Sneak Peak at Next Project

I haven’t been posting much about my newest project because I haven’t been completely certain that I would be able to finish it. I’m still not certain about that, but thought I would go ahead and show you what I am doing and see if you have suggestions……

In 2007 we spent 2 months in Oxford, England. During that time we spent a number of days in London and I spent many hours taking the Underground to various attractions that I wanted to see. While on the train, I enjoyed watching the mixture of people that would come and go from the bench seat opposite to me…..the view would change at each stop.

Like most quilters, I kept composing quilts in my head featuring these different people. The only problem with this idea was that I cant draw at all and the thought of trying to draw people was even more discouraging. Here is the sketch that I did while on the train….

Then, I bought the book, “Photo-Inspired Art Quilts” by Leni Levenson Wiener . One of the ideas that she mentioned was to use Photoshop to create your picture and then use the newly created picture as a pattern for your quilt. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I found a free online Photoshop course and have been enjoying it over the past 7 weeks. One of the first lessons was how to make selections in a photo and then how to move the selection into another photo…..EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED TO DO!!!!

I got onto the internet and did a search for photos of London trains…this is the first photo that I found and it was the perfect backdrop to the picture that was in my mind……

I then found two other photos that showed the top of the train and the bottom of the train bench. With some manipulation, the picture turned into this…..

I then started looking for pictures of people on trains but found the problem was that you couldn’t see the entire body so I changed the search to people sitting on benches. As I searched hundreds of photos, I picked the ones that would best fit into the photo

I pulled all of the people’s photos into Photoshop, cut them out of their picture and placed them into the bench picture, adjusting them so that they looked as if they were sitting on the bench. As I worked, I was amazed with how much change could be made by pulling parts from different photos and adding them to this one.

This is the final photo that I am using as my pattern…..

I am trying to remember exactly how many different photos were used in this shot….

1 – the bench itself, 2 – the top of the train, 3 – the bottom of the bench and floor, 4 – the scene in the window, 5 – the “Underground” sign, 6 – the boy on left, 7 – the bottom of his legs (original photo was cut off at the knees), 8 – his shoes, 9 – the woman, 10 – her sleeves (she was in a tank top and the others were dressed warmer), 11 – the girl, 12 – the man on the right, 13 – the yellow poles, 14 – the pole holders

SO, the pattern is ready…..made up from parts of 14 different photos.

…..more to come…..

Portugal Stairs #2

I have been working on the second in my series of stairs from Porto, Portugal. This time it is a long set of stairs (100 in this first set and then another 114 after I turned the corner), and I decided to do it in a monochrome palette.

This afternoon, we were supposed to go to a friend’s house for the evening, but my husband started feeling poorly mid afternoon so we didn’t end up going. Instead, we watched the University of Georgia football game (unfortunately we lost) and I did the hand Applique on this piece.

It is amazing with these stair quilts that the perspective doesn’t appear until you put the “stair-step” side piece on and then…..WOW!!!!

This one will have even more perspective when I have done the shading, thread work and quilting…..something to look forward to doing!!

I have also been working on a charity quilt for our guild and quilting on a piece for a friend.

If you are in the US, i hope you are having an enjoyable “Labor Day” weekend!!

Bells, Baths and Bidets

Several people have commented on the quilt that is shown on the right side of my blog so thought I would show you a larger photo and tell you the story….you know that every good quilt has a story that goes along with it…….

In 1998, our family spent 10 days in Italy, including 3 days in Rome. When we first walked into our hotel we heard a Church bell ringing LOUDLY, so Michael and the kids both ran to the window to look out…..

This is what they saw…….this tower was extremely close to the hotel and right on our level……

As any good tourist does, the next stop in the hotel room was to check out the bathroom. This one interested us in several ways……..

Michael noticed the curtainless shower, Brian and Jenny (then 12 and 11) noticed the Bidet (something they had not seen before) and I noticed the cool tile on the wall…..

Much to B&J’s shame, I whipped out my tracing paper and made a tracing of this wonderfully designed tile.

After I got home, I graphed out the design and tried to figure out how to piece it with mostly straight lines. Here is the graphic that I finally used……

And here is the final project…….
It is a fun reminder of a great trip to Rome.

On a comic note, I have since contacted the hotel to see if the tiles were still in place and, if so, could they take a better photo and send to me. Needless to say, I have had no response from them, although I am sure that they talk about the crazy American lady!!!! We are spending a month in Rome in 2010, and I am planning a trip back to Hotel Miami and check it out for myself!!!!

Traveling again!!!

Well, I haven’t posted for about a week, but know that I have been at least thinking about quilting, and actually doing a little bit. I am in the process of quilting one of the scrap quilts that I made earlier in the year…..it will be a wedding present.

Also, I bought a wonderful abstract sunflower stamp that I think I can use in the borders of my rusted sunflower piece, so I cant wait to get back to it.

BUT, the biggest thing in my life right now is that I am leaving in about 6 hours for a week in Portugal!!! My husband is going to be working there so I am going to do some sightseeing.

I have set up a blog to detail our visit, so check it out if you want……

http://arnoldstravelportugal.blogspot.com/

I will return to this blog when we get back home.

Until then……..

Last Day in TX

Well, today is the last full day that I have in my home state, so thought that I would share a few photos. This part of Texas (Abilene) is hot, dry and not many trees. Here is a scene as I was driving out to my M-I-L’s house…….

I have always been enamored with Prickly Pear Cactus and stopped several times to photograph some big bunches. I think that they might make a fun quilt design……

I loved this fence row outside of her house…..

Finally, when driving back to my Mom’s house, I passed this wonderful windmill….definitely lots of inspiration here…..

I am glad that I made this trip, but am definitely looking forward to getting home and returning to normal things. My husband is flying from Indianapolis tomorrow and we are hoping to arrive in Atlanta within an hour of each other…..it will be interesting to see if our plan works!!!!

Bye for now….