I travel a lot! Too much some would say! I spend a lot of time in airports and they are always enormous. Why are my departure gates always the most furtherest away?

Recently on a trip I went through 6 airports and sometimes with limited time between connections. In Salt Lake City I had a very short turnaround and had already been travelling over 20 hours so was a bit spaced out. I was rushing for my connecting gate and turned a corner to be presented with this view and of course my gate was right at the end. I did enjoy the large posters of Utah briefly as I rushed down the walkway. Maybe one day I can return and see the sights for real

I decided to use this image for my quilt. I liked the perspective and lines and to me epitomises nearly every airport.

I played around in a few photo apps to posterise it

Once I worked out a suitable line drawing I had the image enlarged. I painted 8 different shades of fabric and fused the back with mistyfuse and then transferred the individual shapes from the drawing to the fabric.

This is a time consuming but oddly satisfying process and I actually enjoyed cutting out the tiny shapes and layering and fusing them all together.

I also created a few thermofax screens from the departure screens in the airport and printed them onto a large painted piece of organza. The original idea was to place it over the whole quilt but it didn’t work. It hid the detail and as I had gone to all the trouble of cutting out tiny bits I decided not to do it. I did like the printed organza however so fused some of it to different areas of the quilt for a contrast.

I quilted around each shape which was a bit fiddly but then filled in all the shapes to add direction and texture. I quilt on a Bernina Q20 which is a joy to use. 

Where’s my Gate

30″ x 40″

Hand painted fabric and painted and printed silk organza

Fused raw edge appliqué and machine quilted