Self Portrait Quilt
Dimensions: 12" x 20" (ish)
Completed: April 2007
It was to be between A4 and A3 size (I forgot about the borders and went a smidge over the width, but the police didn't catch me this time).
I had wanted to do a
portrait (not necessarily of myself, probably one of my little family) for a
while and decided to just go ahead
and do it. The idea behind my design was that
life is made up of interlocking puzzle pieces involving
those who came before
us,
those who come after us, the things and people we surround ourselves with
and (of course!) the quilts we make. These are all pictured in the background
fabric I made - photos going back to my
great-grandparents in Latvia and up to
my 2 sons, pictures of friends, hubby,
teachers, my first car, chocolates, and
quilts! I used PhotoShop and did it all manually. I went to print it on my A3
printer to discover that trying
to print on fabric jams it up..... I had to
print it in 4 panels on the old A4 printer and sew them together!
My face was drafted many times from this photo
(that's little Cam's stripy shoulder at his 1st birthday party).
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I constructed it as a whole unit (another one of Mariya Waters' fabulous
classes) and drew on it with crayons, fabric pens and paint before appliquéing
it onto the background fabric.
This photo shows all the whole unit applique work
before drawing began (basting stitches still in):
The border is a 3rd generation leftover!! I first used the fabric to sash my
Baltimore,
then I used some leftover bits
for
Chloe's wallhanging! I now
have very little left :-)
Quilting is in the ditch. There is no binding, as I wanted the border to remain
as it is, but I didn't have enough width to take it around to
the back.
The
edges are folded to the inside, if that makes sense.
ANYWAY, about 50 quilts were made for the
challenge (not a bad effort!!) and the token males were
in charge of
judging (with no criteria *grin*).
I won one of the prizes for the (newly created!) realism section of the
competition!!!
I was pretty chuffed and
was presented with a large
Slimline Light Box (thanks for the donation, I really
appreciate it!).
My first quilting win :-)
This is a panel I was considering attaching to the bottom of the quilt, but a) it would have made it too big, and b) I couldn't get the quilt design layout right:
Here's me with my angel (if you don't know, don't
ask!!!) Barb and our quilts - she won the abstract division of the challenge -
how cool is that!!
Please excuse the tacky tiaras (once again, if you don't know, don't ask!!)
...and here are (nearly) all the quilts in the
challenge - it was hard to fit them all in the one frame, but I tried!
AND I forgot to take a photo of the label! The quilt is currently on display at a quilt shop in Bendigo with a few of its new friends.