Rainy Day San Francisco Revisited

I've had a great deal of positive comment on "Rainy Day San Francisco, Monday, October 25, 2010" both from people who saw it in its debut at International Quilt Festival Long Beach last week in "Bridges" the special exhibit from Quilts on the Wall Artists and from those who've seen in the last day or so posted on my web site or on the gallery section of The Quilt Show.  I am really humbled and grateful for this - it seems to have struck a cord with a lot of people and I have been asked about some of the techniques I used.

The scene was taken from a cell phone photo I took on a rainy morning in San Francisco just as we exited the bridge and were about to turn left on the Embarcadero.  I was driving and my husband was yelling at me to put away my phone! Several months later I printed out the photo and traced it on to an acetate sheet, scanned that, blew the scan up to size on my computer, and posterized it to print out a full size paper pattern for the applique, 

 

I find very often that the serendipity of finding just the right fabric for the right purpose makes a quilt. In this case the lowering, rainy, moody sky was all done for me with a gradient printed Mackenna Ryan fabric (I buy all of those I can find!) No fabric paint there ... sorry to dissappoint all of you who congratulated me on my painting skills. Most of the vehicles, buildings and bridge were done in fused raw edge applique' using wonder under with a fabulous gradated gray package of Cherrywood fabrics. I did use some Jacquard Lumiere fabric paint for the lines in the street  and the reflections of the car and truck on the wet street. 

I added some printed digital images found on Google for the street lights (strangely enough there are hundreds of images of San Francisco's Embarcadero street lights ...) and the license plate on the truck. BTW "I'm Sorry" has no special meaning as many have asked. It was just an interesting plate that I thought might promote some conversation.  It did. For the green street sign I made a Photoshop file which I printed on to fabric and edged with paint. That's not hard - but as you can see I had a little trouble with the first try...

So I finish the top and I'm pretty pleased with it ...... until I realize that it is 4 inches too narrow  to fit the size required by Quilts On The Wall - aarrghh! A frantic trip to a local quilt store resulted in that great bold red stripe at the edges.  Actually I realize now that those red stripes have improved the visuals enormously...... so there you are.  Serendipity!