Tunnel Vision

My Entrance quilt was inspired by a photograph taken by my husband from the back of the scenic car on the Bay Express train, which used to do a daily return trip between Wellington and Napier. The scene is at the eastern end of the Manawatu Gorge. The railway is on one side of the gorge above the river, and features many tunnels and the highway is on the opposite side.

I worked from an enlarged photocopy and sketched the outline onto white fabric using a light box. I mainly used hand dyed fabrics with the addition of a few commercial ones. The rails were black fabric, covered by grey silk chiffon, stitched down and cut back with a soldering iron to seal the edges. Unfortunately this process did not give the shine I was hoping to achieve on the rails. A light coating of silver fabric paint was added over the chiffon. I could not resist adding a dash of red as a highlight.

Close up View: