Aluminum Loaf

While in Nova Scotia last month, I quilted three of my mother's photographs; "Plum Blossom" is the third of them. Here's what the final result looks like.

Here's a shot of a framed print of the same image hanging in a very angle-y room. I especially like this image with the silver frame ...

You can also see the original image in the Droplets gallery on Elizabeth Root Blackmer's website: BrootPhoto.com, or in her Flickr stream. 

The materials that I began with for this quilt were very simple: a yard worth of the printed image, a yard and a quarter of a striated yellow fabric, and some matching thread in a variegated yellow, a taupe, and a white (I'd have to buy more white thread by the end of it as I decided to quilt the background with white instead of my originally planned yellow).

Ugh, I'm almost a month behind with quilt blogging, but I have an excellent excuse: after spending only four months in the same state/country as my husband throughout the entirety of 2014, we got to spend the final two weeks of the year together—yay! As of today, he's now back with the Airstream in Washington state and I am in Maine for another few weeks ...

So ... backing up, between December sixth and thirteenth, when I was happily settled in at the Nova Scotia house, I quilted the third in a series of my mother's photographs: Autumn Moss. Previously, I quilted Fuchsia and Golden Light.

If you ever had a terrarium, this image might remind you of that tiny, soft moss that would happily live in it (mom found this bunch growing naturally in her backyard in Midcoast Maine). Here's the original image from her Flickr stream, and here's the quilt that I made from a fabric print of the image:

UPDATE: Here's a picture of my mom holding the Golden Light quilt next to an amazing metal print of the same photograph:


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After the success of the first experiment with printing one of my mom's photographs on fabric and quilting it last July (see Quilting Fuchsia), we selected seven more images and had those printed at Spoonflower's largest possible size (about 27 x 40 inches without distorting the image). I've since shipped and carried those pieces of fabric all around the United States and even into Canada, twice. Two weeks ago, I finally managed to find the time to sit down and start to quilt again—truly one of my very favourite/favorite activities. 

This is the resulting quilt that I created from the photograph "Golden Light" by Elizabeth Root Blackmer (you can see the original image in the middle of her Frozen gallery at BrootPhoto.com). The image is bubbles of air trapped in the ice of a frozen pond.

First of all, I had to find a fabric store. I was staying at my house in Nova Scotia when I finally found the time to quilt, and although I have spent extended periods of time here at the house over the past seven years (I took over the family home), I had never tried to find a place to source fabric here. I mentioned to my farming neighbour/neighbor that I need to ask his wife about a place to get fabric, and he looked at me like I was utterly obtuse. He said something along the lines of: "Everyone goes to Avonport Discount Fabric Centre over in Avonport, up behind the school—how do you not know that?" LOL.

My mom is an amazing photographer. She captured this image called Fuchsia:

And this is what I recently turned it into: a quilt!

That's my mom there, Elizabeth Root Blackmer, holding the finished product. 

She's printed on paper, glass, silk, and aluminum over the years, each with amazing results. The aluminum prints immediately below are absolutely stunning in person, and the silks below that were beyond ethereal.

You know how when someone you know says something like "Hey, you should check out my vintage fabric collection—I've got kind of a lot of it," you smile and think, Hey, yeah, that's cool, I have a few boxes too. But politely and excitedly say, "Yes, sure, I'd love to check it out. And yes, sure, we can barter the thing you want of mine for a few vintage scraps."

Well, Stacy weren't kidding. I was literally speechless when I walked into her vintage fabric room. Truly awesome!!!

The sheer volume of awesomeness was overwhelming at first, but then I enthusiastically dove in ... only to find that there was even more fabric than I first believed; layer upon layer of incredibleness. I had just been reading about inspiring workspaces in my new issue of Uppercase magazine, and wow, did this space inspire me! I wanted to go get my sewing machine, bookshelves, comfy chair, and quilting/crafting supplies, and move right into the middle of it all! 

So, thank you Stacy for the incredible Friday afternoon adventure. And thank you for the inspiration and the awesome barter.

Here are the amazing fabrics that I got out of it: