SandraJennings

It will be great if he remembers....but until then....from the sound of it you are familiar with the decoupage methods of burning the edges of paper to get a sort of uneven look and worn one as well... keep that in mind when you get to the edges...remember it is a sashing strip so you won't be having to work the whole quilt to get the edged look. You could practice with scraps and try various ripping or flip and stitch methods to create the edge....Go with your gut as to what may work....you know the map vision you hold in your head.....play till you get it out and down in your fabric...lucky girl! Also you could look to some of the shadow quilt techniques in helping to get the islands....more fabric...more fun. A good place to see an example of fabric picturing is in the current edition of $100,000 Quilting Challenge. between the fabric and stitching you create the picture...and until he gets there....play with your fabric and your vision.

Flying_V_Goddess

Of all the quilting magazines that Wal-Mart carries, $100,000 Quilting Challenge isn't one of them. Thinking about subscribing to it after seeing an advertisment for it in The Quilter Magazine and it says I'll get a free Soft Cushion Handle 45mm Rotary Cutter (I could use a decent rotary cutter) with my subscription. Unfortunatly, I blew the $20 I got for Easter on fabric and drawing supplies so I can't get it right now.

What exactly is the flip and stitch method? I probably know what it is (probably the most obvious answer), but the circuits in the brain seem to have shorted out for the moment.

SandraJennings

Check out your other local quilt stores or maybe the library may have a copy. Sometimes grocery stores will carry it as well. Let's see...flip and stitch.....Valorie Wells has several books with the technique...but in a nutshell you begin with two pieces stitched and freewheeling it you continue to add pieces in varying degrees of size and shape....this is often used in a method similar to log cabin, though they can be side by side. It is literally flip and stitch a new piece to the previous fabric.The irregular shapes aid in creating a "look". if doing it in a straight line....the shapes would be uneven in the length thereby creating the ragged edge. Machine stitiching further enhances the look of raggedness. Back issues of Quilters Magazine or Quilt magazine,Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting would have it too. The Quilters Encyclopedia may have an example as well. Will look on this end and try to get you an example.

Flying_V_Goddess

The grocery store carries the same magazines as Wal-Mart and last time I checked at the library they didn't have back issues of that magazine. *sigh* Living in a smaller town sucks. If I ever get a chance to go to the library I'll have to check if they have back issues of the other quilting magazines you mentioned.

*sigh* Looks like I'm not going to be able to get that game from my boyfriend for a while. My boyfriend doesn't have any gas money and one of his tires blew out...and he's just too damn stubborn to take help from anybody (now I know why pride is listed as one of the seven deadly sins). Unless I can talk some sense into him, I guess its going to be a while before I can see him and get started on my quilt design.

SandraJennings

That's ok! Gives you plenty of time to mull over the fabric and test draw design ideas. Explore away.

Flying_V_Goddess

It'd be easier if I knew what I was designing. And I really don't have any fabric to test out. I just started so I don't have a gigantic scrap bin to try out new stuff. Guess I can always try out designs for my Ninja Turtle quilt :) (but I sooooo want to work on this wall hanging. *scream*)

Flying_V_Goddess

I finally got the game! I was lucky enough to call a friend just before he was heading up into town for a visit. So hopefully I'll be able to show you guys a design of some sort for the wall hanging in the next couple of days. :)

Flying_V_Goddess

Well, it took a couple of hours of game play and drawing, but I finally got some sort of design. Sorry about it kind of looking bad (and the lack of islands), but my artistic skills only go so far in Paint and it would have been a pain to draw all the islands in. I really need EQ5.



Couple things I want to mention:
*The ribbon along bottom usually says the name of the island you have highlighted in the game. Instead its going to say "The Great Sea".
*The compass is not completed (the outer and inner circle have a yellowish outline and still need to add N, E, S, and W. Paint would have taken what's left of my sanity if I tried to put that in.)
*The edges are supposed to have a ragged edge to them...just didn't feel like drawing it in Paint.
*This would look better if there were actually islands on the map.

I still have a few problems. Mostly sizing issues. I want to make this to scale. The problem with that is the smaller the block size the more impossible it is to put an island on it and the more I make the block bigger to make the island easier to applique the more ridiculously huge the quilt gets. Let me show you what I mean:


Let's say this is a block on the quilt (divided into smaller squares). The red square is where the island goes (or any other square on there). For arguements sake, let's say the map (without the borders) is 36" X 36". That would mean each block would be about 5.14"x5.14". The area the island would have to fit in would be about 1.028"x1.028". That's just the size of the area the island is in. Some islands can take up most of that space...others remind you of that small island with the one palm tree that you see people in cartoons get stranded on. I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to applique something that small. But if I make it any bigger the rest of the quilt will get incredibly huge. When I zoom up on one of the islands the biggest the area can get is 6.25"x6.25"...which would be easy to applique, but that would mean the block would be 31.25"x31.25"...and the map would be almost 219"x219" (that's without the borders!)

And besides the sizing issues, the right side of the map is, well, empty. Figured it would be weird looking if the quilt included the picture that tells you "A button to Zoom" and "B button to Exit Map" and how many treasure charts you've collected. But I can't think of anything to fill that empty space with...other than that thing that they have on every map that tells you something like "1 inch = 1000 miles". Any ideas?

SandraJennings

Although I know you are trying to do this to scale....maybe you should consider the maps of old as a partial guideline as well.Most cartographers though trying to do so would highlight the destination a little bit larger than scale...they were trying to define largely unknown properties and distances and they also wanted to inspire travel and marketing potential..the true figures were mostly in the ocean areas of the charts. this would give you a little leeway and let you play with the island a bit. Don't forget there were always sea monsters to beware of as well.....just a thought.

Flying_V_Goddess

There are several other sea charts in the game and they tell you where specific things are. Like...one tells you where all the giant squid are lurking. Another shows where all the merchant boats are located. I remember when my friend was showing me his Wind Waker strategy guide there was a sea chart in the back of the book and it showed where everything is...the locations of the giant squid, merchant boats, Triforce maps, Triforce pieces, fairy fountains, etc. all on one map. I thought about doing something like that (not nessicarly putting every single little thing down) and that way I could also use some of that empty space to the right by adding a key to show what those symbols mean. But I'm having my doubts on that idea. The thing I'm worried about is that it might get too cluttered. And that's more stuff I would have to applique...whether its the 12 merchant ships, 8 fairy fountains, 7 enemy submarines, 6 giant squid, etc. I mean, I already have 49 islands (whole islands or several little islands bunched together) to sew on and I'm not looking forward to that (it'll look cool once its done, but I'm sure I'll loose my mind several times) so I'm not sure if my sanity could take appliqueing all those little symbols.

Something about making the islands bigger than what they are doesn't seem right. I played around with the idea of making the island fill up the entire block (like you had zoomed onto the island in the game to see the details). I didn't like it when I roughly drew a few of those enlarged islands together. It ended up kind of looking like Pangea a little after it had started spliting into continents except the pieces really didn't fit like they should. Also, they don't call it the Great Sea for nothing. Its maybe about 90% water and 10% land. So from a geographic stand point and also from a gamer standpoint (knowing the story of how this vast sea came to be) I think it would be better to have to islands to scale. Plus, it would definatly show how much work and sanity I put into it.