10/1/15

Gracie's Portrait

On Wednesday, I spent all day working on Gracie's portrait. It's one of the more fiddly things I've ever done, including the McKenna Ryan patterns I've attempted. Remind me not to write any patterns for this any time soon.

So here's the image I was working from:


The eyes are the easiest part for me.


Next I tackled the nose.


And then the ears and the top of the head. I was able to fuse those parts together.


From there, I was a little worn out on it, and so I took a break. I'd spent hours getting that far...at least half of the time was spent searching for my scissors, my tweezers, the piece I'd just cut out five seconds ago...you know what I'm talking about.

When I came back to it, I was able to work it through to some semblance of completion.


So there's a little too much black on the left side of the face, and I think I need to add one more black piece above the right eye for the eyebrow. Then, it will be improved with some top-stitching. As I'm looking at this, I can see a little hole where the turquoise background is showing through. Do you see it? I can fix that with thread too. In fact, thread just might be my saving grace for this piece.

It still needs fuzz in the ears, whiskers, eyebrows, and some lines for the mouth and nose. For a first try, I'm pretty happy with it.

The hardest part was choosing the colors. Her fur is often a mix of white, gray, and black hairs to give her a gray tone, and so it was hard to choose fabrics that represented the colors realistically.

Today is going to be a day of driving all over the place. I need to pick up my quilt from the Northwest Quilting Expo, and then drop off my quilts for the guild quilt show this weekend. Also, I'm getting my monthly pedicure, which will be a welcome interlude to a busy day, and I'll pick up some groceries. Obviously, no sewing today.

13 comments:

Briarose said...

absolutley gorgeous! Love, love love this...great job!

Sarah said...

I am quite impressed with the whole process. Can't wait to see how your stitching adds to the portrait - Gracie is a beautiful cat and so is her portrait. Wish I could do this for my cats...need to get my hands on that book...

Cath said...

Just looking at the eyes alone, I could recognise Gracie....haha! Great job Barbara, you should link up with my Linky Party on Mondays....It should be shared far and wide! Cath from Bits'nBobs

BillieBee (billiemick) said...

That looks so wonderful. Gracie is beautiful!

Dana Gaffney said...

I would have thought that the eyes would be the hardest to get them just right, but they are perfect, they look just like Gracie, that slight "yes I know I'm beautiful" look she has.

Lou said...

Your fabric Gracie is beautiful!!!!! Of course the real life furry one is the bestest!

Dar said...

Great job on Gracie. You have done an amazing job of capturing her look so far. What was the process for getting the shapes for the colors to begin your fabric cutting and fusing. It really does look like a McKenna Ryan type of picture. I'm impress with your skills.

Matt said...

I really like this!

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

Looks super, Barb, your talents amaze me !~!

Shari said...

Looks great!

Kate said...

Looking good. You put that together pretty quickly.

gpc said...

I love it! You've captured Gracie's soul (and her slightly disdainful glance.) :)

SkiWheel said...

Gracie is looking mighty fine - bit by bit! :)
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