l'uscita

A brief comment on the name of this little quilt, "l'uscita." In Italian, that means 'the exit.' And I named it that solely because my inspiration photo was of the exit from the Vatican Museum in Rome, taken when we were there in the fall of 2019. And we all know how profound memories of the end of 2019 are - before everything changed.

So here's the rest of the story....

Let's just say that after the Inspired by Art workshop with David Owen Hastings @davidowenhastings, all I could think about was finishing what I'd started. At 31" x 40", it was quick work to make a quilt sandwich, and like I'd mentioned before, I took Yvonne's @quiltingjetgirl suggestion and used a solid fabric for the quilt backing - Kona Graphite. I was eager to see the quilting I had planned on both sides of this quilt.

So after all I'd gleaned from David's class in regards to creating my quilt top, he also provided lightbulb moments in regards to quilting it. One was to select an element of the piecing, enlarge it, and use it as a quilting design. That floral shape in the upper right hand corner jumped out at me, and I used it twice as a quilting design, tracing it first on a piece of parchment, then marking on the quilt top with my hera marker. I especially loved that the outer and inner edges curved in different ways. I felt like that added a lot of fun quilting!

Another lightbulb from David was overlapping quilting design elements. I did that several times - I counted 10 at least. Again, that really added to my enjoyment of the quilting.

And lastly, changing the density of the quilting added a lot of interest - both in the quilting itself and for me!

For quilting thread, I used Aurifil 50wt in several colors - 2692 [Black], 2021 [Natural White], 2730 [Delft Blue], 2715 [Robins Egg], and just a bit of 1103 [Burgundy]. The reason I added in the Burgundy is that in my inspiration photo, I'd noticed a figure in red, and for some ridiculous reason, I needed to acknowledge that in my quilt. Initially my thought was with fabric, but obviously that changed during the process.

The different thread colors is much more apparent in person than in the photos unfortunately, but hopefully you can catch glimpses of it as you scroll through this post.

For the final finishing touch, I did a faced binding... not my favorite to execute but I do think it suited this quilt. 

So my to-do list is/was long for March, but this little interlude was definitely worth it. For one, it was good to immediately execute some of the techniques mentioned in the workshop. I also really enjoyed the fabric mix I ended up using, and that floral was not my norm, but I felt like it connected me to the inspiration photo in an additional way.

Anyway, this piece was great fun, and I look forward to exploring art as inspiration another day!

Inspired by Art

Oh, I'd been wanting to take a workshop with David Owen Hastings @davidowenhastings for a long time, and it finally worked out to take his "Inspired by Art" class last Saturday with fellow Seattle MQG members. And what a terrific session it was. David, who is also a SeaMQG member, helped us look at creating in a new way (to me!), and had so many helpful tips and examples to share.

Per insturctions, I had chosen some fabrics before class, but with my stash just a few feet away, I found myself changing things up once I was ready to sew on my project. 

What I ended up using were Konas Black, Snow, and Copen; Essex Homespun Navy, and a piece of Ebony & Ivory, a long-stasted 100% Cotton Screen Print from Benartex [Style 3583]. David said that the print piece was 'a bold choice,' and I totally agree. But in looking at my inspiration photo, I saw some detailing in the railing that I wanted to emphasize in the finished piece, and that dainty floral did it for me.

So yes, we were each working off an inspiration photo of a piece of art. The one I chose was a photo of the exit from the Vatican Museum in Rome, taken when we were there in 2019.

The process photos I'm sharing in this post are in order of completion. You can see I started with some very simple blocks, then jumped ahead to a more complex one. I think the upper left unit in the photo below is my favorite of the whole bunch. To create the element I wanted, I needed to incorporate a Y-seam, which thankfully, worked out swimmingly.

Here are the eight units I was able to create in class, along with one 'blank' square to remind myself that leaving space is always something to consider. 

After class, I made two more blocks, and played with layout, finally coming up with the one shown below.

But one thing really bothered me, and it was that wide stripe of snow in the bottom left block. I studied my inspiration photo for a few moments, and then edited the block just a bit, and liked it so much better. Overall, I was surprised, and a little disappointed that there was so little of my lightest fabric in the overall piece. But I didn't want to rethink the entire project, so decided I could live with it and moved on.

What I didn't expect to add, but decided the piece needed, was two black borders, on the left and bottom. That consolidated all the blackness in a way I liked, so I quickly sewed it up before I changed my mind. The quilt top currently measures 31" x 40", and I've decided to take Yvonne's @quiltingjetgirl suggestion and use a solid fabric for the quilt backing. The scraps were minimal once I'd gotten this far, including a lack of yardage of either the blue or black. I finally settled on Kona Graphite, and armed with the beginnings of a quilting plan, hope to get started soon!