Fantasy Footwear Quilt-- the Beginning

This quilt story will be told in multiple posts as I progress from the beginning to the quilt's completion.

The inspiration for this quilt came from an old Stuart Weitzman shoe ad that I tore out of a magazine (don’t recall which magazine or the year) and saved.  Recently I decided it was time for this photo to become a quilt. 

First step was enlarging the original photo.  This was done by using FedEx Kinko to enlarge the origin 400% onto one large piece of paper.  Here you can see the sheet with the enlarged photo in black and white and the origin in the upper right corner.

The next step was to use my living room window as a light box to transfer the drawing/sketch to the white background fabric.

 

As this quilt will be used as an “art piece” or “wall quilt” I decided it would be okay to use a raw edge fusing technic for fabric “puzzle pieces.”  I used Pellon EZ Steam II for my fusible web.  I used freezer paper to make a pattern for each individual piece.  I quickly discovered I really needed to think “ahead” so that the background pieces where added first.   It is best not to have to lift these small pieces and reposition them too often. 

 

 

I had to lift and trim some of the background green stems/leaves so they wouldn’t show through the light flower fabrics.  That was just a bit tricky, a little scary, but I managed to do it.  Those forceps you see in the above photo was a huge help.

 

All the fabric “puzzle pieces” are now in place.  Next stage will be doing some detail stitching before I make the quilt sandwich.

The quilt name – fantasy footwear – popped into my head as I was getting started late summer and football season was getting ready to start too.  Several stories regarding fantasy football were in the news.  It seemed so appropriate.