While catching up on this blog I realised that I had missed out on the email picture quilt class I taught last year. Here is an extract from the WAQA Quilters' Quarterly article about it...
When news of the stay-at-home orders for WA were announced I suddenly felt bereft - no social quilting or teaching for the foreseeable future. As I cancelled some workshops I began to wonder if it was possible to teach by email contact only. My picture quilt workshops were especially suited, as a lot of the work is digital (image preparation and pattern making). I thought too of my WAQA friends, who would also be feeling the loss of quilting activities and so the ‘Picture Challenge’ class was born.
Success can be measured by looking at
the great results below. I was blown away by how skilled and talented these
students are, some had never tried this sort of quilting before, and how
different the quilts are in terms of subject, colour and style.
One of the most exciting results of
the experiment was the fact that some of the students were country members who
often find it difficult to attend workshops, yet were able to benefit from an
email based class (this is something I would like to see developed in the future
as part of the WAQA workshops programme)
On a personal level I really enjoyed the class. I got to interact with students I hadn’t met before and the covid restrictions didn’t seem quite so onerous. Thank goodness we all had our quilting to keep us going!
Julie McAllister - Perth
“What’s That?”
This is my granddaughter walking with her little dog Rocket around Lake
Claremont. They are always looking for crickets, frogs, bugs and birds. Any
noise or movement attracts their immediate interest!
I don’t know if I or my daughter are more
thrilled with the result!
Annie Folkard - UK
I visited the Rahn of Kutch In
Gujarat, as a twenty three year old and one of the villages was Hodka. The
quilt depicts Meghwan girls from a photograph I took with a borrowed
camera. I had always intended to do something with the image so when invited
to take part in Phil Thomas’s photo picture class it seemed like a really good
opportunity, particularly as the AQC had been cancelled and I had been unable
to do the Mer Vahl course I had booked to go on. This was the second
photo quilt that I had done and it was very interesting to compare the
different techniques I learned quite a lot in the process. I used
the back of fabrics to give a faded fabric impression and finished off the
quilt with a border using an embroidered strip that I had kept for years without
really knowing what to do with it.
I particularly found the preparation of a special tailored ironing pad to pin
the background to, a really helpful way to set up the project at the start.
King
Penguins
I took the photo at Gold Harbour on South Georgia. I was sitting on the sand and a group of King penguins waddled up to investigate 'the strange object’ even pecking at my boots and the toggles on my jacket. I do wonder what the two penguins in the image were discussing!
I am happy
the way they turned out considering fabric choices in the stash, but if I
choose to use homespun fabrics again I would definitely use the tulle securing
technique. Will have to secure supplies when next in Perth. Did not particularly
like the way homespun tended to fray with edge quilting.
Great to have this technique in my armoury
I thoroughly enjoyed the process of making the photo to fabric quilt. Phil's instructions were clear and she assisted with questions and more information when needed. My quilt depicts family in Europe for Christmas, hence the Christmas fabric in the sky. The collage on the right is for added interest and includes all the fabrics used.
This quilt is titled “William” The original photo was taken 20
years ago and is my Dad on the morning of my wedding day. He was waiting for us
girls to finish getting ready when the photographer grabbed him. It has
always been my favourite photo, catching him perfectly. He passed away just
over a year ago.
I really enjoyed doing this class and really didn’t see at the
beginning of the process how it would end up looking like a person at all. I
have done 2 other classes with Phil which I have really enjoyed and were very
successful, so I put my faith in her directions and persevered. Even halfway
through doing his hands I couldn’t see it working. Then, all of a sudden
it fell into focus and there they were. The accuracy of his face is even more
amazing at how close to the photo it is.
Helen Dagleish
I kept pulling out the project and putting it away for another day because I didn't want to ruin it with wrong decisions. My son's family live with me and the granddaughters are my son's girls. I had home pressure to get it right. The granddaughter on the left (Annabelle) was born with a medical problem requiring a tracheostomy tube in her neck for over three years. I wanted to capture the tube in the photo to remind us of the progress she has made. Her tube was removed in March. The granddaughter on the right, Natasha, lives in Asia and I don't see her often. Both photos were taken when the girls were two years old. My son has already sent photos of the finished quilt to family overseas.
Lorraine
Casterini
work in progress - I’ve taken the cheats way out and just done a
silhouette of the boy but intend to do the more detailed version at a later
date and just iron it over him. I messed up the water by not using the
lines on the fabric to do the black bits but learnt by my mistake.
I have really enjoyed the process and will finish it just don’t know when as
lock down is not going to be long enough for me to finish all the UFOs that I
have .
Kate Beeson
Cathy Gregg
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