My first art quilt

[vickki]

It is beautiful,your work is just the best....Vickki

[bridesmom]

Thank you so much for your kind words. They brought tears to my eyes. It was one of those projects that I put my whole heart into, and I cried when I put the label on it. He gets it tomorrow afternoon, so I'll let you know what his reponse was.

[DorothyL]

Laura,
Did you do the dog "freehand?" Did you use one of those printer sheets with fabric on them to print the picture? How did you do the photo part?
Dorothy

[lendube]

Uh oh, Dorothy! Please be careful...........you're treading into dangerous territory! I'm afraid for you.

[Magot]

It's OK Lennie, Dorothy likes to do applique. She won't be sucked in..

[HeyJudee]

You never know what will make some move to the dark side...

[DorothyL]

I'll admit to an occasional foray into the twilight. But that is as far as I go.
Dorothy

[bridesmom]

First, before I tell you how I did it, I have to tell you DS's reaction. He cried, my DD cried, I cried. Then he looked close at it and says, how did you do this??? Is that thread???

So, I took the photo, copied it on a photocopier and enlarged it onto a number of 11x17 sheets. I had to do it in sections. Then I took a large piece of pattern tracing paper, laid it out over the different sections and traced out the dog, and the different shaded areas, the mouth, ears, darker sections on the neck etc, also using the photo beside me to get the right spots. Then I numbered all the different pieces, 1 - dog, 2 right ear, 3 - left ear left side, 4 - left ear right side, etc kind of like making a paint by number picture. I then traced the pieces onto another piece of tracing paper and cut them out leaving the original design intact so that I could put it back together. Next, I auditioned my fabrics, and then cut out the applique pieces. I basically created most of the dog first just appliqueing the shaded sections over the main dog, then when it was time for the ears, did my background, laid the dog body on the background piece, placed the ears, then appliqued it all down permanently. I put a piece of cotton batting under the picture and started to quilt. (I didn't put any backing until the end) I stitched the background first, doing a wood grain on the 'fence' and circles around the rocks, the leaves I should have echoed, but I meandered, next time I'll know better. Then I started on the dog, used about 3 different colors of thread, and just zigzagged across over and over with the feed dogs down, going over the edges to make it look like fur. It's amazing how the appliqued pieces of darker gold on the dog blended in under all the thread. Then I used a light beige to highlight in areas. The bubbles are a white organza that I sewed on at the end, using my embroidery machine I made a circle, sewed a large square of fabric on using the circle, then cut out around it afterwards very carefully.

After all this was done I realized I hadn't left any extra batting for the border, so I had to do some fancy piecing of batting, then sewed the border on at the end, quilted it, then put my backing on. I did the backing like a pillowcase, right sides together, then trimmed the corners and turned it, then handsewed the bottom edge together. I didn't want a binding on this as I wanted it to look like a frame.

And that's about it.

[lendube]

Laura, that's wonderful. Your ds is so lucky to have a sweet, caring mom like you. You mean dh didn't cry too??? Sounds just like making a stained glass piece of art. Similar process. Art quilting always reminds me of stained glass. Well lady, you've created an official tribute your ds will treasure the rest of his life. What's he going to do with it? Hang it on the wall? Brava!!!

[DorothyL]

Wow, That is amazing. How big is it?
Dorothy