Basketman

I have a photo that I am thinking of enlarging and then trying my hand at making a quilted version of the picture. I have never done a landscape quilt but I am into trying something way outside of my comfort zone. I have seen pantographs that are sold to enlarge drawings and cannot reason why I cannot trace the photo at a significantly larger scale onto freezer paper ( taped together pieces) and once the drawing is done, trace the enlarged drawing for a reference, carefully remodel the curves on a duplicate freezer paper drawing into more straight lines, choose a pallet of colors and textures, divide and cut up portions of the design into doable sections and then ultimately put the whole thing together and hope for the best. I get that it will be reversed and I know I am likely simplifying this too much and you really talented landscape quilters are quite possibly raising a skeptical eyebrow right about now, but I need to know if this idea is totally off the charts and if so is there another way to proceed? If you have any pointers, have any suggestions as to what pantograph to buy...or whatever...I am more than eager to hear from you!

The lucky thing is that I can draw and hopefully can use some of my ink pencils etc to ultimately create some finer details and maybe do something presentable...I just need a push in the right direction.

DeneK

Use of an overhead projector can be useful too. I have used one a few times to enlarge a design but nothing this complex.

kathy

push, push, I'd like to see the progress

quilts4charity

I did one pretty much like you described, it worked out well and the recipient loved it...it was a photo she had taken while on vacation.

Weezy Rider

You can trace, and make the trace as clean as possible, then use a copier or a place that has copier service to enlarge.
You can enlarge in increments, or tiles if the image is larger than the paper. You tape the pieces of paper together and retrace to cut out.

You can also enlarge by graph paper. You'd have to search for the technique. I'm lucky enough to have an Illustration program and can trace on the computer and print at desired size even by tiling.

If you wish to learn to do it digitally, there is a free open source program called Inkscape and forums for its use. It runs on Windows and Linux, probably Apple, too.
Here's a forum:
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewforum.php?f=5