Country Landscapes

 

art quilt, 53" x 41"

 

Artist's Statement

I had a fun time playing with the many wonderful commercially printed landscape fabrics I have been collecting for just such a quilt as this. I needed a sample quilt using these fabrics for the landscape workshop I teach. My previous sample, The Road Somewhere Else, was created with my own hand-painted fabrics (which is what I use 99% of the time). Students needed an idea as to what commercial fabrics they should bring to the class. I figured this was a great way to show them.

I could not make up my mind when considering what type of a landscape to create when looking through all this fabric. When I narrowed it down to four choices, I decided to go with all of them in one quilt. At first, I assumed I would simply separate the four scenes with traditional sashing. Then I thought that was too common and way too easy. I challenged myself to separate the scenes with landscape elements. I was very happy with how I got the skies separating the top and bottom scenes, to blend into one another, then become water to separate the two lower scenes then move down to become a waterfall.

The construction of this type of a quilt is very easy. As a matter of fact, the skill-level assigned to the landscape workshop I used this as a sample quilt for was Beginner. The only so-called "difficult" part is the decisions one has to make regarding which fabrics to use and how to arrange them. Perspective is the major factor, combined with Scale. In the case of combined scenes, Balance is especially important as well.

Once I was satisfied with how I had arranged the scenes (created with a large assortment of small pieces of fabric) and was preparing to sew everything down permanently, the decision had to be made as to whether I should applique them or perhaps satin stitch over all the raw edges. Having seen examples of both by other quilters, I knew I did not want "hard edges." Both of the considered techniques above define the edges of all the fabrics too clearly. I didn't want a patchwork look. I wanted the landscape elements to flow seamlessly, more like a photograph... no perfect edges clearly separating each element unless something called for that such as a straight roof line or the smooth edges of a mountain in the distance.

My decision was to freemotion all the edges, blending them in to one another with many colors of thread. While doing this, I could also be quilting it and adding thread-work to accent the designs in the fabrics. Basically I thread painted on top of everything. The photos below do not show very accurately how much thread-work I did but let me say that there is so much of it the quilt had no choice but to hang flat and stiff when I was through. The back of the quilt was so covered in bobbin thread that before I bound the quilt, I added an additional backing and hand quilted it to the inner backing and batting but not through to the front of the quilt. I did this in random seed-like stitches.

Some have asked why the big tree is without foliage. I decided foliage would cover the upper scenes too much and be more of a focal point than it is already. So since everything else is growing in each scene, I guess that makes this tree dead... I see it as a contrast to everything flourishing. Maybe it died because its roots are in the clouds?

I decided I did not want a perfectly square or rectangular quilt since I made such an effort to avoid using perfect sashing strips to separate the four scenes. That is how I came to the conclusion the quilt should have a smooth curved edge. The border itself is accented with a decorative chenille yarn in variegated earthtones. I couched it down by machine. To accent the lower left corner where I have embroidered my name, I added a few dimensional flowers I created by ruching strips of fabric.

Below are close-up photos of various areas of the quilt and below them I am including photos of the quilt in process. I took photos step-by-step in case I totally changed a scene only to discover I liked it better the first way. I also wanted to show students how this quilt evolved as a teaching aid.

To show you how I freemotion sewed the raw edges, and there are hundreds of them in this quilt, I have created simple illustrations for this purpose - shown below.

Lets say we have two patches of flowers or a couple shrubs, one overlapping the other. (The gardens along the path in the lower right scene of the quilt are good examples of this - close-up shown immediately below.) The left illustration above is how they would be seen if the edges were satin-stitched. The center illustration above shows the edges folded under and blind appliqued. Both examples look as if they were just plopped down on the background. Nothing holds them together visually. The satin-stitching emphasizes this even more so. The illustration on the right above depicts freemotion thread-work which not only covers the raw edges, it blends in the thread and colors for a more realistic look. (In actuality the lines do not have to be so straight and jagged, try loops and curves.) Also, you do this to every element, not just raw edges, and you use lots of thread colors. This is how Country Landscapes was done and why all the various pieces of fabric appear as one large panel, or scene. It appears seamless because all the various elements have been blended in to one another with thread. I did all this thread-work through all the layers which gives the quilt a nice surface relief. Somewhere further below I will reveal how long this quilt took me to make.

Below...

