Friday, November 1, 2013

Flying South

Having very little experience with making art quilts, I was a bit hesitant to join the Four-In-Art Quilt group when invited by Elizabeth last summer. But, being game for a new adventure and thinking that I can't mess up a 12 inch quilt too badly, I held my breath and said 'yes'! This is my rookie entry: Flying South.
Each year, the group has an overall theme with quarterly challenges connected to the theme. Beginning in November, this year's theme will be Urban. Our first quilt challenge was to depict the word "maps".
Coming from a family of map lovers, this first challenge was a fun one for me and I immediately starting thinking of ideas. Looking at real maps helped guide me to try my hand at creating highways bisecting the make-believe city, Hometown.
By fussy cutting two different red fabrics from my stash, I endeavored to make interstates, as well as highways, connecting suburban towns to the heart of the city.
My selvage stash became a great source for naming make believe suburbs. I also tried to separate the improv pieced township areas with subtle color differences as well as quilting motifs.
A Sweetwater map print by Moda made the perfect backing, I think. Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman adds believability to the map as well as making  a great binding. 
 And, this time of year, who hasn't seen a flock of birds flying south for the winter?
Being a rookie, I'm probably too green to realize what difficult future challenges I'll encounter, but for now, I just know that I had a fun time making my first map! I hope that you will take a look at our Four-in-Art Flickr site and find out how the other 7 quilters interpreted this first Urban challenge.Their blog posts are listed below:

Leanne of She Can Quilt, Rachel of the Life of Riley, Amanda of What the Bobbin?, Nancy of Patchwork Breeze, Anne of Springleaf Studios, Elizabeth of Occasional Piece and Betty from her Flickr Site.


4-in-art_3button.jpg

I am also entering 'Flying South' into the art quilt category of the Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy all of the categories and entries.Be sure to vote for your favorites!

26 comments:

  1. Great work! I too love looking at maps, and I'd like to visit your "Hometown". You're so clever :) Those Architextures and Sweetwater prints are perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a wonderful map, I love the way you identified the neighbourhoods by name. Your quilting really makes the quilt come alive and the geese flying over are wonderful, a perfect touch.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a great mini! Such intricate piecing, it really looks like a true map. I also love that my last name is one of those towns you've got on the map. So glad you are a part of the group.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bravo! I love love this--and the agree with you on the use of selvages to populate your map with city names. I, too, noticed the Riley and thought that was serendipitously wonderful.

    I love the bisection of the map by the red fabrics, the use of the architecture fabrics, the Sweetwater print on the back--it's all so wonderful! This is a fabulous little quilt--so glad you've joined us all!

    Elizabeth
    opquilt.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is so great! Kudos for trying something new. Can't wait to see future projects!

    ReplyDelete
  6. All the fabrics you chose work so well with the theme. I love the fussy cut red roads, the pattern looks like road signs. I think it was really clever to use the selvages for the suburb names too. The flying geese add movement and I can immediately understand the name of the piece :) Aren't you glad the first one is over with? haha Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Clever, clever! You did a fabulous job with it!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good for you trying something new! I think you will come up with even more creative pieces.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Looks great to me. I've never done a modern challenge, kind of scares me. Hope this does well.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Carla it's wonderful! Don't know how you got so much in such a small space. And the quilting texture really adds a lot to the overall map quality. I love the improv look you achieved, something that I still struggle with. I too was a little timid about venturing into this art quilt camp and am so glad I did and happy you are on board too.

    ReplyDelete
  11. You've done a great job of your first art quilt Carla! There is so much to look at - just like a real map!

    ReplyDelete
  12. You did so well on this topic of maps. The quilting is so very "map-like" and it does its job well. I like the little diamonds on the red roadways-reminds me of exit markings on maps. For a "rookie" you did a marvelous job on the quilt. Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ok, where do I start?? Carla - this is fantastic. The improv piecing, your interpretation of the theme, the highways and flock of birds, your "make-believe" districts, your quilting choices... You did an amazing job! I'm so glad you signed up for Four-in-Art. Good for you - have fun with it!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. You did a fantastic job on this. You went way out of the box and followed through ; )
    Fantastic

    ReplyDelete
  15. Carla, what an incredible map!!!! Everywhere you look, there is something different and relative - you didn't waste a space. The red highways are perfect and I agree that Friedlander's line works so well with this. What a marvelous interpretation - good job!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great job on your art quilt. It really does look like a map! Love the selection of selvages and prints from Architextures!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Carla, I have always love the way you work with colors. So clever you are in all that you do. I am inspire to consider doing a map one day. Thanks for sharing.
    Anna C.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Absolutely wonderfully fantastic. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I agree that the choice of fabrics is inspired, and the flying geese just make it all extra special.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Fabulous quilt! I'm finding these art quilts to be so inspirational!

    ReplyDelete
  21. You did a great job with this challenge! I love map quilts and yours is very cool - love the concept and story it tells. Way to go!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Your entry is so clever! I love how you interpreted it, using city names, red highways, and of course, those geese. The backing and binding are perfect too! I hope you win your category in the festival.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I don't even know where to start with how much I love every single aspect of this amazing map (of course, the use of selvages puts it completely over the top, in my opinion). I miss all the time I spent on the road with Mark driving and me having the atlas on my lap, being the navigator. GPS just is NOT the same. Maps are fascinating and wonderful, and you really captured the essence. Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Love this one! Great idea & implementation!

    ReplyDelete
  25. I love your map quilt - the flying geese are a perfect addition!

    ReplyDelete