Four-In-Art Quilt Group: August Topic Reveal

The time has arrived for the August reveal for our group of quilters. The theme this year was Urban and the topic for this round was Contrast. I am eagerly waiting to see how the others in the group have interepretted the topic. 

I had been taking photos for a few months to see what contrast I could find in the urban environs where I traveled. 

I began thinking of contrast of shapes in buildings. A few things interested me, such as the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame with its many line forms. Ok, it might work well, but not for this round. 



Then I clicked a photo of the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan, while driving past one day. I liked the wavy lines on the front of the building in contrast to the straight lines of the building and window frames.

I started working on this as my piece and didn't get far -- I just couldn't feel it. I realized I wanted to do something different than another building this time. 

So I went back to listing contrast ideas: colors, shapes, size, texture, building materials, and opposites like old/new, wealthy/poor, light/shadow. I looked through many of my photos from the past few years and I was drawn to texture. I chose many photos that contained sidewalks, walkways, streets and such. I thought I could print the photos after manipulating them a bit in PSE and add texture through the quilting. I decided that the photos would be small enough that I didn't have to add quilting to them. This made sense since my deadline was a little more than a day away! (Planning is the longest part of the process for me.) So which of these to work with?

 

 

 

 

I knew that in a 12" x 12" piece I could not use all of these photos. So I chose those that reflected contrasting textures and light and dark. These images would be found in an urban area along the streets, perhaps specifically on corners. That helped me along to the next phase of construction--how to join them all together, as my window of time lessened more.  

So, a city street it would be!

Right now I will reveal to you the finished piece, titled: Which Side of the Street? 

I wanted to indicate the street by showing the centerline. I sewed a narrow yellow line of fabric between two wider black textured strips of fabric. The intersection would be a plain black square. I decided that the fabric photo squares were less than 5" either way and would not need quilting. I used EQ Printeables (Regular Cotton sheets) for the prints. (The needle did leave a bit of a hole mark when sewing the street sashing to them, so quilting was, perhaps, not a wise choice.) I quilted a straight line along the outside of all the black sashings and borders.

Tomorrow I will post the construction details of the front and label for those who are interested. Leave me a comment if you would let me know what type of urban contrast pops into your mind. 

If you cannot comment on my blog, send it to: patchworkbreeze(at)gmail.com

Take a few moments to visit the other Four-in-Art Quilters in the group to see how they interpretted the topic of Urban Contrast. 

Amanda @What the Bobbin

Anne @Spring Leaf Studios

Rachel@Life of Riley

Carla @Lollyquiltz

Elizabeth @Occasional Piece-Quilt

Betty @Flickr Site

Leanne @She Can Quilt 

You are visiting Me @ Patchwork Breeze right now!