Building My Neighborhood

 A little bit about how I put this mini together today.  I'm never sure what I should write about on reveal day, and what I should save for the 'behind the scenes' post.  But anyway.

 I started with a fairly large pile of fabric, all colors that I thought would pop against the green I had chosen for a background.  This pile above represents the 30 actual fabrics that I used on the quilt.  Each piece of each house, tree, etc., is a different fabric.

 As I mentioned yesterday, this is roughly based on an aerial view of our little town that we vacation in.  Once I got the road mapped out, I started free form cutting house shapes.  I would rough cut a piece of Wonder Under, Pellon 805, fuse it to the fabric and cut out my shape.

 This is after I had the houses where I wanted them and fused them down.

 Then I added in some greenery, a fence, and the train track.  I was excited to start the embroidery, so I forgot to take a picture until after I had started.

 I did the embroidery through the batting, for texture, but not through the backing.  I learned this from Laura Wasilowski.  Actually, this whole quilt is really inspired by her bright style, fused pieces and hand embroidery.

I've only done a couple of cross stitch projects in my life, but I inherited all my mother's floss, so I have a great selection of colors. 

Here's what my embroidery looks like from the back.  Not so lovely, so I like that its hidden by the backing.

 If I wanted to be true to the cardinal directions, I would hang my quilt like this, however, I think it actually looks better with the train track weighting it at the bottom.

 French knots!  I'm still pretty excited about figuring them out!

 In case you missed it, check out the initial reveal post for this quilt and also all the other quilts that were made by our little group!

Our next theme is Urban: Structures  I've got two ideas brewing already!

Four-In-Art Reveal: Urban:Maps

Woo Hoo!  Its reveal day for our Four-in-Art group.  Four new members this time around, so a total of eight mini art quilts to check out today!
The year's theme is Urban. This quarter's theme is Maps
Without further ado, I present:

'In Your Neighborhood'
(all together: 'who are the people in your neighborhood?)

 This is a map loosely based on the small town that we visit 'up north'.  An aerial view.  The funny thing about art quilts is even when they seem fairly easy they generally cause me some angst.  In this case I had to let go of being an exact copy.  There just wasn't enough room to fit all the houses in town without going ridiculously small.

Lets take a walk around the neighborhood, shall we?

 I have finally mastered the french knot! 

 Every piece of fabric is different in this piece. For a total of 30 different fabrics on the front.

 Lots of thread variety for hand embroidery, as well.

 Green Gutermann polyester for the background stippling.

 I'm in love with my train tracks!

 I put hanging pockets on each corner, because I'm not sure how I want to hang it, and I might change my mind.  Hanging it with the train tracks looks better, but that puts South on top.

Now, go check out all the other Four-in-Art quilters!
Elizabeth - Occasional Piece Quilt
Leanne - She Can Quilt
Betty's Flickr Page
Amanda - What the Bobbin?
Carla - Lollyquiltz
Anne - Spring Leaf Studios
Nancy - Patchwork Breeze
Next post I'll give some detail of how I put this mini together.
*sorry for the horrible picture editing.  Had to use old laptop to post this and couldn't crop my pictures.  Perhaps I'll go back and fix them when I get a chance....




Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts
Leah Day- Free Motion Friday
Can I get a Whoop Whoop

Mapping things out

 I've got a sketch,

and a stack.  Hopefully a quilt by Nov. 1!