BEHIND THE BOOKCASE .... attic living in HEIDELBERG

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Morning in Barcelona

I've often said that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, but I may have bitten off more than I can reasonably accomplish.  Perhaps if I stopped to really think things through before running off and committing to it, I wouldn't be in such a pickle.

It all started when we visited Barcelona.  The city was sooo beautiful - full of energy, color, shape, art, and life!  This was the first place that I've visited to have this type of impact on me; this was the first time I would say "I am must quilt this."  

A full two weeks was required for designing a quilt that captured what I had to record.  Even now, I still tweak some things as they come to me (adding four metro stops throughout the design - each stop measuring 1" x 1").  Generally - it's a 100" x 100" quilt comprised of 2.5" finished squares - which amounts to roughly 1600 little squares.  And, because I was outside my mind, I decided the trees about town would look more like trees if they were tiny pinwheels (8 separate pieces of fabric in a 3" square) instead of a lovely piece of green fabric.

Here's the thing - I love working on this piece (and sometimes it's frustrating working on this piece).  It'll take several months, too much money, and we'll have a near constant debris field of fabric trimmings and dust.  At the same time, I can't disregard how inspired I feel after having visited Spain.... waking up each morning looking out over the Med, my husband with me, kids running around, ... sigh.

As things progress, I'll try to stay current with updates of its progress.







Being free to express oneself through design and textiles is where it's at.

4 comments:

  1. Wow! what a neat project! you inspire me! good luck!

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  2. Julia! These are so beautiful!!! I love your piles of squares laid out so perfectly. Looks like fun. Miss you.

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  3. Artistic genuis is where it's at. And you've got it! Thanks for blogging about this and letting us peek into your project.

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  4. I am seriously IMPRESSED! WOW!

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