Only a month ago I wrote about starting a new art piece in this post. Today the piece is complete!
It uses some of the same blues as "Big Sky," which I finished in the middle of January. Both were inspired by sunsets in the Midwest while we were on vacation two summers ago.
Richard and I love watching the sun rise and set. We just happen to catch more sunsets. My favorite part of the sunset is dusk, when the sun drops below the horizon but still emits light enough to see the colors in the sky and clouds. Even the thinnest, tiniest clouds catch the rays and reflect the rainbow, or in this case every hue of blue.
I used red thread in a couple of areas because Kaja and Ann have a challenge "Using red as a neutral" that I wanted to include. It turns out that the red contrast adds movement unlike the blue threads.
One of the things that I like is how the light reflects differently on the reds. I used a deep wine color on the bottom of the piece and a bright, true red in the other areas.
Of course using red thread instead of blue doesn't count as it being a neutral. Red as a neutral is going to have to find its way into another quilt, if possible. But for now, red as movement works really well, don't you think?
I think this is the fourth one of these little art quilts. I'm enjoying them so much that I've started thinking of what may be the next one.
I've been working on a small art quilt for a couple of months.
A stunning sunset here at home reminded me of a picture that I took in Montana on our last vacation. Thank goodness Google photos has a search feature, because even then it takes a while.
That sunset--the day fading into blue, the streaks of whitish cloud, the navy blue of the impending darkness--held me spellbound until finally the last rays of light melted away. The clouds were floating in front of the blues of the sky and I tried to pick that up with my stitches of bluish white thread. Hopefully the lines help to move the eye from one side to the other.
The dark bottom is navy in person. No matter how many photos I take, I haven't any idea how to adjust the color. In most of my photos, the fabric looks washed out or faded.
This little quilt took quite a while to complete because, while I carried it around with me to work on when away from home, it seemed that every time I opened it, something or someone pulled me away. However I know that even five minutes here and there eventually add up. Of course, it was encouraging to have an occasional 20-30 minutes to quilt a large chunk of space.
I didn't plan any of the quilting. I had an idea of what I wanted and made every decision when I opened the work. So what I thought I'd do one day could change completely the following day. I like working like this, without a plan. It allows me to move from one section of the quilt to another, quilting lines meeting in the center somewhere.
Dragging the quilt around means it raveled somewhat along the cut edges, but I like that as it adds another dimension to my little 5 X 7 piece.
Only a month ago I wrote about starting a new art piece in this post. Today the piece is complete! 
