My local art quilt group put out a call for entries for an exhibit called "Heat Wave". I immediately thought of the bright orange of the forest fires that we have been experiencing all over the Western United States over the last couple of years.
I sketched up a few ideas, looked through my pictures, and scoured the internet for additional color inspiration. What I landed on was a plan to make a piece 3' x 4' with flames licking up from the bottom part of the quilt and pieces of burning embers floating up and through the trees.
I collected a few fabrics that spoke to me. This time I really wanted to free form piece the background and layer on the units in a more intuitive way. I free form cut curvy lines and started piecing. Here are some progress pictures.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRGeexNfGZtZie1BqOIvrIhri_f8cm9OP9FSr6t_yV2B7Hvc8xlFXv1wvZT2abjFAicTe8MZDuvikxbO9f9d-E5Og49fZ98dqsiaOAoSA2iGumMa8jHXGVeYKubDfrG7a3c-z8CbADiM/s400/2016-12-16+19.16.07.jpg) |
Background fabric try outs |
After putting the strip pieced units against the remaining fabrics, I opted to piece in some of the dark brown and continued to piece intuitively and free form cut the strips.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqaL1Bn_38y08W_LgdYPfnk6dgDVXyv5wsWdRPm-5TTHQXSlq8AE8lR9roWpV34X8o164u4WMp-7Krx50LMqDKT7QVojG4sYj27Pkv1JMgbk_1d1-GrxJ3BwnC0rTchVgNa1RaeBE1xyE/s400/2016-12-16+20.33.44.jpg) |
Upper background piecing progress 1 |
Here is the upper background fully pieced. You can see that it mostly covers the top 2/3 of the area. The lower 1/3 was purposely reserved for a different technique and a different foreground look. I asked my husband to come in and tell me the first thing that came to mind when he looked at this background, and he said, " FIRE". Yippee! It has the feeling that I was going for.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn5WHUe5B06PAUTJ9iSNb6HpBsTKW5rbj8LqEhsaXb6qIGVm3dOT_3m8dybw8hqtYQjXAmF5SOr41XRG5r7pGCI0cFNtVfzrhFWK2TUAyUF490RIT684o5iG_MLX2nE9aFB1n81_xZ7Es/s400/2016-12-17+12.52.08.jpg) |
Upper background piecing progress 2
|
I hope it feels like FIRE to you too. Stay tuned for future progress.
Your fabric choices really do resonate "fire!"
ReplyDelete