#20 Shadows of the Southwest

#20: Shadows of the Southwest
Finished: 5/19/12
Techniques: Shadow Effect, Wobble Stitch
Size: 27" x 23"

Description: I've wanted to see if I could create shadow effects with fabric. It's not a new technique - other people have done it - but it's a new technique for me. Using black for the shadow and piecing it off center makes the other fabric pieces seem to "float" above the background. It turned out pretty well! I didn't think about it before finishing the quilt, but I should have tried different widths of black to see if that made any difference. As it is, I used 1" finished sized shadows and it looks good, but I wonder what 1/2" or 3/4" would have looked like.

In choosing fabrics for the blocks, I knew it had to be medium to large print designs. Looking through my stash, I saw that I had several that represented the Southwest in some way. I had many more than the five chosen here, but several other prints had black backgrounds themselves. I felt that the shadow effect wouldn't show to advantage with those, so I opted for the ones with off-white backgrounds. I've got lizards, pots, chilis, cactus, and canoes. Also, I started out with 5 blocks all the same size, but the one in the center seemed to get lost among the background fabric, so I re-did the chili one, making a longer rectangle. It's much better. (I also have a lot of different chili fabric, but didn't want to do all chilis here. Watch for something in the future!)

I used a simple green polka dot fabric for the background. It coordinated pretty well with all the prints.

I quilted a simple outline around the blocks, and then used a wobble stitch in yellow to simulate rays of the sun creating those shadows.

This fabric is the one I used to back the mini-quilt. Wild horses also remind me of the Southwest, but the print was rather large and this particular color scheme didn't really go with the other. It makes a nice backing though.