Guesses and Messes

Last week marked the beginning of a new free-motion quilted landscape, this time using a photo--which involved enlarging, a lot of tracing, and the making of twenty thousand million pattern pieces. (Ok, actually 26. It just seemed like a lot more.)

Then came choosing the fabrics--one of the most fun and yet most frustrating parts in the process of making a landscape quilt. Half of the time, there aren't enough choices; the other half, there are too many. In this photo, folded fabrics are being auditioned for the trees (one of which was accidentally left out at first...yep, screw-up number one...that's when you know you're on your way! :)

Again, these were just auditions at this point...except for that tree on the left. I was so sure it would be the perfect foreground tree, that I went on and cut it out with the pattern piece--a good 30 inches long. Yep, trial and error number one (as opposed to screw-up number one)--the tree just doesn't stand out enough. It blends in a little too well with the stone wall, which is supposed to be far behind it.

So that particular tree was rejected. But in landscape quilting, rejects are never wasted; just saved for a future project. The replacement tree in the next photo is much darker, which is important, because usually the elements in the foreground need to be darker than those in the background, for the sake of depth and perspective. (If you're not convinced of this, stand on a hill somewhere and look out over the distant landscape. Generally, trees, mountains, other hills, and even buildings will appear progressively lighter as they near the horizon.) There are exceptions, such as that skinny tree, which needs to be either very dark or very light in order to contrast with the stone wall. Lighter would probably be better there--it's a bit stark looking even if it is skinny. 

 Meanwhile, the studio is gloriously messy, as happens when you're deeply immersed in a new project--too much creativity flying around to pay all that much attention to cleanup. And this photo doesn't even include the huge pile of pattern pieces lying willy-nilly all over a tabletop. 



A couple of new elements were added today:

The curling silhouette (because I ironed him onto paper-backed fusible) makes it look like the guy is trying to escape hell fire, but that will change as the light behind him gets toned down and window bars are put on top of him. Then he'll just look all brooding and mysterious as he watches the woman approach on the path. At least that's the plan.

Hooking up with Leah Day over at FMQ Friday and Sarah Craig at Whoop Whoop Fridays. Among other things, Leah has included a link to instructions for a method of finishing your quilt's raw edges without binding on top. Sarah has announced the winner of the traveling stash and is featuring some linkups to other folks' work. Check out the hookups at the bottom of both Leah's and Sarah's posts--as always, a super booster shot of inspiration.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Linda