So, after lots of thought, I decided to make this wall hanging for my mother in law for Christmas. Pretty much everything in their house is nautical themed (she a lawyer, marine law, my father in law is president of a government company that hires ship pilots to go through the sea-way, and he's an ex ship capitain) so we decided that this was a safe bet. I made them a quilt last year with the mariners compass on it and it was a huge hit.
This is my first attempt at appliqué. I've never done a 'landscape quilt' before and was very skeptical of raw-edge appliqué too, so I wasn't too sure of how I would like this, and my background was a huge challenge. I *think* I'm going to leave it pretty much the way it is now, save for a few birds in the sky that I forgot to put in. That is, I'm not going to do any quilting in the sky area like I did in the water.
I also think I'm going to go back in with my brush and delicately add some darker colour around the ship's sails because I find they don't pop out of the back enough. I should have made the boat mirror image and on the left instead of the right, since the sky was darker there... oh well, live and learn,
I made the background by soaking my fabric with water, and spritzing it as I went with a poosh-poosh bottle (that thingy we use to spray water at the cats when they're misbehaving).
Then I mixed some acrylic colours with lots of water and used some watercolour brushes to apply the colour onto the fabric. This was my first time trying it and it turned out exactly as I had expected. I'm not sure how well it will wash, but I'm not really planning on washing this, since it's a wall hanging. I've had many acrylic pain accidents and the stuff just does not come out of my clothes, so I imagine this is permanent.
I didn't have a pattern, I just used a few images of tall ships and went with that... I realize there are a few sails missing but I don't care at this point, anyone who has nothing better to do than point out the flaws in my artistic licence can just shove it... ok? LOL, so without further ado, here you go!
Let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions as to what I could add.
I was thinking maybe a teeny tiny lighthouse on the rocks in the middle... but I'm not sure.
P.S. those thingy's in the sky are safety pins, I forgot to take them out for the pic.