Urban Crosses: Four-in-Art Art Quilt #2

The topic for the second entry in the Four-in-Art Challenge is Structure. There are eight quilters in this group and we each have made a 12 inch mini art quilt around this theme. The overall yearly theme is Urban. Here is my entry...

Since I always enjoy spotting steeples and church crosses in every town and city that I visit, they seemed the perfect choice to depict in art quilt form. Living in Kansas City, we have a particularly unusual steeple of light coming from the top of the Community Christian Church on the Country Club Plaza. Outside the church, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, stands a wonderful cross monument. (The photo below is taken from tourist information published by the city.) 

I've decided that I would like to try to have all four of the quilts that I'll be making for this challenge blend together as a set. With that constant in mind, many of the fabrics that were used to make Urban Crosses are repeats from my first entry, Flying South, which was a depiction of the word Maps.

Wanting to somehow represent light, I landed on using the Drunkard's Path block to simulate the spotlights coming from the top the church. The map-like fabric in several of the blocks references city streets.

My quilting lines radiate from one spot, again, to imitate the light coming off the church. I chose to only make 3 crosses to represent the beautiful monument in the photo above. 

I found this cute city streets fabric in my stash to use for the back of the quilt with the map-like fabric as binding.

The dark grey strip in the center might represent a street. I'm so clever!

Piecing the quilt was an enjoyable experience once I finally decided on a theme. The one darker peach piece is a bit out of place maybe, but I've decided that it reminds me of a sunset or the Holy Spirit with the placement above the center cross.

It was a stormy day when I stopped outside the church and snapped this picture of the crosses. The steeple light is visible only at night, of course.  The cross symbol is an important one in my life as well as to many living in urban and rural settings everywhere.

I'm glad for the challenge of making the symbol into a quilt!

Take a look at the other seven Urban Structures entries here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/2044432@N25/
You also might like to visit each participant's blog site to learn more details of how each was made. Grab a cup of tea and join me!

Amanda Kattner--ajkattner@yahoo.com, blogs at: http://www.whatthebobbin.com

Anne Deister--anne@springleafstudios.com, blogs at: http://www.springleafstudios.com

Nancy Myers--retiredandquilting@gmail.com, blogs at: http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com

Elizabeth Eastmond opquilt@gmail.com  blog: www.opquilt.com

Betty Ayers--b78ayers@comcast.net   // no blog, but a Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2/with/8892547999/

Rachel Riley--rsriley77@gmail.com, blogs at: http://rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com

Leanne--shecanquilt@gmail.com, blogs at: http://shecanquilt.blogspot.com