Photo-tastic Log Cabin Quilt
Last summer I was contacted by a woman named Lori who was looking for someone to make a quilt for her daughter. The quilt was to be a Christmas present and Lori wanted it to feature photos from her daughter's wedding. This project didn't immediately strike me as one that would fit my style--and I find it painful to work outside of my style--but I figured talking to Lori about her desires wouldn't hurt--I might take the project or I might be able to point her in the direction of a quilter who was better suited to make the sort of quilt she wanted.
Well, as it turned out, when Lori came to my studio and looked the my quilts that I had pulled as possible starting places for the project, she was quite convinced that her daughter would love my work. And, when I looked at the photos Lori wanted to include, which were not of people, but of objects and views, I was able to see how I could work the photos into my patchwork.
In that first meeting with Lori, we decided to base the quilt on by Lotta Log Cabins quilt.
Lori and I worked together to find a starting palette for the fabric:
Before long, I had a digital copy of the wedding photos and I resized and edited them into one big image, to be printed at Spoonflower.com
I made all the photos 3" tall or 3" wide, depending on their orientation, so that I could easily work them into the logs of the log cabins. Once the photo fabric was in hand, I started cutting into the fabric and making my log cabins...
The blocks have a photo in the center.
Once I got going, I counted out and pre-planned the images to be the centers, and started putting images in the logs, too.
As usual, I used the design wall throughout the process, to keep the work balanced and to help with fabric selection and placement.
Once the top was finished, I quilted using my favorite squared stipple.
I'm afraid I never captured an image of the final, finished quilt due to my being heavily pregnant and then mothering a newborn, but I can tell you that Lori was very pleased with the finished quilt and emailed me after Christmas to say that the quilt had made their holiday perfect! How cool!
Lori and I worked together to find a starting palette for the fabric:
Before long, I had a digital copy of the wedding photos and I resized and edited them into one big image, to be printed at Spoonflower.com
I made all the photos 3" tall or 3" wide, depending on their orientation, so that I could easily work them into the logs of the log cabins. Once the photo fabric was in hand, I started cutting into the fabric and making my log cabins...
The blocks have a photo in the center.
Once I got going, I counted out and pre-planned the images to be the centers, and started putting images in the logs, too.
As usual, I used the design wall throughout the process, to keep the work balanced and to help with fabric selection and placement.
Once the top was finished, I quilted using my favorite squared stipple.
I'm afraid I never captured an image of the final, finished quilt due to my being heavily pregnant and then mothering a newborn, but I can tell you that Lori was very pleased with the finished quilt and emailed me after Christmas to say that the quilt had made their holiday perfect! How cool!