Illinois Landscape

Diane wrote-

Love the landscape, Frieda. Is is fused or pieced? The edges of the pieces are so neat that it looks as though they've been sewn. I'd love to see how you'll quilt it, too -- the colors are just wonderful.

So I thought I'd talk about the construction of this quilt. So I thought I would tell you a little about that. I usually start with a sketch. I couldn't find the original sketch for this one, but I know I did it very quickly while riding in the car on the way to Minnesota several years ago. The above one has a similar feel to it.

I then blow up the sketch to the size that I want it. This quilt is about 36" x 20".
I decide on the fabrics I want to start with and I fuse them all. I use only #805 WonderUnder. I remove all the paper from the fabrics as I am using them and cut out all my pieces with a rotary cutter and no paper on the fabric, so that all the edges are really smooth and clean. Then I reassemble my pieces on either a piece of release paper, or in my case a large Teflon sheet. I have one that measures 40" x 60". WoWo

This quilt is all raw edge fused, meaning that I haven't finished any of the edges in any way. Then I layer it with batting and backing, fusing it down to the batting. For this quilt all I did was stitch in the ditch, right next to each "seam" where two pieces slightly overlap each other and are stuck together. I stitched this quilt with several different colors of #30 weight Madeira Rayon Thread. I love the fields and the sky, this is what it looks like in my neck of the woods once you get away from suburbia.