Skyline (was City Quilt)Finished

With this finish, my three for the local show are completed. Two days before the deadline! The light wasn’t perfect, but good enough for some photos. I’ll take more when it comes back home. Or at the show. A hanging photo instead of a floor photo, what a concept.

Without further ado, the front:

49 x ~68

And back:

This was my first attempt at quilting large sections of negative space. I’m not totally unhappy with the results, but there are some changes for future quilts. I really like the “cobblestone path” as a divider and wish I’d used it in all three dividing places.  The chain of spirals with echoes ends up looking too much like roses and breaks the feel of the rest of the quilt. However, they are fun to make.  And when I use  spirals again, I’ll have some tight quilting next to them so they puff out more. And I am not sure there is enough contrasting texture between the various sections–circuit board, elongated meander, and waves of checkerboard–someday I’ll learn the real name–and within the “building silhouette” section between the circuit board background and the “silhouette.” I have trouble planning quilting because I can’t quite see it in my head, and even less so in a sketch. I guess all I can do is quilt a lot and get a better sense of what motifs look like by doing.

One thing I find ironic: Modern batting can take unquilted distances up to ten inches, but current trends (and my taste) call for closer quilting! The batting was Warm and Natural, cotton and poly (I think 80/20–I am too lazy to get up and look at the label.)

There were a few tucks and puffs, but nothing like were in the last quilt.  A big part of that was the batting. But here I also did all quilting from the center out, even when it meant wadding 3/4 of the quilt under the sewing machine harp. Even the long dividing line of cobblestone path. I did have to mark it since I’d not be able to see the whole quilt as I stitched.

Some detail shots of the quilting

Upper left

Upper right

Lower left

Lower right

Quilt history

The fabric purchased soon after Christmas

A start at background–rejected for this quilt but on hold for another (March)

Second beginning (March)

Top finished (April)

One more sideways view–not so dramatic a difference as the last quilt, but oh well . . .I like photos.

L

Linking with Free Motion Mavericks and Needle and Thread Thursday. And if I remember, with TGIFF ((buttons in the sidebar but link at celtic thistle) and Finish it Up Friday (link provided 4/29/16)

5/24/16. ETA Linking with AHIQ since the technique is improv even though the design came first. And the quilting is improv.

7/5/16 Edited to add a hanging view of the whole quilt. The photo I took at the quilt show wasn’t good enough, but here is one from guild’s May meeting Show ‘n Tell–about 2/3 down the page.

Advertisement