Portraits 101 Class at Wisconsin Quilt Expo

I am teaching a 3 hour Make and Take on my Intro to Portrait Quilts using my "Angelina" Pattern at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI on Sept. 7th from 1-4pm. The top photo is the original quilt that is on the cover of the pattern and on display at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette WI where I work.This class is a no sew class which means that the planning, cutting and fusing steps will take place and the students will finish at home. I mentioned that there is a pattern for the bob hairstyle plus a short spiky and a long wavy hairstyle option. So I used scraps, two skin tones, a brunette and a white haired example for the class samples for visualization. I added a few embellishments to the new quilts but not as much as the original. The idea was to help people who think they can not make a portrait quilt do so. I have designed the pattern to be simple with only three pieces for the face and neck, one piece for the hair and small pieces for the eyes, mouth and brows. The rest is drawn in using Pigma pens or Sharpies. The additional details come from the quilting and embellishing. I see this similar to the American Girl Dolls where you can customize to look like someone in particular or just have random fun!!I am humbled by the fact that there is already 18 people signed up for my class!!

This photo are the samples for the short spiky and the long wavy hairstyles. I used a busy border fabric in one piece and a calmer fabric in the other one to show variation. Also a dark inner border and a light inner border-see the difference? I like the dark border better because it sets off the portrait better.

The finished size is 18" x 18-" let me know if you are interested in a pattern because I can mail one or more to you. The pattern is $8.00 plus $2.00 shipping.

The website for the quilt expo which runs Sept. 6-8, 2012 is www.wiquiltexpo.com