Close-up of the lower right scene.
Even the backs of the chairs and all the window pane sashing in the cottage windows are freemotion quilted.

This is my favorite of the four scenes... A nice country cottage style scene, very comfortable and peaceful here. This is home. I hope my garden comes in like this.

Below...

Close-up of the lower left scene.
More like a grand, formal home on the shore.

Below...

Close-up of the upper right scene.
Life on a small farm must show quilts being aired out on the clothes line. Looks like someone has been out picking apples and having a picnic.

Below...

Close-up of the upper left scene.
Now a serious farmer definitely lives here. Perhaps a vineyard and a tree farm? Very successful by the looks of the house, or a perhaps a large family.

Below...

Close-up of the center.
One way to say, "this is water" is to add some water fowl splashing around in it.
This area of the quilt is where the sky from each lower scene come together.
To separate them, the water flows down between the scenes and ends in a small waterfall.

Even close-up, you really can't see that the birds are separate pieces of fabric placed on the watery background which is three pieces of fabric.

Below...

Close-up of the tree.
This is how I chose to separate the top two scenes.
It is difficult to see in this photo but I sewed various colors of brown 12 wt. thread up and down the tree and limbs which gives it a great tree-like texture.

The tree is made from 7 pieces of fabric.. can you see the seams?
If I can find more of that fabric, I'd buy the bolt.

Notice how thread-work is used to create the illusion of depth (by shading) on the lower hills to the right of the tree.

The making of Country Landscapes

Photos below of work in process.

Below...

Laid out on an end of one of my cutting tables, the sky of the upper two scenes is what I used as a foundation to build all four scenes on. The selection of the four main elements are positioned and I have begun building the scenes.

Below...

With some of the outer edges sticking out still, you can see some of the individual pieces of fabric I started with for the upper right scene.

Below...

Work has begun on the upper left scene and I am considering a fabric for trees in the lower left scene.

Below...

When I thought I was happy with the upper left scene I must have taken this picture... in case I changed it and wanted to go back to this layout. I changed my mind many times on each scene. Nothing is permanent until sewn down.

Below...

More work is done on the lower right scene. I have begun making the water and seem to be considering a birch-like fabric for a possible tree between the upper scenes. Obviously I didn't go with birch - I thought the value would be too light for what I was aiming for.

Below...

Lower right scene gets more flowers and the path is extended to what I was going to turn into a wall.

Below...

Opps, no need for a wall with these wonderful sunflowers in the foreground (each flower and leaf is a separate piece of fabric). This makes the cottage and gardens seem further away now. A great way to push the scene back in to the quilt visually without actually moving it. If I remember correctly, I got rid of the wall because it looked too much like the path and I didn't like that. I like the sunflowers better anyway. Oh and now we have a waterfall. If you look close, you can see the edges of the birds, before I trimmed them, just laying on the water at this point.

Below...

The lower left scene is coming together nicely. Many of the elements in this scene are from the same piece of fabric, cut and rearranged. I thought the scene needed to be recessed more, so...

Below...

... I added the shore of stones and the water which appears much closer, visually pushing the house and gardens back more because of the apparent size of the stones and the perspective of the water.

Compare the water of this scene as shown here, verses as shown in it's completed close-up photo, back up the page a bit. You can see how I broke up the repeat of the fabric design with thread-work. To hide the repeat of the stone fabric, I cut individual sections out and moved them around so no repeat is shown. I made the stones "pop-out" for more dimension by quilting around all the stones instead of through any of them.

I hope this has inspired you to try making a landscape quilt this way. My advice is to make a small quilt with one scene before you try combining scenes - unless of course you feel confident enough from the start to make one as I have shown above.

Start with a collection of landscape-type fabrics, or perhaps a photo or postcard of some place you have been to or would like to visit. It was a lot of fun and you don't have to be skilled at freemotion sewing... although you will be once you have made such a quilt as this.

Now that you have seen what is involved, I will tell you I made this quilt within a week. One day to lay it all out, one day of sewing for each scene, and one day to finish it off - on the seventh day... I sat back and admired it.

Of course if you admire quilts but don't make them, feel free to contact me for a commissioned piece and/or pricing. I can make one from commercial fabric or I can use my own hand-painted fabrics and embroidery. I generally do not combine commercially printed fabric with hand-painted fabric, although in this quilt some of the hills are my own fabrics.