Pet Portrait Quilts

Have you ever made a pet portrait quilt?  I can’t believe I haven’t shared this project before now!  Jeremy took a fantastic photo of Beauty and Oscar shortly after Oscar became a member of our family.  He was infatuated with Beauty from Day one.  She has tolerated him, as he is so submissive.

Awesome photo, right?  I can’t stand how cute Oscar is.  He was still a puppy here, without all of the crazy fur he has now.

Jeremy was playing with some crazy filter on his phone one day, and gave me this image.

Obviously, I knew this was meant to be a quilt.  This is from April 2016.  My lead time is long.  Partially, because I felt this needed to be turned into a paper piecing pattern.  Lol.

I discovered a solution that worked much better for me – Collage.com.  I printed out the image onto fabric!  I felt like a genius!  Also, a cheater, but whatever.  I changed this from an idea that would never get started to a finished quilt, and it was fun.

Step one was to go through my thread stash and pull out all of my browns, from black to cream.

I used a double batting – one layer of Hobbs 80/20 and one layer of Hobbs wool.  This gives me that fabulous definition and texture.

I started with Beauty’s ears.  I just quilted lines in, trying to imitate the actual texture of her fur.

The textures become intoxicating to me as I work.  I have a hard time remembering to take breaks, and once I do stop, I spend a lot of time petting the quilt and staring off into space.

I continued to add fur texture until the dogs were finished.  Then I went on to fill in the background.

custom pet portrait quiltFinally, I bound it with black binding.  I wanted to give it the effect of a frame, for when it gets hung on the wall.

Beauty and Oscar with Dizzy Quilter

It was well received at my local quilt guild’s show.  It received an Honorable Mention ribbon in the art quilt category.

I’ve had so many people who are just amazed by this quilt.  They want to know the secret of my piecing, and how I made it look so realistic.  How long did it take me to make it, etc.  I feel so guilty when I say it was just a few hours.  Usually I announce “I cheated!”

If you are interested in having a custom pet portrait quilt made, let me know.

 

8 thoughts on “Pet Portrait Quilts

  1. Hi Jen! This is awesome! The look of a pieced quilt without all the work! Love the texture the quilting gives. I love this project! And yes, knowing how hard it is to photograph animals, that photograph was amazing. You two make a great team. 🙂

  2. What a wonderful way to “cheat”. Honestly, I would never tell a soul. Great tips, and great links. The beauty is in your wonderful subjects and your quilting. The quilting brings it to life. I did a Pet Mosaic in 2016/17. I wrote about it a lot between May 2016 and July 2017. My “MITTENS” won viewers choice at our local quilt show and I wrote about it here. https://stitchinggrandma.wordpress.com/2017/07/22/show-update/
    There is a photo of “MITTENS” on that blog post. It was all done from a photo, but pieced with 2″ squares. I did a lot of angle etc to those 2″ pieces. Some spots I had to make the piece 5 and 6 times to make the angle translate properly. So many people come back to me and ask me “how I did it”, and I refer them to Cheryl Lynch Quilts, because it was her technique. Now, I am going to send future inquires to you too! 😉

  3. JEN!!! This is just f.a.b.u.l.o.u.s. I love it! OMG – look how cute Beauty is and Oscar as just a little guy. I can’t believe you only won an honorable mention – gyp. ~smile~ Roseanne

  4. Totally great idea! I am all for finished is better and maybe having done the cheater you will be more tempted to tackle the next or a repeat – in the fullness of time, of course. I did one of Percy that was a Made by Marney pattern (its on my blog). She was asking for photos so I sent one! I wanted to do one with my son and Percy – he was totally chocolate brown when born. Ruth Mcdowell said Percy would be a black hole so I did an abbey instead.

  5. Hi Jen, I love that that the “a finished quilt is better than a perfect quilt” philosophy jives with you too. I think this is a brilliant way to get some quilting in. Dont feel guilty about your awesome idea!

    Sarah@9658textiles

  6. This is so fabulous! I don’t think it’s cheating at all! There is lots of work on your part in this quilt!

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