Spirit of the Kiva finaly finished

 Spirit of the Kiva
49" X 42"

I just spent an hour writing this post and lost the whole post.  This one may not be as detailed but I'll give it another go.

I started this piece about a year and a half ago.  After making all the design decisions, I began the quilting.  Machine quilting is, by far, my weakest suit.

Usually I have trouble decided what type of quilting I want to do on my work but this time I knew exactly how I wanted to quilt it.  Since the child is the spirit I wanted the Kiva to stand out.  During the quilting, about three-fourths of the way through the panel, the piece began to warp.  The lines of the boarder were distorting and I was concerned that if I finished, with the hope that it would quilt out, it might not.

I made the decision to take the panel out have it reprinted, and ask for help.  That help came from Gail Sexton.  Gail is in my quilt guild and does wonderful machine quilting.  I asked her if she would be interested in collaborating with me and she graciously said yes.  We spent an afternoon together brainstorming about designs to use, etc.  I had specific ideas on the panel and had thought that petroglyps would enhance the boarder but other than that Gail chose what she wanted to do.  I was delighted when I saw the finished piece.

The creation began with this photograph I took while in Copper Canyon, Mexico about six years ago.

   Soon after that trip I began making portraits using Maria Elkins technique of four values of fabric  www.mariaelkins.com/.  I was so happy with this portrait that I wanted to use it in another piece. 

After taking a photo of the portrait, I chose a photograph I took in TX of an American Indian Kiva and using Photo Shop Elements I merged the two.

  This was the results. I then sent it to www.spoonflower.com, no affiliation, to be printed.

When I received the piece I then had to make design decisions about how to finish the piece.  I had quite a few false starts as there were many things I had in mind to use.  Finally I decided that less is sometimes more and to go simple.

The foundation pieced borders are the American Indian symbol for Kiva Steps.  I am a big believer in asymmetry design so I chose to put the pieced blocks on the top and right sides only.  I hope you enjoy reading about my process as much as I enjoyed creating it.

I am linking this post to Nina Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Fridays.  There are lots of wonderful post to check out on her site.
http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/