Welcome to Provence

Every so often my small art quilt group, Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists, likes to have a group challenge.  Frequently, we use a photograph as our starting point.  We select something with lots going on so different people can respond to different elements.

This is the photo we selected for our recent challenge, “Welcome to Provence.”

As you can see, it provides a lot to work with.  I was intrigued by the worn spots in the centers of each step.  I decided to feature them and to include lots of foliage, as well.

Of course, I couldn’t do it in realistic colors!  The gray and tan just didn’t excite me, so I changed things up.  This was my computer sketch.

I got to work on the steps.

There were lots of pins involved.

And, eventually, glue.

Next came the background, in-progress below.

Once the background was complete, I quilted the entire piece.  This avoided lots of stopping and starting with the quilting later, since I knew some places would be largely covered with yet-to-be-added items.

Next, it was time to audition fabrics and shapes for the large leaves.

I was happy with the veining technique I used on the leaves: simply cutting the leaves into sections.  The gaps served as veins.

Soon, the background and leaves were complete and it was time to tackle flowers.  I’ll show you that in the next post.

Ellen Lindner