Sands of Time: Mini Portrait Quilts

My most recent project was inspired by the HMQS theme for this year, "It's Magic! Memorable Moments."  I really wanted to enter a quilt into this show...it's an unjuried show, but is a judged show, so every quilt entered (so long as it follows the rules) is accepted, and then judged, which means you get valuable feedback for your work.

I thought. I pondered. I considered. I let the idea of "memorable moments" rattle and roll around in my head, until an idea began to take shape. I let it sit and grow, steadily working on other projects in the meantime. I worked on my son's graduation quilt, I did the baby quilt commission, I was even thinking about this back when I was doing a family tree memory quilt for my aunt. And as I worked on these other things, all the time the idea was forging itself into a mini quilt triptych that I couldn't leave undone.

Memorable moments. First steps. First words. First time at the beach. Beach trips. Sandcastles. Each of my boys, on the beach, building sandcastles. Each of my boys, at around age 10, on the beach. Alone. With his brothers. Layers and layers, trip after trip after trip, a little boy at age three....age five...age eight...ten...twelve...fifteen...eighteen.....at the beach. Alone. With his little brother. With his big brother. With both brothers. Oldest. Youngest. Middle. All the images, all the beach trips over all the years......three mini portraits. The idea became an image which became a quilt. Three mini quilts, part of one triptych that tells one story.

I began by piecing the backgrounds, using improvisational curved piecing to create a gentle sepia toned landscape, sand and sky, for the first two sections and realistic colors for the third panel. The first two symbolize the past, while the final panel symbolizes present day. Where the sand meets the sky I used a straight line, reflective of the horizon line, to give definition since the first two panels don't have the color separation to identify which is which.

I then sorted photos and created a photo collage of each boy. My first thought was to use a photo as the background, and do the applique over it in translucent fabrics. I quickly realized that would be too distracting, so instead chose one photo to create in applique, and keep the frame of photos layered around the edges.

I built the applique pieces by printing the desired photo on cardstock and cutting out the image, then tracing around it on fabric. I began with the full outline of the boy, then cut away one section at a time to define the arms, legs, feet, head, hair, clothing, etc. I then used those same pieces to cut out the hair & clothing and applique those onto the outline of the boy before finally appliqueing the boy onto the background.

Because the final piece is only 8"x10", the image section is only printed at a 5x7 size, and thus the boy in each is only perhaps 5" tall at best. Cutting the applique pieces was by far the most painstaking portion of each panel, though the actual applique process was not bad at all -- I used a fabric glue stick to glue the pieces in place, and then did simple raw edge machine applique, with  my walking foot, using a gold Sulky thread.

Finally, I cut the photos for the framing portion. I cut apart the collages and tweaked the placement so that they were far enough in from the edge that they wouldn't be lost in the actual frame, and yet far enough apart as to give the right effect to the center applique. I wanted to create the idea of the applique portrait being a larger photo in a pile of small photos....a single moment, captured, reflected on, viewed through the lens of time.

The first panel includes only photos of my oldest son, the second has my second son with my first son, and the final has all three boys. I chose not to include photos of my middle son with my youngest son, in the middle frame, as I wanted to tell the story of one boy growing older, and I didn't want to introduce the third son until his panel. The final panel, though, does include photos of my youngest son by himself, with just my middle son with him, and with all three boys together, because in that panel I did want to show the dual roles of my middle son as both an older brother and a younger brother; on his panel, I wanted the focus on him as the younger brother.

In the end, I realized I'd made this for me, not for the show after all. I wanted it framed, not bound, for one. Then, I wanted it as three pieces, and the rules of the show state that a triptych must represent one final cohesive quilt. While I think it represents one cohesive idea, I don't think it truly represents a single cohesive quilt in the way the show directors mean. And, the pieces are too small to submit individually. Which is all quite fine with me, because any feedback would, for this particular quilt, be irrelevant to me. The idea, the feel of it, the emotion of it....I think I've captured those things exactly as I intended. The quilting of it could be improved, but I wanted simplicity for this and so didn't try and dress it up with extra quilting. It is, for me, perfect, and so the perfect place for it is here, at home, where it belongs.

Movie Night Quilt

As I mentioned a few posts back, we're getting ready to move into a new house, with multiple living areas, and so we need more couch blankets. One of the rooms is an actual media room, and so I decided we needed a movie-themed quilt.

I love designing my own quilts, so I did a search to see if there was anything similar out there already (there wasn't), and then started sketching. I knew I wanted movie themed items, so I made a list -- popcorn, movie reels, DVD case, tickets, sodas,....what else? The boys suggested 3D glasses, my husband thought maybe a movie marquee sign, and so I played with these ideas and layout and placement, then took my sketches and played in my EQ7 software to get the applique drawings right, and to play with did I want filmstrip sashing between all the blocks, or just as a border, or just between the rows, or ????

I ended up mainly drawing the applique pieces freehand, just because that's easier for me, but I did finish the EQ7 drawing so that one day I can offer it as a pattern, if anyone is interested.

Funny story on that, though -- I drew the popcorn patch, and could NOT get it to color properly! In EQ7, when drawing freehand, you have to get things to complete a certain way, line up right, connect to certain points....it's somewhat complicated, and I've not spent nearly enough time learning it as I should. So every time I tried to draw the popcorn, I ended up with a patch that wanted to not complete, so wouldn't let me color just the popcorn.

I *think* I got it fixed, but....who knows.

I also drew the 3D glasses patch, then forgot to flip my fabric when I traced the template, so the glasses are a little funky looking. I had to cut them out three times before I got them close enough to right....

For this quilt, I used fabric that a friend had sent me from her stash. I'm still settling into life in the US, still unpacking my sewing items and fabric and all, and with all the "setting up house" spending, I'm trying not to spend too much on fabric right now. Easier said than done, but luckily, the dots and fun colors in this fabric were perfect for this quilt, so I was able to manage! I mostly had to buy the black & white, and then the backing fabric. Pretty much all the rest came from my stash, and largely from the gifted fabric from a friend. Sweet!

I made a pocket in the middle for remote controls, with the sections decorated with remote control buttons; this doesn't get used much, but the idea is we can fold the quilt up and drape over the arm of the couch, and have the remotes tucked inside. Good in theory, but with three boys....not so much in reality, I don't think.

 For the back, I used a tone-on-tone silver, and then for the quilting (not shown here) I outlined each applique with two echoes around each one, in a silver (non-metallic) thread. I'll update with a photo of the quilting in a future post....

I had a lot of fun with this quilt; choosing which color to go behind each applique, and then the layout of the designs, as well as the original choosing of what to applique. It's all machine applique, but I use glue stick to hold the applique in place (and turn under the edges before appliqueing around them), then I machine stitched just inside the edge of each.

Can't wait for more movie nights under our Movie Night Quilt!