Weekend finish – 2014.04.06

The Skybridge quilt is finished!  It’s 35 x 52 inches.  I started working on it just 2 weeks ago, so it went together very quickly – although that doesn’t include the time I spent thinking about and designing it.

It’s based on a photo I took of the Skybridge (part of the Vancouver rapid transit system).  I’m so pleased that I could recreate in fabric what was in the photo and in my head.  The sense of distance and perspective from this point of view really appealed to me, as well as the contrast of the straight, diagonal and curved lines.  But most of all, I love the curve it makes as it swoops down and out over the river.  I’m going to title it “Swoop”.

I fused the various bridge units in place using 1/4″ or 1/2″ strips of fusible web around the edges of each unit.  Many quilters use glue to hold their applique in place – I find fusible strips on the edges is less messy to work with.  However, I realized this wasn’t really going to keep the units in place during the quilting process, as I rolled and tugged and manipulated the quilt.

So I decided to stitch the outlines of all the bridge components before layering the quilt with batting and backing.  This meant I didn’t have to bury all those thread ends.  It also made it easier to use my walking foot to stitch, thus avoiding problems with skipped stitches in the areas with many layers of fabric.  I stitched the bridge components to the background with black thread, and the towers with dark gray.

Then I layered the quilt top with batting and backing, and quilted the sky, clouds and distant hills.  I added additional details to the bridge with black thread, and stitched around the edges again. The double lines of stitching give the look of a pen-and-ink drawing – a look I’ve become quite captivated with recently (see my cherry blossoms quilt and kids on swings for examples of this).   The last step was to stitch the cables.  Now it’s ready to be faced.  Then I’ll submit it to the IQF Tactile Architecture 2014 exhibit.

Other news – my donation quilt for the SAQA Benefit Auction is online – it’s on page 1b on the 6th row.  While you’re there, check out all the other awesome quilts.  And there will be lots more coming.   The quilts will be auctioned online in September.

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m linking up to these blogs, where you can see many other creative projects: