I began with the idea of a Day of the Dead style makeup and LOTS of red roses in the hair. I explored on Pinterest different types of Day of the Dead makeup. Lots were scary and sinister-I chose hearts and flowers. The nose looks like a spade from a deck of cards. I showed this quilt last month to a group of Grade 1-5 elementary students and one girl thought the nose looked like a chocolate chip. What a creative mind and I like that idea better.
The eyes had five colors of different fabric plus white painted dots, red painted dots and the "usual" eyeliner, whites of the eye, iris, pupil etc. I did the whole face, neck, hair and clothes then concentrated on the roses because this was the purpose of the contest.
I googled clip art of roses and selected one I liked and make a mirror image of the rose as well. I cut out a bunch of roses from red batik and arranged them in a pleasing asymmetrical manner. I used a darker fabric marker to get the depth as well as stitching with a darker thread and then I used fabric paint in a lighter red to get the highlighted areas. It was all a concept of value which is my new favorite subject!!
I embellished three different sizes of pre-made red roses on the roses, hair and background, red glitter nail polish in the hair, a few grayish sequins to bling out the background.
I named this quilt "Rosita" thanks to my friend Patty N. for the idea. I wanted a Mexican name that had rose in it and that's how it happened!!
