Summertime or Lithuanian Landscape

Idea

The Summertime, or Lithuanian landscape, is the fourth quilt of this year’s Fifteen by Fifteen challenge. I am following the chosen artist. In my case it was a Russian painter Arkhip Kuindzhi (1841- 1910), whose style was realism. I am not copying his works but only am following his style that had a focus on natural light effects. In all his paintings light plays a very important role. I already made three quilts in his style: Moonlight on the Atlantic Ocean, Antelope Canyon and The Sunset.

My quilt is based on a photo that I took last summer in the village where I grew up. I went for a late afternoon walk on a sandy road and got surprised by the view. Only few bushes grew up there when I was a child some 50 years ago. Now the trees formed an arch over the road and behind the trees there were fields, lit by afternoon sun. The view was spectacular but for the quilt I only used the central part of my photo.

Quilt

The quilt is made in a fused applique technique using Wonder Under fusible. Even I liked machine piecing, I was glad I didn’t have to use a rotary cutter because my broken arm was not strong enough yet even it was healed already.

It always starts with modifying the foto into a pencil drawing and flipping it:

Digging into my stash, trying to find the right fabrics usually takes a long time. Also the hard part is to understand in what sequence the pieces have to be fused. Then I just need to build the landscape step by step:

Fusing finished:

Quilting is always my favorite part of my work. I love how quilt changes and becomes alive with added texture. Flowers on bushes under the trees I embroidered by hand using French knots.

Making this quilt was such a pleasure because I can look at my childhood fields hanging on my wall.