Lighthouse Inspiration

Donna had asked about the Lighthouse pattern for my place mats.  Truth be told...there is no pattern.

I *knew* that I wanted to depict the Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouse.  Photo credit here.  (oops~this is the Racine lighthouse but in the pictures it looks just like the Milwaukee lighthouse.)

I took this picture of the lighthouse in Manitowoc, Wisconsin this summer.  This gave me roughly the layout for my place mats.  I  *knew* that I wanted my place mats to finish at about 14 x 17 and I wanted the *sky* to be a bit bigger than the *water*  So I pieced the background using  8.5 x 17.5 in for the sky and 6.5 x 17.5 for the water.

For the shape of the lighthouse~I found this wood cut-out at either JoAnn's or Michael's for $1.00.  I fused two way fusible onto the back of red and black fabric and then traced the shaped onto the paper size of the fusible.  I wasn't too sure what to use as land so I remembered my brown plaid in the stash.  I fused a 3 in (by wof) then free cut the *pier*.

Here is my Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouse before quilting.