Free Motion Mavericks - Week 21 - The Solent

Here is the second 12 x 12 quilt that I have made for the forthcoming show at Midsomer Quilting, because I enjoyed making the first one, In the Fen Country so much.  This seascape is also based on a piece by Vaughan Williams.

I spent a considerable amount of time watching this video on Youtube (which for some reason I cannot get to embed in this post) enjoying the music and the paintings.  The image that really caught my eye was this painting of The Needles on the Isle of Wight by Norman Wilkinson

Rather than doing fluffy summery clouds this time, I decided to have a go at glowering low grey clouds, complete with downpour.  The cloud on the left is perhaps a little too heavy...

... and I prefer this one.

The trickiest part of the whole picture was the distant grey coastline.  I had to go over it several times, piling one layer of thread over another to get the colours right.  Also, when I started work on the cliffs I had no white thread, only variegated neutrals, so I did an extra layer of white at the headland to give better contrast with the pale grey of the distant shoreline.  While I was busy piling on the colour I forgot about the back, which has such a stack of bobbin thread concentrated in one small area that this quilt could be turned over to double up as a relief map of the foothills of the Andes.

Adding the hand stitched detail at the end was far less of a tussle.  The white sails of the yachts have enough layers of stitches to give them a slight 3D effect...

... and the three birds in the sky took only a matter of minutes to sew.

So here it is hanging on the wall above the 1934 Singer 128K, which is the machine I used to put on the binding.  All the free motion quilting was done on the 1945 Singer 15K treadle.

Here goes for week 21...

Firstly, many thanks to  Maartje, Hilary, Gwyned and Mardi for linking up last time  - a great collection of projects.  

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.
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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 GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far bloggers from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany and Holland have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Welcome to Grit, the latest follower - thank you for joining!

Linking up with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday
and Lorna's blog Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social
and Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday