I take a lot of sunset and sunrise photos from my hilltop house. The sunset in the art quilt Sunset 84 is unique because I watched it while driving west on a local road one evening. It was so mesmerizing with the dark blue grays and peach/pinks peppered with pale blues peaking out that I really wanted to pullover and start sketching. But with no sketch tools in the car, I opted for long visual exposure so I could remember these unusal colors.
This art quilt was created with my typical curved strip piecing. I layout the progression of colors and then start piecing the quilt by cutting one piece with gentle curves, create a wallpaper cut on the next piece and then sew one piece to the other. I only cut one side of a strip at a time, sewing it to the next piece before cutting the curves of the other side. These strips can become quite narrow so they are easier to sew and piece when attached to previous pieces. I pieced this quilt from the bottom up. I added the rolling hills at the end. The art quilt is bound in a dark navy blue mottled blender fabric.
The most fun about sunsets is layering the different colors. The combinations of peach and pink with a bit of yellow are fun to blend. There are many variations of blue in the sunset sky which are fun to add along with some sky peaking out which looks almost white as it is so light blue. And the dark blue gray clouds add drama.
By the time I got home from this western sky movie, the sunset had evolved to almost all pale blue and dark gray blue. Sunsets change very quickly and need our memories to capture their beauty.