I’ve made lots of progress on the dog portrait in the last couple of days – I have all the pieces cut and positioned on a piece of parchment paper, ready to be fused.
Here are the steps I used to get to this stage:
Photo 1 below – all of the fabric pieces are backed with fusible web. Some have the backing paper removed, but most still have the paper attached – because that makes it easier to rearrange the pieces (once the backing paper is removed, the pieces start sticking to each other). So the pieces are all pinned in place on the original full size pattern, and now I need to remove pins, peel off backing paper and position each piece in place. That’s difficult to do because most of the pieces are overlapping other pieces.
Photo 2 below – I printed another full size pattern, pinned it to another small design board, pinned parchment paper over that (so I can fuse the pieces together when I’m ready, and then just peel it off the parchment paper). I also traced the major design lines onto another piece of parchment paper which I pinned to the top of the design board. Then I moved the pieces one by one from the first design board to the second one. As I moved each piece, I flipped up the tracing, positioned the piece, then flipped the tracing back in place to ensure the fabric piece was in the right place.
Photo 3 below – all pieces are positioned on the bottom layer of parchment paper with the tracing on top. At this point, the pieces are just finger-pressed in place.
Photo 4 below – all pieces positioned, tracing removed. Ready to fuse together.
Next, I’ll fuse the whole portrait together, then I’ll peel it off the parchment paper and audition it against some background fabrics. In the comments in my last post several of my readers asked how I stitch the pieces after fusing. Here’s my process. I’ll be posting photos as I continue with this portrait.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
Terry – first thank you! Your posts have inspired and encouraged me to try to make a quilt of our dog, Brody. I’ve wanted to try it for a long long time. I’ve created one piece – with cow heads – old school – by piecing and appliqueing, but that’s too labor intensive and creates too many obstacles : ) My question is – I hand piece and quilt. I won’t have to piece because of the fusing, but do you think hand quilting is doable through the layers? I’m going to try no matter what, but wondered if you could offer any suggestions to make it easier? Thank you again!
The dog is coming out fabulous! I especially love the eyes!
Terry – thanks for information. I will try the fusing with hand-quilting. Thank you again!