Contemporary Quilt is 10 years old!

The Contemporary Quilt group of the Quilter's Guild celebrates it's 10th birthday this year and to mark this event members have been set a challenge! We have to use the photo below as the inspiration for a piece of work which measures no more than 500cm in perimeter. The content comes from wedding anniversaries with Tin being 10 and this being a tin mine!

So I have been playing with elements of this to create my piece. I want to use the wheel as this is so much part of the industrial revolution and all forms of mining, the pit head etc. I also like the sloping sides of the chimney and could use that general shape for the quilting.

The next problem was what sort of fabrics to use. The rough texture of stone and hard metal suggests a slubby weave and the colour of the local stone suggests a creamy brown. With intricate shapes to cut out for the wheel I'm going to use lutrador as this wont fray and I can paint it to get the colours I want. This is my first small scale practice piece.

Lots to think about so its up on the wall for a few days while I audition elements and come up with a final piece.