Student's Portraits from Workshop Today for LMQG

Today I taught a class titled "Fabricating Faces" for my local guild, Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild. We worked seven steady hours today taking only a little break for lunch. I'm tired but it's a good tired. We accomplished some really nice pieces.

This piece is a self-portrait of Christina. She has a few more things to add to this piece but not much.

This is Becky M's portrait. I have to laugh because Becky was so worried she wouldn't be able to do this class. Well, you only have to look at this portrait to see that she listened and proceeded and she did a wonderful job. She also has a little more to do to call this finished. She is going to add some whisp of hair along the forehead and a few other little details.

This is a portrait of Betty's daughter. The photograph we used to get the pattern was very contrasty. She was actually on the beach, I believe in Hawaii, for a wedding. I wanted her to be able to use this photo because it was special. She did not get the details that some of the others were able to get but I think the portrait came out well. I can see the wind blowing her hair.

This little guy is so cute. Donna C. is doing a great job on this piece. She has yet to add the details around his eyes, another layer to detail the sweater and then she can add the light to his eyes and have a wonderful portrait of her grandson. I hope I am able to get a finished photo so I can share it here.

Donna's choice of fabric for the hair has really turned out nice. The design on the fabric is actually a wood grain design but it make great hair.

Lynn has details to add to this portrait taken from very old photograph of her Grandmother. We had to scan it into the computer in order to make the pattern. It really didn't scan well but I think that this piece captures the look of an old photo.
A job well done.

Martha S. struggled and struggled with the drawing of the pattern for this piece. Her struggles came from the fact that the face was cropped out of a photo that included the little girl sitting on a swing. The cropping made the pattern unclear.

After struggling and finally getting a pattern she could use, Martha went to town and ended up with this wonderful portrait of her Granddaughter. A lot of the struggling was my fault in not saying "this photo isn't working lets find another". But, Martha ended up with a nice portrait any way.

Isn't this wonderful? Peggy is going to add a few more cut outs in the dark part of the hair to let some of the lighter highlights come through. This piece turned our really nice and I think it was a combination of right photo right fabric and attention to detail.

Isn't this little guy cute? I wish I had asked Shirley C. how old he is now. I'm pretty sure he is in college and I can see him looking at this and saying "Oh Mom".

I loved the fact that Shirley chose the blue fabric to make this portrait. The value changes are subtle but enough to work for this technique. She still has some detail, especially in the eye area. I hope to get a finished photo of this piece as well because the details make a big difference.

Now, Judy work diligently on this portrait of her fair skinned Granddaughter. In the end we decided that she was really wasting time trying to finish the piece in fabric. Again I take the blame. The photo didn't have enough contrast for a good pattern and used more than four layers to get a pattern. Because of that Judy chose white to black fabric. It just wasn't working.

We decided that she should send me another photo and I will make a pattern for her. She will then make a a new one using pink fabric. Judy understands the concept of how this is done and will be able to make a satisfying piece. No matter what was done to the white/black fabric it wasn't going to be satisfactory.

Donna was my other student but she was also the facilitator for the class. Her photograph included parts of a Teddy Bear and she decided that she wanted to make the bear black and white and the face of the girl in other colors. She didn't have the fabrics she needed, so will work on her piece at home.

It was a great day, I love to share this process and see my students amazed at what they are creating.