The Eclipse art quilt - Part One

We traveled to Salem, Oregon to see the full eclipse of the sun in August with 2 of our granddaughters.  It was a once in a lifetime event for us to be in the path of totality.  Very special for all of the adults there.  But what made it even more special was to see it through the eyes of children.  I wanted to make an art quilt in remembrance of this event.

Here is the picture that I started with:

Here is the cropped photo that started the quilt.

After posterizing and turning the picture into black and white, I had a full sized print made.  The process of posterizing helps to select fabric in shades.  I used 6 shades for this art quilt.  Oh, and thanks goes out to Lynn Czaban who taught me this technique.

The nest step was to trace the picture as the values.

I used a different colorway for each girl.  I hope that they appear different from each other.  One of the girls likes turquoise, and the other one likes pale green.  I had to go shopping (of course!) for some of the right colors.  I decided to make the glasses in gray tones after I tried doing it first in the colors of the girls.    (That didn't work!).

After I added all of the fabric pieces, I tested different backgrounds and liked the ombre green.  It was all fused down to the background.  I used some picture matting to figure out where I liked the edges of the picture.   Then I added some stitching and ink work, after zig zag stitching around all of the pieces.

I'll continue the the quilt with a second posting.

I hope you like it and that you have special memories that you can use in your quilts.