WOW!
This month has been a long one, but also a flash of light. January started off with my family and I traveling back from our vacation. We arrived back home and only a few days later I was at the ER for ear pain. My guess was the airplane did more damage than good. I had a sinus infection that had basically built up a ton of pressure in my ears. By the time I had made it to the ER it was just a lot of fluid and scar tissue, but no ear infection. (So thankful it wasn't an ear infection.) Doctor did mention that it could get worse if the decongestion didn't work and to keep an eye out for a ruptured ear drum. (Yes, it was that bad.) I was in bed for quite a few days, sadly.
Being sick also delayed the launch of my Patreon pattern for January, but I am so thankful that all my patreon members cared and understood that my health came first. They all have been so patient and wonderful. I did end up launching it a few days after the New Year and I have to say it came out better than I could imagine. I spend weeks, if not months, working on one of these designs and to finally see the finished block is always just breath taking.
I then moved on to finishing up a bunch of custom orders. I did a mother and child image:
This design was a little more complex then I thought it would be, but in order to get the depth I wanted I really needed something like 20 different shades of skin tone. The shades of skin tone are really what helps give the finished pattern the depth and three dimensional feel with such a flat product. The coloring and shading of skin tones can take me days, if not hours to pick and alter and change and eventually decide on.
I often work on several custom orders at once, to help break up the amount of repetition I do; again, picking the skin tone colors can take a long time, but moving back and forth to say this design:
can help give my eye a little break from that. This Indian motorcycle is mostly steal/metal colors and a little bit of blues and reds as well. This pattern helped give me a break from the portrait pattern. This motorcycle design had a total of 88 sections and 28 different colors. I have done a motorcycle before so this was not a new area for me, and I felt a lot more confident going into this pattern after having done the other one, prior.
After the portrait and motorcycle, I was able to return to what I am more known for, which is animals! I do love hearing the stories behind why the person is getting the pattern done or having it designed etc. Often it is because the animal is no longer here, or they are trying to help another friend or family member out who also lost their animal, sometimes its a beloved talented animal who has won awards and has been a treasure to them. I love hearing about the love my clients have for their animals, as I too love my dog and cat.
I had two german shepherd dogs back to back and my gosh they are so cute. I could say I am bias, as my dog is also a german shepherd but you know, its true.
Piper here looks the closest to my girl, Lily. Piper has a total of 38 different colors; ranging from browns, tans and blacks. Piper has a total of 42 sections, which is pretty close to average for my detailed animals. Most animals that I design, have about 30-50 sections. Pipers sibling Scully is the other german shepherd I also worked on this month.
Scully here looks more like the typical long hair german shepherd. Scully has a total of 59 sections, as the dogs with more hair or curly hair will have a lot more sections as the tiny pieces are what give the hair movement. Scully also has 33 colors and again mostly in blacks, tans and browns.
I then continued on with another dog, which was not a german shepherd, but still an adorable dog named Sierra. Sierra looks to be of the beagle breed. This side profile is a wonderful angle and I don't think I have done a full side view like this, with just one dog (I have done it with two weimaraner).
I would say Sierra is a simple design, but honestly with 33 colors (just like Scully above) she really isn't simple in the color department. However, she is on the lower end, when it comes to the amount of sections she has; which is 35 sections. That is a lot less than say Scully above who has a little less than double Sierras. Sierra is a tricky dog though, because you have browns but you also have this mix of gold or orange like colors. Getting those gold and or orange colors just right is a challenge. I am not even sure I have found great matches to those colors in the fabric world. I believe I have maybe found 4 or so. It definitely makes the pattern when you nail the fabric choice, so laying them all out on a table next to each other is a great way to see if they will work well.
After Sierra, I did not move away from the animals, but just a different style of portrait.
This geometric husky is a style that has been trending for awhile. Geometric style art has been popular in the last few years. I have had several requests for this style of design but with other characters, famous individuals and even animals. This geometric husky is not an easy design, though it may look easy. It actually has 60 sections and a total of 38 different colors. Some of the colors are only used once or twice, but those tend to be the "shadow" to the colors next to it. The geometric designs can become overwhelming because you do end up with a bunch of odd pieces and multiple variations of one color.
I finished up this month with Alfie. Alfie looks a lot like a german shepherd but I am not a 100% sure if Alfie is, or if Alfie is a mix of a few different breeds. In any case Alfie here:
is made up of 30 different colors; and has 41 different sections. Alfie is mostly blacks, brown and tans; are you sensing a theme this month? I joke. However most animals are tan, brown, black and whites. Every once in awhile I get an orange cat or blonde dog, but a lot are those main colors.
I spent the month working on my ambassador quilt as well as next months patreon pattern. I am extremely excited for the patreon pattern but also so ready to show you all what I made for the island batik quilt challenge. So, be sure to come back next few weeks to see the quilts I made.
With that, I hope you all enjoyed seeing my custom works for this month. I have designed a few others but they have not been approved so I will wait and show you next month, possibly. Thanks for sticking around and supporting me, even if its just reading my blog or liking my posts. If you want to see more up to date images please go follow me on instagram @QuiltNSew as I try to post roughly 5 times a week.
Stay safe, stay healthy and be kind.