Next project and a new badge

It is time to get started on my next big project - my piece for the Akron Art Prize. The last two t-shirt pieces I made took me several hundred hours each to construct, free motion machine quilt, embroider, and finish so I need to get started on this. I will be due mid-August, but I will need something to submit in late April or May with my application so I need to get the top constructed.

First I had to go thru these t-shirts and sort them.

Here they are laid out on my big table in piles by tour years. The theme of this piece will be the band R.E.M. My brother toured with them on every tour since 1988 and he saved a lot of shirts thank goodness!

I then sorted thru each year and picked the shirt I thought might work. I have some of them pinned on the design wall now. I have a few more I am going to add. I sure had lots of choices and there will be many that will go back in the containers and back to my brother's house!

I am still thinking about how I am going to construct this piece. I want to do something a bit different than what I have done for the last two years. This is my piece for 2015

and my piece for 2016

Kaja, this is the part of improv quilting we had some conversation about; that much of improv quiltmaking involves time to think about how to design, construct, and solve problems. I think I have a design plan which is a huge step!

Yesterday I got a new badge from fitbit - my monarch migration badge which means I have walked 2,500 miles.