New Year Resolutions #1 - Complete a Quilt and Enter a Contest

Oh yeah peeps - I'm taking on some mad challenges this year!  Resolution #1 - Complete a new quilt.  But that's not all - I plan to enter my first quilt contest!  I don't imagine winning any prizes, but I think it will be a good motivator to complete the quilt and fun to be part of an event.  I have taken the first step of deciding what my quilt theme will be and what contest I want to enter. 

First, I want to do a quilt themed around our time in Spain.  There were a number of awesome street signs I saw around Madrid and I want to turn them into embroidery designs that will make up the bulk of the quilt.  The first street sign and design is obvious.  There is a street in Madrid just off of Puerta del Sol that has a decent Thai restaurant we used to frequent quit often.  You can see why I loved it:

That's right - it's Embroiderers Street!  Awesome.  In order to turn the pic into a pattern I used a program online that will take a photo and transfer it into a sketch.  I think there are a few different programs out there but I used Sporkforge which can change a photo to a sketch, charcoal drawing or even a cartoon.  It turned out like this:

It obviously needed some cleaning up, but it's a good jumping off point for a pattern.  After cleaning it up I used a transfer pen to trace it and ironed it on to some basic white fabric:

I've started some outlining and I plan to keep the colors true to the sign.  I'll update with additional street sign patterns as I make them and load up the pics of the completed squares as well.  I have an idea of how I'm going to finish/border the quilt as well, but I'll post that later after I've played with the idea a bit more.

As for the contest I plan to enter - it is none other than Quilt Contest at Lake Metroparks in Kirtland, Ohio.  You may remember that posted last year about our trip to the quilt contest at Lake Metroparks and how awesome it was.  The contest is at the beginning of the year - so technically I will be entering the contest in 2011, BUT that gives me the whole year to finish the quilt, so I think it's perfect.

O.k. - that's my first resolution.  I look forward to sharing my progress with you throughout the year!

 

Comments

[Kate]

What a cool idea! Can't wait to see how this progresses.

[The Stitch Up]

Thanks Man!  Im kind of excited to see how this progresses myself as I have only the sketchiest plan at the moment!

[tara]

Jodi, that is such a cool project! Very inspiring...I wonder what I could capture around here for artistic use...hmmmmm....

[The Stitch Up]

Thanks!  I imagine theres loads of gorgeous stuff to inspire in Buda Pest.  Send me pics or a link to whatever project youre working on!  I miss our craft club!