O.. to return to Venice

Friend and fellow artist Larry Tinsley  interpreted the  grand canals of Venice  in 'raw edge' appliqué. Yes.. he loves Venice.  I do as well and hubby and I  hope to return someday. Larry's fabrics were carefully and beautifully chosen/ placed. Lucky me, I got to quilt it for him.  I LOVED his fabrics so whatever I did in the quilting, it HAD to support his fabrics and NOT get in their way.

Believe it or not... many of the buildings had such interesting textures in their fabric surface, that colored threads atop would have been distracting. I chose to closely quilt them.  The closeness of the quilt lines made the building look flat/ hard ( as would be the case of old world buildings) .... and.... as importantly they were  quilted with ever so thin monofilament or in some cases 100 wt ( REALLY thin)  matt finish poly. Seeing the thread  at a distance was just less important.

The commercially printed sky fabric was unusual... some circling brush strokes like swirling wind... and lots of little bits of cloud here and there. Never seen a sky quite like it.  Thats the fun part of quilting.  The ever looming question in quilting.... HOW DO I DO THAT AREA justice????  
 (Click on photo for enlarged view)

(c)  VENICE 29"L x 32W

Larry 'framed'  his scene  is blue and gold. Plenty of straight stabilizing quilt lines were needed both visually and to eliminate potential for surface distortion. ( You may note I am not using a walking foot for this... instead, I'm using my 1/4" foot  and have reduced the pressure on the pressure foot so I can stitch easily without 'stretching' the border fabric.  Beside... I can use the side of the 1/4" pressure foot as my stitching guide for the 'next' line to it's right.

 Using gold thread... a traveling scroll line further adds to border stability AND  reminds me of the old world elegance seen in this breathtaking city.

Last...  After all the handling involved in the quilting process, I like to dampen/ pin/ and air dry to block perfectly flat.( I circulate air with a fan in the room  though not pointing directly on the quilt )

 Pins are out and Quilt is in Larry's hands for binding.
(pattblairquilting.blogspot.com)