I came to my love of quilting late, after trying lots of other things. I never learned to enjoy the repetition of cloth weaving and spinning, which were my mom’s favorite crafts. I love design and color, so I tried tapestry weaving instead. It was interesting and I plan to get back to it someday, but I discovered that the designs I came up with didn’t want to be tapestries – they wanted to be art quilts. And I fell in love with batik fabrics, so that was that – I needed to learn to make pictures with fabric.
I am an impatient sort, so I’ve never taken the sensible route of taking classes and starting with samplers or training pieces; I like to get in over my head right away! So I bought some books and got busy re-inventing the wheel. My first piece was a daffodil that I designed; my second piece was Cody’s memorial portrait. I learned things the hard way, like heavier fabrics don’t piece together well and that Sharpie ink is soluble in Fray-Check (Cody has a couple of inadvertent red "freckles"). The most important thing I learned is that I really enjoy the work – coming up with the design, finding the perfect fabrics, and even dealing with the fiddly little stitching and uncooperative fabric in tight corners.
Here's the method I use to make portrait quilts. Those of you who are expert quilters will no doubt cringe at some things I do – please share in the comments if you know a better way to do it! My woozle's inspired me, and continue to do so, even though they're gone (but not forgotten!). Woozle-lovers are also invited to share other ways to remember our much-missed fuzz-faces.
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(This method is adapted from the books "Pieced Flowers" by Ruth McDowell and "Curves In Motion" by Judy Dales.)
It's a lot easier than it looks, and works up pretty quickly once you get the hang of it.
- Create a line drawing of your portrait by tracing over the selected photo. (I do this on the computer with Adobe Illustrator, but you can do it using a piece of plastic; this is the method I’ll describe.) Make a color print of your photo (this print doesn’t need to be the full size of the final product, but you save a step later if it is.)Lay a piece of plastic (acetate – heavy enough not to stretch with handling) over the color print. Using a very fine-tipped permanent marker like a Sharpie, trace around patches of color to make a "paint-by-number" version of the photo; the traced lines mark joins between pieces of fabric. Keep in mind that very small pieces are difficult to work with; you may be able to get the shape you need without sewing by taking advantage of color variations or a pattern on a fabric. Details of eyes are particularly hard to get by piecing; I ended up using a single piece for the whole eye, and then using dome-shaped buttons for the eyeballs.
Here’s the cropped photo I used as the basis for Cody’s portrait:
Here’s the line drawing I prepared using Illustrator:
Here’s my current project, Shadow’s portrait; on the left is acetate with the lines traced on it, on the right is the image with lines drawn using Illustrator:
(There’s going to be a lot of raw-edged appliqué on Shadow’s portrait, in an attempt to capture a sense of that beautiful double-coat; I’ll be using photos of the pieceworked jaw to illustrate the steps.)
- If your completed line drawing is not full size, you’ll need to enlarge it on a copy machine to the size you want. Trace the full-size line drawing onto high-quality, non-stretchable fusible interfacing. Trace it backwards onto the back of the interfacing, so that the ink is NOT on the shiny, fusible side and the drawing faces in the correct direction when the fusible side is on top.
- Add registration marks with the marker pen on the non-fusible side of the interfacing. These are short lines that cross the lines marking the join between two pieces of fabric; they are an essential guide for precisely joining these curved, irregularly shaped pieces – the needle goes in at the registration mark on one piece of fabric, and comes out at the registration mark on the second piece of fabric. I try to space the marks 2 or 3 stitch-lengths apart, and put a little "T" bar at the ends of every third mark (to help me make sure I’m joining corresponding marks when I sew). Wherever there is a fork (3 lines coming together, indicating a point where three pieces of fabric come together), I use a little V mark on the two sides marking where the point of the middle piece ends.
Here’s Shadow’s lower jaw (tongue, gums, and teeth) traced onto fusible interfacing, with registration marks added (the green dots mark edges that will be appliquéd).
- Inspect the marked interfacing carefully to make sure that all lines are clearly visible and have appropriate registration marks. Number each piece, both on the interfacing (write on the non-fusible side of the interfacing) and on the line drawing – once you cut up the interfacing, the line drawing will be your guide to where each piece of the puzzle fits.
- Carefully cut the interfacing into pieces.
