I should say, conquering MY fears. Every time I finish a quilt, the hardest point for me is when I have to sit down & start quilting. I think about everything else in the world I can do to put it off, and my heart races at the thought of beginning. I think it is very similar to the fear of drawing — which is the fear of failure. Moving through a process that makes it less initimidating & breaks it into smaller, workable pieces is how I have to approach quilting — or I would never get it done. To be honest, I’ve even considered skipping this part altogether. I know an artist that mounts all of his fabric pieces on wood — and another one that mounts it onto a frame — but in the end, I know that the quilting adds a dimensionality to the piece that I like. I just don’t always know how to get there.
What works for me is to take a black & white picture of my photograph & start drawing on it with a pencil. I can mess up, erase, and start over. I try to follow the natural contours of the face — or the line of the shirt, or the neck, or the ear. Pulling all of these lines together into something cohesive is what I am working out on paper so that I won’t be pulling out stitches later on the quilt. I used to draw all of my lines on the quilt — I don’t do that anymore (it took too long & once I had my confidence, I didn’t need it anymore.) I look at my roadmap & I draw in a few primary lines on the quilt — and then fill them in with contour quilting lines.
I won’t always follow my map exactly, but I have an idea of where I want to go and I refer back to it as I quilt.
You are so organized! I am one of those fools rush in kind of people!!
I’m in AWE! I just discovered and read through your last two faces. This part seems so much easier than making them look so real, although the quilting obviously adds to the realism. (Your photo above reminds me of muscle drawings.) Do you do similar drawings to determine the layers that create the face?
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What a great idea to use a black and white copy to determine quilting lines. This part has always scared me off of quilting faces. Thank you. Love this piece too…you, as always, are so very talented. Inspiring too.
I looked at your Rwandan Lady on your website and then cam to your blog. Thank you for voicing the fears that I share, when it comes to quilting faces. Thank you for your tips. I will try them. You do beautiful work.
Virginia, I am a great admirer of your work and have very recently attempted a portrait of of my granddaughter….I wish I lived near you to take classes or something. Your work is so amazing.
I have posted my attempts on my blog. If you get a chance, please pop in and give me your opinion.
Thank you for this! I am about to start quilting a face but I am in this exact panic mode!