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Sioux Falls Arc of Dreams in Fabric

We Carry
by Sara Snuggerud in Sewing Tips

Inspired by a postcard in the mail regarding the building of the 2018 Arc of Dreams in downtown Sioux Falls, SD, I wanted to create a fabric version.

The postcard hung on my wall for months. I knew I wanted to use Shannon Brinkley’s “Scrappy Bits Applique” technique to create it, but I fell short in finding the time prior to the Sewtopia Sewing Club on Scrappy Bits Applique.

Instead, I made a point finish it and incorporate it into the following month’s Sewtopia Sewing Club entitled “Mastering Your Walking Foot“.

Again, I was limited in time as I had left myself only a 3-hour window to start and complete this project for my presentation the next day. Deadlines are a miracle for a me. I stay more focused, I don’t sweat the small stuff and I use what I have on hand instead of running all over town searching for the “perfect” fabric.

My motto for this project was: “Just go with it!”

After snipping and ironing my fabrics to my interfacing, I quickly turned my focus to the machine quilting. I had been watching a handful of Craftsy classes on walking foot machine quilting during the day (YES, I watch them on DOUBLE-SPEED when I have limited time), and decided on trying out “Match Stick” quilting to stitch the fabrics in place over the raw edges of the Arc of Dreams.

The main Craftsy class I learned from was Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot by Jacquie Gering.

 

 

Click here to watch a preview of this awesome class on mastering your walking foot.

The process of Match Stick quilting went like this:

1. With a walking foot, I quilted a wavy line down the middle of the Arc of Dreams landscape. Using a seam guide set at 1″ intervals, I continued to quilt out to the edge of the quilt. You will notice that with only 1″ apart quitting, you see more quilting than the quilt. It overpowers and takes ones eye AWAY from the appliqué landscape.

2. Next, I bisected the 1″ quilting channels with 1/2″ quilting lines. The result is better, but it still needs more quilting…

3. The Arc of Dreams shown with 1/4″ quilting.

4. The Arc of Dreams shown with half 1/4″ quilting and half with 1/8″ quilting.

THEN… Something Funny Happened: 

I had stopped quilting half way through the project so I could demonstrate the match-stick quilting technique at class. But after setting it aside for the evening I noticed something the next day. I had quilted the lower/ground level with denser quilting and the sky area had more open quilting. After staring at it, I liked the two levels of quilting separating the ground area from the sky. With all 100+ Sewtopia Club members agreeing with me, I deemed the quilting DONE.

Click here to read more about the Scrappy Bits Applique technique:

Scrappy Bits Applique – Meet Penelope

Click here to learn more about the Sioux Falls, SD Arc of Dreams being built Summer 2018.