Before I get into the last  ‘Closer Look’ from the 2nd Project QUILTING Challenge – Making Music I just want to remind you all that the third Project QUILTING challenge will be posted tomorrow, 2/5/12, at NOON!  Stop by here so you don’t waste any time starting to think!  Don’t forget – there’s only a week!

The Challenge:  Making Music

Quilter:  KimsCraftyApple

'Bicycle Race'

Inspirational Song:  ‘Bicycle Race’ by Queen

made by Kim Lapacek
Poynette, WI

I immediately loved this challenge! I love taking something regular, being inspired by it, and making a QUILT! The first thing I did was scan through my play list and wrote down every song that sparked even the slightest inspiration in me. I had it down to 'Jar of Hearts,' 'Little Boxes', and 'Bicycle Race'.

'Bicycle Race' from Queen, just kept coming back into my head - I wanted to create a look let felt movement. I decided that convergence was the way to go. I took three different fabrics - a great grey city print to start on the left with, a green tree print in the lower right and a funky pink and orange/yellow print for the upper left. In my mind these fabrics created a race that started in the city and moved to the country. The pink/orange/yellow was the sun setting....

I added in the arcs to depict the bicycle tires from the race. I'm really happy with how this turned out.

I used to not be that intrigued by convergence - as I'm sure many of you've noticed I now love it. I love that you truly have no idea what you're piece is going to look like until there is no turning back. With this technique you truly have to follow your gut and hope it's right! Especially when you only have a week~

Here’s a brief step by step of my process.

Starting in the upper left, reading to the right just like a book!

Picture 1.  Before I was 100% set on converging different fabrics I tried a shift convergence of just the city print.  I wanted to make it feel like the scenery was flying by.  When I finished – it wasn’t enough so I decided to go for a more abstract convergence, which leads me to

Picture 2.  I took the fabric I had ‘shift converged’, another fat quarter of the city print, a green tree fabric, and a pink and golden yellow fabric (this one reminded me of suns and sunsets) for my convergence.

Picture 3.  Vertical convergence.

Picture 4.  Both vertical and horizontal convergences have occurred.

Picture 5.  I decided to add a thin border to the convergence piece.  The fabric is stripey with some movement in it so I thought it would work well.

Picture 6.  Next – time for the thicker outer border

Picture 7.  I decided to create a curve in the borders to add to the ‘wheel’ feel.

Picture 8.  Trying decide how I wanted to place my ‘tires’

Picture 9.  Tires and spokes are fused onto the quilt.

Picture 10.  COMPLETE! I bound the quilt with the same green fabric that I used for my thin border.

Picture 11.  Cool angle of the spokes

Picture 12.  ‘Bicycle Race’ hanging on my wall – it encouraged me to finally put my Christmas Stockings away :)

I would love to hear your thoughts on this piece – the good and bad!   Thanks for your constructive criticism!

Earlier Closer Looks:

• Closer Look, Part 1
• Closer Look, Part 2
• Closer Look, Part 3
• Closer Look, Part 4
• Closer Look, Part 5

PS.  My ‘Saturday Summary’ is going to have to wait until early Sunday morning – I’m wiped from my show today!  Night everyone!