- Pick your fabrics. (I have stuck pretty closely to the actual colors for Cody’s and Shadow’s memorial quilts, but it would be great fun to translate the picture into a color scheme that matched the dog’s personality, using the glorious range of colors available in batik fabrics. Next time...)
Here’s some of the fabrics I’m using for Shadow’s portrait, along with my favorite of the fabrics from Cody’s portrait:
- Lay the pieces of interfacing on the back of the appropriate fabric. You can have creative fun with this; you can take advantage of shading in batik fabrics to capture fine shading or features in the photo, you can use lines in the fabric pattern to emphasize textures in the photo (like the direction that hair grows or smile lines) or dotted fabrics for freckles, etc. If you need to be very precise in your placement and you can’t see fabric details from the back of the fabric, trace the shape onto plastic and use this to find the right place on the front of the fabric.
Here’s the back of two pieces of Shadow’s gums, with the interfacing placed and ironed on:
- When you are happy with the placement of each piece, iron the interfacing onto the back of the fabric. Leave plenty of margin when you cut around the piece; you will trim to the proper width later.
I usually baste the interfacing into place wherever there are small pieces and sharp points; the edges sometimes peel up while I’m working. (I may lack patience, but I’m also a bit on the obsessive side...) The yellow thread in some of the following photos is the basting.
- You will be handling the pieces a lot while you work, and raveling edges can be a problem. You can’t use a zig-zag stitch to stabilize edges because you will have to clip along curves. I apply Fray-Check OUTSIDE of the sewing line and let it dry thoroughly before trimming to about ¼ inch beyond edge of the interfacing. BE VERY CAREFUL to keep the Fray-Check away from the edge of the interfacing – I learned the hard way that Sharpie ink is soluble in Fray-Check, and you don’t want the ink to bleed through to the front of the fabric! (This step is tedious, but worth it.)
- Congratulations! You are FINALLY done with the prep work, and can start sewing!
- Pick your first two pieces to sew together. (I usually start with the focal point of the image, and work my way outwards. In Cody’s portrait, the eyes were the focal point.) Put the pieces right-side-together, and pick a registration mark to start with. Put the needle in at the back of one piece at the registration mark, then put the needle in the front of the other piece at the corresponding registration mark. Look at the next registration mark and figure out how many stitch-lengths away it is. (It’s easy to eyeball the position of 1 to 3 points in between registration points.) Keep stitching, carefully matching up every pair of registration marks when you get to them. Clip edges as needed around curves.
Here’s a back view of three pieces (making up the tongue), sewn together with registration marks matched:
Here’s the same pieces, viewed from the front:
You can piece quite intricate shapes this way. Here’s a front view of the lower jaw pieced together, ready to be appliquéd to the tongue:
It’s really easy once you get the hang of it, but precision is important. (I said I was a bit on the obsessive side!) Sewing pieces together takes some attention, but not total concentration. You can sew anywhere – on planes, in front of the TV set (a favorite spot for me), at boring meetings – as long as you can (mostly) keep your eyes on what you’re sewing. Not quite as portable as knitting, but definitely portable.
- Keep going. Piece by piece, the picture comes together. Finally, you’ll get the satisfaction of seeing your vision all together in fabric!
- When you’re done with the portrait, sew on a complementary border. ( I put a red border on Cody’s quilt because he always had a red collar – I loved the way the red collar looked against his very black fur.) If you are going to frame the quilt, don’t turn under the outer edge – the framer will use that margin to attach the piece under the matting. Be careful if you don’t frame the picture – those seams are not very strong, particularly where 3 or more pieces come together.
- When you are done with all of the sewing, carefully remove all basting threads and the interfacing. (Don’t worry if a little interfacing gets left behind.) Add any surface embellishment, like eyes. (I’m going to add a little bit of very fuzzy knitting yarn at the end to highlight the fuzziness of Shadow’s fur.)
The Payoff: These two pieces were wholly constructed using the technique described in this diary.
Here’s Cody’s completed memorial portrait, framed and ready to go on the wall:
And here’s a fun one, titled "Play," that I did in between the two memorial portraits. The colors were the inspiration for the piece – this blue and yellow combination always felt like "fun" to me, and nothing’s more fun than a dog at play! I found the perfect dog photo on the web. (The outer border is a fancy frame, not fabric.)
Thanks for spending some of your Sunday with me. Have fun with whatever beautiful things you’re making!