"Crack of Dawn"

“Hope and Memory have one daughter and her name is Art, and she has built her dwelling far from the desperate field where men hang out their garments upon forked boughs to be banners of battle. O beloved daughter of Hope and Memory, be with me for a while.” ― W.B. Yeats 

  Studio Art Quilters' Association is sponsoring what they call a "Trunk Show".  They put out a call for 7" x 10" art quilts which will premiere at the 2017 Conference to be held in Lincoln, Nebraska next spring.  After the conference the art works will travel to various venues then come home to SAQA and be on sale if the artist gave permission to sell. Size was the only requirement; technique, color, design, etc. was an open book!  My kind of regulations!
      I had an idea in mind for a larger quilt which I may still do...in my mind's eye it was called "Raindrops".   I thought doing a mini of my idea would be good practice to see if I liked the idea.  Fabric was no challenge...I have tons of fabric...from yardage to scrapes!   So I started pulling out all my blues, greens, turquoise, and anything in between.
        I sewed my strips and miniature  squares together and began to place them side by side.  After having the size correct with out binding yet, I put it all up on the design wall to study before final construction.  As I looked at it, I thought it to be too dark and monotonous. So I picked up a sliver of hot pink and layered it between a couple of sections. And that was the pop I needed to see! Thus, "Raindrops" became "Crack of Dawn" in an instant!
   

"Crack of Dawn"

 After getting it all together, I decided, as it was a small piece, I would hand stitch it.  I do love to hand stitch in the evening while watching television....I can stay awake if I am doing something besides staring at the tv screen!

Closeup of stitching