New Photoshopped Art Quilt Project

Ever since I took a class from Susan Brandeis http://www4.ncsu.edu/~brandeis/  at the U of  Minneapolis in 2009 as part of the Splitrock Summer Arts Program, I've been wanting to make another quilt from one of my pictures enhanced through the magic of photoshop.  So finally, last week I played with this picture of rust on metal.

I played with it in photoshop until I created something I liked and then I enlarged the image to approximately three times its size.  I printed it out onto nine,  8" x 10" pieces of treated fabric for printing (I especially like Betty's Photos on Fabric cotton Twill)  http://www.bettysphotosonfabric.com/ and then sewed them together.  The sewing didn't go as smoothly as I wanted due to some of the pieces printing out too close to the edge on four sections.  I had to fuse additional fabric strips to those, so I would have enough of a seam allowance.  The fabric must have moved a bit in going through the printer.  Here's the sewn together version.

  In Susan's class I made the quilt below, using the same methods, but only doubled the size.  It was printed on four pieces of silk, I hand-sewed together.  I also printed a leaf on organza as an overlay.  I then embroidered and beaded it.

Here's the original photo that inspired it.

Do you have a favorite pre-treated fabric you like for printing?  What about any tips for "tiling" photos using a Mac and Photoshop, or even even using Spoonflower or another commercial fabric printer.  I tried to work with Spoonflower's website to find out how much it would cost to enlarge one photo to approximately a yard but couldn't figure out how to upload the image  without them thinking I wanted zillions of reprints of the same pic.  Has anyone else tried using them to print one enlarged image?  Maybe you'd be so kind to share your tips with me. They tried to help me with some info via email, but I just didn't get what they were saying.  Sometimes technology and I don't see eye to eye.

Wishing all my readers a very happy Thanksgiving!

Willy's Quilt Finished

Due to the help of some wonderful quilters in my school district and the contributions and encouragement from staff, the quilt for our teacher colleague is done and will be given to him this weekend.  Here's a picture of the quilt and some of our great staff.

Below is the finished quilt with the red binding

 which worked well to pick up all the reds within the blocks. 

Below is the back of the quilt with the machine embroidered block and quilt label, 

listing all those who contributed.

Here is a closeup of the  beautiful embroidered block done by

 one of the talented teacher quilters at my school.

Hoping this quilt brings comfort to our friend Willy and helps him to tolerate his radiation treatments this week and his upcoming chemo. 

 Thanks again to all my colleagues in getting this quilt done so quickly.

Quilt for Willy

As I wrote in my blog last week, a good friend and great teacher at my middle school  is dealing with cancer.  Due to lots of contributions of money and time from other staff members at my school, the quilt for Willy is almost completed.  We had lunch in my classroom last week and pinned the layers together.   Yesterday I machine quilted it and today, one of the other teachers is attaching the binding to the front.  Two other staff members will finish sewing it on, a label will get attached and then it will be off in the mail to him, hopefully providing him with some much needed comfort as he receives his treatments.

Halloween Costume and Quilt for a Friend

Halloween turned out to be a lot of fun at school with the kids.  Wearing the Warhol Soup Can created a very teachable moment for informing the students about Pop Art Style.  I showed them pictures of works by Warhol, Thiebaud, Lichtenstein, and Oldenburg.  They weren't quite sure it was art but they seemed to enjoy it.  Here I am in my costume with another teacher.

Sadly, one of my teacher friends at school, whom I've known for twenty some years,  just found out he has cancer and is facing a pretty serious battle ahead.  He's a Navy guy, avid surfer and just a very fun, nice guy. All his students just love him.  He makes history fun and interesting.  Here's the quilt up on my design wall, that some of us are going to quickly put together for him.  Hoping it provides some comfort. There's 25 blocks and it will have a border.  The Santa Cruz fabric on the right is being auditioned for the border.  The eight Australian fabric blocks look better in person.  They look kind of dull here.