Big, Bigger, Biggest: Making a Large Landscape Quilt

Fabric Art Comes in All Shapes and Sizes

I am often asked these two questions: “What’s the smallest size (fabric picture) you make?” and “What has been your biggest work?”

Well, in case you’re also wondering, here are some stats:

• • Smallest landscape: 3×4 inches (7.5×10 cm)
  • Smallest animal: A whimsical turtle – 3×4 inches (7.5×10 cm)
  • Smallest custom work from a photo: a house 8×10 inches (21x26cm)

• • Biggest landscape: custom order from photo 9×9 feet (280×280 cm)
  • Biggest animal: Polar Bear cub 42×34 inches (109 x83 cm)
  • Biggest pet portrait custom work from a photo: 24×32 inches (62×78 cm)

There are some interesting stories behind these numbers.

Small Fabric Art

The small works started for two reasons. A number of folks who admired my art at shows spoke about how they were downsizing or already had so many pictures in their house. While they loved a particular piece, there was just no room for it.

Then at one show, a child approached me with $5 and pointed to one of my $40 framed pictures. “I want to buy that for my mom. I like that art.” Then and there, I just knew I had to make something that was affordable and extremely portable. That’s when my “smalls” began. Starting with seasonal landscapes in a 5 x 3 frame, I’ve added turtles and owls over the years.

My display of the “smalls” at one of Vermont Craft Council’s Open Studio events.

Bigger Art Pieces

My bigger original works have had a variety of themes. “She Rejoices” celebrates arriving on the other side of a long breast cancer journey. “Flowers Through the Seasons” features a basket bouquet of flowers that transitions from springtime through wintertime. “How Much Time?,” a polar bear cub on ice, speaks (a piece that is still in process) to the climate crisis we are currently facing.

But these are teeny tiny compared to my biggest work.

She Rejoices and How Much Time?

The Biggest (so far)

The email read in part: “I am fascinated by your wonderful work! Would you consider doing a large (8’ X 8’) wall hanging? … It would be a scenic creation, based upon photographs that I can provide, mixed with your own creativity. I live in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, and my home décor is a reflection of the beautiful world that surrounds us.”

And thus began “The Enchantments.” They sent me 6 different photos, then narrowed down to two and this is the one we chose to use.

The reference photo for this tri-panel wall hanging came directly from the view outside their window.

The Enchantments is a mountainous area in the Northern Cascades mountains, just outside of Leavenworth, Washington.  Check out some outstanding views. 

 There were several challenges within the creation of this tri-panel landscape quilt.  First, I did not have a table at my house big enough to hold the panels, so most of this was laid out/pinned together on my living room floor. Since the bindings on the inside four edges were the mountains and sky instead of a solid color, I had to be sure they all lined up perfectly. Lastly I couldn’t hang it up in my house to be sure all the bottom edges were in alignment as my ceilings were only 8 feet high.  Obviously, there was a work-around for all those issues. 

As you can see there are two ponderosa pine trees, one on each side of the view. I cut out over 1000 pine needles and sewed on, one by one, 837 individual needles.  Up, down, up, down, up.  I don’t know what I was thinking as free-motion quilting with fusing (iron-on adhesive) would have been so, SO much easier.

Close-up of pieced, quilted sky and the ponderosa pines.

Oh, and then there’s the moment after I had someone take a “finished” photo of the work, when I realized I had forgotten one whole section of pine needles.  Luckily it was only 8 needles in total and I was easily able to correct my oversight. 

The Enchantments in its entirety

For 3 whole days after taking it to the post office, I was as nervous as nervous can be.  Getting the email that said it arrived was such a relief. 

We are still gawking at our new “Meisterstueck.”  It is truly breathtaking.

That just made my heart warm, even though I had to ask for a translation.  Here’s what followed. 

“Meisterstueck” (German alphabet spelling Meisterstück) is quite simply the German word for “Masterpiece”!

And my response: 

I am so pleased that you like it.  I am very critical of my work and for a long time all I could see was that it wasn’t touching my vision. However, once I quilted it and bound the edges, something just lit up. I think it was finally seeing it as one piece, not three separate entities (well, really 6 separate pieces – with the sky and the mountains in each panel being a “piece”).

So from works that are a mere 15 square inches to ones that are 11,664 square inches, I guess that qualifies as BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST. 

“The Four Seasons,” measuring 40 by 35 inches, shows flowers from each of the seasons. This is a WIP (work in progress).

Looking for your own wall art to fill that big empty space in your home? I can make that unique original art piece from your photo. Not sure what picture would work? No problem. I will look at your photo possibilities and make recommendations.

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