For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a new dog portrait. Here’s the original photo next to the finished quilted portrait.
Below are some of the photos I took as I was constructing this portrait.
I assemble the fused pieces on a small design board covered with parchment paper (so I can fuse the pieces together when I’m ready, and then later peel it off the parchment paper). I also trace the major design lines onto another piece of parchment paper which I pin to the top of the design board. As I position each piece or section, I flip up the top piece of parchment paper, then flip it back down to ensure everything is in the right position.
When I’m working on a specific section (such as the mouth in the photo below), I can assemble and fuse the pieces on top of the parchment. When that section is complete, I move it into position under the top layer.
I do all the quilting on the dog before adding the final layer of batting and backing. That way, I don’t have to be concerned about any messy thread ends on the back of my work, and I don’t have to bury the thread ends. For Sitka, I quilted the dog through a thin layer of white eco-felt. I use threads that are fairly close in color to the fabrics.
Then I added a layer of batting and the backing fabric, and quilted the green background. This gives a dimensional quality to the dog – the background area surrounding the dog is flattened by the quilting, and the dog’s face and body are slightly raised. The final step is to outline key areas of the dog’s head and body to add even more dimension.
On my Tips and Tutorials page, the first 3 items in the list are links to previous posts I’ve written about the techniques I use to create quilted portraits. To see other pet portraits I’ve made, check out my Gallery page.
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If you live in the Vancouver area, I hope you will visit a new exhibition that includes two pieces of my work. Here’s a link to an article in the local paper – with a photo of one of my pieces!
‘(in)finite: spiritual conversations in cloth‘
May 25 to June 4, 2017 – Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, BC
Opening reception: Saturday, May 27 from 5 to 7 pm
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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.
