Rapid Inspiration

The last few weeks, I have been working on a pattern for a new art quilt. It was inspired by a sketch I did from a photo of rapids that we found on our canoe trip last year. The photo didn't inspire me but I was inspired by the colours I used in my sketch. That is why I like to do a sketch or painting of a subject before I turn them into quilts. It gives them more of an artistic flavour. Some would say it makes them more painterly.
This project will be a wall quilt 30" X 40".

Here is the completed pattern with fabric swatches. If you look carefully, you can see the two birch
 trees in the foreground on the right side of the pattern. They are the only things that go from the bottom of the quilt right to the top. They will be the focal point of the quilt with the rapids running behind them
 and rocks and forest in the background.

This is the 4 X 6" sketch I did of the scene and the source
of my inspiration.

These are my fabric choices.

First section complete. This is part of the background forest area in
the top right hand corner.

When making my art quilts in the past, I have tried to match up my thread colour with the fabric colour but this doesn't always work because I am always sewing two different fabrics together. If the fabrics are mostly the same type of colour and value, there's not too much problem but when I go from a dark area to a light area where the values are totally different, I run into trouble. I had one of my quilts rejected from a show because my stitches showed. This time I am working with lingerie thread (either white or black) in the bobbin and a clear thread something like fishing wire in the top needle. So far, in the section I have finished, the stitches cannot be seen.

I've also finished the small quilt for the Parks Challenge. It is 8" X 8" and I have to send the images in on April 4, 2014. I call it "Algonquin".