Progress!

Seeing all these finished quilts is motivating me to get moving on my portrait after being on vacation and trying to settle back into the groove at home... I'm not complaining, but 2 weeks in Puerto Rico will do that to a girl!

I am all fused together, and auditioning this background. After living with it for a week, I think it's ready for quilting. I have to admit I was thinking of adding more to the background, but it is probably busy enough already, so I'll have to challenge myself to quilt those extra details in instead!

Stick A Fork In It...

I think I'm done. Thanks for another great challenge, V. This was the perfect project to practice my quilting. Just attaching my free motion foot makes me sweat, so I need all the practice I can get. I look forward to your next brain exercise. I love all the portrait quilts I've seen. What a creative bunch you all are!

I was too chicken to "write" in a contrasting thread. It says, "Say Cheese."

80's revival

Today, My Daughter's NEON and BLACK 80's looking outfit, inspired me to

finish this little top today... I'm off to quilt and perhaps have it done ASAP for her birthday Saturday...
I added her Initials, and NYC 10 some what Graffiti style (???),
and some "wall scratchings" to feel like graffiti...
Not sure if' I TOTALLY pulled it off, But I think she will be pleasantly surprised, and
I may even get a "COOL" out of her... ;-)
we'll see!

done!

Final stitches done...
I was worried I would procrastinate the quilting on this til next year!
But I jumped on it, and am so happy I did this project...
trying something new, and finding, that it is possible to learn a few new tricks is always satisfying... Learning things you hope to never do again, well, that is a good lesson too!
wasn't crazy about all the fused layers, and the pealing up of edges...
I prefer a good "all pieced" look...

Looking to see what defined myself was an interesting challenge...
being happy with my GREY hair,
Using favorite colors,
how to tackle the nose!
what to leave out, WRINKLES.
What to put in, EYE details, and touches of a waverunner
and hand quilting with perle cotton,
a few things I do a lot of...

Taking a chance to be BOLD.
when I'd rather be a wall flower...

I'm pleased that you all joined along on this little adventure.
I hope you all enjoyed it!

Some have yet to start... Can't wait to see what the others will do...

Say cheese!

I was determined to finish this weekend and I did :0).
thanks for the challenge Victoria.....its been fun. I've enjoyed seeing everyone else too.

Finished portrait.....

I had a case of the guilty's that it has taken me so long to do a portrait..Especially since I really wanted too! My spouse and I have been working on a retro trailer redo and we have a deadline...I decided tonight that I was going to get a portrait done no matter what and I just let the mood take me....here is the picture I used....









this is a vacation picture and it got snapped while I still had a straw in my mouth...(imagine that) I didnt want to do the straw so I did just down past my nose....I thought it was different and kind of fun.....Here is how my portrait turned out.....

















I printed out two copies, used one for a guide and cut the other up as a pattern. I then laid down fabric then thread painted details...I put adjetives that I think describe me around the edges....I really, enjoyed doing this quilt...it was so relaxing and fun.....

Hello, it's nice to meet you

Well now isn't it funny when you find out someone who lives on the other side of the universe is doing the same thing you are?! This self-portrait is my attempt to "go make art" again. I thought ok, what can I do? and answered, "self portrait!" Well, my bird heard me think that thought and immediately flew over to be a part of things, so I started sketching. I cut the fabric by just looking at the drawing, and listen babes, that was tough. I needed to do something that was a quick finish, tho, and was afraid I'd walk away if I got too precise about things. I was pretty dang excited when I finished, and even tho it needs "more," I snapped a pic and sent it to my pal Shelly who is the Queen of Encouragement in my book. Lo and behold she knew just where to point me and connected me with you fine folks who are also fabricating self portraits. Thanks for inviting me to post this, V. It's an honor to join ya'll!

progress

I've also taken inspiration from others....I have a large pointed nose but decided that a few lines here and there gets the message across :0)  ......today I will probably add a crumb border and try to do some quilting.
How is everyone else coming along?

Finished

This is the type of thing I have no experience with and want to become better at, so was ready to jump in when V put out the challenge.

Here is my original photo:

I do not like photos of myself and rarely show them in blogland.  

And here is my completed portrait:

I am very happy with the hair, eyes, glasses, shirt and chin.  Very unhappy with the nose and mouth.  I loved doing the free motion quilting and look - just like Anne, I did a pebble background!  This is the first time I've done this and would use it again on a small project.  It takes forever and lots of thread.

Thanks V for the challenge.  I learned a lot.

Modified Cubism finished!

I am not the kind of person who likes to have a lot of unfinished projects laying around, so I finished this a couple of weeks ago, but saved it until V gave the go-ahead to post it.

This was an attempt at a slightly cubist look and was done in double reverse applique. Coming up with ideas and piecing are always fun to me, but quilting is a taste that I haven't acquired yet . It's a necessary component, but something I have no patience for.

It was a good challenge that Victoria set out for us.Who knew it would be so difficult to want to look at yourself for so long? It also was a change for those of us who primarily only do utilitarian-sized quilts. I can't wait to see the rest of the finishes.

Ta Dah!!

