The Quilted Jardin Enchantment

It arrived.

2010-09-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

At 6:43 I received a phone call from Don and Pat that "my child has arrived", that is the quilt panels were safely at their house. I cannot tell you how nervous I had been for the last 48 hours... hoping that my quilts did not end up like lost luggage.

The next part of this venture is the hanging. Don has promised some pictures of the process.

The Photo and the Quilt

2010-08-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

The view from Don and Pat's living room

The fabric representation.

On its journey

2010-08-30T18:09:00.000-07:00

I packed the three pieces last night, having cut down a packing box to fit, folding the panels ever so gently, wrapping the pieces in plastic, taping the box to pieces. Taking it to the post office for Express Mail delivery was like sending my children off to college.... you know it will be fine but it's still a parting.

By Wednesday, it will be arriving at its permanent home in Plain, Washington.

Some other details

2010-08-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

and

The mountains actually do line up... just the wind caught this one.

The Final Mountainside (hanging)

2010-08-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

Okay. All the views you have seen so far are on the art piece laying on my living room floor. Here is one of it hanging in the courtyard at my work. You can see glimspes of the bricks at the bottom.

I think it it the truest representation so far of the sky colors.

Some details - mountain trees

2010-08-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

Some details - pine needles

2010-08-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

The whole picture - version 1

2010-08-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

I asked a friend who is a professional photographer to take photos on Friday. I recruited two co-workers to stand on chairs in the courtyard at work and hold the panels up while Mark took photos. I don't have them yet.

However, I did remove all the furniture I could in my living room and laid it out on the floor.

The colors are not this yellow tint nor is there a white splotch on the right side (that's the sunlight coming through the widnow.

And of course, true to form, I discovered another "oops". The pine needles tips on the right panel that should have "gone over" to the middle one were turned under in the binding. So I quickly added some continuation needles to the middle panel... add 9 more to the needle total.

The project gets one final once over tonight and is being shipped tomorrow.

Long lost update

2010-08-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well, just a quick update... and some finished photos. Dan and Pat decided on a backing fabric ... which of course had to be backordered, and then was delayed even more. And on my end the quilted process took longer than I had anticipated due to the fact that my machine has a small arm. For you none sewers this meant that when I rolled up over 4 feet of the project so I could quilt at the half-way mark, it was awfully tight and slow going for those middle sections. Even when I was going width-wise, I have no table in my house long enough to support the full quilt so it didn't "drag" as I was quilting the sky lines.

This is the left panel. It really accentuates the contrast between the sky and the moutnatins in the distance. I especially like how I've quilted the pine trees in the foreground.

the center panel

The left panel balances the nearby pine and the mountains while still retaining that feeling of the distance. .

Pine Needle Count

2010-05-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Left one has 84 needles

Middle has 366 needles

Right one has 363 needles (and still need to add half a branch)

For a total of 808 ponderosa pine needles that have been sewn.

Progressing

2010-04-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

The pine needles for the center panel are almost all on. Now realizing that I need to add some more to the right panel at the top. I knew the branch would extend over to the right but I defintely need more at the top.

And here's what the center and right panel look like together (although not as greenish yellow as in this picture)

The Pine Branches

2010-04-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

Here are close-ups of the pine branches on the right panel.

These are ironed on; still need to sew the needles, branches, and the pine cones.

Pics, at last

2010-04-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the first pictures of what has been done so far. Unfortunately these pictures don't have the mountains lining up corrrectly, but they do

The left panel has 84 pine needles... all sewn down. Still working on the right one. The middle panel still needs its tree branches... I had to line up the sky and mountain lines first.

Pine needles galore

2010-04-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well after letting the piece sit for a day, I added more pine needles, Working on the last sky (had to wait for the extra material to arrive) and sewing the pine needles and branches on left and right panels this weekend.
And my camera should be here sometime this coming week!!!

Ponderosa Pines

2010-03-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

Worked on the pine branches on the right panel. Found just the right material for the branches - brownish gray with texture... definitely looks like bark. The picture has solid mass of needles.... at this point, I have more sky showing through than the original picture. We'll see if it stays that way.

Can't wait for my camera to come back so I can take a picture.

More sky

2010-03-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Worked on the sky of the right panel. It's all done, ready to have the pine branches attached.

I ironed on the pine needles to the left panel yesterday. 84 needles (and two pine cones) for just that small space! It looks really nice. Still need to sew them on ...

I have a short work week this week so I plan to sew work on the pine branches on the right panel and do the center sky.

Camera is now in the shop....

Sky light, sky bright

2010-03-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

Cut out and worked on arranging the sky for the left panel tonight. Unfortunately, my camera took a nosedive to the floor last night while the lens was open, resulting in a LENS ERROR message and a lens which will not go in or out. Thus no sky picture.

I like how the colors of the blocks are blending .... at a distance they create pockets of color, of clouds.

Panorama

2010-03-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

Here is the panoramic view of the mountains. The material edges are folded over so those areas where there is a sudden stop of a hill will not be that straight line when finished.

Below are the close up shots of the bottom edges.

Yesterday while I was at a craft fair I cut out the pine cones and started on the pine needles. Ponderosa pines have their needles in clusters of 3. If you go back to the original photo, you will see that there will be a LOT of pine needles.

Sew, sew

2010-03-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight I worked on the center panel... much easier to sew than the previous one. Even though the panels will be somewhat separated when finally hung, I pinned them together so I can begin to envision the bindings. Instead of the usual solid color binding. at least the inside edges will be bound using the landscape fabric.

