On my design wall – 2013.12.12

There’s a new portrait quilt taking shape on my design wall.  As usual, I ‘posterized’ the original photo to get the value differences.  (Here’s a tutorial about the process I use.)

I wanted 5 values of skin-tone fabric for this portrait.  I have some great pinky-beige fabric in several values, but was missing a good medium value fabric (the one I used on the forehead and right side of the face).  I tea-dyed some fabric that was the right value, but just a little too pink – it gave it the perfect skin color.  The original fabric is in the middle.  I’m using the fabric dyed with English Breakfast tea.  (Here’s more information about how I tea-dye fabrics.)

This is what my design wall looks like right now.  I have several versions of the photo as reference – the original, a ‘posterized’ version, a ‘boosted’ version (to bring out the colors of the eyes), and a black & white ‘posterized’ version on which I drew the lines to separate the values.   At the bottom is the full-size pattern (14 x 11 inches).  Most of the fabric pieces aren’t fused yet, so the lines between the fabrics are shadows that will disappear when they are ironed and fused.   I’m going to experiment with some different fabrics for the shadowed area around the eye, before proceeding to the mouth and the hair.

I belong to a group of textile and fiber artists – TAFA.   One of our members has put together a blog post featuring Christmas decor items made by TAFA members.  That’s my Modern Christmas Trees table runner at the bottom of the mosaic.

I’m linking up with the Needle & Thread Network for WiP Wednesday.  (I missed the deadline this week to link up with the other two blogs.)  Click on the buttons below to see all the creative people participating and check out the projects they’re working on.

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