In September, I’ll be heading to Edmonton AB for the annual conference of the Fibre Art Network. As usual, we will have an artwork exchange. The theme this year is ‘River City’.
The conference organizers described the theme: “This year, the Art Exchange will be ‘river city’ inspired. We hope you will interpret some aspect of the North Saskatchewan River Valley, Edmonton itself as a River City or any river theme. Whether fun or serious, your artwork will be a valued keepsake for another FAN member attending the 2024 conference. It is so much fun to share!”
I was in Edmonton in June for the Quilt Canada conference, and had lots of opportunities to view the North Saskatchewan River and stroll along the River Valley walkways enjoying the beautiful city and scenery. I took lots of photos that could have been inspiration for an art quilt. But what struck me the most about the river was its shape when viewed from above (as on a map) – its graceful curves as it meanders through the city.
I collected a few maps of the city and created my pattern, simplifying at a bit.
Colours – For the river, I selected an intense blue color. A green print for the the park lands and trail areas in the river valley. And a mottled green fabric for the surrounding land (totally ignoring the city streets and highways of Edmonton). It needed a splash of another color, so I used red-violet for the base fabric. I trimmed each fabric piece slightly inside the lines so there would be gaps between the pieces, where a sliver of the red-violet base fabric would show as ‘grout lines’.
For quilting, I edge stitched each fabric. I considered a few options for overall quilting – echo quilting the shape of the river, a grid and (my recent favorite overall quilting design) a tilted grid. The tilted grid appealed to me more than the other options. I positioned 1-inch tape and stitched on either side of it.
I tried something new for the facing. I left the ends of top facing open, so it could be used as a sleeve for a thin dowel (made from a 30″ bamboo campfire skewer)
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Here is the finished piece, titled ‘Meandering Through the City‘. It is 18 x 9.5 inches.
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Thanks for stopping by.
I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.
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Good choice on the quilting. It makes it looks like overhead map view of the city.
Joyce Compton
Hi there, I live in Edmonton and enjoyed your description of making this quilt of the river valley. Our city has had lots of rain this year and is at its beautiful best. Hope you enjoy your time this next visit.
The River Valley in Edmonton is one of my daughter’s favourite places to walk. She’s a skilled amateur photographer and has captured many beautiful scenes there. She’s taken me there to watch sunsets, while she shot images with one of her cameras. I confess, though, that your interpretation — a map view or a ‘drone view’ — is very different and definitely intriguing. To my eye, with the colour palette, it resembles some sort of prehistoric creeping creature. Clearly, your mind works in mysterious and wonderful ways!
Terry, Love your maps. Thanks for sharing your techniques. When I do a facing on my quilts I always refer to your facing tutorials and refer others to it. Happy Stitching.
It was nice to see your map quilt at Quilts on the Creek.