Having New Eyes

More details on the Alaska Quilting

Something I'm really enjoying about this quilt as it unfolds is the color.  All of the colors that I see in his photos are coming out of the quilt, with perhaps even more vividness.  Look at the green and blue!!  Chuck saw quite a few moose on his trip through Alaska.  This beauty is actually  cut from a fabric that feature moose panels!  I just used steam a seam to fuse it.

 

 

At the northernmost point in his trip, Chuck got to try out some gold panning.  He'd learned the basic techniques in the Black Hills, SD, and had the equipment he needed.  He actually did find a few small pieces of gold, and even at the current price, they represented about .25 an hour!  LOL!

 

Here is a sneak peak at the rushing stream, complete with leaping salmon.  The stream is definitely mixed media!

 

Into Quilting the Alaska Quilt

Quilting the background, and threadpainting the elements in a quilt, are for me quite enjoyable, IF I have a machine that works for me.  I've tried and quit 2 machines and keep coming back to my little Bernina.  Once I finally gave up on my most recent, Janome 1600P, and reinstalled my baby in the sewing table, I was easily putting in 3 hours a day, (on those days where I'm actually home!) without tears, frustrations, or wasted time trying to find just the right needle and just the right tension. 

The animals picture in this post were ones that Chuck did see and photograph in AK, but his photos weren't clear enough for the quilt so I found images to use and print out on fabric.  Here is the basic threadpainted fox - there is still some shading to do, as well as some painting on the facial features to really bring her out.

 

A highlight of Chuck's trip was the shuttle to Mt McKinnley, when a lynx actually strolled up to the side of the road, where the bus was stopped, and sat down in the sun to clean himself.  Even the bus driver was astonished, getting out his own camera.  We have endearing photos and some video footage of the actual lynx, but I needed a clearer, 'posed', shot, so found another image to use for the quilt.  He, too, lacks the finishing touches, but the fundamental thread painting is done.

 

Details on the Alaska Quilt Process

I'd like to at least acknowledge a landscape quilting product that I really love to use, especially when I'm using a combination of fuse/glue/pin methods of attaching elements.  Now, I have to qualify what I just said!  This isn't actually a quilting notion at all, but is used by tailors and seamstresses to transfer oft used patterns to a more durable, but non woven, material than tissue paper.  It's called Do Sew and it can be found at Clotilde or Sew Sassy fabrics, to name a few.  I cut off as much as I need and it becomes the foundation layer of a quilt where I'm gluing and pinning and rearranging elements, either on the table or a design wall.  It's light enough that I can leave it in the quilt, no tearing or dissolving to get rid of it.  I can also roll up the entire project if I need the table for something like, well, eating supper?  LOL

 

I decided, rather late in the process that I needed to add evergreen trees.  What's an Alaska landscape without trees!?  During the quilting process, which I'll cover in more detail in a later post, I realized that the quilting would be MUCH easier if I waited to insert the trees AFTER I'd quilted the landscape behind them!  Sigh.  Live and learn, I suppose.

 

While some trees in the woods have lost their needles/leaves for good, having lived a, hopefully, full and vibrant life through many seasons, others definitely needed some greenery added, which was easy to fuse after laboriously cutting them out while sitting in front of the tv.