Browsed by
Tag: wall hanging

Welcome to the Dog House, Tinkerbelle

Welcome to the Dog House, Tinkerbelle

Today was a great day because I finally delivered the quilted pet portrait of Tinkerbelle to her parents. Tinkerbelle was there and she was none the wiser of course, but Mom and Dad were thrilled with the quilt.

quilted pet portrait


Without further a-do, here is the last instalment of this series explaining my technique for finishing a pet portrait.

Step 13

The final step is to finish the outside edges and add a hanging sleeve and a label. This is no time to gloss over the details and rush to the finish line because the quality of workmanship here can make or break the piece. The traditional finishing method is to square the quilt up and add a single or double fold binding to create a narrow outside border. I prefer a single internal border in my portraits so I finish the edges with a facing for a clean finish. The facing is simply a 2 1/2” wide strip of matching fabric (a separate strip for each edge) that’s stitched to the front of the quilt and then turned to the back and stitched down by hand. To save time, I prepared the hanging sleeve and attached its top edge to the upper facing strip before it was applied to the quilt. Once the facing was secured on the back, all I had to do was stitch the lower edge of the hanging sleeve to the back.

I always record my name and the date the quilt was finished on a quilt label which I print onto fabric. After fusing it to the back of the quilt I secure it with an invisible hand stitch. Then it’s time to photograph the portrait before transporting it to its new home.

Nahanni, meet Nahanni

Nahanni, meet Nahanni

In November I made a portrait of a curly-haired poodle named Nahanni. She’s a lovely dog with a beautiful calm temperament which made her fairly easy to photograph. Her eyes are two big pools of love that I managed to capture in the picture and the portrait. Today I had the pleasure of taking that portrait to Nahanni’s owners, as they fell in love with it and wanted to purchase it.

IMG_1884

Nahanni seemed to understand the whole transaction as she stood in front of me and lifted her paw to shake hands. Well, maybe that’s stretching things a bit, but she did shake my hand a number of times…most likely wanting a cookie. Many thanks to Dave and Susan for being the first to buy one of my pet portraits.