What’s on the Design Wall: Working Through A New Art Quilt Piece

This weekend I worked on a new abstract silk art quilt piece: Abandoned Structure, inspired by a photograph of an abandoned water power plant in Central Oregon.

The water plant is called White River Falls Power Plant and it is located at White River Falls State Park in the Tygh Valley of northern central Oregon. Here is a link to an article, Nature and modern history mix at White River Falls, by station KATU on the history of the hydroelectric dam and powerhouse that was built in 1910 and decommissioned in the 1960s.

Around 6 – 7 years ago, while attending a “Quilt & Cast Retreat” (the wives attend a quilt retreat while the husbands go on a fly fishing day trip) in Maupin, Oregon, we went on a day excursion to White River Falls and I fell in love with abandoned power plant. I took many photos and the photo below inspired the art quilt I am working on:

By the way, this post could have also been a continuation of my series on Creative Inspiration, as here is an example where I was inspired by a structure to create an abstract art quilt. Note: I refer to the piece I created as “abstract” as it is not a pictorial recreation of the structure but my interpretation of the feeling I get from the photograph.

Here is the quilt in process on my design wall:

I am using recycled garment silks, recycled lines, and some of the Elite Gelato variegated gray fabric I used to carry in my Etsy shop (the bolt ran out except for the 2 yards I kept for my own use).

I will post the completed quilt top on The Wardrobe Meets the Wall blog as it will be part of that collection.