Project Planning

As I have been working on various Quilts of Valor, I have been thinking about new projects to start and I had two in mind…….

The first is an inspiration that I had when we were in Chengdu, China back in 2016.  There was an office building next door to our hotel and at night there were long strings of colored lights shining brightly on the building.  These is a very bad quality photo that I took to remind me of my inspiration…..

The colors would change from blue to red to yellow and sometimes the light lines would split up……

Again a horrible photo but it was best that I could get from inside my hotel!!

So, I have been thinking about how to make a quilt that has these same slivers in it.  Here is where I am so far…..

…but this ain’t cutting it.   I am not sure if the slivers that I am using aren’t bright enough or what, but I am not happy with it. 

I have been wondering if it would be more interesting if I completely pieced the black/grey backgrounds first (maybe in a brick style) and then made the slivers go from top to bottom.  The biggest problem with this will be that every time I add a sliver, it makes the edges wonky.  

And, looking at this photo, I think that the slivers may need to be a bit wider and maybe I only want to use the lighter orange ones????  I have been trying to use some silks that I bought in India in 2015 but they may not be the right colors…..

SO…..since I am sort of stuck on this one, I turned to my other inspiration.

On the same 2016 trip, we spent some time in Trivandrum, India, and one of the things that I wanted to do was to get a Henna tattoo.  

As I watched the young woman applying the Henna designs to my skin I couldn’t help thinking that the technique was similar to free motion quilting…..of course I viewed this exercise thru my “quilt-colored glasses”!!

So, I have been combing the internet looking for henna tattoo patterns  with the thought of making a “white on white” quilt using those designs.   I didn’t really want it to be white but was thinking about more of a tan-on-tan.  

Yesterday I bought some appropriate fabric and decided to make a sample to see how it looks, and I am SOOOO happy with it……

I was thinking about doing some Trapunto work on it but decided instead to try using two battings.   I placed an 80/20 batting on the bottom and a fluffy batting on the top.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the bag that the“fluffy” one came in so I have NO idea of exactly what type of batting it is, but it works and I have enough for the big project so…..who cares!!

Now I need to spend a lot of time designing what this 40 inch square is going to look like.   I am pretty sure that this sample design will be the center of the medallion and I am planning to put peacocks in each of the corners, but who know what else will be added to it!!

I also have to figure out a way to get the design onto the fabric.  I have a light box but it is too small to do a big piece.  I will have to put on my thinking cap!!!

So, no finishes, but a couple of FUN starts……    more to come!!