Member's Approach to the Trend-Tex Challenge - 3

Lezley Zwaal is sharing her path and thoughts as she prepares her quilt for the 2015 Trend-Tex challenge with the theme "Blowing in the Wind”. Her story continues.... 
    WOW – where is time going!!  A very good Christmas was had with family - laughs, gifts and lots of turkey and all the trimmings.  We had time to relax and recharge – and now the Trend-Tex 2015 Challenge is becoming more than a dream!
From a little slide of dad and kites, and incredibly low resolution, I wish to make a quilted piece to maximize the use of the fabric – with my own challenge to use only the Trend-Tex fabrics. 
To the planning board we go.  Prairie skies are one of the most vast expanses of blue on this planet but depending on the time of day, and whether we are looking into the sun or away, the sky can be much lighter.  Our fabric choices - the blue is far too dark, but the gray .. hmmm might work. And then I thought, “Can I use the back side of the fabric???  I don’t see any ruling for that!  PERFECT!”  Now that restricts me to a 21-inch wide uninterrupted sky assuming I keep with the fabric pieces given.  I can work with that. 
Now, to turn a very low resolution photo into a crisp clear set of kites.  Photoshop here we come!
First the photo will be turned into a black and white version – and then enlarged to fit the desired 21 inch width.    As I enlarge the black and white – I lose a lot of detail.  Yikes!  OK – It’s an outline - this can be traced and the pieces filled in  – right?
 

Black & White of photo

I will print this off and then work to enlarge it to the desired size.  I do this using WORD – inserting the photo and print an 8 ½ X 11 sheet with only the picture – measure it up, do a little cropping in the file and re-print. At this point, I have a photo that is half the width and half the height of the finished product.
  

Enlarged kites

I cut the printed photo into quarters, and enlarge each quarter by 200%. Voila! Tape it together and I have the exact size pattern to create the desired design for an appliqué.    I trace that final size onto a clear set of sheets so I can actually make a pattern.

Tracing

 
Maybe one day I will spring for software to make this easier.
Now to start tracing (reverse) onto the fusible web and auditioning that fabric!









Stay tuned for the next steps that Lezley takes to get her finished quilt....