Here's my reveal. I know it looks like a floating head but I chickened out at the thought of putting a neck on it. I started with a picture and enlarged and printed it in black and white at Staples. I am not an artist and really can't draw so I decided to flip the picture over and use a sharpie to outline different elements.
I just traced onto the fusible. If I had more confidence I really could have just thread stitched around the eyes and the nose but NO WAY! Experience has taught me that that is beyond my ability. I kept the whole thing very simple. I am, however considering embellishing with some beads or something for earrings. I can't put on a necklace without a neck, can I? Lol. I decided to try to make my self-portrait look like it was in a wood frame, and then I just framed it wonky for some interest.
For some reason, I have a thing for birds lately. These little guys came from 'my whimsical quilt garden' from Piece o' Cake Designs.

I couldn't resist this chubby little birdie!! Just so cute.

This was fun and I just might try it again. Maybe I can get a picture of my kids together.

I can't wait to see everybody else's portrait. Let's go people!

I'm done!

My fabric portrait is done too. Let me know when the reveal is , I'll have a photo waiting.

Complete!!

It's

quilted

bound

labeled!!

It's 

complete!

And when V gives the word, I'm ready to reveal.  This was so much fun, so frustrating and such a learning process.

Thanks V!

Okay, here is my picture

While we were  waiting for the train back to NY  I had my husband take some photos of me to try and get one for my fabric portrait.  Well this one has my eyes open and a smile and the rest.......well scary!
So now at least I have a start point......and I must finish up Lily's portrait too :0).......end of June right?

I have a nose!

Here it is, a nose. After much pondering, I decided that I should take a minimalist approach. So I just made little slivers and a few curves. Less is more, ya know what I mean? I have a few ideas for finishing this off, so stay tuned!

15 minutes

I have 15 minutes before I need to get some serious work done.. I've had my daughters picture laying here, beside MY portrait that I need to get quilted... (on the list of things to do!)

But I wanted to take a few minutes to PLAY, and see if I could try something new...

Some of my first quilts back in college, I painted on the fabrics... This was before I knew people actually did these kind of things all the time.. I was a naive quilter... what can I say...

But I haven't done it since I did the silhouette quilt that I posted here. So I wanted to get back and try something directly to the fabrics... It's a start,

and Now I've had my 15 minutes, So back to work!

http://bumblebeansbasics.com/

And briefly, please stop by the new site for the QUILT gather project.
Visit the blog page, stop by and say hi.

Pass it on, talk about at your guild,
tell your pals, take the button... etc etc....

we can help others just by passing the word!

Thank you so much!

Scary ... part 2

It's been a while since I have posted my 1st attempt of a portrait. It turned out to be far too small to continue, but I kept going with the same photo.

My main challenges (apart from it still  being too small for my hands) were a good background - and how to get the head decent on some shoulders so it would look OK. Well, after a lot of trial and error, I decided to go for this:

I put my head on a balloon ( even though in real life balloons shouldn't have fabric wrinkles or pleats...). Does it still look like me, well, I am not sure. That's where I am at. I still need to define my face more, somehow.

It's been fun and I will continue!

Say cheese,

Barb in MI

Purple Brad continues

I got started on this late last night.......now I need your help. Lots of it!!!!!

I am very, very, very undecided where to go with the fabrics for this. I usually am very good with this part of quiltmaking but this time I am stuck.

So I need your advice! Please be honest....it will help me out.

When I got the idea for this quilt a year plus ago, I was at the copy shop playing around with enlarging images. I noticed how interesting it looked when different part of the image where just scattered on top of each other.....

So I made more copies and arranged them until I was happy.

Then I squared it up to 24 inches.

Now I am stuck.......I have my collection of purple solids. But I am thinking I should mix in purple prints to give it more texture and life. What do you think????

Also, I am toying with the idea of assigning breaking down the orginal image into a certain number of values, then assigning each section/value a specific fabric. That way I can unify the whole image in the same way it currently is using the grayscale. So the individual sections would bend more into a united whole.

Now your feedback please!!! Should I stitck to just solids or mix the two of them together?????

Do you think the idea of assigning values to the original picture would work??

Looking forward to hearing from you!!

kathy

Slowly, slowly, My portrait inches along.

I started with this photo. I took it to Staples and had it enlarged and printed in black and white. Then I traced around it with a fine point sharpie to separate different elements, my hair, glasses, face and mouth. My first attempt, bleh!! The hair is a complete flop, the colors washed out, just a big blob of blah.

My second attempt. I like this better. I just love this newsprint fabric I used for my face. I need to find more, I get nervous every time I use some of it. Ooooh, what if I run out!? The rest of this portrait feels better, brighter. I definitely got the hair shape better.
Notice anything missing? I always tuck my hair behind my ears, but I'm not sure this needs an ear. And, yoo hoo, where's the nose? After reading the other posts on this blog, I think we can agree that noses seem to be a challenge. This project is going to marinate overnight and I'll tackle the nose tomorrow.

.

Yup, the second try is most certainly the better one. And did you notice how the pins look like earrings? I see some embellishing in the future here.. I can't wait to see the final product. I have no idea where it's headed, but I'm enjoying it. Good night everybody.

mod portraits

We had out NYC metro mod quilt guild here today...
Two friends had made portraits! Thought I'd share.
I love how both of these are so different from each other...
I like the simple graphic nature of the colorful one,
and the fabric choices on Helen's Black and white, is so fantastic.
The border fabric have a real iridescent shimmer to them.
Her shirt is Zipper fabric, and the background is scenes of New York...

So much fun!

Do any of you give nose jobs??

So I'm thinking things are moving along rather smoothly....until I get to the nose.  Yes the nose I hate in real life too.

  

Will this "MOM" tatoo I added on Picnic be okay?

I just don't know what to do except a transplant.