"The Lake" Quilt Begins

The prep work of tearing old army blankets from World War II that had been at the family cottage "forever" into "batting" for the twenty-five panels was done the other night.

Fabric backings were also torn to size and ironed.  The fabrics were those that had been passed on to me.  The blue one had been two lengths sewn together for a make-shift table covering by somebody.  The stains and faded areas won't ever be seen because the backing for these panels will get sandwiched between the top and yet another piece of fabric that will be stapled into the foundation frame.

Two bags of scraps were dragged out along with containers of raveled threads, trimmings, and yarn ends,

The first two panels were laid out at the same time so that lines, shapes , and colors flow from one to the other.  The panel on the left is already quilted while the one on the right is pinned.  It's since been quilted and I'm about to lay out a third panel for the horizon row yet tonight.

Quite a lot of yarn has come to me from the collection of a friend who was a weaver.  I'm pleased to feature them ... and Elvis who will make an appearance in every panel.  His image is being taken from the chiffon scarf that can be seen at the left in the top of the above photo.

Elvis is quite obvious at this point.  He'll blend in a lot more later on when I get to the point of shading, emphasizing, and obscuring with the oil stick pastels.

  This installation piece will progress a lot more quickly than did "Prairie Performance".  There are three levels of work ... laying out the composition, the first round of quilting which is part of the design, and then the second round of more spare quilting that attaches the panel to the mounting fabric.  The prairie flower panels had seven layers of work.