Funky Mountain Landscape Quilt Finished

Funky Mountain Landscape Art Quilt

It's done! I have to admit that I'm surprised that I finished it in time for the August One Monthly Goal (OMG) deadline.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this funky mountain landscape quilt is for Joe's graduation and her first apartment. Joe is one of my daughter's friends, and a real sweetheart :-)

Funky Mountain Landscape Quilt is finally finished!

I really enjoyed working with the batiks. It adds some great colour to a traditional landscape.

Thread sketching the mountains

This is the photo that started it all. It was taken on a trip to British Columbia a few years ago.

Mountain landscape in British Columbia

What I learned

• It was interesting working with batiks and trying not to be too realistic. That wasn't easy for me and I went way outside of my comfort zone to add the purple mountain :-) 
• The thread sketching certainly helped define the mountains.
• Finally I didn't embellish this piece. I think that the polar bears in the fabric are enough embellishment or whimsy.
• The hardest part about making this landscape quilt was determining when to stop thread sketching and when to start quilting. In hindsight, I should have done less thread sketching on the water. This would have given the water section of the piece a little more dimension then quilted.
• As I look at the finished photo, I realise that I should have ironed the sky before taking the photo. By the time I finish the binding, I'm always in such a hurry to photograph it for the blog 😊

Related Links

• August OMG - Funky Landscape, August 6, 2018
• Starry Bright Sky - Block 1, February 4, 2018

Linking Parties

I will be linking up to the OMG August Finish Link-up as well as many other fun linkys. Let's see what happening around the quilting world. Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Linky Tuesday, To-Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Wandering Camera, Finished or Not Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?. TGIFF, Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward Monday, What I Made Monday, 

Upcoming Event
On September 13, 2018, I'll be taking part in the Welcome To My House Blog Hop. I've got a funky house that I hope to finish up this Labour Day weekend.

Project Details

Funky Mountain Landscape Art Quilt
14" x 14"
Materials: batik fabrics, glue,
Techniques: raw edge appliqué, thread sketching, quilting.

A Mountainscape Workshop

Another Landscape Art Quilt for the Challenge? You bet!

This Remembrance Day, our guild offered a workshop with quilter Hilary Rice. We worked on a mountainscape quilt full of curves. It was great fun! Hilary has created her own patterns and teaches the technique based on Vikki Pignatelli's Crazy Curves Technique.

From a lovely kit of hand-dyed fabrics purchased from Hilary, we made our own mountainscape quilt. It took me most of the day to put the quilt together. It's now pinned and ready to sew.

Mountainscape quilt pinned and ready to sew

The next step is to sew the pieces together with a blanket or hem stitch, using invisible thread. At the workshop I tried out my Kenmore's hem stitch but it really wasn't very good. I'm sure that my new-to-me Jag (everyone needs to name her sewing machine!) will be able to do the job. It won't be for a few days since I'm currently working on free motion quilting a table runner.

Here's our pattern with the sky pinned in place. The technique is fairly simple, especially when you use a pattern (I'm so used to just making it up as I go that the thought of using a pattern is becoming a novelty.) 

Sky attached with pins

The first thing I did was copy the pattern onto freezer paper. I then placed it on foundation fabric, which in my case was white Kona cotton. I cut the first pattern piece from the freezer paper, without touching the foundation. I then ironed the freezer paper onto my sky fabric. I cut that first piece, adding a 1/4 inch seam allowance. 

The tricky part is then to replace it onto the foundation. The first piece is easy because it's all raw edges, but it changes as the next pieces are added. After cutting out and ironing the freezer paper onto the next fabric, I finger pressed the seam allowance of the fabric that overlaps the piece above it. The raw edge of the fabric is then placed under the next piece (the one below that's still on freezer paper), and place the finger pressed over the sky fabric above it. That's when all the pins come in. I then pinned that fabric where the fold meets the piece above it. 

Pinned project with possible embellishment!

That's essentially the process. When a curve is very pronounced, you clip the folded seam allowance. If you want to learn the process and don't have access to Hilary's workshop, apparently Vikki's book explains the process very well. 

As you sew the fabric pieces down with the blanket or hem stitch, you can add tulle, organza or tuffs of yarn. After that, the mountainscape is ready to be sandwiched and quilted.

I'm sure that I'll be doing some cool FMQ and embellishing my mountainscape. I can't imagine doing it any other way...that's my favourite part!

Linked at Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Monday Making, Fabric Tuesday, Main Crush Monday, Design Wall