The making of ME!

For years I have been enamored with Mama CJT’s “Ladies” series of quilts.  You can see more of her mini quilts here.  She makes the most adorable ladies! I decided I wanted one for myself.  This is how I created my “Quilt ME”

 Enter, the "selfie" I'm not good at selfies, that's more of my teenage daughter's thing, not me, but I needed a good facial pic of me. I took dozens of photos. 

 I tried glasses up, and glasses down.  Even though I always wear them up on my nose, I thought my eyes looked better over the tops of my lenses rather than through.  So if you have glasses, try them both ways, I preferred them down.

 I tried big smile, with teeth, and closed mouth.  Closed mouth, slight smile worked for me.  My ME quilt is almost serious, or mischievous.

 I also took pics of my hand holding the scissors.  I wanted the shape of my knuckles to be right.

 Then I sketched.  This is the part that I really can't help you with.  I'm not a great artist, but if you know someone who does caricatures, now would be the time to call them up and ask for a favor.

 I colored the sketch and made alterations to the hand.  In the end I turned the scissors around.

 I picked fabrics from my stash and matched my grey-blonde hair, hazel eyes and my lip color. 

 I used Steam A Seam 2, and laid all the parts out.

 This part was a bit scary, once I ironed them down, there was no going back! Crooked smile!

 I used my pattern underneath the white background fabric for placement purposes, lining up the little pieces to coincide with the pattern.

 Then using a tiny zigzag stitch I carefully appliqued ever piece down and added nose stitching for a subtle nose.  I added eyelash details with black thread and iris color with an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie.

 I decided to flip the scissors over so the green handle would show better, and added spools for earrings.

Finally, and some years later, I put ME on the long arm and did the quilting.  That part was a little scary for me, I didn't want to mess it up, so I practiced a lot on customer quilts and got better and better.  

I finished my Quilt ME with a small label, hanging sleeve and binding.  She hangs in my studio at Mary's Custom Quilting. 

 Hope you enjoy the little tutorial! Let me know if I can answer any questions for you.  You can use Facebook to message me at the above link or leave a comment here on my blog.  Thanks for reading!