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"My husband, Gary, is a hobby photographer. I often use his photographs for quilts. Whenever we travel I'm always looking for a special photo to use as a quilt inspiration, Sometimes the idea or inspiration comes first. In that case, the photo trip has a specific goal in mind. Let's get some pictures of...? In the case of my recent quilt, 'Forest Walk,' that was the scenario. I told Gary that I'd wanted to make another large forest scene because it had been over 4 years since 'Among Giants.' I had looked through our hundreds of redwood pictures and thought; I just don't see the right shot. He said; it's probably because we need to go to a different location. So soon the day came that he had some free time and the sun was shining--a good day to walk in the woods. We decided to go to Redwood Park in the city of Arcata. I grew up in that town and spent many good times climbing around and running the trails in that park. However, I had not been there in many years.
The park had changed from my memory. Now there is a beautiful walking trail from lower entrance. So we began, and the walk was slow because we had to get so many pictures along the way. When I saw the stairway, inspiration hit! Usually I try to eliminate "man made" elements in my pictures-- but for some reason this stairway appealed to me. The sun was shining down the stairs and in this shot there was a weed or vine that showed itself to great advantage. When we came home and I viewed all of the shots- -this was the one I decided to try.
As it turns out, I was the one who took this inspiration photo with my little point shoot and camera. I was now ready to get started on the new quilting adventure. I chose to do a variation of my Mosaic Picture Piecing technique. Using this method, I would have freedom to get accurate shapes, and I would be able to use lots of beautiful fabrics to get the rich depths and textures. So I worked on a tracing for the vine and the stairway which would be enlarged to full size. I also printed out an 8x10 clear copy of the picture. This is my guide to color and value as well as a map to where everything goes.
The composition of the picture took me some time. I got discouraged along the way and actually hung it on the wall for about a month while I did a couple of other smaller projects - did I want to give up? No, the day came when I decided to finish it up. It took about 4 months to complete."