Hummingbird Hill Studio
Dynamic Design
with the five classical canons of rhetoric
Linda Digby McFarland, M.A.
Dynamic Design with the five classical canons of rhetoric Linda Digby McFarland, M.A.
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Quilt Design Analysis Study these nine quilt examples of the five classical canons of rhetorical design: INVENTION
Where Will You Be When the Stars Go Out?” (© HHS 2003) The invention is one of large and small black star shapes in a square pool of water reflecting light from . . . who-knows-where?
ARRANGEMENT
“One Arkansas Star” (© HHS 2003) The arrangement is four Arkansas star blocks, with eagle centers, asymmetrically set into a very patchywork landscape of small squares and triangles.
STYLE The following four quilts contain sixteen identical "sampler" blocks in the same order. The four styles differ due to the effects of colour usage and placement and to contrasting values, as well as to unique setting arrangements within assorted sizes and types of borders.
The style is contemporary classic. The fast-moving, ultra-busy effects from the chaotic emergence of the stars, which appear to go in diverse directions, fill viewers with an awareness of universal closeness in this new millennium. The tri-tone muted blues in traditional star patterns qualify it as a classic.
Much closely quilted “white space,” as well as the creamy muslin and turkey red colour combination, result in an antique style.
The style is seasonal—Christmas. Because of the green holly-print fabric and the carmine-red fabric with metallic gold leaves on a mixed creams background, the colours and the prints of the fabrics combine to make a Christmas season “statement.”
The style is scrappy country. The fractional shades of neutral colouration in numerous small print fabrics, framed with pieced inner and outer borders, make this very scrappy and country extraordinaire.
MEMORY
Memory is the theme of this quilted scene. Muted morning stars, a fly fisherman beside a pond, a mountain goat, a willow tree filled with birds, a pair of peacocks, a cow inside the barn and a churn nearby, a wood church with tombstones in its yard, a wishing well and bees and hives, a rabbit munching a carrot in front of a picket fence, a pineapple on the front gate, a horseback rider crossing a bridge and approaching a two-story stone house on a dirt road . . . Will he stop at the big house? Is he returning home from a long trip? Does he know the residents of the house? Is he a messenger with important news? Is he going to find a doctor to care for his sick son? If he does not stop at this house, will he wave to the young woman in the upstairs window? Or, will he pass by, unnoticed and unnoticing, intent on arriving at his destination, wherever that might be? DELIVERY The specific “target” audiences (war historians, students of wars, American patriots—particularly, American veterans and their families) may be crucial to the effective delivery of the next two quilts.
The mixture of blood and sand colours, with the appearance of the two large “fan” blocks as explosions, and of the four smaller “fan” blocks as fired ammunition or missiles, framed by the black rectangles representing coffins, gives a warlike impression. The quilting stitches—rows of camels, tumbleweeds, sunshines, pyramids, an airplane dropping a bomb, and a dove whose beak holds a branch of peace—additionally indicate a desert war and hoped-for harmony.
The shades of military-in-the-Middle East and the text message “WAR ON TERROR” reveal aspects of conflict. The star blocks and the striped fabric are reminiscent of the flags of many nations.
*Reprinted from my article "Teaching the Tools of the Five Classical Canons of Rhetoric to Composition Students through the Quiltmaking Design Process"--and copyrighted 2006. ~~~~~~~ To use, in your writing, what you have learned on this page, now read Writing Design. ~~~~~~~
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“Starring Blue Pearls” (© HHS 2003) 
“Christmas Memories” (© HHS 2004) 
“Homemade Moda Mudpie” (© HHS 2004)
“Stars Over Afghanistan” (© HHS