5 Steps to Better Portrait Art Quilts

 31 Dec 2014 by VivikaEditor

From pixel quilts made of tiny fabric squares to mixed-media quilts that enhanced fabric with paint or colored pencil, quilt artists made a lot of faces. (even if you are not a fabric artist, you can take these ideas and tips and use them for your choice of media. Wouldn't the art quilt below be awesome in another media!).

From what's been seen at quilt shows, on social media, and art shows portraits will continue to be popular in 2015. So here are some tips from some portrait quilt artists.

Employ fine art skills. You don't have to go to art school to create successful fabric portraits, but knowing a thing or two about painting and drawing will help--even if you just practice in a sketchbook. Kate Themel,, who specializes in heavily stitched figurative quilt art says, "Painting taught me to think about the interaction of colors and not be afraid to make bold moves. Drawing required me to quiet down, observe objects with focused attention, and to notice contour and texture."

Fusible is your friend. Deborah Hyde's pixel portrait on the cover of the April/May 2014 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine wowed readers, and many were curious about how she managed to stitch so many 1" squares. Deborah's trick is to use a fusible interfacing grid. For more free-form portraits, add dimension with fabric and fusible. MistyFuse® fusible web is so lightweight you can build up layers or create folds with it.

Pixel portrait art quilt by Deborah Hyde, made of 1" squares fused and stitched on a grid.

Don't seek perfection. "Perfectionism is a creativity killer," says quilting artist and painter Melissa Averinos. Her Thread Ladies mini-quilts emerged from experimenting while she practiced long-arm stitching techniques. Doodle and play with thread and colors to see what kind of portraits you can create--and feel free to practice on muslin before you commit to "good" fabric.

Mix your media. Art quilts break the rules, so don't be afraid to add paint, colored pencil, or water-soluble pigments to your fabric portraits. Esterita Austin applies white paint with a small angled paintbrush to add light--and life--to her portrait subject's eyes.

Quilt artist Esterita Austin shows how to bring life to fabric portraits by adding paint. 

Practice on your pets! Pet portraits are always popular. And while they're often reluctant to pose, pets are less likely to judge your interpretation of their likeness than humans. Start with some fabric postcards or even ATCs (artist trading cards) featuring your pets before proceeding to people. (On a personal note, ATC's are such fun, plus its a great size to experiment. I also enjoy the fact that ATC's are traded with other artists).

There is lots of information on how to create quilted art portraits from award-winning quilt artists and instructors available in the Quilting Daily Shop. Two Quilting Arts Workshops that are recommend are Making Faces: Beginning and Advanced Portraits with Maria Elkins and Dynamic Fabric Art Portraits: A Foolproof, Step-By-Step Process with Esterita Austin.