A while back a challenge was issued to base a modern quilt on one of Portland’s bridges (I chose the Hawthorne Bridge) and to use 1/2 yard of Violet Craft’s Waterfront Park line for Michael Miller fabrics. I’ve been biding my time to show the quilt till the big reveal had passed. (Past posts: bridge photos here and fabric here.)
I chose to make a functional quilt and chose throw size, so I wanted the quilt to stand alone. I thought about modern criteria and went for minimalist, asymmetrical, and lots of negative space. Of course I wanted something to reference the bridge. I stripped it down to one essential feature, the red weights that raise and lower it, and I added Xs to suggest structure.
Presenting “Weighty Reflections”:
Weighty Reflections, approximately 40 x 60
In the interim, I made another quilt derived from the Hawthorne Bridge photos. It doesn’t look like the bridge at all, and it seems to me that viewers need not know the bridge to understand the quilt.
How important is a quilt’s history? Here, of course, it is relevant because I am talking design process as well as finished product. And for the exhibition, Portland Bridges Now, it matters to link it to the Hawthorne Bridge. However, once that is over, do I need to mention the Hawthorne Bridge when showing the quilt? When do you think telling the inspiration is necessary? And when does it become redundant?
Linking up with Finish it up Friday , LAFF, and Off the Wall Friday
knitNkwilt 
I love this quilt! The colors, the graphics — very nice!
wonderful to see this on your blog..somehow a lot of my email ended up in my spam folder! glad I went looking and found this post-I think I would tell the story of it as long as you don’t get bored repeating yourself!
What a clever quilt! You obviously put a lot of thought into the planning and the result is wonderful. The blue is a great colour x
What a cool quilt! I love the way the straight line quilting emphasizes the different angles! 🙂
Some good questions to think about. Honestly, I think it’s enough that you know, unless you happen to be explaining your design process or the artfulness of the quilt to someone. I’m glad I’ve followed you through the process, but I would still enjoy the product without knowing the process. Between the blue fabrics and he quilting lines, with the strong darker blue and the surprising bits of red, I think you did a great job of creating something that ties back to your original sketching without actually reproducing those sketches.