Serenity horse quilt

The idea for this “Serenity” horse quilt began years ago, when the photo was taken in Ireland on a Robert Sharon Chorale trip to a horse retreat for retired famous horses, also called a stud farm.  This horse just looked so serene, lying in the meadow. 

   It took me years to figure out how I was going to make something out of the photo, and even as I am working on it now, decisions are still being made along the way.  For example.  I originally wanted to thread paint the horse, but first thought that I must paint the horse on fabric, then thread paint on top of it.  Well it turned out that I like the painting so much, that I am a little afraid to ruin it with the thread painting, but I am going to stick it out and try. One problem is that I must use tulle to hold down the raw edge appliqué, then thread paint, then add batting and quilt, then add border and binding, and last but not least name patch and rod holder. But I wonder if  in this stage, if I should thread paint without the tulle, and then add it later when I am going to do the quilting.  I could also consider thread painting with the batting, as it can act as a stabilizer.

  The border in the photo above is not sewn onto the quilt.  I will have the batting and backing large enough for the finished size, and will add the border later.

Any suggestions?

Ecoquilt for Ecoflight

Bruce Gordon runs a non-profit company called Ecoflight, which uses flights from a prop plane to show people issues on the ground with our environment, from the air.  Perspective is important for our point of view.  

I like helping non-profit organizations by giving them my quilts, that might help them in some way.  I have given a choir quilt to the Robert Sharon Chorale, and so far three of my quilts to Yemin Ord Youth Village in Israel.  I have also taught others how to make blocks for a quilt which I would complete for The Jerome Golden Center For Behavioral Disorders and Scripps Research.

Jane Pargiter is Bruce’s assistant and took the picture I selected to use for a quilt from a flight over Arizona Dam of Lake Powell. That flight was taken as part of a student educational program they have. 

The piecing method I used was learned from a class I took at the Daytona Beach AQS show  in 2016 by David Taylor, though I varied his method a bit. I was attracted to his method, because it did not leave raw edges.  The pieces were then machine appliquéd with a minute zig-zag stitch. He also taught us to appliqué  the pieces onto a fabric background, which certainly helped with stabilizing the appliqué stitching. I started appliquéing from the top of the quilt, but then worked from the bottom up, when I got to the dark water, from which I appliquéd the water reflections on to it and the cliff. The airplane will be appliquéd at the end.  

 Fabric paint helped add dimension to the landscape, but thread painting and quilting will also add to that.

 EQ7  helped me design the border, and also determine the size of the quilt. The design I came up with symbolizes  a plane’s propellers. I love   pieced block borders ability to draw attention to a quilt and tie it together.  

This quilt is not finished yet, so it will be exciting to see how it comes out!