Portraits

Again, an idea I've lived with for some time, since I made my horse quilt, actually, which only came to fruition now, in a couple of days of frantic drawing, tracing, cutting, pinning and stitching in between taking the kids out here, there and everywhere.

This is a series of little horse portraits - curve-piecing samples for a workshop, which incorporate 3d manes to make them come to life.

They are just flimsies at the moment, because this is how I prefer them for the workshops, quilting will add some texture, and the eyes will be brought to life by a couple of strokes of paint or crayons.
The choice of fabrics changes the style completely, from almost realistic to something fairytale-like.

For these two, the manes are made with loosely spun knitting yarn (leftovers from some knitted hats), for the third one, I used felting wool (unfelted in this case, in the horse quilt I felted the manes before stitching them into the seams - they look less natural when felted, but handling is much easier then). I wish I had made it longer, because it did shrink a bit with all the handling. the manes will probably be partially stitched down after quilting, to keep them in place when the quilt is folded, carried or stored.

I got so carried away, I have two more patterns ready, but will have to pause for a while.

Linking up to Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Linky Tuesday at Free Motion by the River