If You Can Read....

I've always been of the mind that if a person can read then they can learn to do anything they have an interest in.  Now that being said... for years I've been collecting quilt books and found the pictures interesting and sometimes inspirational.  Notice the word 'pictures'.  I would very seldom take the time to sit and read the content but now that endless time has been presented it was time to do some reading and use some of the quilting tools I've accumulated through time.

So this will be the start and finish (hopefully) of an art quilt.  We will make this journey together and hope the product ends up as a satisfaction and not something that gets folded and put away. 

I found this book at The Fabric Depot in Portland on my way to my mom's.  It is not that I don't have other books on the subject!  But this book has a really easy, clear explanation of the start-to-finish process of a photo art quilt (and I had time at my mom's to get past the pictures).

If you are comfortable using a digital camera and have a photo editing program on your computer then you are ready to start.  I use Photo Shop Elements as it is a trimmed down version of Photo Shop and is simple enough for even me to get around in.

What to take a picture of?  Big decision as the world is filled with the most interesting subjects.  But I wanted to start simple and fruit works very well for simple.  

This wasn't the only pear picture.  But after bringing into the photo editing program I really liked part of it so that was what was cropped and printed.

I will be using the fusible applique process with raw edges.  The outlined fruit will be the pattern.  Next big step will be going through fabric and finding just the right colors/patterns.  No matter how much fabric you have in your stash, you will never have just the right piece.  I can see already that this will mean a trip or two to the local quilt store.

Off to the loft and the fabric stash.


Happy quilting.