Quilt: Waterloo Landscape

Waterloo County by Renske Helmuth (20 x 26") Hand appliqued, hand embroidered and machine quilted. Over the years I have co-ordinated quilts for the Mennonite Relief Sale. The latest quilt , A Bird's Eye View/Interpreting the Aerial Photography of Carl Hiebert, was made in the beginning of this year by members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and the Listowel Mennonite Church. I talked to Carl Hiebert and got his permission to use the pictures out of his books. After I had the idea I wanted to know how difficult a project like that would be. I tried to find one of the hardest pictures in Carl's books and tried to interpret it in fabric. This wall hanging is the result. The hardest part was the making of the pattern. In a painting or drawing there are limitless possibilities, but when you work with fabric you have to make the pieces big enough to work with. Once the master pattern was constructed, I started the hand applique from top to bottom, This piece was machine quilted. After making this piece I was convinced that it was possible to come up with a quilt, using Carl's pictures and that's how A Bird's Eye View came about. Here's a detail shot of this quilt: