents.

My first sketch was for a 36″ X 38″ quilt with 4″ squares:

I think that’s just a little too busy, so let’s try moving up to 6″ squares:

Much better!

Cartoons allow you to plan and change without ever cutting your fabric.  I’d much rather spend half an hour playing with my sketchbook, than two hours cutting fabric to find out that I’m not happy with the result.

images: © C Findlay-Harder