The current project

I got a call a few months ago from the owner of a small art gallery (store) in the town where Alex does most of his out of town work. He had dropped of one of my cards and she was calling to let me know that she had give my name to someone who was looking for a "tapestry."

I never heard from the client, but spoke with the owner of the shop for a while and she thought it would be a good idea for me to send some quilts down to see if they would sell. I stopped by to see the place when we went to visit Alex at the beach, and she again said she was interested.

At first I was thinking of something fairly typical - the sort of jungle scene you see on all the tourist stuff, with the lush foliage and the tropical birds.

But you know what? That's on all the tourist stuff. They might as well buy a painting or a poster. Or a tee shirt, for that matter.

Then one morning I thought of doing something a little different. An abstract collection of blocks in different sizes (I think of it as a Mondrian design), with a different image free-motion quilted into each space, probably with black thread, the way I did the quilting on the flower quilt.

It will still be Costa Rica-themed, so will work as a souvenir, but won't be so obviously touristy. Also, it's a technique that's not that common. I'm certainly not the only one in the world to have thought of it, but it's not a mainstream thing to do, so it should strike people as interesting and creative.

That's the plan, at any rate.

The first one I cut and assembled was 24 x 36 inches, and just seemed too big. I'll probably finish it eventually, but I made a smaller one (18 x 24) which seems more suitable. Yesterday I assembled and pinned it, and today I did the in-the-ditch quilting (that's sewing right along the seam line, which holds things together but isn't, in itself, decorative).

Now I have to decide what sorts of motifs to quilt into the various squares.