Picnic at Ellis Pond - Quilt of the Week

 

Picnic at Ellis Pond, 19" x 29", made by Pam Geisel

Picnic at Ellis Pond was one of a series of six quilts that I call my Americana quilts because they have Americana themes but are based on photos that I took around my hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio. This one is set at Ellis Pond which is just outside of the village but is recognizable because of the weeping willow trees located around the pond.

This pond feeds the Yellow Springs Creek which goes through Glen Helen (another art quilt series that I made) and goes into the Little Miami River.

Most of the fabrics that I used for the series were hand dyed although I did use a few batiks, for the quilt under the picnic basket, centers of the flowers, and the pond itself which used a piece that I'd been saving to use as a body of water. I used just a few commercial prints, here I used a basket weave for the picnic basket. I already had the fabric and it was the right scale.

This quilt was included in the "Best of 2014" Ohio Designer Craftsmen's traveling exhibit and was featured in the Autumn 2019 issue of Art Quilting Studio magazine in a story about using perspective with foreground objects.

Because this is the Quilt of the Week, it is 10% off the original price of $400 through 2/14/21 if you purchase directly from me. Details can be found here.

Yellow Springs Americana Series: Picnic at Ellis Pond

"Picnic at Ellis Pond," 18.5" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

All of the quilts in this series were made the same way. Using InDesign, I drew the outlines for the shapes then printed them out actual size (I had to tile print them onto 9 sheets of paper then tape them back together).

"Picnic at Ellis Pond" in progress

I placed the printed layout under a piece of fusible interfacing, which is thin enough to still see the outlines, and built the quilt top by putting the fabric pieces on top of the interfacing.

Once the pieces are all in place they are fused to the interfacing. The quilts are all machine quilted, sometimes with a foot and sometimes with free motion, although it can sometimes be difficult doing free motion quilting on a quilt that has a lot of fused pieces of fabric as the needle will drag and not do what you want it to.

All of the quilts are faced for their binding so the binding isn’t visible, and I “signed” them all with the sewing machine.

I knew I wanted one of the quilts to be a picnic scene but wasn’t sure where it should be. I went out with my camera to several places around Yellow Springs including the picnic area at John Bryan State Park but the images from John Bryan could have been anywhere.

Reference photo

I ended up at Ellis Pond and thought the combination of the pond and the weeping willow trees made it more distinct, although I did make some adjustments to the layout.

"Picnic at Ellis Pond" detail

The picnic basket features one of the few commercial prints used in this series, most of the fabrics are hand dyed or batiks, but I already had the fabric and it was the right size so I went with it. The backing fabric is also the basket weave.

"Picnic at Ellis Pond" detail

I’d bought the water fabric awhile ago with the intent of using it for water at some point.

The quilt under the basket is fused but the edges were folded over to give it some dimension against the grass.

This is all machine raw edge appliqué.

More about this quilt and the Americana Series

Yellow Springs Americana Series: Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm

"Sunflowersat Whitehall Farm," 17.5" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

Just north of Yellow Springs on State Route 68 there’s a field that for the last several years has had sunflowers planted in it. There have been a few near accidents because so many people stop to take photos because it’s such an awe-inspiring sight.

Part of the property has a wire fence but I decided to use my artistic license and add the wooden fence so I had somewhere to lean the bicycle.

"Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm" detail

The sunflowers are made from three different commercial sunflower prints that vary in size. I added the brown batik fabric to the center of all the sunflowers to unify them. I also added over a hundred light purple seed beads to represent the centers of the last rows of sunflowers.

I found the perfect hand-dyed fabric that had yellow and green blended together to use for the background behind the sunflower stems.

"Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm" detail

The chain on the bicycle is black cord that is couched down and the spokes are stitched thread.

More about this quilt and the Americana Series

Yellow Springs Americana Series: Lazy Summer Afternoon

"Lazy SummerAfternoon," 18.75" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

This is not our front porch. I love our front porch but it’s different than this one. We did used to have a red porch swing, but we don’t anymore.

