April Challenge Completed

I did well this month. For the April version of the Lovely Year of Finishes, I wrote that I would complete my South-West art quilt from 2010, since it was also one of my Common Thread Quilt Guild UFO (Unfinished Objects) Challenge projects. I was hoping to finish it for our May Guild meeting, but ended up finishing it for the April meeting.

Landscape quilt completed

To be honest, I only had about an hour and a half of embroidery left to do, but I did have to FMQ it and bind it. I just have the label to make before it goes to its new home – my daughter’s room. She’s my biggest fan :-)

I couched most of the grass area located in the bottom third of the quilt. I used three kinds of novelty yarn and then embroidered some areas with different colours of floss to represent various grasses and flowers. Since the view is from afar, I just added splashes of colour rather than individual plants.

At first I didn't like the sparkles within one of the novelty yarn, but then as I finished the piece and worked on completing the lightning, the sparkles look like they are reflecting the lightning.

Grasses using mostly couched novelty yarns

I wasn't sure how to quilt this piece since I didn't want to take anything away from the landscape. I did do some thread painting / FMQ around the lightning to help emphasize it and create a little more contrast where it begins.

I then quilted around the different parts of the rock to emphasize it. I finished by doing a little bit of quilting in the sky to create some mouvement within the clouds.

Thread painting and FMQ the lightning and sky

What I learned:

• As always, when I’m not sure what to do, it’s best to leave the project until the answers come to me, either through ideas but more often by looking at how other quilters have handled that same issue.
• I used a fine brown permanent market to touch up some of the thread that was showing on the rock. It’s allowed since it’s an art quilt!!!
• I really love the way this came out and how much I enjoyed working on it, once I knew what to do! I suspect this is the beginning of many more landscape quilts.

Check out the other finished quilts at the Lovely Year of Finishes – Finishes Party.