A Temple and From the Wall

 


















Being in Asia will have an influence on my quilting. Two landscape quilts that are in my head involve this beautiful golden temple in Kyoto, Japan, and the Great Wall of China. This golden pavillion is the reason I went to Kyoto. Isn't it beautiful? This picture taken from the Great Wall was shot by my niece Jen.

Quilting Tip from Lady Macbeth

I've been wanting to try a landscape quilt for the longest time. What's been stopping me? Partly a lack of technique but mostly the fear of stepping out of a safe zone. So I sometimes use advice from Lady Macbeth (yes, I know she was dead by Act V...): Be bloody, bold, and resolute. So armed with resolve, some great fabrics, the lines of Kaberi's photo, and a lot of Steam-A-Seam, here is the result. It's not bad for a first effort. I think, like with Monet and his haystacks, I will use this design again and again and see what happens. Most useful to me is seeing the photo landscape and the fabric landscape in the same photo. 11" x 14"

The Beginnings of a Landscape Quilt

This picture was taken by Kaberi Banerjee Murthy when she and her husband Vik cruised on the Yangtze River. Using an iron-on photo transfer, I printed the picture and ironed the image onto fabric. I quilted some of the basic design lines and then added borders. It's a beautiful picture, but now I want to step it up a notch and actually use fabric based on the lines of this design. Soon to come! 11" by 14" Click on the picture to see the detail.

Fodder for Landscape Quilts

Bar Harbor, Quebec, Cornerbook in Newfoundland - what lovely places these are in the fall. The 10-day cruise was wonderful, and I'm all fired up again to work with a landscape quilt. Meanwhile, I'm working on a jacket with 12 fabrics. Reviewing my photos helped me with the Autumn Palette - rich reds and fabulous purples.

Landscape Quilts

I think this is going to be the summer that I am finally going to work on one of the three landscapes that have been rattling around in my head. It started with our first visit to Alaska and seeing the fabulous sunsets and scenery of the Inner Passage. Wanting to do a landscape quilt continued the summer we drove up to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Part of our drive was along the Mississippi on the Wisconsin-Minnesota border - the Mississippi River and the bluffs are just beautiful. The final scene is a recent one: our trip to China, the Yangtze River, and the three Gorges dam. Ok, ok, we didn't see the river and the dam. But friend Kaberi did. In fact, this photo is hers. She and her husband are traveling the world, and they took a trip from Beijing along the Yangtze - something in hindsight we probably should have done. Their blog is well worth reading - the writing and the photos are excellent.

I see no reason why I can't combine the best of these three scapes into something fabulous. We'll see...