This blog is a journal of the creation process of The Enchantments, a work commissioned by Don and Pat of Washington State.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Photo and the Quilt



The view from Don and Pat's living room





The fabric representation.

Monday, August 30, 2010

On its journey

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




and



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

The Final Mountainside (hanging)

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.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Some details - mountain trees


Some details - pine needles


The whole picture - version 1

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

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.  .