A friend from Missouri posted on Facebook a photo of the St. Louis arch taken by a professional photographer. I immediately thought of basing my luminosity quilt on this photo. I contacted the photographer (Larry the Photographer) for permission to use his image in this way, and he graciously agreed. My first attempts disappointed me, primarily because the fabrics I brought from Texas to Michigan, where we are for the summer, just didn't all work. They were solids, and though lovely ombres, they came off looking too flat.
I purchased some batiks here and, discouraged about the arch quilt, I then made a second quilt for the theme, basing it on a memory seen last winter from our front porch here in Kalamazoo--a full moon behind a bare tree. BUT then all the other quilts were posted, and I felt mine was too reminiscent of several others! But this quilt was done, so why not make a two-sided quilt, both of which would work for the luminosity theme?
So try number two of the St. Louis arch quilt began! Those batiks I just purchased would work better than what I had brought with me, and I was able to combine these with the ombre fabrics from home. The batiks formed the water and the foliage at the base of the arch. The ombres I used were in shades of orange and yellow for the arch itself and its reflection in the water below the arch. I also used the ombre for the sky, as I was particularly eager to capture the pink of the sunset that caught my eye in the photo. No, the sky wasn't purple, but I could live with a purple sky that is fading into pink!
The most challenging aspect of this quilt was how to make the reflections of the arch in the water look right. My daughter here suggested that I cut the orange and yellow ombre fabrics for the reflections with "wobbly" edges. She was right; this worked much better!
After fusing with Wonder Under, I secured edges of the appliques with a tiny zigzag stitch. I did this stitching and minimal quilting through the batting in order not have stitching show on the backing quilt. But I goofed! When about to bind the quilt, I noticed an area of my Arch quilt that needed more quilting. Improvise, improvise! The stitching that showed on the back of the quilt I hid conveniently with some Pentel dye sticks! The quilt is bound with the same blue batik used for the water in the Arch quilt.
Here is Larry the Photographer's photo of the arch:
And here's the back of the quilt
