Portrait of Kitty

Kitty is all built but not fused yet.  I'm going to let her simmer on the back burner for a few days while I consider backgrounds.  Do I place her on a stone wall in the garden?  Lying on a quilt?  Before a window?  I might decide that the solid black is too black and switch it out in favor of a tone-on tone?  Any advice and suggestions are welcome!

Portrait of Kitty

Just a kitten, isn't she beautiful?  She certainly deserves a quilted fabric portrait.  I hope I can do it justice.

I resized, posterized and desaturated the photo using Gimp2 to define the separate values.  She's basically a black and white cat, so I  turned the photo into a sketch to help with the thread sketching later to blend the furry edges. 

Now to translate the sketch into fabric.  Stay tuned...

Portrait of Bonny, A Little Quilt

My first quilted portrait.   What a lot of fun and a wonderful learning experience!  Bonny is 13 years old now and the black has turned to grey, the caramel faded to tan and she hasn't quite the spring in her step she once had.  But she still follows me around all day, dribbling a tennis ball at my heels or helping in the garden, digging up anything planted, despite the "No Digging" sign.  The most difficult and time-consuming parts were getting a suitable photo and finding suitable fabrics in my stash which leans heavily toward neon brights.  I desaturated the photo to find the shadows.  There weren't many.  Next time, I'll know more about setting up the lighting so there will be more interest in the shadows.  Is this the first of a series?

First Day of Spring

Pinwheel variation
Originally uploaded by bonnyarts

I pulled this quilt out of storage to put on my bed to welcome spring and wave goodbye to the coldest winter here in central Florida since, I think, about 1960. It's been the coldest in my memory anyway. I pieced it by tracing plastic templates and cutting with scissors, sometime in the 1990s. The handquilting took quite a long time as it's more than 100 inches square. I finished it only a few years ago.

Art Quilt Challenge

I can't reveal the front of this wee quilt till May 15 so here's the back, a little teaser..  It's for an art quilt challenge group; the theme is "Hidden Treasures."  I struggled with it (two false starts) until I realized it was becoming a chore and I was taking it much too seriously.    So I decided on a whimsical approach and it all fell into place.  The funny shape?  It's the first page in an art quilt journal and I plan to use the same shape for all future challenges.  Somewhat limiting as it's only 10 inches square approximately and I'll need to be careful of the third dimension.  And the back must be neat and tidy.  It won't be hanging against a wall.  I'm sure to add some design to the back as it is really very boring as it is.  I won't decide how to bind it till I have a few more pages.