"On the Boulevard" Background Design

I'm showing how I stitched the background in today's post. I first marked the background image with white soap, and then pin basted the top to the batting and back.



After basting was completed I began the machine quilting. I first stitched the silhouette of the figure, and then I stitched the background features around the silhouette. I tried to work around the background locking in larger areas before I went back in and completed the area. Here are some progress photos:











Here are a few photos showing the background stitching completed with the figure placed on the top. The figure is not stitched down yet.






I like the impression of the street scene in the background. Next step is stitching down the figure. Thanks for visiting my blog!

My Mom - On the Boulevard!!!

My Mom loved to shop, and this is a photo of her doing that when she was young. She grew up in the Milwaukee area, so this is the shopping district in that city, I believe. I love the movement in this photo, and the clothes they wore!  I am making an art quilt based on this for my "Attitudes" series.























I've been painting the image of my Mom in this photo, and this is what I have completed as of this post:



I think it's pretty good so far. I need to darken the value on some of the face shadows, but I find it best to do that in gradual phases. As one of my painting teachers used to say, "sneak up on the darks". That way you are less likely to over do it.

I'll post more progress photos of this as I go along, and give some other details about my process.

Thanks for visiting my blog!