It’s a Wonderful Life – Me and My Fish

It's A Wonderful Life

Today’s post is about how I created the drawing of me holding the fish. I actually caught the fish that you see me holding here, but my husband messed up the photograph by cutting my head off and taking the shot with the sun at my back, putting me in shadow. Here is the photo that he took:

Me and the trophy fish

Can you believe it? The fish of a lifetime and he messes it up? Did you notice that the fish is not cut off? You can see what he was looking at! Ultimately I decided to forgive him, I think. Yes I'm definitely over it. Hmmmm......

Anyway, for the image of me holding the fish I had to recreate my head. I pulled out a bunch of photos of me holding fish and found one that I thought would fit for the position I was in holding the fish.

Me with fish

photo I used for my head

I am facing the other way in this photo, but I remedied that by tracing my head and flipping the tracing paper over. I had to do some re-sizing of the traced head so it fit the body size, but that wasn't too difficult.

After filling in some details on the jacket, this is what I ended up with for the drawing of me holding the fish.

sketch of me with fish

My next post will show the making of the face, hair and hands out of fabric. Thanks for visiting my blog!

"It's A Wonderful Life" and What it all Means!

"It's a Wonderful Life"

This quilt is a very personal piece for me, so before I post about the making of it, I thought I would show some of its details and give a little explanation of their meaning. This seems very self-indulgent, and I hope I don’t get carried away, but here we go:

1) That’s me there, holding a trophy steelhead fish – and yes I do fish. Fly fishing in particular. On a trip to BC one year I caught the trophy steelhead depicted here. It was 26 pounds and it took me a half hour to land it. It is the largest fish I've ever caught and it’s larger than most other steelhead caught. I’m not the best angler on the river, but sometimes if you just try something you have success beyond your wildest dreams. The image is a metaphor of sorts. Disclaimer – the steelhead I caught was released, and no steelhead were harmed in the making of this art quilt.

2) The two people wading the river behind me – that is a silhouette of me and my hubby. A friend took a photo of us crossing a river and it is a favorite of ours. I've done a painting of it and it hangs over my bed. So this part of the piece is symbolic of my happy marriage.

waders

3) Paint brushes, needle with thread, and scissors – did you notice them? Well they are there. Where would I be artistically without them? These are my favorite tools. My hand is happy when they are in it.

scissors, needle and thread

paint brush

4) Periodic Table of the Elements – It’s really hard to see this, but some of the tree trunks and bushes are made from fabric of the Periodic Table of the Elements. I purchased it on Spoonflower.  That fabric was used because there is still a scientist/engineer inside me, gradually getting obliterated by fabric and paint.

5) The Heron – In another life I could be a full on bird watcher, binoculars, Bermuda shorts and all. I love birds and must have one in all art quilts somewhere. It’s a thing with me.

heron and signature

And I think that covers it.  Thanks for letting me blather on about myself. My next posts on this quilt will talk about how I went about making it.

Thanks for visiting my blog!