Cosmo

Still at the shop with Heather. I was going through some pictures I took last month and this one caught my eye. This will probably end up on one of our card sets.

Back in Niwot

I just took this picture near Niwot while Heather is teaching. Now I'm sitting in the back of Cottonwood Quilts listening to an old Max Roach/Clifford Brown while Heather presides over show and tell and working on some pictures.
I'm rusty. I didn't realize the camera was set on a low pixel setting when I started taking these pictures, then I let the batteries die on me...
This one came out nice though.

Sunflower

Here is another Quiltography quilt we are working on. The finished product is a wall hanging about 4 by 3 feet. I had to divide the photograph into 4 different sections because we can only print 8.5x11 sheets. For now anyway.

Heather's always getting me to do things I have never done before-the new Photoshop was a big help in this one as well as the Drella quilt.

Finished Product

Here is the finished quilt from those flowers that I manipulated in Photoshop last week. It's called "Flowers for Drella." We are kitting it out and it should be available tomorrow at the store.

It came out pretty nice I think.

Galisteo Cemetary

Here is another picture I used Levels in Photoshop Elements to manipulate. I'm going to use it as an example in the class I am teaching tomorrow.

Here are a couple of samples from our latest creation in progress, which will end up being a quilt kit available in the shop and on our site. I'm not sure what the finished product is going to look like-you may want to keep an eye on the site or this blog for updates. Heather says it will look kind of freaky-I think it will look very freaky.
I started in Adobe Photoshop Elements with a photograph of a white Cosmo, which I separated into 3 levels of the background, the petals and the the center of the flower. I changed the background into black and white, and used the color replacement tool to change the color of the petals, then left the center of the flower the original yellow in each photo. There are five more flowers in other colors for the quilt.
If you would like a detailed explanation of the techniques of selection, color manipulation and the use of levels in Adobe Photoshop Elements, I highly recommend "Photoshop Elements for digital photographers" by Scott Kelby. I got my copy at Borders in CO Springs.
I printed these pictures on fabric yesterday and turned them over to Heather. Who knows what the finished product will look like? Check back for updates-we will post it on the site and here when it is done.

Sorry again for being so negligent on the blog lately. We moved and then both got sick and the shop is crazy as usual-but things have settled down somewhat.

Maybe.

Quiltography

Quiltography, also referred to as photos on fabric, is something Heather and I have been working with all year. One of the most common questions people ask us is "what kind of a printer works best for photos on fabric?"
The simple answer is that an ink jet printer is the only kind of printer that works with fabric. It's the most common kind of printer used in the home-most of our readers probably already own one. You don't want to even attempt photos on fabric with a laser or an old dot matrix printer-it will not work. Laser printers use heat to set the ink and will damage fabric (and probably your printer)
You can get decent to excellent results with any color ink jet printer. Be sure to use the highest quality image print settings when you try a print-if your printer has a photo setting use that.
To get the best prints-the kind of prints you may have seen on our quilts-you will want to use a photo dedicated ink jet printer. These are built especially for photographs. They do an ok job on text but are really made for photographs. They are not necessarily expensive-the printer we use, an Epson Stylus Photo, cost about $80. You should shop carefully and beware of "bells and whistles" such as card readers and print preview screens that you may not need. Epson makes excellent photo printers as does Canon, HP and Lexmark.