I've had a few requests for my process for this quilt, so here it is. Try to stay awake. I started from a photograph I had taken. You can see it in the picture below. I enlarged that to 8 1/2 inches by 11 inches, traced it, reversed it and then took it to a copy shop and enlarged it to the dimensions I needed (17 inches by 22 inches). I decided to only make one of the chairs.
The quilt was essentially fused onto the white background, so I started by bulding the components such as the chairs by tracing the shapes onto fusible web and then fusing those to the desired fabric (chair or railing in the pictures below), cutting out and assembling on a pressing sheet by fusing the overlapping places so that the pieces would become one unit. Here is the chair and the deck railings during assembly.
To make the trees, I wanted something that gave the indistinct look the leaves had in the original photograph, seen as they were through the snow and in the background. So I fused web to the back of several shades of treen and blue gray fabric and some sheers, then rotary cut them and spread them over the white velvet I was using for the background. That was a slow process, as I had to make sure the pieces were right side up. I only ended up with a couple stuck to the iron. I blew a lot more onto the floor as I worked!
I used my cool little iron to fuse them down. My intent was to put a sheer over everything to make them more blurry, but it was too much. The fused fabric didn't adhere to the velvet really well, but it adhered to each other and to the velvet long enough for me to stitch it down. I used an angular stipple to stitch it down, as the trees were pine trees. I also thread painted the trunks before stitching the leaves down.
I used white velvet for the snow as I thought it would give the depth and light absorbing qualities that snow seems to have, and I think I was successful, but it was a pain to work with. All of the white you see, except for the seat of the chair, is white velvet. The background is a solid piece and then cut pieces were applied on the chair arms and the deck railings. I really learned a lot from this project which is part of the Journal Quilt Process!
The quilt was essentially fused onto the white background, so I started by bulding the components such as the chairs by tracing the shapes onto fusible web and then fusing those to the desired fabric (chair or railing in the pictures below), cutting out and assembling on a pressing sheet by fusing the overlapping places so that the pieces would become one unit. Here is the chair and the deck railings during assembly.
To make the trees, I wanted something that gave the indistinct look the leaves had in the original photograph, seen as they were through the snow and in the background. So I fused web to the back of several shades of treen and blue gray fabric and some sheers, then rotary cut them and spread them over the white velvet I was using for the background. That was a slow process, as I had to make sure the pieces were right side up. I only ended up with a couple stuck to the iron. I blew a lot more onto the floor as I worked!
I used my cool little iron to fuse them down. My intent was to put a sheer over everything to make them more blurry, but it was too much. The fused fabric didn't adhere to the velvet really well, but it adhered to each other and to the velvet long enough for me to stitch it down. I used an angular stipple to stitch it down, as the trees were pine trees. I also thread painted the trunks before stitching the leaves down.
I used white velvet for the snow as I thought it would give the depth and light absorbing qualities that snow seems to have, and I think I was successful, but it was a pain to work with. All of the white you see, except for the seat of the chair, is white velvet. The background is a solid piece and then cut pieces were applied on the chair arms and the deck railings. I really learned a lot from this project which is part of the Journal Quilt Process!
1 comment:
Wow! That is so interesting to see the process. Thank you for taking the time to explain so well and for the pictures to make it more clear. It really helps to see this for a beginner like me. I feel inspired!
Kim
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