What happened to that quilt you were making then Jo?

Waaaaay back in January I posted about a crazy quilt I was planning to make. It had a USA theme, and was going to be based on the Stars and Stripes. I had given myself the year to make it, and after that initial post I haven't mentioned it on the blog. 

So what happened? 

Well, I am very pleased to say that the quilt is ahead of schedule! I used an app called Priority Matrix to plan the quilt and that's helped me stay on track as I could organise what image I wanted on what colour, and allocate it a month.

As you can see, there are lots of green ticks :D 

So where are all these images? I've used the same process as for the eagle - find an image using Google (what did we do before Google?) put it into Adobe Ideas and turn it into a line drawing.

Print, trace onto fabric then stitch using stem stitch.

Here are the finished blocks. The blue and white ones are now stitched onto the backing fabric, which is an old sheet, along with other blue and white fabric.

Map of the USA

American Eagle

The White House

The Statue of Liberty

Chicago skyline

All the blue patches on the backing fabric.

The red and white blocks are still in progress, I've got one underway and 3 more to do. Then they can be stitched onto the backing fabric. Obviously because of the proportions of the flag, there are more red than blue blocks.

Orchard House - Louisa May Alcott's home in Concord, Massachusetts.

Sitting Bull

Fender guitar

Martin Luther King

American football player

Wolf

Mount Rushmore

Baseball player

Cowboy - I added a lasso.

Buffalo (or bison)

Golden Gate Bridge

Navaho pot in progress - you can see the pen lines, which will disappear over time.

Of course, once all the pieces are sewn on, then I will be adding decorative stitches, as I did to the Green Knowe quilt.

Some of the decorative stitches I used.

I think this may take the rest of the year!

USA quilt is underway!

It's taken a while to get going on this, despite my plan to do some each month, and I didn't want to get behind straight away!
I have now planned my embroidered sections, choosing images and then one of four colour ways. The images will be sewn in blue or red on white, and in white on red or blue. Scuppered a little by not having any white thread, I started with a blue on white bald eagle.
I used a photo from the Internet, and, inspired by Adrian's Christmas gift of iPad for Artists, I reduced it to a line drawing using Adobe Ideas. I transferred the image using a water and air soluble pen. I tried using the iPad as a light box, but as it's pressure sensitive that's a little tricky.
But here we are, my first patch ready for my American themed crazy quilt!