Monday, November 19, 2012

My Travel Quilt #2--Bergen, Norway/Group Quilts

This was the quilt that I made after the Postcards one, and it's the one that I posted on the Material Mavens blog on our Reveal Day.

This quilt was a challenge to make, because of the many different layers involved and the fact that I embellished with embroidery.  The sky (hand-painted cloth) and water (batik) were fused to the batting.  Then the individual buildings were cut out from already fused fabrics (batiks), as were the watch tower and the front of the dock.  I cut the swans, which look more like ducks, and the buoy out of fabric with Wonder Under already applied--cut these freehand.  I stuck in some greenery at the right just to fill in the space.  The buildings are embellished/quilted with perle embroidery in a variety of embroidery stitches.  Going through all those layers was difficult, and I later learned that had I used wool batting rather than 100% cotton, and had I not over-fused the elements, this task would not have been so difficult. I machine quilted the sky and the water.  The binding was fused, and I matched it to the areas which butted up against the binding.

This pictorial quilt was based on a photo of Bergen, Norway, a photo that was one of my favorites.  The area depicted was the Hanseatic Wharf, which has many lovely wooden buildings that have been lovingly restored.  Here is the photo:

As you can see, because of the size of our MM quilts, I simplified and rearranged many of the elements in this photo.  I started at the left and put in the yellow building, some of those behind it, the two white ones, the bigger yellow one (that now is brown), but then I added in a yellow building that isn't in the photo.  I put in the buoy and the two sailboats, the watch tower, but I left out the tents that are stalls where various goods were for sale.

I do like this photo, and it would be a great one to base a group quilt on--one like so many that we saw at the Houston quilt festival.  Three of my quilting friends are interested in trying a group quilt project out!  Here are some that were in Houston:

I am assuming that 10 different quilters produced this quilt.  I love it that there is a variation in the length of the panels,  but all the roof lines are leveled up~

This quilt was likely made by 15 different quilters!  Wow!  They did a great job of lining up the horizon line, the road, etc.  But for this many quilters to make a quilt that fits together so well, but that also portrays the various quilters' styles, is wonderful!

And here's one of a single house, produced by 24 quilters.  Again wow!  The fence, roof lines, and sky are lined up well.  But again, love how each quilter's own style and choices of fabrics varies enough to make the quilt all the more interesting.

2 comments:

  1. Wow..the slice quilts are amazing! I especially like the first one as it looks like it might be depicting a village in England or Ireland.

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are so yummy to look at...and repeat the quilting on the sides of this blog. I think it would be such fun to do a project like this...a photo and break it up for different people...and it need not be difficult to quilt...all pieces placed on a piece of muslin and built up. I have seen this sort of thing at quilt shows. It would be fun to get my beaders to try it. Good luck. Your piece makes me want to travel there....very welcoming...and it is not easy to simplify which I often call edit.

    ReplyDelete