Fantasy Photoshop Spirograph Quilt

Fantasy Spirograph Quilt

This image is dedicated to the memory of my Aunt* Erna. Here’s a picture of her from when she visited us in the 1970s (she’s the second from the left). At that time I was a kid in elementary or middle school and I happened to show her my Spirograph drawings.

Uncle Oscar, Aunt Erna, Aunt Marie and Uncle Leland, 1970s

Aunt Erna was an excellent and prolific quilter, and remarked, “These would make a beautiful quilt.”

The idea immediately intrigued me, although it was totally impractical. For a while after she left, I tried to think of a way to make them into a quilt (I was a kid, remember). I thought I could possibly embroider the designs on fabric. (HA!) I thought maybe I could use fabric markers to put the designs on fabric (Double HA!)

I even tried using my favorite substance—Elmer’s White Glue—to glue the designs to denim. I often liked to cover drawings I made with Elmer’s White Glue. It would dry clear and give the drawing a shine. I especially liked the effect the glue covering gave to an underwater scene I drew for a project in fifth grade.

So I did the same thing with a Spirograph design and denim, smearing glue both under and on top of the design. The result was OK, but too stiff for a quilt. Here’s a picture of it:

Computer wizardry allowed me to erase the denim and use this design in the “quilt” above

When that didn’t work, I tried other ways to use my Spirograph drawings in a practical way. I like practical things. Here’s one that I used as a frame for a picture of my sister:

What a cute face!

I never made much use of the “frame” idea, but the quilt idea was lodged permanently in my brain.

It’s been 40 years or so since then, and yes, I still have the Spirograph drawings. Not because I’m desperately in love with them, but they don’t take up much room and have long had a home inside a small decorative basket along with some other random items. I never had a good reason to throw them out.

Recently I came across these drawings from long ago, the idea of a quilt popped back into my head. I realized that the computer could do what my craft ideas could not.

I no longer really cared to make a real fabric quilt (maybe I would if these designs were done by my kids instead of by me). I suppose these days there are ways of transferring images on paper to fabric, but I’m not interested.

But—with the power of my computer, I now had a chance to construct a picture of the quilt by scanning the designs!  And even better than a real quilt, I can change the background colors if I want.

Yes, it looks like I had too much time on my hands, but I didn’t do this all in one sitting. Since I’ve been “taking it easy” during my cancer treatment, I had plenty of time to mess around with this. The project also gave me a chance to practice and learn Photoshop skills.

I’m now sharing the results with you. I haven’t completely decided which border or which colors go best with this. If you have any thoughts, let me know in the comments and I’ll try them!

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*All the aunts and uncles mentioned in this post are really great-aunts and great-uncles, but it sounds cumbersome and stuffy to include the “great” part, although they were all great in every sense of the word.