I made a Pixel Portrait Quilt of Tom Hiddleston - Need help finishing
 

Hello there! I am new to the forum and also new to quilting. This quilt top is my first quilt I've ever made. I wanted to do a photorealistic portrait of Tom Hiddleston (the actor who plays Loki in the Thor movies) so after a year of hard work and lots of cutting I finished it. This quilt measures 100 x 100 inches (king size) and is made up of 40,000 1-inch squares which are 1/2" finished. I used 250+ different fabrics of mostly semi-solids and fine patterns in my palette.

However, because this is my first quilt, and the piecework is so dense, I have no idea how to finish it. It's difficult to show through photographs, but the quilt is extremely heavy, and stretches under its own weight when held up. It's unstable while unfinished, so it needs some sort of support.

I've heard suggestions of long-arm quilting, and also not quilting it at all and just stabilizing it and hanging it. Any advice is very welcome.

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If you have any questions about my process, I would be happy to answer them. Although I must warn you, I am self-taught, so I sort of made up words for the terms that everyone else seems to know.

WOW! just wow! Tom never looked so good ;-)

This was your very first quilt?? OMG, I would be committed after that. It is stunning! Don't know how I would stabilize it-if you are not going to quilt, I would guess you would need an iron-on interfacing or something similar to support it. The weight would eventually pull it away from that too though, I think. I believe I would find a way to quilt it. It is gorgeous though. Great job.

OMG!! That is amazing. I don't know who this guy.. but if that is a bunch of little squares to make up his portrait I am seriously impressed! I have no idea how to quilt... I would have been afraid to even start such a project.

Wow - this is absolutely incredible! Truly a masterpiece. I would love to hear about your process.

Just about speechless here! OMG - cannot believe what I am seeing! My first quilt has not been finished (nor seen the light of day - still in the bowels of my closet) in over 40+ years. Huge pieces at that. You are truly an artist.

He played Loki in the Thor / Avengers movies

He was also in the War Horse movie

He's a British actor, so a lot of his stuff isn't hugely popular in North America, he's done lots of BBC stuff and Shakespeare on stage. His latest show was Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse (Warning for that image, he is COVERED in fake stage blood. It was a very bloody play, as Shakespeare tends to be)

Seriously, your first quilt?!?!?! That is absolutely amazing!!!

wow, that is really amazing and it looks just like him!!!! Job well done!!!!!

you know those jokes about food being so good you wanna slap your momma...

this quilt makes me want to say expletives because it is beyond amazing!
if this is your first, i can't wait to see what you come up with once you're comfortable with the medium!

wow. just wow.