Looks Fishy To Me

I hope my readers are patient people.  It took longer than expected to finalize my drawing – that pesky inability to draw – and it’ll surely take awhile to figure out how to put everything together.  Meanwhile, additional prep work is keeping me busy.

The picture has to be enlarged to 60” x 72”.  With borders, the final quilt will be approximately 72” x 90”.   I put the drawing into Adobe Photoshop Elements, overlaid a grid, isolated one-inch squares and printed them as eight-inch squares.  I can’t simply assemble these pieces to use as my final pattern.   The thin pen line, enlarged by a factor of eight, is 1/16” wide and not  exact enough for my needs.   I’ll have to assemble the 8” squares into groups and trace the pattern on larger pieces of paper.

The sliding glass door makes an excellent light box!

I need practice turning my pictures into straight-line drawings and sectioning them into patterns that can be sewn together easily.  I smile because I know “easily” isn’t the most suitable word for this undertaking.  The bottom border of the quilt will feature life-size golden trout.  These fish will serve as my skill-building project.  Better to make a mess out of a small fish and try again than to risk defeat on the big picture.

Several years ago, my father took us on a walking tour of the old homes in downtown Sacramento.  An adorable Victorian on F Street caught my eye.  The high rise buildings in the background created such a nice contrast of past and present. 

 This tiny quilt (19” x 21”) was my first attempt at a realistic building.  I call it "Dollhouse In the City," but think of it as “Not Your Grandfather’s Small Town Anymore.”  My paternal grandfather, who had hoped to settle in Lodi, thought Sacramento was way too big for his taste.  He had to compromise, though, when he was offered an office job at Pacific Gas & Electric.

Until next time…