Each "bead" in Mary's quilt was very scrappy, but I wanted to use my precious stash of Flea Market Fancy fabric by Denyse Schmidt in a non-scrappy way, so I changed the construction.
When I started mentioning my intention to print a calendar with classic cars, friends Chuck and Dayla Anderson reminded me of their 1959 Rag Top VW in a beautiful dusty aqua color, much like one of the colors in the quilt. 1959 is of special significance, as it is the year Chuck was born. The car and quilt seemed like a perfect fit, so one night in August 2020, we met for the photo shoot at the home of Dayla's mom, Dotty (my dear friend who initially taught me to quilt).
There is a large parking area on the side of their house, and we moved the car around a little bit. And took a lot of pictures.
I had been shooting toward the east because I didn't want to be shooting into the sun. But all of a sudden Mark noticed what was happening in the west as the sun went down. Our valley had been enduring lots of smoke and poor air quality from the Creek Fire, which burned over 400,000 acres last summer, but sometimes we were treated to a spectacular sunset.
Dayla quickly drove the car to the other side of the yard.
This sequence of photos occurred from 7:53 p.m. to 7:57 p.m.
The "money" shot--taken at 7:55 p.m., with no photo editing whatsoever. I love how the sky is even reflected a bit on the back of the car.
It would have been so easy to miss had Mark not turned around when he did. I think of all the photos I took of quilts and cars, this is my very favorite.