While I was working on this quilt, my husband was putting new siding on our house. He went with a tongue-and groove cedar that he stained, I went with yellow clapboards. He installed two new windows while I only had to make one.

"Lazy Summer Afternoon" detail

The clapboards on the house were made by folding over the bottom edge but laying them down starting at the top. Getting the angle of the clapboards and the window were a little tricky.

The railing is pieced, everything else is raw edge appliqué. The “chains” that the swing hangs from are black cord that is couched down.

More about this quilt and the Americana Series

Yellow Springs Americana Series: My Soul in a Blackberry Pie

"My Soul in a Blackberry Pie," 18.75" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

For this quilt the picket fence and most of the window elements were machine pieced.

The pie, rocks, bushes, and chair are raw edge appliqué so those pieces were made by drawing the reverse of the images onto a paper-backed fusible web, fusing it to the fabric, cutting it out, then layering the pieces on the quilt.

"My Soul in a Blackberry Pie," detail

My husband makes fantastic pies so I used a photo of one of his pies as a reference. He likes to make the lattice crust tops so I made mine the same way by cutting out the fabric strips and weaving them together. I quilted berry shapes on the purple fabric.

While I didn't do this intentionally, I noticed that most of the quilts in this series play with perspective, having one object in the foreground (the pie) and other objects in the background (the chair). By making the pie larger than the chair, I indicate to the view that it is closer to them (close enough to touch...don't you want to?)

More about this quilt and the Americana Series

Yellow Springs Americana Series: Kings Yard Farmers Market

"Kings Yard Farmers Market," 18.5" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

We are fortunate to have three Farmers Markets in Yellow Springs, two on Saturday morning and one on Thursday afternoon. I knew I wanted to make a quilt of the market, but wasn’t sure how I’d make it into a vertical format like the other quilts in this series.

I went to the market and took lots of photos and decided that the focus should be inside one of the canopies with the other canopies in the background.

Reference photo

I cropped the photo, changed the lettuce to a photo of apples and pumpkins that I had taken last fall, changed the honey to a collection of different color tomatoes (also taken last fall), added a canopy, and changed the trucks in the background to crates of produce.

"Kings Yard Farmers Market" detail

This is all machine raw edge appliqué so there were a lot of raw edges to be quilted down, including all the tomatoes. 

The fabric I used for the barrels holding the apples is the same fabric I used for the center of the sunflowers in "Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm" and in the center of the flowers on "Picnic at Ellis Pond."

More about this quilt and the Americana Series

Yellow Springs Americana Series: Patio at the Winds Cafe

"Patio at the Winds Cafe," 18.5" x 28", by Pam Geisel, July 2013

Since I made this series of quilts to be hung in a group show at the Winds Cafe in Yellow Springs, I wanted to create a quilt that featured them.

Reference photo

This summer the Winds installed a new patio dining area. I love to eat at restaurants that have outdoor dining areas and was especially drawn to this area because of the lights they have.

I wanted this quilt to be a scene set in the evening so I could light the lights. I also loved the architecture that was included in this photo: the exterior stairs on the left and the building on the right that support the lights and the canopies.

This is all machine raw edge appliqué. The wires supporting the lights are the same black cord I used to hang the front porch swing in “Lazy Summer Afternoon” and for the bicycle chain in “Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm.”

For the fence in front of the table first I tried a piece of blue cord because I thought it would tie in with the blue of the canopies but I thought it felt too confining so I switched to a purply cord that picked up the colors of the fabric at the bottom of the quilt (the brick walkway).

"Patio at the Winds Cafe" detail

The lights were made by cutting small yellow circles and fusing them to the background then I cut larger circles from a yellow sheer fabric and stitched them to the circles. Then I hand pieced some large, iridescent sequins that helped cover the stitched and give the lights a “glow.”

More about this quilt and the Americana Series