What I did on the virtual retreat

No, I didn't go to the Yucatan over the weekend, but many thanks to Pat Sloan for a most excellent virtual retreat. This picture is one of the images I included in the back I composed for my OP Challenge piece. (It's me at Uxmal about 22 years ago.) I finished the back of the piece this weekend and I'll share some of the process with you. My piece is called "Mérida Remix" and you can take a look at some of the older posts to get the background information on it. (First update, second update, third update)

After scanning four photos from that trip to the Yucatan 22 years ago, I printed them onto a heat-sensitive transfer paper and ironed them onto white fabric.

I had already printed the label, so I did a sample layout with the pictures around it using scraps of the Mayan fabric.

Once I was satisfied with the layout, I sewed the photos to the label. All seams were pressed with a pressing cloth being used over all the photos for safety.

A word now about determining the size of the various units in the back. The front measures approximately 30 by 27 inches, so I use the grid on my cutting mat to help me determine how big the units needed to be. The label and photo unit was the first unit. Because I want to try to avoid putting too many quilting stitches through the photos, by default, the label will be positioned exactly behind the Mayan fabric on the front which won't be overly quilted.

I then did a trial layout of the rest of the back using the improvisationally pieced blocks from the OP Challenge, and a little block I made with the Mayan fabric artist's name (Escalera).

I made some additions to the first unit and then moved on to firming up the other units.

Here's a close-up of the Escalera block:

I decided that rather than having a large area of blue fabric in the bottom left corner, I'd make another improv block. Here's the start:

Outer block and cross pieces are added.

Second unit ready.

Now I was down to the original three improv blocks.

I decided to attach the first improv block to unit two creating a unit across the entire length of the back.

The last two blocks formed the third and final unit.

As you can see from the grid, I had to add a strip of orange between units one and three to get the measurements to work out.

One more seam right down the middle and the back was finished.

If you didn't follow the links back, here's another look at the front.

Thanks again to Pat Sloan for all the fun and the shout-out in her recap.