Stitches in time

P.S. concerning San Francisco and fabric: I found "Far Out Fabrics", but nothing was there that I liked well enough to buy. A problem I had in all the fabric stores I checked out - none of them were willing to cut less than 1/2 to 1 yard of a fabric. I want lots of different material for piecing strips etc., so I have to really like a fabric to be willing to buy a greater amount. As a result, I brought along only three small scraps from the remnant bins of a couple of stores. One store in downtown SF did impress me - "Britex" has four floors of fabrics and accessories. Without something specific for which to buy, I was overwhelmed and left without purchasing anything.

I have continued work on my fabric book and now have some pictures of progress to show. The road has kept me busy for many hours; I had originally planned to paint it, but then found a flagstone fabric that is absolutely perfect. I made a pattern so that the road would continue from page to page, then cut out iron-on batting plus the fabric, which I basted onto the pages, then sewed on by hand.

Next step was machine quilting around the stones, which gave the 3-D effect I wanted. I'm very pleased with the way it looks! The first photo shows the difference between the road with and without quilting. The next ones show the pages sewn together; lots of hand sewing remains to be done for the details, but first I will sew the reverse side so that I can finish all machine work.
























































Actually, I'm not pleased with the connection from the fifth to the last page - there's a break there. The poem does ask where the road will go, but my rainbow of possibilities on the last page doesn't connect with the road. I will probably rip the second-to-last page and re-do the road to make it fit. Lots of work, but then, I wouldn't be a patchworker if I weren't willing to work for the best possible result!