Bailey Is Done!

I finally decided to settle down and quilt my beloved Bailey quilt.  I finished the top in January.  You can read about its construction in previous blog posts.

I have been thinking and thinking about how to quilt it.

 I was pretty sure I wanted the direction of her fur to be my guide.

I was looking for the courage to start.

 

Then, a package arrived in the mail.  A book!

A book about people and portraits compiled by Martha Sielman. 

 It couldn't have been better timing.

 

This book is fabulous and browsing though all the beautiful quilts, I got the courage I needed to start.

I came up with a plan.  I printed the quilt on a piece of 8 1/2"x11" paper.  I slipped it into a plastic page protector and roughly drew my vision - following the lines of her fur.

 

I started doing the quilting one section at a time, starting with her nose and radiating outward. And of course I had to adjust as I progressed because paper isn't cloth.  As I finished a section, I poured through my machine quilting books looking for inspiration for the next section.

 

Machine quilting is not my forte.  I do enjoy it and I like the puzzle aspect of it.  I do not mark my quilts for free motion quilting because then I don't think it's spontaneous - which is what I like.  To be spontaneous, the design needs to flow from within.  To achieve this, I find a design that speaks to me and then I start drawing with a pencil on a piece of paper.  The design often morphs and changes while drawing into something that I am comfortable with. Then I know I am ready to stitch it and then sometimes it changes again.  The flow is what's important.

 

 

Ta Da! Here it is.  Done.

 I am very happy.  It is finished and bound with a sleeve and a label, ready to hang.

Here are some close-ups of my quilting - not too close though.

 

 

Bailey Portrait Mosaic Post #2

How could you not love this dog?

 

 

This is where I was, the last time I posted here about my Bailey portrait mosaic quilt.

 

That was 9 rows.  The next step was to do the next 9 rows to complete the top half. 

My concern was to get Bailey's eyes right. 

 It's all about value since her face is pretty much the same color.

 

I continued adding the hair wisps and used darker fabric around her eyes to give the feeling of depth.

 

At this point I figured I better start sewing the squares together, all 648 of them.

I did not want any or many of them falling off my design wall. 

I decided to sew it in sections.  I find this gives me the best accuracy.

During the piecing, I was happy that I had photographs of the squares, because inevitably between the design wall and the sewing machine, some mix-ups happened. 

 Having the photo for reference saved my butt!

 

This is the pieced top half of my favorite subject!

 

 So far, so good.