Two years ago, I made a portrait quilt on commission, based on a photo of my client’s beautiful blue-eyed daughter. Earlier this year, she contacted me again about making a portrait quilt of her mother. She provided me with a photo of her mother as a young woman.
As usual, I started by ‘posterizing’ the original photo to get the value differences. (Here’s a tutorial about the process I use.) The face in this quilt is only 6 inches high, so I had to minimize the amount of detail, but I believe I captured the essence of her appearance. You can see the progression below from original photo, to posterized version, to the final portrait.
The original plan was for the portrait to be in sepia tones or gray-scale, but I just couldn’t get a realistic look using such a limited palette. After a couple of failed attempts with gray fabrics, we agreed to go with realistic colors, and I’m glad we did.
This is the first portrait I’ve done with hands, so it took a bit of experimentation to get the look I wanted.
I finished it with a turned-back facing. As usual, I referred to my facing technique tutorial. I realized while following my own instructions that I could simplify the process. I didn’t take photos this time, so I’ll have to do that next time, and then update the tutorial.
The quilt has been added to my gallery of portrait quilts. It’s interesting to see the variety of techniques I’ve used for portrait quilts over the years.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
I love the simplicity of this piece…..just lovely!
So lovely!!!