Classic Car Dashboard

This theme threw me for a loop!  I just couldn't think of anyway to make "Circles and Squares" interesting.

Then I remembered that years ago, when my husband was part of a car club, we got to tour a private car collection.  I loved the arrangements of the dashboards and they were crammed with circles and squares, so that would make a perfect subject.

In creating for these challenges, I have three main objectives: come up with an image I like, try at least one technique that is new to me, and use some of the great supplies in my stash.

Beautiful design in a vintage car.

Out of all my dashboard photos, I thought this one had the best balance of circles and squares, and the partial circles were a twist that I would not have thought on my own.

I have no idea what kind of car it is from because I only took pictures of the dashboards! 

Classic Car Dashboard

All the fabrics I used were from my stash.  I had bought a fat quarter bundle of a SAQA collection for Andover Fabrics in 2017, and I used mainly three of those fabrics -- the dark one with orange blotches, the gold one with brown ripples, and the gold and blue one with the raindrop circles.  

As I thought about appliqueing the circle shapes, I didn't look forward to satin stitching all the edges.  Fortunately I remembered a book on my shelf that showed a landscape with lots of curves -- Dream Landscapes: Artful Quilts with Fast-Piece Applique, by Rose Hughes.  Her method is to use couching to cover all the raw edges, so that was the new-to-me technique for this piece, and I really liked it.  I used knitting ribbon, bias tape, and weaving yarns to outline the various gauges and dials. 

I also had an assortment metallic threads from WonderFil, that came in a box of supplies I got in an online auction, and I used them in straight, zigzag, and satin stitch.  I used a needle for metallics, set the tension very low, and used a stabilizer.  The threads did break now and then, but not too often.

Detail showing some of the metallic threads.

This is definitely one of my favorite pieces of my Endeavourers collection.  And there are other dashboard photos from that tour waiting to be turned into art quilts too. :)