One of my favorite parts of working with Jaftex as a Brand Ambassador is the creative challenge. They send a package of fabric about every 6 weeks and my job is to make it into something wonderful. The last Jaftex project I completed was using Beachy Keen by Janelle Falk for Blank Quilting. For that fabric line I created two projects. This beach ball table runner will be featured on social media. This is patterned after my Beach Ball Runner from the Scrap Crazy for More book using the 6" templates that I designed for Creative Grids.
The second project is a larger quilt patterned after my single page pattern called Woven Rain. That quilt project will be featured on the SIY website in May 2023. SIY stands for Sew It Yourself. That website is provided by Jaftex and has a host of free patterns using fabric lines from the six different companies that fall under the Jaftex brand.
Part of the Brand Ambassador job is taking progress shots as you make the quilt and then final style shots when the project is complete. I live near the beach in Florida so style shots for the Beachy Keen project with sand, water and waves should not be a problem.... right?
I start with collection photos and then try to remember to take progress shots along the way.
When I finish the quilt, the fun begins. I look for interesting places all around the little town on our island to take the style shots. I shop for props that match or coordinate and start planning the photos.
For Beachy Keen, I had a crazy idea for a photo. Wouldn't be awsome to toss the quilt at the waters edge and then take a video of the beautiful white water rolling over it? Then I could reverse the video and run it in slow motion. The result would look like the ocean was receding and revealing the quilt! Totally cool eye-candy for social media! I convinced my husband to be my quilt wrangler. His job was to get the quilt in position, timing the waves and make sure that it didn't wash out to sea! Off to the beach we went on a chilly and a what turned out to be a bit too windy of a day.
As a precaution, we took several "dry" shots before getting the quilt wet.
We even took a short video of a classic quilt drop.
(For some reason Blogger won't let me share it here.)
Then it was time for the money shot.
We talked it through and made a plan so that we both knew exactly what we would be doing.
I would be dodging waves, handling the camera. My husband tossing, spreading and quilt wrangling.
We should have let Mother Nature in on the conversation.
Obviously she didn't understand how to perform her part.
Instead of washing over the quilt the waves scrunched it up like the ocean was rejecting it and
pushing it out of the way.
The few hardy people on the beach were both amused and willing to lend a hand or at least share their opinions on what we were doing wrong.
The real problem was me, attempting photography WAY above my pay grade!
FYI
The quilt is safe and sound. It was dried, and then the sand was brushed off.
It has been through the washer and dryer so it is softer and a bit more crinkled
than it was before it's run in with Mother Nature.
