portrait quilts

One of my graphic design teachers at Wake Tech would start off each semester saying, "I am an artist.  The computer is just one of my many mediums that I use."  In other words, we should view the computer just as we would a charcoal pencil or paintbrush...simply a tool.  Machines, specifically sewing machines and computers, have radically changed the world of quilting. One of the new trends in quilting is portrait quilts. Using the computer and photo editing software (or for that matter even old fashioned tracing paper), you can break a photograph into color blocks or segments, pick out matching material, and quilt the scene. To help make things a little bit faster and easier, the fabric is machine stitched on top of another fabric but WITHOUT the edges being turned under (a cheater's version of applique. :)  This works great for quilts that are meant to be art or wall hangings, but not physically used.
Here's some examples:

One of my favorites. You can't really tell in the photo, but the bird has imitation feathers, costume material, sewn into its body.

Not greatly noticeable in the picture, but the lamp is actually stuffed like a pillow.  My favorite parts about this quilt is the quilting at the top of the dome, and the waves and smoke in the pool.

This one was one of my favorites. It's actually part of the "political - homelessness" exhibit section which I'll talk about another day - but I loved the details and how it looks exactly like a photograph. It's based off a pictures from New Orleans.

I dream of making a quilt similar to this one day.

Notice the blue ribbon! One section of the exhibit were quilts showcasing people. This quilter showcased an African-American painter. I wasn't overly impressed with the paint tubes (had it not been for the paintbrushes I might not have guessed what they were!) but the details in the face were absolutely astounding, especially the glasses!

Sometimes we focus on the big picture so much we don't notice the important details. This is machine quilted, but simply by moving the stitches so VERY close together, in a color that doesn't match the background (on the lips and cheek and nose), it adds texture and shadowing. So many little details, but without them the big picture wouldn't be there!

And a close up of the nose!  Noses were always hard for me to "draw" (my art teacher says you don't draw noses, you simply shade other parts of the face to make it look like a nose) so I really liked how they used different colored fabric and the direction of the stitches to make the nose. (See how the nose stitches are rounded instead of vertical lines?)  And the glasses: In traditional quilting you only use cotton. Art quilts are using a lot of iridescent materials such as toile and thin nylon to create the illusions of glass and water. Impressive indeed!

Another example of a quilt using non-traditional material to make something work.

See the see-through fabric?

And notice the edging stitch on the arm. That's a machine button-hole stitch, which would probably hold up quite well in a washing machine.  If it weren't for the amount of thread it takes to outline a pattern that way, that would certainly be a viable applique option.

Love this one! Reminds me of LA (lower Alabama). And guess what kind of material the Spanish moss is made of?  Thread - a simple zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine done over and over and over and over.

I LOVE this style of quilt!  One lady behind me sighed and said, "Some people must not have a dog to walk or a husband to feed." I think I succeeded in not laughing! But one day I will tackle a quilt like this!

This is a close up of the dog's belly. See how many different fabrics they used? And I love how they used a different color of thread in big messy loops to created shading instead of trying to add another fabric. It looks so messy up close, but from a distance it truly works!

This one STILL has me aghast! FIVE quilts within a quilt! And the flowers! That's what you call watercolor landscaping and is NOT easy to plan out (not that I've ever tried it, but just the thought of it!). And get this...the inspiration for this quilt? A jigsaw puzzle based on a picture from Amish country.

I've always thought those hand-made fabric-covered bulletin boards with ribbons were cute and very creative. But I would have NEVER dreamed to take a picture of one with a picture in it and then duplicate into a quilt! My brain is trying to warp just thinking about it. And the little button/thumbtack things....those yo-yo circles that our friend Sara likes to make!

Another blue ribbon winner, and one that had EVERYBODY talking about! Absolutely incredible, from the planning, to the execution!

Dear to my heart because I've been there, but also really cool because of the details in the quilting, as seen below.

The ridges to form the gaps in the wall?  Simple small strips of a darker fabric!  But look at how TINY the edges are on the cuts in that tree!  Not sure my fingers would allow me to see past the machine needle to stitch that!

And I've seen this brick fabric used many times, but the fact that she outlined EVERY SINGLE brick, really makes it stand out as bricks from a distance.

And the quilt subject with the quilt. She was so honored and so proud. One of the local VA guilds took her picture while she was working in the restaurant upstairs the previous year. The lady was laughing because they even included her job's id badge around her neck! Not often you get to see a live subject beside a quilt!

one day.