29 February 2012

Free Bee February 2012

I finished my February quilt block for the Free Bee just under the wire. Lynne organized the bee on Flickr last year and this is our second round. Each month one of us sets a theme based on an improvisational process or technique.

For her month, Marianne asked us to interpret urban industrial landscapes in fabric form, and suggested Elizabeth Barton as inspiration.

I started with a photo of a Tokyo train station by Kirk Pedersen, from his book Urban Asia. I was attracted to the gritty colors in contrast the the saturated brights. The strong lines of the ductwork on the left side gave the composition a sense of movement.

As is usually the case when I get home from my Modern Quilt Guild meetings, I was wound up and ready to sew. After sketching a quick overlay to loosely plan my color blocking, I started cutting, piecing and trimming strips of fabric.

I stopped for the night when I realized I had painted myself into a y-seam corner (two corners, actually). Improvised y-seams were going to require a little less feeling and a little more thinking than I could muster in the middle of the night. I tackled it this morning, and the block miraculously lies flat.

7 comments:

  1. I'm forever in your debt....two y seams!!! I love the block so much, I can't wait to see it in real life.

    Thanks again!!

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  2. Such a feeling of movement in that block. It is of course amazing!

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  3. Very cool--love the reference to the inspirational photo too!

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  4. Yay for y-seams! Love the inspiration photo and how you've interpreted it. Fantastic!

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