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.
The image and its wonky re-creation in an art show in the summer of 2015
In late 2014, my aunt was planning to have surgery early the next year. Because Grandma lived with my aunt and uncle, Grandma was going to have to spend a few weeks in a nursing home while my aunt recovered. At 98, Grandma was still pretty spry, and she was not terribly happy about this stay in the nursing home, but there wasn’t much anyone could do about it.
Grandma was by far one of the most difficult people I have ever had to buy gifts for. She wasn’t picky or ungrateful – she just had everything she needed, and there was nothing that she really wanted that could be wrapped and put under the Christmas tree. For several years, I had resorted to making her things – a set of cross-stitched teapots in plastic coasters that she could use when she had her friends over for tea one year, placemats to go with the coasters the next year, etc.
With Grandma’s imminent stay in the nursing home coming up, I decided to make her a small quilt that she could take with her. But I had heard that items often get misplaced in nursing homes, so I wanted to make her a quilt that was very obviously hers. So I used images from a professional photo shoot with our extended family – Grandma included – that we’d done that fall, printed them out on fabric with my own printer, and incorporated them into a pattern designed for use with fabric panels from a book called Panel Play. With pictures of Grandma and her family literally incorporated into the fabric of the quilt, no one else could realistically say that the quilt was theirs!
Grandma loved the quilt, although I’m not 100% sure it ever made it to the nursing home with her. When she passed away later in 2015, my aunt returned the quilt to me for safekeeping. It has hung on walls in some of my homes since then – the fabric actually makes a great picture frame, and the quilt provides variety among the items that decorate my space. And of course, it’s a lovely reminder of Grandma.
As a first foray into using photography in a quilt, this was pretty simple. Printable fabric can be found in just about any fabric store worth the name, and the instructions are pretty easy to follow. Honestly, the hardest decision was which of the images from our photoshoot to use – there were maybe 150 of them to choose from! I used ten, and four of them were a series of photos of Grandma and my nephews (age 5 and nearly 8 at the time) where Grandma was sitting by helplessly while the two boys got into an argument in the chair next to her. I find that series of images hilarious, but my father was horrified that I’d used them.
A note about copyright: Normally when you use a photograph that has been taken by someone other than you (i.e., you don’t own the copyright), you need to get permission from the photographer (the copyright holder) to use that image. In this case, we had digital copies of the images from the photoshoot and blanket permission to use them in any format, and my quilt qualified under “any format.” With the exception of these photographs, all other images that I’ve used with my quilts so far have been my own images, so I own the copyright and can do whatever the heck I want with them. If you are making forays into using photographs in quilts but are not both the quilter and the photographer, make sure you get permission from the photographer before you make a copy of their image!
Grandma’s quilt comes together using Mom’s trusty old Singer machine
