Horizon Views

Imagine huge sighs of relief. That's me when I glance over and remember that my latest Bee Sewcial quilt is D.O.N.E. Back in April, I offered my bee mates the initial prompt of "Horizons." It was Day 1 of my retirement, and the prompt held a multiplicity of meanings for me.

At the time, I said, "For color, anything goes! I'm asking my beemates to take the liberty - please! - to use it abstractly. I love the work of digital artist Grant Haffner - the layering and his use of multi-colors. I'm hoping they are as inspired by it as well, as they create their own horizons in fabric." I also asked for one rectangular block from each of them, in a landscape orientation, approximately 8"-10" tall, and 30"-40" wide.

And of course, one by one, the blocks arrived from my beemates. I really loved that each represented a particular kind of horizon. Sadly, it took me several more weeks before I dug in and created my own block, reminiscent (to me at least) of the lake photos I've posted over the years. 

And then, the blocks hung on my design wall where I ruminated over them nearly every day. I confess I really struggled with how to arrange all the blocks together into a cohesive whole. But FINALLY, I hesitantly pieced them into a top and with a handful of trimmings, pieced a quilt back. That process was helped along by a stashed two-yard length of the Kona Color of the Year 2020, Horizon. It was kismet.

About the time I puzzled the blocks into a quilt top, I decided that dense Organic Straight-Line Quilting was the way to go. The process on a quilt this size - 43" x 74" was a tad arduous, and I didn't make it any easier on myself by using multiple threads. And by multiple, I mean 16! 

All but one were Aurifil 50wt - 2600 [Light Gray], 2805 [Light Turquoise], 2715 [Robins Egg], 2730 [Delft Blue], 1125 [Medium Teal], 2784 [Dark Navy], 2840 [Loden Green], 1114 [Grass Green], 2910 [Medium Olive], 4030 [Plum], 4225 [Eggplant], 2530 [Blossom Pink], 2115 [Lemon], 2320 [Light Toast], and 2372 [Dark Antique Gold]. Then there was also one Sulky 50wt Cotton+Steel 753-1058 [Tangerine]. 

That's a lot of colors! But when you see the quilt top, I think you understand why, right? Of course I wasn't able to match every fabric in the quilt, so in some sections, I chose a dominate color of thread; in others, I used two or three overlapping. For the bobbin, I used Aurifil 50wt 2805 [Light Turquoise] throughout.

Finished off with a faced binding using the tutorial by Audrey/@cottonandbourban, I'm pleased to be celebrating another Bee Sewcial quilt finish, which I'm calling "Horizon Views."

During the time that this quilt's blocks were still under construction, my husband and I actually purchased "Sunset Road," one of Mr. Haffner's prints, and it now hangs happily in our home.

So of course, when we went out for a quilt photoshoot yesterday, we went looking for a road with a power pole, and got a photo reminiscent of Mr. Haffner's own beautiful scenes. It was the perfect finishing touch.

 Blocks made by: 
Leanne/@shecanquilt, Marci/@marci_girl, Felicity/@felicityquilts, Karen/@capitolaquilter, Stephanie/@spontaneousthreads, Ken/@thekingslacker, M-R/@quiltmatters, and myself/@aquilterstable.

Here are links to my previous Bee Sewcial quilts - Mod Mood, Baconrific, Looking Up, Homage, Modular, Rings, and Lined, if you missed them.