Process

Eventually, you'll hear more about this photo and why I chose it for my April Mighty Lucky Quilting Club challenge, Using a Personal Photo as Inspiration for Piecing. But for now - I have had a few inquiries about my process as I've been posting progress photos over on Instagram, so will share a bit of that today. 

Honestly, I'm still new enough at improv that I rarely know exactly where I'm going with it. But with this piece, it at least made sense to start with what seemed the trickiest part - the dome of that Duomo - a cathedral in Florence, Italy. Often when I work in improv, several 'sections' are created, then they are puzzled together, so that was my starting plan here.

I used a technique I learned in this basic tutorial for free-hand curves, an 'overlap' technique to cut and join the two pieces indicated below. There's really no specifics - I just glanced at the photo, then cut a similar curve. I stitched, pressed, cut a new piece, and continued on to finish the dome. If things needed trimmed and reshaped as I went, that's what I did. Next were several strips of blue 'sky,' each with a bit of detail from the top of the dome.

Once I got the dome and sky pieced, I worked on the base as well as the surrounding buildings, keeping them pretty simple. Piecing like this isn't straight-forward for me. There's always fiddling to see what will give me the look I'm after. So I keep my seam-ripper handy, to tweak things as needed, sometimes it's as little as opening a seam end to add another element.

I realized pretty quickly that my scale was larger than I'd intended, considering I'm doing all of the Mighty Lucky challenge pieces at 17" square. So I decided to 'crop' my photo, knowing that would eliminate some of the detail I might otherwise have included. It was at that point that I decided adding more detail with the quilting was the way to go - maybe not quite the original challenge, but it's improv, and that's the way it happens sometimes.

So now the top is done, and I'll be quilting for a while now. . . first time free-motion quilting on my Juki! Hopefully in a few days I'll have a finished work to show you! Meanwhile, if you have any questions about what I've done so far, feel free to ask!

Process

What seems like ages ago, I signed a statement that, whether you realize it or not, has affected my sharing on this blog, and in fact the course of my quilting and creating in general. I took the Process Pledge. And so have 866 others of you. Take this as a reminder - or a new consideration - that sharing your process is a gift to others. And for me, it is a gift to myself as well, enhancing my enjoyment of my craft. It adds a thoughtfulness to each step along the way, and a greater satisfaction in the end product. In writing "the story" of a project, it tends to elevate the experience, making it so much more than a task accomplished.

So consider this post a prologue about one of my current projects, a half-square triangle quilt made in collaboration with the FAITH circle of do.Good Stitches. It started with me posting sample blocks and giving my bee-mates size and color info.

As blocks began to arrive, I made a mosaic to get an idea of where we were heading.

And eventually, I pieced most of the blocks into our quilt top! (It was hard to take it off the design wall, I was enjoying it so much!)

The remaining blocks were pieced into a backing. It took some consideration and moving back and forth before I settled on what "went together" best for the front and then the back. I like to think of this more of a two-sided quilt than most I make. And I think all the lovely hsts make that true.

Finally! My most dreaded of steps - the basting. Usually I clamp the backing onto my dining table . . .

Then first spray baste the batting down, one section at a time, then arrange the top and baste it one section at a time. I tend to spray baste most often, as I find I have less shifting when it comes to the actual quilting. And it is just plain faster for me, which I appreciate.

And then it's time for quilting. I really thought all the angles in this quilt design called for some straight-line. For this quilt, I'm stitching at 3/4" intervals, with white Aurifil.

So here's where I am now - actually just a tad further. I figure I'm about 1/3 done, so it'll be a few more hours, but I really like how it's coming along. I'm stitching a few rows, then marking several more with my ruler and hera marker, then stitching those, etc. back and forth. 

So stay tuned . . . for the rest of the story.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday.