Making Quilted Maps

Quilted art map

November 3, 2014


So here it is, my first Blog that doesn't involve 28 children and blogging about something related to school!  I am a retired school teacher, and finally I get to spend time working on quilts and art and being creative in whole different ways than I did as a teacher.  And since I broke my ankle a week ago and I am spending my days with my foot in the air anyway, blogging on my computer seems like a great way to pass what seems like endless days right now.

I am a quilter and I have made many quilts from predetermined patterns.  This can be very rewarding and all our beds look great adorned with beautiful handmade quilt,s but the truth be known I am learning to be more adventurous and creative with fabric and I have invented my own way of expressing myself through quilted landscapes (more on that later) and quilted art maps.

As a new retiree a good friend sent me a great book called Art Quilt Maps which was very inspirational - so inspirational in fact that I found myself at Fabricland the next day purchasing some of the materials called for - crinoline, netting, curtain sheers, quilting cottons, steam a seam and more.  I found a google map of the area where we live and before I knew it, I was at the sewing machine composing a map of the area where my children had grown up.  My mind goes wild thinking of the maps that I can make - the place in Algonquin Park where my daughter got engaged, the Montreal area where my other daughter lives, my favourite little cottage retreat on Georgian bay, the farm that my husband grew up on. These aren't just maps in the traditional sense of the word, but an opportunity to highlight the places within the maps that hold importance and memory and love.  On this map I marked our swimming hole, the boundaries of our property with "love", favourite trails and secret lakes.  It is a map with personal signficance.  I have not yet framed it as I think it favours a barn board frame, which is on my husband's to do list.

Although I am not a particularly good free motion quilter, I found that with a little practice and lots of luck I could actually write on the map with thread.  The book suggests that if this isn't a strength archival felt tipped markers can achieve the same look.

Great fun and a real legacy piece.