Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Silhouette (Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop)

It's my day on the Dust Off a Quilt Book blog hop hosted by Bea of Beaquilter.  Bea challenged us to find a quilt book on our shelves and make a project from or inspired by it.  It turns out that the emphasis was on the oldest book we could find, but I missed that detail!  I was focused on using a book I've had for a while and a project I wanted to do using that technique, but hadn't actually gotten around to making yet.  Here is Silhouette.


The book I used is Fabric Silhouettes: Quilted Treasures From the Family Album by Louise Handley.  The copyright date is 2006 but I've had it maybe 6 years?  I got it when the library I was working for at the time discarded some books that weren't being checked out.


My plan since I bought the book was to make a silhouette quilt from one of our wedding pictures.  First step was to pick a photo to use.  I decided on this one.  Our photos were taken by Wendy Waldron who runs the 1812 Hitching Post, a wedding venue about an hour from Charlotte in Harmony, North Carolina.  (Can I just say how much I love that we were married in a town called Harmony?)

Inspiration photo.  Credit Wendy Waldron.
Second step was to simplify the photo.  You can see that I took our friend Mark, who was our officiant, straight out of the picture!  I used my Crayola light box (birthday present from my husband and son and I love it!) to trace the silhouette.  I orgiginally tried to trace the arbor as well, but it looked weird.  My husband suggested that I instead use a frame of floral fabric to represent the arbor, and pointed to an example in the book that did something similar.  He was, of course, both absolutely right and a genius.



Two of the three fabrics are Island Batik, the center is Coconut and the inner border, silhouette, and binding are Navy, both from the basics foundation collection.  I wanted to use Island Batik for the floral border as well but didn't have anything with the colors that I hoped would capture the spirit of the arbor in the photo.  I went to my local quilt shop, Quilt Patch Fabrics, which carries Island Batik.  They had a few floral patterns but nothing with the color variety I was hoping for.  And then I saw this print and knew it was probably as close to perfect as I was going to get.  It's Painterly Petals from Robert Kaufman.


I chose to quilt it before adding the silhouette.  I used a 1" cross-hatch design.  I didn't want to use white thread because I didn't want it to be super visible on the navy, so I used Aurifil monofilament instead.


I didn't want to trace the image more than once so I used Heat 'n Bond EZ Print Lite sheets that can go in the printer.  I use a dark blue Aurifil thread and a really short stitch length to trace as close to the edge of our silhouette as possible.  I also stitched a line to give a little definition to my husband's arm.  I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo but I think it helped.


My original plan was to frame it but at the last minute I decided to hang it above the fireplace mantle instead.  My dad rigged this hanging system for me when I moved into the house.  It's held the same wildflowers wallhanging (predates the blog) for the entire 10 years I've been in the house--time for a change!  The bouquet of flowers on the mantle is from my wedding; I ordered felt flowers from Etsy.  My grandmother bought those candlestick holders for her & my grandfather's apartment when they were newlyweds; she gave them to me years ago when they downsized into senior living.  I really love how Silhouette looks hanging above the fireplace and this is essentially your view when you walk in my front door, though I intentionally framed the photo so that you don't see the toy storage below 🙂


Many thanks to Bea for hosting this blog hop and giving me the kick in the pants I needed to finally make this project!  I absolutely love it!  Make sure you check out the other quilters on the hop and Bea has giveaways, too.

March 2
March 3
March 4
The Darling Dogwood -- That's me!
March 5
March 6

17 comments:

  1. aww that's adorable! it's okay if you didn't pick your oldest book, this is much better!

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  2. Very sweet, Emily! That commemorates a wonderful memory. I love how it looks against the white mantle.

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  3. I like how this turned out- oldest book or not!

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  4. Emily, what a sweet way to remember your special day! And I like the way is hung above the fireplace.

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  5. This turned out so well, and it looks so nice hanging there. All the family touches around it as well, make it extra special.

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  6. What a sweet idea for a silhouette wall hanging...love it! Thank you for sharing!

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  7. That’s a wonderful project and fits so well above the mantle. I love the floral border too! Congratulations on a perfect finish!

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  8. Great project, and lovely finish! It looks great above the mantle. Thanks so much for sharing!

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  9. That is a really sweet quilt. Love that you got around to doing it...thanks for sharing!

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  10. What a great way to remember your wedding day!!! Fabulous!!

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  11. Beautiful. A piece that will be treasured for a long time to come.

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  12. What a beautiful work of art!!! I LOVE it! I also love that everything on your mantle has meaning! Perfect!
    Happy Quilting! :-)

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  13. I think your simplification decisions were just right

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  14. Oh my goodness, I love your dress, the pink underskirt, the pink flowers in your hair and your cute shoes. It must have been a challenge to simplify it to the silhouette. Absolutely terrific job!!!

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  15. What a lovely finish! Looks so nice on above your mantle. Thanks for sharing.

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