Watch How a Quilt Grows from an Idea to a Real Quilt

This quilt was inspired by a collage that I made recently.  The design of the collage was different than the others because it was not a character surrounded by a patterned border.  She was just THERE.  And I kept thinking about her.  She really wanted to be a quilt.  And now she is.

 

 

The collage that inspired the quilt 

And here are photos of the various stages of the quilt.... 

This is the background.  I really liked the way that the previous quilt of the Guy had a background with a black center and a colorful border that the central design overlapped.  So I decided to try that again.

The first thing I do is find fabrics for the main design and fuse them together to see if the fabrics play together nicely.  She looks peculiar because her eyes are blank.  But they get better later in the process.  The color of her lips also changes in the final design.

Here she is on the background.  She still needs more hair and some flowery decoration in her hair.

She is not yet fused to the background.  So I can make any changes that are needed easily.  You can see a glob of the fabric that I want to use for her flowers sort of laying there to check the colors and see if they work.

Yes.  I cut bits from the feathery fabric and put them together to look sort of flowery.  And she is not fused.  

No nose yet and no eyeballs.  But they are coming soon.

I do like the way she sort of grows across the black and orange background.  The black adds depth to the design.

Ah.  Here we go.  She has tiny eyeballs now.  It helps.  But there is much work to do.  All of the sewing down the edges of every piece of fabric and then the layering and quilting.  And THEN the painting that will add depth and - a nose!

And here she is.  Now she has a nose and the right color for her lips and stitching lines defining her chin and other features.  The quilting is finished and it was really fun to add quilting in the proper direction to follow the directional lines of her hair.  The next photo is a closer look at her eyes.  

The final stages certainly make a difference - and add depth.  

I add a lot of paint during the final stages of quilting - when it is a face.  It really made the eyes come alive.  Did I mention that originally the frames of the glasses were purple?  Changing them to orange really brings the attention to the eyes.

Do you think she looks curious and maybe a slight bit mischievous?