3 Dogs in Applique: Golden

I purchased these Whole Country Caboodle dog kits on sale at Keepsake Quilting.  The fabrics come as a pre-cut fusible applique kit, so all you have to do is pick your own background, and lay out the pieces, fuse and stitch them down.  It went remarkably fast! Reminded me of doing Journal Quilts back in the day ...

They had all the favorite dog breeds for my family ... Golden Retrievers, French Bull Dogs, and last but certainly not the least: Newfies. 

The batting was pulled from my stash, unlabeled.  I think it's Warm and Natural, with zero loft. It will stay stable, not never sag.

I'll show you the details of the Golden Retriver here, and leave the other 2 for their own posts, otherwise this will get too long.  Each dog deserves it's own post!

Golden Retriever for my Dad on a background of evergreen trees, because he has a Christmas Tree Farm.

Thread choices.

 

Stitching and thread painting from the back.  It's a lot like drawing with a needle.

  

I had to study dog noses, to figure out what to do with that piece.  

Here's a practice drawing before stitching it out. 

 

Detail of the Golden Retriever. 

 

Detail of the background stitching.  Each dog got a slightly different treatment.  Dad's Golden got a loop-de-loop with stars. 

Even though these are all Christmas presents, I don't mind posting them here, because the recipients don't look at my blog, so I'm not worried about anyone spilling the beans ahead of time. ;-) 

See separate posts about all 3 Dog Quilties:         Golden          French Bull Dog       Newfie

French Bull Dog Quilt

 

French Bull Dog Quiltie

 

French Bull Dog for my sister.  She lives in Japan, so the background is Asian-inspired, reminiscent of sakura, or cherry trees in spring.   If you look closely, you'll see little cherry blossoms stitched into the background quilting.

 

I purchased these Whole Country Caboodle dog kits on sale at Keepsake Quilting.  The fabrics come as a pre-cut fusible applique kit, so all you have to do is pick your own background, and lay out the pieces, fuse and stitch them down. 

 

 

Detail - French Bull Dog

 

  

Thread choices. 

 

French Bull Dog - Detail of the back after thread painting / applique work was done.

Note: This is not the back the the finished piece.  It does get another layer of fabric and quilting to be finished.

Here are all three dog quilties together.  

See separate posts about all 3 Dog Quilties:         Golden          French Bull Dog       Newfie

Little French Bulldog : Texture Play

Not at all my style, but I wanted to practice using the cutout / texture masking technique that Rodney Brown and Jai Johnson posted earlier.  Jai's wonderful textures are perfect for this kind of thing!   It makes it look like a bona fide portrait of a distinguished person (dog nation included).

The subject is actually a statue of a little French bulldog that our French relatives have in their apartment (One day Thoma hopes to have a real one!)  My sister does have one in Japan.  So this light-hearted pet portrait goes out to both of them--and French Bull Dog lovers everywhere. 

Here's the original photo I started with.

Photo Processing layer-by-layer :

1) Background image - French Bulldog (Layer off)

2) Jai Johnson Texture  Old Masters 5 - Normal blend mode - 100% opacity

3) Bulldog shadow with blur - Multiply 37%

4) Bulldog cutout - Normal 100%

5) Copy Layer 4 - Soft Light 22%

6) Jai Johnson  At the Sea Texture, masked off of dog - Soft Light 100%

(This does not reflect the actual progression of steps to arrive at the final image, but it is the final set of layers.)

Sharing with The Texture Artists Facebook Group.