Quilts of a Different Stripe

This week and next, I'm honored to guest host for Free Motion Mavericks at Lizzie Lenard's Vintage Sewing blog, while Muv is on vacation. She hopes readers will link up below as usual to share their free-motion projects so she can see them when she returns.

Some progress was made on The Overlook quilt; more on that next week.

In the meantime, this stripey hand-dyed batik has been speaking to me for some time, and this week it demanded attention. Notice the faint turquoise lines. They weren't in the original fabric, but because the dye streaks seemed to form a vague landscape, I had already sketched a few lines on it with a Sharpie marker.

UPDATE: I think this fabric is by Robert Kaufman; not sure.

Odd but fortuitous timing on this project, since the free-motion stitching I planned to do was inspired by Muv's landscape, The Solent, featured on her Free Motion Mavericks blog.

So here's what's been done since yesterday. Scroll back and forth between this photo and the one above, to see how the fabric has changed so far.

Here's a closer look.

The trees are a mess. I plan to do more thread-painting on them, crossing my fingers the whole time that they'll turn out better instead of worse. (Ever try to sew with crossed fingers?) There's also a missing mountain on the left, meaning my thread was so light it blended right into the sky. I'll have to fix that, too, by traveling over my stitching with a darker thread.

This is not the first time a stripey hand-dyed fat quarter has suggested an entire landscape to me. The first one, pictured below, was handled very differently from the one above (click to enlarge).

Original fat quarter (by Robert Kaufman)

Marshland Paradise, 2012 (sold)

This one was pieced, like most of my landscape quilts, with raw-edged applique, and quilted in free motion.

Next week, I'll post an update on the current stripey piece, as well as progress made on The Overlook.

Now we come to the link-up instructions, copied and pasted from Free Motion Mavericks:

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up. 

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny. 

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:- 

1. Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.
2. Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar [button is on Linda's sidebar at right].
3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.
4. The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight EDT (not GMT as is usual) for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

And that's all there is to it. Crossing my fingers I do this right and the linky works.

Linking up here with the Whoop Whoop Friday blog. You've got to check out Sarah's beautiful fabric boxes.

Have a great week!
Linda