Pinning the panels to my wall also allows me to see where I need some more "trees". I thought I had stretched all my trees across the two panels. Obviously I hadn't as you can see. Reforestation project in the works for this weekend!

My bookcase is pushing the left of the landscape forward, creating some wrinkly spots in the photo.

Today

2010-03-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

Two hours later, the right panel is sewn. I still have to add the trees in the front. Before that, it took me an hour and half to iron down the three panels (used fusible web on most of the material) and to add any additional mountains.

Oops there's a couple of pins still in the picture.

The goal for this week is to get the three panels sewn. I had to do work for work one day each of these last two weekends - sure cuts in to my sewing time!

The Final Mountainside

2010-03-08T18:47:00.000-08:00

This is the center and right panels ... with a bit of Niles, my cat, placed solidly in the sky. I still need to add some trees against the sky line but I'm really pleased with how this last panel turned out. Also will be adding some ponderosa pines in the foreground but I need a different dark green material so they will stand out. Obviously the white line down the center won't be there . I hadn't pinned the right panel when I took the picture so I was hesitant to move the panels.

Stretched out

2010-03-07T15:44:00.000-08:00

Today I laid out the two panels on my living room floor and placed the sky material on one of them.

The Mountains Connected (somewhat)

2010-03-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

Here's what they look like side by side (almost)... the third panel will need to wait until tomorrow.

Panel Two - first draft

2010-03-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

This is panel two, or the center panel. In person the yellow is not as bold as it appears in the photo. Even though I haven't cut the sky yet, I love how it's playing out.

Panel One - second draft

2010-03-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

Inserted a dark pine material... still not sure it's what needs to be there. That's the great thing about auditioning fabric. You cut and pin and don't sew until everything us JUST RIGHT.

On to Panel two now

Panel One - first draft

2010-03-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

This is the first cutting for the left side panel. I spent hours ironing the material and then attaching fusible web. I had made a general pattern of where the different groves of trees were but it's difficult to distinguish clearly from the original photograph. What you see in terms of the trees is only the bottom 3 feet of the panel. If you look closely you can maybe distinguish where I laid down sky materials one on top of another. The upper 5 feet of this panel are sky with two clumps of pine branches.

Critique of draft 1 - the near trees are cut okay but there isn't a distinguishing tree line between the near hill and the second one back. There is a well cut tree line but the color I used fades into the background. Need to switch that color completely. The farthest left part of the second mountain (to right of picture) is angled too high. Need to do revisions and then take another photo. .

My construction plan as follows:

to cut out all the mountains first (two more panels)
to cut and sew the sky together
to sew the mountains down
to cut and sew pin branches
to cut and sew pine needles
to cut and sew pine cones

The Sky ( part 2)

2010-02-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

I received a paint strip from Don and Pat to show the color of their walls. Amazing that out of the 15 fabrics I purchased, only 3 of them won't work. I may add a small swatch of two of the blues for a contrasting cloud shadow.

Here are the sky possibilities.

The Pile of Grasses and Trees

2010-02-21T08:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I began looking at my greens for the far and near mountains. Just as I was ready to iron on the fusible web, I realized that I wasn't sure if all the material had been washed. So off the the washer, delicate cycle, for all the greens. As I pulled them from the dryer, they seem to have expanded.

While I had purchased some greens for the near trees, near mountains and pine cones, I emptied out my GREEN scrap drawer and wahsed anything that looked like it might blend in.

Today the task will be to iron these (while I'm washing the Olympics) in preparation for the fusible web. My grandmother (a New York City seamstress at turn of century) would be proud of me.

The Sky

2010-02-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

The sky materials arrived yesterday. How exciting it was to lay them out on the floor and envision a finished product.

Watching THE NATIONAL PARKS: America's Best Idea on PBS last night, I kept thinking "oh that would make a great wallhanging" and "Oh I could capture that image with material I already have." Great program -- defintiely worth watching.

Fabric Search Shopping

2010-02-06T10:45:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the Gloversville Sewing Center and the Joann's Fabric Shop near there to begin my fabric search. Armed with printouts of Ponderosa Pine branches and pinecones and the original photo, I sprawled on the floor by the batiks attempting to find material for the sky, foreground trees, and the pine cones and needles. I was able to find some brillant browns that are perfect for the pinecones and parts of the branches, some muted greens for the trees, and a two perfect matches for the pine needles.

The sky on the other hand remains a challenge. Shooting for a greyish sky rather than a brillant sunny day blue or even a midday clear sky blue. I was able to find some, just not enough yet to effectively do a pieced background. Need to hit The Joyful Quilter in Glenville and to keep scouring Batiks, Etc online.

Enchantments

2010-02-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

Iam beginning my biggest creation yet... an 8 by 8 three paneled wallhanging of this fantastic view of the eastern side of the Northern Cascades Mountains, with the boughs of two Ponderosa Pine trees in the forground. Incredible photo, incredible challenge. I plan to count each of the pine needles. Will let you know how many there are when I'm finished.

Beginning

2009-06-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

I realized that I needed to begin the Blog process as a way to keep everyone updated regarding the new trends in my work and also my creation/ inspiration processes.

I attended the Vermont Quilt Festival recently and took classes with Mickey Lawler (fabric painting) and Nancy Prince (thread painting). Yesterday I used one of my handpainted fabrics as the sky in a fabric picture of a horse. Picture to be posted laster this week.