I built this city.......

"I built this city - Lincoln"

Project Quilting season 8:4 theme=brighter the better

Made in Ne. 34.5" x 20.5

Lincoln Ne skyline pattern designed by Shannon Brinkley

I built this city from the tiny bit scraps triangles leftover from making binding. I knew I wanted to make something scrappy for this bright/bold challenge. I already committed my smallish scraps to another random improv piece. I knew for this piece I would have to 'very' small. I decided to make my own fabric. 

I randomly laid my tiny bits onto a sheet of heat and bond. I tried to not overlap too much but butt them up against each other.  As you can see there are no straight lines to this just cut and butt. Once I had an area full I pressed them down with a hot iron using a craft sheet over top and below just in case of sticky bits. 

Once the fabric was made I cut it into 1" strips and then down to 1" squares. I took the pattern and traced it onto a sheer interfacing. This is what I used to layout and then fuse down my 1" squares. You can see from the photo above that some squares are random slivers and pieces.  I thin for this small scale it looks really cool all lined up. 

This is where the title of the piece comes in. Some time while laying out the squares and listening to some classic 70s,80s, and 90s music, Jefferson Starship came on and I got "we built this city" on rock and roll in my head. Truthfully that is just about the only line of the song I know and I just kept singing it while building the city skyline of Lincoln.  Kinda like an earworm if you know what I mean?

I knew the colors and squares were busy but they would pop once I put them on the background.   I fused this all down to the interfacing and then cut out the details of the top of the skyline.  Made my background and started quilting. I did the quilting in two stages. First round was before fusing the skyline. I wanted the feel of city lights so straight line quilted random lines at various angles. Then fused the city in place. 

I did some quick thread sketching around the whole cityscape in black.  Every time I try this I just end up smiling to myself. It is so amazing to try to draw with a sewing machine. I just love what happens.   After the outline I went in with clear thread and did a wavy basket weave in each block alternating directions. Everything stayed in place and is secure, even the tiniest bits. 

In playing along with the theme 'brighter is better' I stopped at a lovely blue painted garage near my local library and asked if I could take a photo of my quilt for this bright challenge.  3 guys working there gave me the okay. 

Even the sidewalk was blue. Love this outing.  Love this quilt. It was so fun to make your own fabric out of literally tiny tiny bits.  I might go back to this at some point and add "Lincoln" to the layout somewhere. 

Linking up with Project Quilting Persimon Dreams and Crazy Mom Quilts finish it up friday and Confessions of a fabric Addict Can I get a whoop whoop friday