Sepia Garden Book, part I

I started on a new project with photographs I took at my sister Vicky's, up in the Seattle area. She has a beautiful garden with lots of funky stuff, it was stuck here and there in her flowers. I started taking pictures on the "Sepia" setting on my new Canon digital camera. I loved the results and took alot more. With a digital camera, the view finder shows you a sepia view, not color, so I was able to really see how much contrast there was, how much shadow and light. I had never been interested in taking Black & White photographs before, because I couldn't see what the outcome would be. But with the digital cameras, it gives you the actual picture in the view finder. I had always admired the B & W pics my sister had taken of her kids and my friend Sue L. in California had taken alot of B&W too. Taking B&W pics of your partially finished quilts, will give you an idea of wether or not you have enough contrast in your fabric choices, and your quilt pattern. I think it will be a usefull tool, instead of looking at "watercolor style" quilts with a ruby red viewfinder, you can use a digital camera. I took almost 50 pics when I was there, all sorts of stuff, pink flamingos, wicker chairs, old granite ware pots with succulents, wrought iron garden art, sculptures, birdhouses, lots of nic-nacks, no flowers though, all just "Stuff". I did take flower pictures in color though, mostly lilies and dahlias and marigolds at this time of year. We did pick lots of blueberries, tho I missed out on the blueberry pancakes. ;-( When I got home I wanted to make a quilt with some of the pictures, so I started printing some of them out on my fabric, that was treated with "bubble Jet set,' and backed with freezer paper. I put it through my computer printer and printed two to a page. After removing the freezer paper I heat set the fabric/ink with an iron, if making a quilt or pic on a T-shirt you want to rinse out the excess ink first, then iron. As I was working on them I decided to make a fabric book instead. So I started sewing the individual pictures onto a cotton backing with strips of fabric around them "log Cabin" style. These individual pictures will then be embellished and put together as an acordian style book.