Arches and Tunnels is an old project that I finally got back around to. I started this one almost exactly 2 years ago when we were living in our downtown house. I was inspired by the hand applique class I took with Carolyn Friedlander that summer and I started this project with some very hot colors and a fold and cut technique.
I was doing some improvisational applique and not really worrying much about the size of the background strips. I figured I could eventually make it fit somehow. I tried so many different variations of placement and even took photos as you'll see below.
It was put aside during our move last year and then last winter I got it out again and did some more of the applique. I even sewed some of the background parts together. Just this week I decided to finish the thing so I can submit it to QuiltCon. It turned out I only had to sew on a few more background strips and applique one more piece (the top one you see below).
It was really a matter of a few hours to do the applique and get it all sewn together! Why did I procrastinate? To tell you the truth even though I had all those photos of previous iterations I didn't even consult them when I did the final layout. I just threw caution to the wind and did something spontaneous.
Here's another little secret- I don't even really like this quilt anymore. These things happen, at least with me. However, I got a huge surprise when I posted the first and last photos you see here on Instagram and they got all sorts of attention, including a feature on the Curated Quilts account. So, I guess it's a good thing I'm going ahead with the finish. Today I took it to a local long arm quilter because she does very good work, but I've never had her do one of my quilts before. Luckily, I won a gift certificate for her services a while ago and I got to use that. I am excited to see what she does with it because I gave her free reign. I'll post it later when it's finished.
