Mosaic Underfoot

 Well, if that title doesn't pique your curiosity, right? As usual, my idea for this theme prompt is not the idea I ended up using. I had a little fun with this prompt, using inspiration from a few artists I follow on social media. 

Are you familiar with pothole art? A Google search will bring up all kinds of examples. I follow a couple of artists on Instagram, and I think the idea of taking something unsightly like a pothole and making it a piece of art to see while strolling along is a fun idea. So I decided to take my mosaic underfoot and try some pothole art with fabric. 

There's so much about this piece that I would change, if I were to do it again, but let's ignore that and I'll tell you how I constructed it. The mosaic strips were strips made in an online improv workshop that had been sitting and waiting to be used. I freehand cut a shape from the sewn strips and then added the black border. The tricky part was adding the cracks and the sidewalk, or background, to the piece. That took a little thinking, but I made it work. The finished quilt is 20 x 22 inches. 

I was a little perplexed about how to quilt it, so I actually made a little sample piece to mess around with. 

This little sample is about 9" x 13". I used it to try out quilting designs in the mosaic and also to come up with the sidewalk design. I also messed around with thread colors for the sidewalk. In the end, I went with a rectangular sidewalk design, and used a brown thread to give it more of a dirty street look. I'm not sure I achieved that, and am still pondering what I would do differently next time (if there is one!). 

The quilting in the mosaic is just random lines throughout the design. I used a light orange thread, so it blended in well with the mosaic. 

I'll likely share more information about this quilt on my blog, if you are interested. I'm not sure this resembles pothole art, but I think it met the mosaic challenge. 

What a fun year of challenges in 2024! Thanks to Janine and Barbara for keeping the group moving forward! 

Wendy