Back Seat Driver


My Quilt Art group's challenge for March was to a: produce a landscape and b: make it something other than rectangle or square.


It took me quite some time to figure this one out, but one day at work, something I read reminded me of the trips we used to take when I was a kid.  I was a competitive gymnast, and on meet weekends, my parents would bundle us into the back seat of my father's Chrysler with our pillows and blankets (it was the 70's so the back seat was huge!) and he would drive through the night - he and our mother talking quietly, we kids slumbering in the back. From time to time I would wake, and would sleepily look over my father's shoulder - my view part of his leather covered steering wheel, and the lamps lighting those country roads which seemed to stretch out into infinity.



I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try another project on Nif (my needle felter), but began by first sketching out my drawing in chalk on my wool background.  Then I laid out some wool roving and began. 


I wanted reds and yellows to reflect on the grays of the highway where the lamp posts were, so laid out the roving in that way. 

I discovered after doing half of the highway that when working with roving, direction makes a difference! Unlike when I felted different fabrics together, when I felted the roving, whatever pattern I moved the needles in, left "vacuum tracks" behind.  Huh.  I laid another layer of roving on top in order to make new vacuum tracks, but wasn't entirely successful. (I discovered later, with another experiment that the roving is actually quite easy to lift off, which meant I could have started again, but by that time I'd quilted the  highway.)



I was so involved in the process that I forgot to document any of it, but just before I cut the last of the strips for the fences I remembered.  so, I had taken complementary fabrics in 4 shades of browns/beiges, fused them and then cut them into strips:



In order to make my fences.



After I made the fences, I added the first of the lamp posts and felted the light centers.



I began the second part of the light layering process by adding some yellow;



and then some orange, red and a little bit of gold angelina fibres.



After that, I felted in some fabric scraps in browns for the earth along the sides.  Another learning; although I bought the needle felter for just such an application, I've discovered that using it for that purpose doesn't give me the textural quality I'm looking for.


In this picture above, you can also see the "vacuum track" thing I was talking about.


So, prior to quilting, I ended up with the above.




And then I trimmed it in the shape of the corner of the windshield I could see from the back seat.

Looking it over though, I realized that the fence was too bright.


So I mixed up a wash of brown, black paint to darken up the fence posts, and a little gold to highlight the tops of the posts where they'd be hit by the lights.


And then I added the stitching on the leather cover of the steering wheel. Remember those? And the woven rattan "acorns" that were air fresheners? Ah... the 70's. Delightful. :)

So, I continue to learn about Nif and how her capabilities can serve what I want to do - but I surely have a lot more to learn.

It's a better result than the last one.

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