Patience

An adage I have lived by since our Brega, Libya days is "Patience is finding something to do in the meantime" and so while still waiting on the web site to get fixed I decided to work on a quilt that I have been putting off for almost two years. More than two years ago I began exploring a spin-off from my landscape technique when my friend, Carol sent me a Caricature Portrait Quilt of myself (see in top photo of my studio)...it was so personable and fun to look at that I got to thinking how I could combine my landscape technique to use as a background for creating an fun portrait using symbols representing the region as well as the personality of the person. Of course, the first one I made (shown at right) was for my friend Carol depicting our recent visit to Arizona. Since that time I have done Sedona Sue as well as AZ Carol and had a lot of fun with the process.

A few months later Carol and I visited a mutual friend of ours from Aruba days at her beach house in Florida and I began collecting fabrics to make one for her. Even though the fabrics have been waiting on the shelf for some time now I just haven't gotten to the project until yesterday when I needed "something to do in the meantime." Actually, I'm doing a class on this process at the community college where I teach this fall so I also needed to do a lesson plan and what better use of my time than getting two projects accomplished at the same time.

Steps in the process are as follows:

First, I do a quick drawing of the features of my subject using a photograph that has good facial recognition...for the AZ Carol I brought the picture up on my 17" monitor of my computer and placed a piece of paper over the screen and lightly traced the image...as you can tell I am more confident with my drawing skills now!

Next, I make a foundation for the fusible applique. After I have chosen a theme fabric for the landscape background I choose the fabrics for the sky and ground based on the colors found in the theme fabric... if sky or ground images are not included in the design of the theme fabric then I choose fabrics that coordinate with the tone and tints of the colors found in the images...in this case I choose three fabrics as I wanted to include a sea fabric. Seaming together the fabrics for the foundations gives me the additional benefit of creating the horizon line to keep my perspective defined during the process.

Then I began to build the landscape image that will be the background for the portrait using elements from the theme fabric (upper part of photo at left) and any other compatible fabrics needed to complete the "story" line...after doing more than a dozen of my landscape quilts I realized that I was really telling a story about the places I visited or just dreamed about visiting and thus they became Story Quilts.

Now it is time to put in the portrait pieces that I have cut using my drawing as a guide...at this point other symbols representing hobbies, life style, personality, dreams, expectations, pets, etc. are added to complete the story line.

Sorry...You must wait until I come back to this project at a later date. Practice your patience while waiting on me to return to the studio...maybe you can go to your local quilt shop and find some fabrics to start your own "Is That Really Me" quilt of yourself or a friend!