It's All About the Face: Part 2 - Dave and Emma

In an effort to be mindful in sharing my process with you, I'll show my progress on the projects instead of waiting to do the big reveal.

I was reading about the process pledge and getting a better understanding of it. In past blog posts I typically share the project after it's completed and talk about its journey at the same time. The posts get long-winded and it's no wonder so many people prefer Instagram over blogs. SEE THE PRETTY AND MOVE ON!

But I want a journal of my work in the hopes that someone in my family down the line may find a connection with textiles and me. Our oldest son inherited the "make" gene from the Hubs and me and makes a living from it. Our younger sons occasionally get the urge to make a quilt (or something involving a needle and thread) and a lot of work is performed by yours truly, but I'm ok with it and they know it. One of our DILs is a maker, and I'm always thrilled when she calls and says, "Can we...?” You know I always say, "Yes!" All of my family understands my need to make.

Back to It's All About the Face. I got a little stuck while working on Dave and Emma's portrait. I have unstitched some of the contour quilting I've done on Dave's face and will redo it. Hubs recently installed a design wall for me and this will be a huge help. Distance is important when working on this type of project; when you're literally on top of it you don't necessarily see what you need to do, or not do (like the pasted-on lips on my Hula Man). Consider my up-close view of Dave while quilting:

All I could see was the thread—it was screaming “look at me!” I unstitched everything from below his eye downward. 

After Hubs installed the design wall was when I was able to see that it was not too much. 

Also, I continue to work on developing patterns for more portraits. While our class sessions have ended, our instructor told us in the last session to keep sending her photos of our progress, including manipulating the photos into patterns. While I could accept what she sends me and run with it, I want to keep tweaking my own in an effort to better understand what works and before the fabric goes under the knife.

Another portrait class is on tap, this one for pets. I have selected my photo and this should be a fun class.

As soon as baby quilt 1, or the palate cleanser, is quilted, this project is coming back to the forefront. In the last week I decided that it won't be completely finished until I get the rest of the couples' portraits made, so this will take a while with palate cleansers in between each one, I'm sure. This weekend I got as far as making the label for the baby quilt. Life intervened which entailed a visit to the ER for several hours Friday evening. I told the Hubs that the weekend could only go up from here! More about that later. 

On a personal note, I have found some joy again out of the detritus that was this past 14 months. Quilting has almost everything to do with it—and the Hubs. He’s always been supportive of my habit, but he saw how much I needed to be able to do it, and bent over backward to get my studio in this tiny apartment in shape and usable. Thanks, Honey. 

The SewJo is back. 

Go make!