A FM stitched portrait finish on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊. I'm so happy that you can join me today. We are experiencing snow, drizzle, rain and freezing rain. It's quite the combination but since I bought some salt and a new shovel, we are prepared! Today I am sharing a project that I seem to have forgotten to post about. Now that it's finished, it's time. 

Free Motion Stitched Portrait

It all began in August with a TextileArtist.org class with artist Rosie James. Her work is wonderfully illustrative and done with FM stitching. Since many of her portraits are of the back of people, it feels doable if you're not comfortable drawing or stitching faces (like me!). They also incorporate colour as she uses fabric for the clothing. 

Hubby photographing scenery

It took me a while to choose the photo. I have many images like this one since we are often waiting for Hubby, off somewhere taking pictures.

Original photo taken this Spring in Alaska

After printing up the photo, I drew the important parts on tracing paper. I used coloured Sharpie markers to highlight the sections that would be covered in fabric.

Template on tissue paper of the original photo

From the template, I used the lightbox to trace the patterns of the jacket, backpack and pants and then cut the fabric.

Making the pattern on the lightbox

I used a FriXion pen to draw the entire scene on a white cotton background and then used free motion stitching to outline the scene. The most difficult part was to place the cut fabric patterns onto the piece. To ensure that they were in the correct place, I stitched over the tracing paper. That's why you see me picking out the paper below with tweezers.

Using the tweezers and magnifying glass to clean up the piece

The piece was mostly finished weeks ago but it took me that long to finish mounting it on the canvas. I first used tacks to mount it but didn't really like it. Finally I untacked the piece, added a layer of cotton batting between the canvas and the fabric and then tacked it permanently with staples. That's when I used my amazing new light with the magnifying glass to remove the paper and extra thread.

Finished piece, mounted on a canvas

What I learned

• Making this project brought many learning opportunities. The first one is to check that you don't reverse the image between tracing the pattern and sewing it!
• I tried to add free motion stitched grass beside the pants but it was horrible. Thank goodness that I was able to remove the stitching without damaging the piece.
• I also learned that if you're going to mount the piece, that it would be best to be more accurate about the free motion stitched edges.
• I'm very happy with the piece, now that it has batting underneath it. Without the batting where were a lot of puckering of the fabric. This smoothed out most of it.
• I'm going to be doing a smaller piece incorporating this technique as part of a wedding present for my brother and sister-in-law. My SIL is an amazing seamstress and she kept me a piece of fabric from her wedding dress. The picture has the bride and groom from the side, so hopefully I'll be able to stitch their faces properly.
• If you check out Rosie James' work, you will see that she loves to keep dangling threads on her work. I didn't keep them because that's not the look that I was going for in this piece, but one day I will try it!
• BTW, I love my new desk lamp. It's very bright and as you can see, the magnifying glass came in handy.
• I was really worried last week as I was using the new lamp and still couldn't see my FMQ properly. It turned out that I was wearing my regular glasses and not my reading glasses! The proper glasses solved the problem!😲

Related links

• Rosie James: Website and Instagram
• Rosie James article: Dangling Delights

Linking parties 

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some of them out...after you link up below! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 510 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Melva has two quilts that she's been FMQ. Her first is a finish of Sticks and Stones 2. Check out her post to see how she decided to quilt it.

Melva's Sticks and Stones 2

Melva has finished her Pieces of my Life, a quilt-as-you-go quilt. 

Melva's finished Pieces of My Life

One of the section of Melva's quilt-as-you-go quilt

Here is Brenda, of Songbird Design's quilt from the Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange. This year it's a gorgeous table topper.

Brenda's gorgeous Christmas table topper

It's now your turn.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter