In the fall of 2014, I took a class with Karen Eckmeier on her Accidental Landscapes method. This was the first time I had an idea that I wanted to turn one of my photographs into a quilt. I had a picture of Sand Beach in Acadia National Park that I thought would be a good foray into this whole idea. So I set out to find fabrics that would mimic the colors and textures that were found in the image.
Finding the fabrics wasn’t too difficult, actually. I sourced some of them from a quilt shop just outside of Acadia, in Bar Harbor. Nessa, the owner of Fabricate and the friend of a friend, was more than happy to help me on my quest for just the right fabrics once I told her what I was up to. The rest I found just…around. I then used the Accidental Landscape technique to layer the fabrics to attempt to get a fairly faithful recreation of the image.
For a first attempt, this wasn’t bad. Looking back on it now, I actually think it’s pretty decent, given that I didn’t have a lot of experience with the technique and I have a strong history of just being impatient and following the “done is better than perfect” ideology. At the time, though, I was really unhappy with it. It’s out of proportion, and it just looks awkward. Since it didn’t come out the way I’d hoped it would, completing it put me off of wanting to do it again anytime soon. So I just sort of assumed that I wouldn’t ever be able to recreate one of my photos in fabric form, and put that out of my mind for a while. Apparently, about eight and half years is long enough to forget about the wonky first attempt and go back at it.
