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Monday, February 2, 2009

Photo's in a quilt!







Hello,
     I'm a little under the weather lately so I haven't done too much with my quilting the past few days.  I thought I would show you some things I have done with photos on fabric.  
         I have made small commemorative types of fabric books for friends and family.  For instance when my sister's husband went to Iraq for the second time I made a little book for her and her son with photo's of my brother-in-law.  They were framed with patriotic fabrics and embellished with little items that fit with the photos.  I didn't have a very good camera than so I don't have good pictures of the books I have given but they were fun to make.  
    
 I added photos to my daughter's t-shirt quilt when I made it.  Her dad helped coach the team every year so I had to include at least one photo with him in it too.



     





Last year when we were talking architexture in Minnesota Contemporary Quilters, someone mentioned 3d and that got me thinking....  I took three photos of my childhood home and made a dimensional representation.  I added a yard with trees (one has a swing), a bike, a croquet set (I made it from sculpey), I even added a rhubarb patch.  There are family photos on the inside of the house and a big table because family meals were an important time to connect in our 
large family.











A few times I have used photos as a basis for a quilt.  The Red Door is a quilt I made from a photo taken in Ireland.  My daughter spent a semester in Ireland and we were lucky enough to visit.  This quilt has been traveling around Minnesota since I made it last year with the Minnesota Contemporary Quilter's architexture exhibit. Here is the photo and the quilt.


  Lately I have been printing some of my favorite flower photos and embellishing them with thread and beads.  I love taking photos of flowers although I'm not always the best photographer.  When we go on vacation my son gets impatient with me because according to him I take pictures of every flower and blade of grass along the way.  I've put three of them at the top of my post.  They are small about 4 x 6",  I added a mitered frame to each.

   I've also recently taken two classes taught by Beth Wheeler at Quilter's Keep Learning.  She teaches several classes on that website. I took Beginning and Intermediate Photoshop Elements.  Beth is a wonderful teacher and I learned a lot in these classes.  Here is a collage of three photos that I put together, distressed and added words.  I'm looking forward to experimenting more with photos in the future.  I'm also thinking about taking Beth's rust dyeing class, or altered photo artistry....hmmmm too many choices.  I'll have to show some of my rust dyed fabrics soon.  I think it is fun to experiment and see what you can get when you try to deliberately add rust to your fabric.  Have a good day or night depending on where you are right now.  Janet






2 comments:

Maggi said...

Love the quilted photo pieces. I am doing Altered Photo Artistry with Beth next week so it is good to read your comments about her teaching.

Janet Hartje said...

Maggi,
You will love her class. She is great to respond quickly to any questions, and explains everything very thoroughly.
Janet