Landmarks - Ta Da!

Landmarks is a 12" square mini quilt. I participate in the Four in Art group and this quarter our theme was urban landmarks. I kept thinking, I use landmarks to find my way to a place, another landmark. You know, X marks the spot.

Then I was reading about Thomas Knauer's wonderful quilt, You Are Here (from his book Modern Quilt Perspectives, which I highly recommend) and it is also about being at a spot, being grounded and uses the X motif. I was very much inspired by his quilt and concept, in fact so much so that I almost did not go with the idea at all because I wanted to do my "own" thing.



As usual, I found myself putting this project off. I did not want to make an impression of an actual landmark. I wanted to do something improv. In the end, I returned to the Xs.



You can see that some of the improv Xs are small, they finish at 1".



I started a couple of nights ago, making tiny one inch Xs. I just grabbed scraps from my nearest pile with some of the Paris map fabric I still have. (People have asked me about this fabric, it is out of print as far as I know. It is a 3 Sister's design.)



My friends on Instagram loved them, and my fancy nails (the polish is here at Soak). But I realized to make a 12" square I would need 12 x 12 or 144 tiny Xs. There just was not time. I really need to get to work sooner on these challenges. So I made bigger Xs and finished her last night.



I played around with placing my blocks. This arrangement felt right - an urban environment with plenty of landmarks, big and small, mushed together, with more at the centre, less at the edges. I wondered if this quilt should be called "lost", or "where am I" or "where are you". But the fabrics are too bright and happy for an angsty quilt, I will make that one another time.



In keeping with the urban theme, I used a Carolyn Friedlander topographical print to back and bind her. The quilting is minimal, random lines, a walk through the city landmarks. I used a single fold binding, which I much prefer for small quilts.



I see this quilt as more of an ariel view, so I am not sure which side is up. I like this orientation as well as the one at the beginning of the post.

I have to say that I love the feel of the cheerful scrappy improv Xs in this quilt. Now I want a bigger one - I think this would be a fun lap size quilt, maybe even king size, we shall see. Despite all my ambivalence to this project, the challenge and the push to just get it done has, again, been very good for me creatively.

The other members of the Four in Art group are posting their quilts inspired by the theme urban landmarks today too. They are a talented bunch, do go and have a look:

Amanda  at whatthebobbin.com

Anne  at springleafstudios.com

Betty at a Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2

Carla at lollyquiltz.blogspot.com

Elizabeth at opquilt.com

Nancy at  patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com

Rachel at rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com

Best,


Leanne