My Grandma Art Quilt
 

<style type="text/css">p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 13.0px}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}</style>I started this quilt in March of last year according to my notes and I just finished with the binding the other day. Guess I just didn't work on it much. Anyway, I made another quilt painting endangered animals and I decided that my next art quilt should be about my grammie since she's awesome. She's 88 years young and everyone she's meets is like a new best friend. I had some really nice photos of her from Mother's Day one year, one holding a great, great grandchild and one when she was about 16. The photo looked like a photo from a photo booth. She also really likes Ohio State football, birds and dogs but specifically she loved her German Shepard she had back in the 70's. So I decided to add those very things to her quilt. I could've added a lot more things she likes but you have to draw the line somewhere.


I also try to always add an element of some kind to my quilts that I don't know how to do or do very well. I figure that way I'm always challenging myself to keep learning and I had never done a quilt that wasn't square or rectangular so I made it in the shape of the state of Ohio.


In order to draw something on fabric you should get a projector. Most of the battle of drawing is proportion. So take a little help and just project your pic onto the fabric while hanging on the wall. I'm fairly good with a pencil since I've been drawing since I was a kid and I still struggle making faces. One eye is always higher than the other if I free hand it. But since erasing on fabric just doesn't work well, I don't chance it. Projectors are also reasonably priced. So if you're going to do art/portraits, go ahead and invest in one. But I digress...


I got all the portrait work done in a weekend. BTW, drawing on fabric is not as easy as it looks and the lesson I learned was that I will never, ever draw another portrait of someone wearing plaid.. just don't. It's painful..

After I got the colored pencil parts done, I put a wash of brown around using ink. I thought the bright white fabric was just too harsh but I left some areas white for highlighting.

Next, was quilting. I admit I was scared to start. I often think I'm going to ruin my hard work and send myself into a spiraling depression afterward and that's probably why I put off working on it most of last year. But I vowed to take a deep breath and just do it. And I did.

I started by working on the center portrait. I followed the contours of gram's arms, legs and body and for the other two portraits, I simply picked a matching thread and did 1/4" lines.

The Ohio State helmet and cardinal I simply filled them in and were fairly easy to do. The dog was a bit more challenging but he turned out okay. I'm always impressed when I step away from the quilt and can say, "Yep, still looks like a dog" especially after I get done with it.

Of course there's a few things that I don't like on it but that probably happens to everyone. There's always something you don't like about your own quilts. Just don't share your dislikes about it with everyone else and you can pretend they're not there. It's what I plan on doing.



The quilt measures 36x36".

WOW!!!! You did beautiful work.

Beautiful.

This is stunning! And thank you for sharing your thoughts about it as well.

spectacular!!!! and the plaid shirt looks realistic. I love it.

Absolutely gorgeous! What wonderful work. A real heirloom for your family!

Something to be treasured for many generations to come. Very special.

Holy smokes! That is truly a piece of art! Congrats to you.

I am in awe!! That is spectacular! You are a true artist!

Awesome!:thumbup: