At least that’s my hope for Torii Traces, which has taken entirely too long. Without a deadline, I keep tweaking my design as new ideas occur to me.
After I sewed together the top band and the main section I thought the piece needed a bottom strip to give it weight. I tried several fabrics but settled on a hand dyed turquoise I won in a giveaway by PG Fiber2Art. I thought a water related color was appropriate as many of the photos I found showed the torii set in water.
Then, I spent at least a month figuring out how to stitch it. I wanted a sashiko inspired design that suggested waves. Some of the patterns I considered were too fussy or wouldn’t work in a narrow band. In the end I developed my own, based on the lower left section of The Collection Quilt by Carolyn Friedlander.
To prove I was totally justified in keeping ancient sewing notions, I dug out some decades old tracing paper and a tracing wheel to transfer my design onto the fabric. It’s faint but enough that I can see to stitch.
There was further delay as I debated which perle cotton to use for the stitching. I’ve begun to stitch with a dusty purple and hope that by April I’ll be done with everything. Maybe a self-imposed deadline will spur me to completion. One good thing about my construction method is once I sew the bottom piece on I’ll be done (except for the pesky hanging sleeve and a label.)
The Snarky Quilter 
Thanks for this post. It is a beautiful work and I’m glad you added the bottom band. You were right about needing the balance of it.
Also thanks because … it’s just nice to read something normal. I feel bombarded with the political stuff, and it is truly distressing. I read it, I think about it, I talk about it, I write about it, and even when I try to pull back from it, it is ever-present. And it is such a complete train wreck (I was going to say freak show, but I don’t think that’s considered an okay descriptor anymore) that it is hard to look away. And even though it is COMPLETELY different, it also reminds me of 2012, which was an incredibly awful year for me in many ways. So… much more than you wanted to know, but there it is… thanks.
Yes, I’m glad I’m adding the bottom section. As for this primary season, I’m amazed that truth no longer has any bearing on the political process. I’m not naive enough to think that truth is a major component of that process, but I recall that careers used to sink when the truth was found to be lies (that’s a paraphrase of the Jefferson Airplane song.) Now it just doesn’t matter.
It is a very nice composition. I think many people would be surprised at the thought that we often put into our art quilts. I look forward to seeing your design quilted.
It’s the thought that counts. (Apologies to Hallmark.) The construction of this one is a bit strange due to all the hand stitching. Essentially I’m doing the quilting on each section before I join them, and am adding a false back to each section. So two of the three section have already been quilted.
It’s well worth the time!
I’m so glad you can see that. Often traditional quilters look at my smallish pieces and exclaim over the amount of time I spent over that little thing.
Well, it’s going to be worth the time spent–it really is beautiful. I think the bottom band adds a lot and, now that I know you used your tracing wheel, I feel better about keeping mine!
Thanks. Tracing wheels come in handy for other tasks where you want to transfer or make a line. I’ve used one on freezer paper.