Appliqué Landscape Placemats

Since I've woven many placemats over the years, but no longer

have a loom as you all know, I thought I'd try my hand at some

quilted ones.  I wanted to create them from photos I've taken

and stylize and simplify  the design, letting the photo guide me in my color choices.

I decided to combine several techniques I've learned over the

past few months as I've viewed hundreds of videos on-line.  

I guess the best thing to do was make a little sample... so here we go!!!

I grabbed a piece of fabric and all the quilting supplies I planned to use:

I wanted to do the raw edge appliqué technique that I tried once before.

I wanted to use Annie's Soft and Stable for the foundation and hose to apply 

Heat n Bond-lite to the back side of the individual fabric pieces because

it would bond the fabric to the foundation.  And then I would stitch

around all the shapes.  

Next I had to decide which of my photos to use...  and then design my

full scale pattern.

Boya Lake Provincial Park was one of our favorite places to

camp in our 5th wheel.  We always managed to get the same

wonderful spot along the lakes edge where we pulled in a

side view, pull thru space.  It's a great place to  kayak as well.

I took this photo in 2009.

Boya Lake is located along British Columbia's Stewart/Cassier Hwy

just a short distance south of Watson Lake which is just across the

Yukon Territory border.  

Glacier Bay Alaska made  the cut from our 2013 vacation trip... 

as did Sand Dunes National Park in Alamogordo NM.  

I combined elements from these 2 photos which I took in 2009,

 to create my design.

The Rubicon Trail along the shore of Lake Tahoe in CA is one of my

all time favorites.  Many fond memorie  with my hiking friends, the Alta Hikers.

We hiked this trail between Emerald Bay and D.L. Bliss Park

every year for over 15 years!!!  Photo taken 2015.

The next phase, designing my pattern, which I did on my computer.

  I “masked” my full photo into 4 equal parts which I pasted together

to get my desired dimensions, 15 & 3/4" x 11".

Then I placed them on the dark box which replicated the dark

binding I would create around the finished placemat.   

  This is UL=upper left, 

UR=upper right,

 LL=lower left 

and LR=lower right.  Just put them together in your mind

and you'll get the idea.

Then I took my full scale designs to the quilt shop to select the fabrics.

 This was my choice for Boya Lake, but I changed my mind

on a couple of the fabrics when I got home and used two 

pieces I'd purchased for other designs.

All had to be pre-washed, dried and ironed before the "cutting" began.

The finished placemats are shown below.  Two are soft & subtle and

two are bold and bright.  My favorite is Glacier Bay AK.

(Remember you can click on any photo to get a closer look.)

Lake Tahoe, CA

Boya Lake, BC Canada

Glacier Bay, AK

White Sands Nat'l Monument. 

I also used an unusual technique to create the binding.  It

was much simpler than the traditional quilt binding process.

 All  I had to do was cut my backing material (a beautiful dark batik print)

1 3/4" larger (all the way around) the finished quilted piece.

The backing material was folded to meet the edge

of the piece, then folded over the top to create the width of "binding"

I wanted and then stitched it in place from the front side.

This also bound all the layers together. 

What's next?   Who knows!!!   I did learn a lot and enjoyed the 

process so I may try some of my

close-up flower photos for a similar project, maybe

a table runner or two...