Greetings from New York City

"Greetings from New York City"  Fabric Postcard  6" x 4.5",  Hand embroidery,  fusible applique, machine quilted.   Created for Project Quilting Season 12 challenge "Illuminating" 

UPDATE:  Sold to the private collection of eileen mann

I've been participating in Project Quilting for a number of years.  In the winter, the Kim Lapacek and Trish Frankland create themed challenges, released on Sunday afternoon.  Quilters have ONE WEEK to create a piece to respond to the challenge and post it on social media.  The following week folks vote for their favorites and there are some winners.  Then we get another challenge.  Its a great way to force yourself to MAKE something.  My projects nearly always have a political bend, which is why I originally created this blog. 

This week's challenge is based on the Pantone colors of the year,  a sunny yellow and a drab grey, speaking to the world mood as we hopefully move out of this past year of pandemic lockdown. 

It reminded me of yellow taxi cabs in the grey of NYC streets. 

Neil loves the iconic checker cab,  so I started with this line drawing: 

Using an embroidery technique I like to use,   I created this taxi on a gridded grey fabric, like the grid of streets and buildings in NYC: 

I used this size because I have been wanting to make fabric postcards,  so this was already trimmed to 4"x6" 

I decided to add vintage "Greetings from New York" elements, as can be seen on this vintage postcard: 

Using a bit of Steam-a-Seam fusible,  I cut out tiny letters using some NYC fabric, so you can see some buildings in the letters, like the postcard. 

Then placed them on black fabric, to get the shadow, to end up with this: 

Unfortunately, I had already cut this fabric to postcard size, so the letters fall right off the grey background. I had to rethink this design. 

I chose this coordinating solid grey with a nice linen texture, which is great justification for quilters to have a well stocked "stash" of fabric:

Then I laid out the elements to give space for the letters to float over the taxi embroidery. 

Finally I created the card using instructions from my friend Nanette and machine quilted all the elements to stabilize the whole project. 

This has a muslin backing, rather than a card stock because I don't really intend to send this to anyone,  but it is stiff like a postcard, due to the Peltex layer. 

I think its still missing the "Greetings from" text, which I may fuse on at a later date, but I want to print it on fabric somehow. 

UPDATE on 1/23:  Added the Greetings from text, printed onto Spoonflower swatch.   Completed work shown at the top of this blog post. 

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This is project is inspired by my love for my adopted city of NEW YORK.  Neil and I moved here 6 years ago (!) and I really feel like I've always belonged here.  We were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in March and April 2020 and I saw New Yorkers respond amazingly well: we stayed home, we wore masks, we washed our hands, we social distanced.  The streets of the city were eerily quiet.  Some people said "New York is dead." 

But its not dead, we are doing what we need to do to keep it alive as best we can.  Those that must ride the subways are masked and keep their distance.  The subways shut down every night for cleaning (can we ALWAYS do this please?!) 

In the summertime, when it was allowed, space on the already crowded streets was turned into outdoor dining.  Bravo to the restaurants for creating instant environments for really nice dining.  

We are not out of the woods yet, but as the vaccines start rolling out and life starts to get back to normal,  when restaurants and theaters open again,  I look forward to life in this vibrant city. 

And while we are at it, let's find a way to make the city better for everyone.  The pandemic and BLM protests this summer have pointed out something hidden in plain sight:  'normal' wasn't great for everyone.  Let's take a step towards a better normal. 

To steal a line from Monty Python (read this with a British accent): We're not dead yet! 

Greetings from New York City.

Peace, 

Paula