New Pet in the Dog House Archives

Here, Kitty Kitty…

February 17, 2016 Anne Mathers Comments 0 Comment

A new pet has joined the pack and this time it’s a cat portrait. I’m pleased to say that everyone’s getting along just fine although that’s quite a glare in those eyes!

quilted pet portrait, cat portrait

Process for making pet portrait — Process

This time, I decided to make a large portrait so I enlarged the original line drawing by 140% on my Canon printer. As you can see on the fabric reference chart, I chose to use 8 values for this project.

I traced the cat onto muslin with an ultra fine Sharpie pen.

Constructing the portrait is truly like painting by number with fabric instead of paint. I apply the fabric shapes that are anatomically the furthest away first. In this case, the cat’s back and top of the head are the furthest away. Then, the face and neck shapes are put in place. The nose, chin and eyes are the closest so they are the applied last. The eyes are set back in the eye sockets in real life so I am planning to experiment with their placement.

As I auditioned the portrait against a muted pink batik, the pink nose popped out and completed the cat’s expression. I knew right away I’d found the perfect background fabric. Kitty is is up on the wall now and I can almost hear her purr…or is that a grrrr?

A Boston Terrier Joins the Pack

August 22, 2015 Anne Mathers Comments 0 Comment

Piper is a 6 year old Boston Terrier who’s as sweet and adorable as they come. His mom captured this great photo of him in a local park. He’s pretty focussed on something interesting in the distance so I strongly suspect that cookies were involved in him sitting still!

The expression on Piper’s face told me right away that this would make a terrific candidate for a fabric portrait and I could hardly wait to make it. Here is the 20″ x 24″ quilted portrait made from that photograph. It’s made entirely of cotton fabric (and batting) and was stitched using a Bernina sewing machine.

quilted pet portrait boston terrier

I wanted to make an interesting background that related somehow to the grassy park setting so I experimented with a collection of green fabrics in my stash. I cut the chosen fabrics in widths from 3/8″ and 1 1/2″ and then placed them in alternating directions all around Piper. Since I had applied a fusible product (Mistyfuse) to the back of the fabrics before cutting them, I was able to press them onto the background with an iron once I was satisfied with the effect.

Deciding on the quilting design is always a challenge. To help with this decision, I start by doodling on paper before trying out the best designs on small 8″ x 8″ quilt sandwiches. In this case, I came up with a free motion design I’m calling paper clips. I used a green polyester Magnifico thread made by Superior Threads and stitched the paper clip design in one continuous line over the entire quilt.

quilted pet portrait boston terrier

I like to add an internal border to set off the portrait and more often than not, this Australian aboriginal print is the winner. I love the playfulness of the white printed lines as it reflects the dog’s playful soul and I think you’ll agree that the balance of white on black complements Piper’s colours really well.

Welcome to the pack, Piper!

Another dog portrait is done!

July 28, 2015 Anne Mathers Comments 0 Comment

The latest dog portrait has finally graduated from the design wall to the dog house. Welcome, Gus … formerly known as Max!

Each portrait I make provides an opportunity to try something new and this time, I decided to make a strip pieced background. Orienting the strips on the diagonal seems to enhance the sense of depth and add extra punch to that big pink tongue. I also decided to use more colour in the eyes, nose, and mouth, again emphasizing these great features.

Gus waited a long time on the design wall as I spent almost a month touring by bike through France this summer. Now that I’m back and rested from towing my possessions behind me on my bicycle over 1400 km from the Loire Valley to Provence, I’m in the studio and making dog portraits again. All that pent up creativity is getting released. Ahhh… that feels good.

I have also been working on improving my brand and the first item on the improvement list is to change the domain name of my website to 2dognightdesign.com. More exciting changes will follow. Thanks for staying tuned to my journey as it evolves in the world of dog portraits.

Welcome to the Dog House, Tinkerbelle

February 15, 2015 Anne Mathers Comments 0 Comment

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.

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.

Canine Intruder

December 29, 2014 Anne Mathers Comments 0 Comment

The latest doggie pet portrait is complete and I’ve named it Jackeroo. Our Jack Russell, Tashi, charged at Jackeroo when she first saw him on the design wall. It was hilarious to see her barking at the portrait (with a ball in her mouth of course!) while dancing around on her hind legs. There and then it was clear that I’d captured the spirit of this cute canine.

Jack Russells are bouncy and energetic so I chose to quilt all the curly cues on the patterned background and then I inserted a thin internal border of a black and white aboriginal print to set him off.

Tashi still thinks there’s an intruder in her house.

Jackeroo was inspired by a photo taken by Paige Kerr (www.gobeyondtheleash.com).

The latest grad

December 20, 2014 Anne Mathers Comments 0 Comment

Welcome Gilligan, the latest curly haired grad from the Pet Portrait class I taught at the Victoria Quilters Guild Fall Frolic in November. Your mom did a fantastic job of your portrait with all those curly locks and great eyes, nose & mouth that project your look of — please don’t leave me!

Next up… Nahanni the Poodle

November 11, 2014 Anne Mathers Comments 0 Comment

Today I finished the poodle portrait and here she is! There were plenty of challenges in creating this fluffy black poodle, but it didn’t end there. When it came to making the internal border, I had to match up 4 different pieces of the checkered fabric and keep those tiny brown checkers all aligned. With a little perseverence (ok…quite a bit of perseverence) it all worked out. Nahanni’s portrait is 18″ x 20″.

Another dog leaps off the design wall

September 1, 2014 Anne Mathers Comments 1 comment

It always feels great to finish a portrait or any project, for that matter, doesn’t it? The latest portrait off the design wall is this black lab. It’s the second time I’ve used this lab’s photo. The first version was done in brown. This time I wanted to reduce the number of pieces to see how few I could use but still have a decent portrait. I also wanted to try making it in white, black and grey fabrics, to be more representative of the actual midnight black lab. I was pleased with the result but I think I am going to try adding more detail for better results in my next portrait.

The background fabric you see in the photo below is not pieced. It is a navy blue/cream striped fabric. I quilted it horizontally along the dark stripes. After quilting the background, I attached the portrait by zigzagging around the perimeter with an invisible thread. I free motion straight stitched, through all the layers, just inside the edge of each piece of fabric using a matching colour of thread. The final step was fusing and stitching down the internal border, a 1/2″ black strip.

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Anne Mathers

Collage Artist, Teacher, Animal Lover

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