Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Quilting Human Beings




Where is that training booklet on how to quilt faces? Oh yeah.... I don't think there is one....(lemme know if you know otherwise). I've seen students get downright angry at famous quilters that weren't able to give an exact formula for doing this. I admit I even (some time back when I had a corporate job with good pay) bought one of Hollis Chatelains all thread portraits to study. Bottom line, it requires thought! The best guidance I've ever received came from Hollis herself. In considering the quilt line atop a face, consider how an ant might crawl up and over / around curves on the body. Sounds simplistic... but it's a good guideline for sure. As a great example of it done right, look at these pics I took at Road To Ca. of Pam Hollands Gothic portrait. A click on the face images will give you a great closeup. Incredible!

2 comments:

Chris said...

Hi, Pat, actually there is a great book by Marilyn Belford called Portraits For Fabric Lovers(Mastering the Technique of Realism). I've always been atracted to these portraits in fabric myself but as yet tried the technique.
Chris
http://madcreekdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6686309

Cher in BC said...

I'll have to check out Marilyn's book because I've been also been on the lookout for how to do the threadwork on the face. Mine just doesn't turn out like I think it should.
Thanks for the tip Patt. Holice's work is phenomenal and I've studied it but the way the ant crawls makes sense.

Cher in BC