My friend Nanci Williams sketches caricatures of people frequently and she is an amazing artist. I have been telling her for a long time that I wanted to use her portraits and make the people in stitch. I finally stitched a few. We are thinking about making a coffee table type book combining photos of the stitched pieces and the sketches.

Here is Nanci’s sketch. I picked this one because it was fairly simple. She has 30-40 of these sketches done at this point.

Here is the finished stitched portrait. I decided I would take a few liberties with the clothing as I will be using what I already have in my stash.

Here’s a little bit closer view. I will stretch these over matte board and lace across the back. Then I can frame them.

Here’s the next sketch I chose to interpret in stitch.

Here is the piece before I started stitching. I fused the fabrics down and then used free motion machine stitching to add the details.

Here’s the finished portrait. I am really enjoying doing these. We might even have some other artists with different media do portraits as well to add to our book.

I do add a bit of color and shading with colored pencils to give it a bit more depth. Have you ever done any stitched portraits? Have you collaborated with other artists? What was your experience like? We’d love to see them over on the forum. Do stop by the forum and show us if you get the chance.

Forum Link

I would also like to announce a call for artists. Our local group is having its annual fiber art exhibition in October.  The theme this year is “Totem”. You can download the prospectus and application here.  The exhibition is open to anyone as long as the piece is “fiber art”. We will accept international entries but you would be responsible for shipping the piece to and from Montana. We had a great show last year and I hope you’ll consider entering a piece.

Totem, that from which I draw my purpose, meaning and being. Do you have a symbol that serves as an emblem for you or your clan? Is there a being or object that reminds you of your ancestry or mystic past? What does Totem mean to you?