The Map

Glad to be back!
I have been working feverishly on the project I conjured up for my father in law.
He really loves maps, especially old ones.
 A few months ago the BBC featured a series on maps, which I taped (Old School word) for him and he loved it. I loved it too, and I'm not even into maps!

He turned 80 at the end of May and yesterday we had a big family do to celebrate this!
So I made him a map of the village where he was born (Ameide, NL) and the immediate surroundings.
He was born in 1931, the map is of 1934: few roads, many ditches and small villages.

the river Lek (with flash)

Here you can really see all the quilting (without flash)

A lot of man made ditches that drain the water away from the land

detail

It was difficult at first, I didn't know how to tackle this.
So pondering about this, during the early hours mainly, it came to me and then I knew how to do it:
From the blue fabric I first cut out the river shape, a broad wavy line.
On the back of the green fabric I lay my map, which I had copied onto special fabric, that can easily be torn away once it's sewn. That sounds strange, but this paper fabric is especially made for this purpose.
So, the map on top, then the green fabric and last the wavy river shape: now I could trace the exact river onto the green fabric by sewing all the lines on the back. I then cut away the rest of the blue fabric.
Then I made the embankments but cutting out the exact shape and sewing this to the front with a zigzag stich.
The rest speaks for itself, I think.

red = all the roads
blue = river Lek, and all the ditches
green = meadows
brown/grey = river bank
black spots on green = churches
black lines on blue  =longitudinal embankment dike (levee), this is to slow the water in the river down


Now, what shall I do this week?
Cutting more bottle shapes to make the quilt for my eldest daughter!

Have a wonderful week!