A few years ago an old friend and I reconnected from the days of our youth. This year he celebrates a milestone in life ~ reaching the age of 70. And still working every day.
As I've been wanting to try my hand at a landscape quilt, I decided to make a surprise to celebrate this life event and his Scottish heritage, by using a photo from his family's trip to Scotland to create an interpretation of
"Fort Ruthven" ruins in Cairngorms.
After sketching it out on paper several times and labeling colors, I then created paper pattern templates for the structure using graph paper. Then to the fun part:
Selecting fabrics!
With the exception of the brick fabric, I was only able to choose from what was in my stash.
As you would expect, not everyone made the "cut".
I was especially happy to find this particular "brickish" stitch on my trusty Janome machine ~ perfect for castle walls.
For fun, I designed and constructed a wee bagpiper,
complete with tassels!
Again, here's the front....
The backing was also selected from among my stash. This black watch plaid happens to be one of his clan tartans, but not having enough of it, I improvised to extend the size with a shot cotton pale green border.
Photo taken before labeled
I was instructed early on to label my quilts for the sake of future generations.
I call it the 4Ws -
Who, What, Where, When.
I learned more than a wee bit from this landscape quilting experiment, especially how NOT to do things (rip, rip). Taking notes as I went along, the next one will be executed in a manner that limits mistakes!
Hoping to visit Caledonia myself one day, but content where I am for the present.
~ Pura Vida ~
