My landscape quilt based on a vacation photo is finished, and, I think, successful.  This particular scene was in North Dakota, but we saw many similar landscapes as we crossed the U.S. To the west, and then came back east through Canada. Here was our route. Making this really didn’t take that long (it’s only about 18″ x 24″), but I kept puttering around on other things because I wasn’t that comfortable working with images and applique.  My friend, Carol, of LandscapeLady fame, guided and encouraged me on Twitter.  Ironically, while I was working on landscape, she was dipping back into patchwork.  Always good to stretch a bit.

Interestingly, I didn’t use any fusibles on this project.  It has very simple pieces, so I cut freezer paper templates, ironed them to the right side of the fabrics, and cut around the templates.  I used spray adhesive to hold everything in place on a muslin background.  In addition to the muslin, I used two layers of water soluble stabilizer on the back as I machine appliqued everything down and did some decoration with thread.

This spool of Perfect Quilter variegated thread is what I used to stitch millions of blades of grass in all three layers of the grassy field.  I thought it added texture and helped to unite the three different fabrics a bit.  The top green is less saturated than the earlier photos because I turned it over and used the reverse of the fabric.  That left it a little splotchy, so the stitching helped to even that out.  Then I clipped the top edges of the grass fabrics, frayed them with a brush, and put the top only through the washer and dryer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I quilted everything using invisible thread.  It gave it lots of definition.

 

Design-wise, it was tempting to add some object to the foreground for interest, even though there was nothing in the original scene.  I decided that I really wanted to keep it all about the grass and sky.  I am fortunate to live surrounded by farmland, but it’s cluttered (in a nice way), hemmed in farmland.   The Great Plains are so much about space and distance.  I hope I captured that in this piece.

 

I’m linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, and Applique Tuesday on A Quilting Reader’s Garden.

I’m also linking up to Holiday Memories Mini Quilt Contest at Celtic Thistle Stitches. Come look at the great entries!