Quilting a collage

The next exhibition by my local collage group (Northwest Collage Society) will take place at the Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum in La Conner, Washington, October 24-November 24. I wanted to enter a collage in the show. The only requirement was that the piece include fabric and/or stitching. Easy, I thought, since I sew.

To make my collage, I began by looking at quilt patterns online. My mother was a quilter, so I knew that different designs have different names and histories. I chose the classic Log Cabin pattern for its significance in U.S. history:

I started with old yearbook photos, which are easy to arrange in strips. Luckily, I have plenty of yearbooks, from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Where should the stitching go? I tried zig-zagging around the edges.

Too busy. Also, what about a message? The easiest way to add a message is to include text. Lots of it. I traced words onto tracing paper using colored pencil, then stitched around the letter edges.

Now I was getting somewhere!! I traced more text and sewed the words to strips of yearbook photos. Then I arranged them in the Log Cabin pattern.

At first, I wasn't happy with the effect. It was hard to see the photos and the text was too pristine. To distress the surface, I sanded and ripped the tracing paper. Then I added a little bit of orange paint. Much better! Here's the final version.

I'm very happy to say that my collage was accepted into the show! I only wish my mom were here to see it...