A Lucky Shot

This past summer, I finished up binding a quilt up in Maine.  The perfect spot to take some photos!  My quilt photos were (and still are) a bit hit or miss.  I was never really interested in photography until I wanted to document my sewing.  It seemed too fiddly: too much setup, too much technical info, too much hassle. I've been working on it, bit by bit.

Like people's lives on Facebook, my quilt photos are selected and edited to only show the best. (Um, of course they are.)

With this quilt, I somehow struck photo gold.  Beautiful day, beautiful setting, interesting rusty chair, and the blessed "auto" setting on my camera.

I made this simple patchwork quilt from a stack of bright prints cut into 5-inch squares.  Sometimes you just have to go patchwork.

I like how it's bright and soft at the same time. At one point, I decided it needed more red for contrast.

I had some "creative assistance" along the way.

I stright-line quilted this one in a double-line grid, with quilting lines about 1/4 inch away from the seams.  Simple, but pretty dense.  This is a nice, heavy quilt.

And there was intensive "product testing."

I had added quite a few squares of white (Kona Snow, I think) into the mix.  Once the quilt was completely pieced and quilted, they looked too empty to me.

I decided to embellish each one with a bit of hand-stitching and embroidery.  I wish I had taken more photos, but each square had its own stitch combo.  It was really fun to think up new designs for each one.

Measuring about 60x70 inches, the quilt is backed in a bold Jennifer Paganelli bright blue damask stripe, with a line of leftover patchwork scraps pieced in on one edge.

I bound it in a pretty spring green solid.   (Sprout from Connecting Threads)

Of course, not all of the photos were gems. Over time, I've become much more conscious of what makes me like/dislike photos, and how to pick out the good and the bad. Here are a few "misses":

ugh, feet! shadow!

Want to see the quilt, or shrubbery? Certainly not my pedicure.

all washed out!

*sigh* missing summer!