Metropolitan Night

Metropolitan Night

Well, I finally finished my hand stitched work of art that I'm calling Metropolitan Night.  Sounds very swank, doesn't it!

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I used nothing but solids in the 'buildings'  in cotton but there are also bands of black velvet, grey suede, and red and blue silk mixed in as well for added texture.  It took me six months from start to finish which for a hand piece is pretty quick.  As you can see from the photograph its big - or rather long.  You can gage it's dimensions from the doorway to the left of the piece.  I thought for it to have real visual impact and give the impression of a city skyline with tall buildings, it needed to have height so it's pretty much floor to ceiling.  Lets just say you can't miss seeing it.

Its pieced entirely by hand and machine quilted with invisible tread.  I quilted the sky with swirls but you can't really see it in the photograph.  The blue 'sky' fabric is the only fabric in the piece not a solid.  It's a mottled dark blue with a hint of black.  I tried five different solids as the sky first but none of them worked.  This piece I had in my stash and was perfect for the effect I was trying to achieve.

It's now in a place of prominence at the end of my entry hallway.

I had a lot of fun with this piece and I'm enjoying my foray into making quilt works for their artistic value as opposed to pure utilitarian use.  I'll never stop making bed quilts of course, but it's nice to stretch my creative wings a bit.