Mum at Sixtyish

In April 2012 I made dad a quilt for his 60th Birthday, I always intended to make Mum and accompanying quilt for her birthday that November but life got in the way and I never actually did.

So for Christmas this year I fixed that and here is Mum at Sixtyish:

This one turned out much more open than the one I did of dad, with far less blocks of colour. Partly it was because the photograph was from a bright sunny day (rather than an evening shot) and partly it was because I was trying to make better use of negative space (and get less of a communist propaganda feel to the whole thing!)

In a close up of the face you can see I used lots of tiny pieces of fabric, some of the very fine detail (left ear, some of the hair) is simply free hand stitching as I couldn't get the fabric slender enough without it fraying.

The quilt is backed with an old duvet cover and has a dowel for hanging

I added a little label because I'm trying to remember to do that more... I think I shall have to try sewing the next one but a marker pen does the job

And finally, Mum & Dad on the wall together. I was aiming to get them the same size and whilst the quilts are the same dimensions I appear to have used rather different scales for the portraits. Still, I think they look quite nice together.