Map Maker, Map Maker, Make Me a Map!

This is the title of the 2 day workshop I taught for the East Bay Heritage Quilters in Berkeley, CA a few weeks ago.

I had such a good time with the ladies. In addition, I got to do the touristy things, like see the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, ride the cable cars, etc....... Everyone was so helpful and friendly.

During the course of the 2 day workshop, I introduced my students to techniques on making 2 kinds of fabric maps. One was of an imagined place. The other was of a real place -- the Japanese Tea Garden. Here are a few images.

This was the Japanese Tea Garden -- I made this as a sample for the class.

Unique Design idea for a support rod

My DH and I came up with a neat way of hanging the triptych. Since it was so wide (about 93"), made up of 3 pieces and I wanted to maintain a gap between each -- we decided to use threaded rods and bolts.



Each rod was a little longer than each panel. Each end rod was finished off with a cap nut. The connection devise to attach the end rods to the middle rod consisted of a 1" long coupling nut. Everything was spray painted black. Because of the length of the assembled rod and the weight of the triptych 4 support points are necessary when hanging the quilt from the wall.

All the parts were purchased at Home Depot.

After the rod was complete we tested our little designed by hanging the quilt from it over a few days.

Here are a few pics of the rods -- before painting.

Link to larger image of Lay of the Land II (I revised the link)

Some have asked for a larger image of this quilt. It can be found at:

http://quiltsbyvalerie.com/commissions.html

Please click on the image on this link and it will lead to a larger image of the quilt.........



Hope you enjoy it!