Help Please with a commissioned wall hanging
 

I have been asked to do a wall hanging consisting of a lady chasing a bassett hound dog who is chasing a deer. Gulp!!
How do I start? I had thought of buying panels and cutting them up (provided I can find appropriate ones) or using my embroidery machine to do separate pictures and then applique them on. Any help would be more than welcome.

Wow that is an interesting undertaking. Have you thought about googling the free colouring pages to see what you come up with. I know I use them quite abit when I am stumped about a project. Good Luck on your challenge.

Very unusual request. Don't think I would have taken on a project that I had no idea how to even start.

I would do an applique quilt. Now finding the subjects is another question! I have used coloring book pages (found free on the internet) to make quilts for children, I am sure you can find a dog that way...just start looking on the internet. You will be surprised what you can find.

What a fun challenge!! When I need inspiration I just do a search for photos or drawings of the animal or whatever you're looking for. Most are free to print, then you can resize etc. Good luck and show us a pic when you get it finished!!

Interesting, but I would be no help.

Before I started thinking about detail like embroidery or applique, etc. I would decide on composition. To help get ideas on the composition I would go to pictures of oil paintings.While these will be too detailed to copy, they will tell you things like figure placement, colors, type of background, etc. The details - what will your figures look like can come from simplier sources, ie., the suggestions already given.This will end up being an art quilt no matter how you do it.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I shall probably end up down loading photographs from the internet, try to come up with a composition using photosnap and then print it out onto cotton/paper sheets. I shall probably surround this central picture with flying geese or other similar border. Has anyone tried this method with any degree of success?

As a teacher, I needed picture books at times to teach young children who were were behaviorly or mentally challenged what was expected in certain situations. There is a program that was used by speech teachers to get pictures for this sort of thing (I don't know the name) but if you know a speech teacher, you might ask if there are any kind of pictures on that program you could use. I also used pictures from www.synonyms.net I put in all kinds of descriptions that I thought of for certain situations, etc. There may be other free, non copyrighted clip-art sites. Sometimes there are Spanish to English sites that are free and have pictures that might be used. I hope this helps.

I do exactly the same thing. I download pictures which I can either use for silhouettes or to attempt to piece with colored fabric. (I highly recommend a silhouette.) I then print them out and trace them directly onto the paper side of pellon (fusible). I iron that onto the fabric and cut it out. Voila! Any picture you want. The other option is to print the actual picture onto fabric made for that and do it the same way. (Just be sure to use ink-jet or laser printer which ever the printable fabric manufacturer recommends). Have fun! I'll attach a picture of the last one I made if I can figure out how to....

Hit the internet for images. Look at the covers of novels in the library. The illustrations can be cobbled together, shrunk or enlarged as required. I get all of my inspiration for unique pantograms from this method.
Good luck,.. but its very rewarding.
MaryKatherine

I like the silhouette idea. At a quilt show in NJ I saw the best silhouette done in satin - it was Elvis Presley!! I thought it was the most outstanding creative quilt there. I voted it best in show.

You can make a silhouette from a photo. Trace it onto clear plastic, back with white paper and enlarge on a copier. Do a realistic one from resized patterns. I use a lot of stained glass and woodcarving patterns for various animals. There are a lot of dog patterns out there from Maggie Walker to a book called Best of Show. Good luck!

I agree with the coloring book pages and keep it simple! I often use powerpoint to enlarge and decrease picture sizes

Have you thought about googling the free colouring pages to see what you come up with.

Awesome idea.
Robin in TX

Crayola.com has over a 1000 free coloring pages. You might find something there.

I love applique... there is a lot of clip art and "stuff" available on line... google the word and then look at images... if you haven't you will be amazed... sometimes the images give more info then the websites, I think... it sounds like fun to me.

my question is - how did this commission come about......have you done commissioned work before? Like someone else said, I too would not take a commission request unless I knew where to begin and proceed with it..........how big will this wallhanging be? Seems like a real pressure chore to me.....I do this for fun, not work!!!!!!!

I was asked to do a pterodactyl... my friends son loves them. I found a color page of one and had it printed poster size. I was fortunate to have a poster printer available to me. Now I have it to size, basically.
Color pages are great to use. Find pics of basically what you are looking for and put them together in one picture. Go to your local print shop to see if they can put it together in a poster.

Hope this makes sense and helps.

Interesting Wall Hanger.

It sounds like a wonderful project but I may be biased...LOL.

If the commission is to represent a real person/dog, are there pictures of them available? The older method of photocopying and then enlarging the photocopy and simplifying the enlarged copies for patterns might work.

I finished a quilt in December that was mostly animal appliques. I found most, if not all, of the pictures that I made into patterns on the internet by entering "pictures of (whatever I wanted)" and got a list of free pictures of the object I was looking for. Then I went through the pictures until I found the one I wanted and printed it. Sometimes the object was just the right size and sometimes I had to resize it but I was able to make some wonderful appliques that way. Hope this helps.

I'm sorry, but my first thought on how to start is to say NO!

Can this person draw out the design for you to try?

Great idea. The background could then be almost any quilt design.

Great idea. The background could then be almost any quilt design.