Landscape Quilt: Mt Robson (The Case of Mistaken Identity)

Picture from the front of the pattern. "Mount Robson" by
Vicki Andrews of Rocky Mountain Designs.

I recently started a new project--another quilting project, if you can believe it. And when I say "new", I mean newly started. Because I bought the pattern in 2012 when Troy and I took our trip to the Rockies in Alberta.

The quilt shop we visited in Canmore had a number of patterns depicting famous peaks of the Rockies. I liked this pattern best and picked it in part because I thought it was the peak we could see from our hotel in Banff.

Only in doing research for this post have I realized that this peak is in British Columbia and we did not see it on our trip! This is Mount Robson and I was thinking of Mount Rundle. I'm guessing I got confused by the number of patterns they had. I've decided to press on. (I did contact the shop to see if they have a Mt Rundle pattern. If so, I will consider this my practice piece. If not, then this will be my memory quilt and I will think of my mistake every time I look at it but no one else will know the difference.) You can see a picture of both at this nice post about the famous faces of the Rocky Mountains.

All of the patterns were available as kits, which is what I was planning to buy. Not something I normally do, but I liked the idea of getting everything all at once. Except the one pattern I liked best (and thought was Mt Rundle) had run out of kits and they only had the pattern available. Oh well, more room in the suitcase!

The pattern traveled home and then sat in my craft closet for a while. I think it was last year when I decided to pull it out, study what I needed and buy the fabric. I got it all at once from a local quilt shop.

I got a lot of batiks because of the nice colours and patterns. Batik fabrics also are generally a tighter weave which means you get less fraying. Which is a good thing for raw edge applique. I didn't not get a lot of "landscape" prints where you use a water print for water, and tree print for trees, etc. I prefer the more abstract look.

Sometime last weekend I was struck by the urge to get started on this and wondered why I had been hesitating. I don't do applique very often and I haven't had the best of luck with fuseable adhesives. (They wouldn't stick for me. Now I'm thinking I used too hot of an iron.) But really, how hard could it be?

So I took out the pattern and traced all the individual pieces. They number them for you so you can keep track (and it also indicates the order that you put them onto the background fabric).

This is just a part of the pattern for demonstration. I didn't think
the designer would appreciate it if I published the whole thing!

Once they are traced to the fuseable, then you cut around them. And me being me, I organized them. Since we have lots and lots of manilla folders from Troy's old files, I got one for each fabric.

I labeled the piece numbers on the outside so I could double check I had them all, and on some of them I even stuck a piece of the fabric to the outside so I could remember which was which. (I'm working with four shades of grey alone, so you have to know which is which.)

Once organized, I took a folder at a time and stuck the fuseable to the fabric.

The back side of the fabric. (Not that batiks have a back side, but it doesn't stop me from checking closely in case there's a difference.) I only pressed one piece to the right side of the fabric by mistake and had to retrace that one. Not a bad percentage.

I am now working on cutting out all the shapes. It's slow going with all those peaked and straggly trees. I'm using a pair of embroidery scissors so they're small and pointy (and Troy keeps them sharp for me) but the handles are very uncomfortable so I can't work on it for very long.

It's been the perfect activity for me after my long days at work, once I recover enough that I no longer need to lay on the couch. Go back to kindergarten--cut out shapes with small scissors.

But I think today I'm going to the shop to see if they have some more comfortable ones....