Symphony of Water

Last fall I made Great Barrier Reef, revisited quilt, where by request of my friend, I revisited the quilt that I made a few years ago. The same friend now asked me if I would be willing to revisit my other water quilt- Running Water. I agreed, and I made a diptych, that I named Symphony of Water.

The idea of making water quilts came to me in 2016, when I was preparing for my first solo exhibition Reflections. The inspiration came from photos of water , taken by my late friend Rita. Her photos were amazing! Water does not have a shape or color, but in Rita’s photos water has it, as well as it has a movement. I didn’t try to recreate the photo, only to catch colors, shapes and lines. At the same exhibition we also had quilts and inspirational photos exhibited together.

This is the photo of running water, taken by Rita:

And this is my first Running Water quilt, made in 2016:

Quilt 1

I wanted to start revisiting my earlier made Running Water quilt first. Just like first time, I enlarged the same small portion of the photo that I decided to follow remotely:

I decided not to look at the earlier quilt when making a new one and started piecing:

Later I worked from the bottom up:

until I got almost to a planned size of 38 x 24 inches:

But I didn’t hurry to start quilting. While working on this quilt I couldn’t get rid of the idea of making one more quilt, representing different section of the photo. I wanted to make a diptych, and here came the idea to name the diptych Symphony of Water.

Quilt 2

I chose another section of the photo to be followed to:

To let you know I almost never make sketches because I already know I won’t be following them. I let my imagination take me to the unknown. Of course, my favorite technique of machine piecing has its limits, but I am fine with that.

So in a hurry I started making the second quilt. Here are a few photos of piecing:

As I already mentioned many times, quilting is my favorite part of quilt making. I let the needle go where my eyes and hands take it. My cat Albinas also tries to help me as much as he can:

Quilting adds texture and makes quilt alive. I quilted both quilts and laid them next to each other on the floor with edges still not finished but cut to the size 36×24 inches: