This week is mid-winter break at college, so I am able to give more time to a challenge and this one needed it! Project Quilting's fifth challenge this season is Well-Dressed Man.
I thought of all kinds of things, but had to go with The Army Guy ... now that he is retired, he has grown an "epic mustache" (according to our daughter's co-worker) and he likes to wear bow ties. How dapper!
the Army Guy and his "epic mustache"
After taking his picture, I manipulated it in Photoshop and printed it off, using a tiled printing mode so I could get an image bigger than my paper. Of course, I could have taken it to an office place for them to print it on larger paper, but who wants to run out to the store in the throes of creating?
tiled print ready to assemble
So, I taped the image together and traced all those little bits onto paper-backed fusible web. Yes, I remembered to reverse them - what I should have done was to reverse the print, but instead I just put it face side down on my light table for tracing.
Then came the fun ... what colors to use? Do I go natural? or not? I decided to make this a value study and not worry about natural colors at all. I chose blue for the skin, making him cool ;)
now he is dapper and cool!
Lots of ironing shapes onto fabrics and cutting shapes from fabrics, before I could place them all together. I laid down some parchment paper (from the grocery store) over the large print and started putting the pieces where they belonged. More pressing to keep them from shifting away.
iron pieces to the parchment paper and each other
I wanted the focus to be on his hair, his glasses, his mustache and his bow tie, so I chose to use some purples, keeping it mostly analogous, but working with warmer purples to contrast nicely. I moved the other way for this shirt and vest, going green, again a color analogous to the blue, a very nice combo on the color wheel. And, bonus! the warm purple against the cool green is almost a complementary color, making the purple bow tie stand out even more.
first day's applique work
After the first day, it was looking pretty good, but my brain and eyes were getting tired, so it was time to put it aside before I made any major mistakes (which happens with tired brain!).
Today I tweaked the appliques a bit more. Some were in the wrong places, I needed to define some other areas, all subtle differences, but I find it much more pleasing after the second day of manipulating the applique pieces.
day two of working on the applique
I have chosen background fabric and have a plan for tomorrow's foray into the Sewing Dungeon ... I'm excited to see what happens next!
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