- 1 full-sized either B&W or color depending on which shows the separation of shades best
- 1 color photo for reference—either full-sized or 8x10 or both
FABRIC
Bring a variety of colors that could work for your subject. Light, medium and dark of each. Batiks are usually good, and tone-on-tone that read as solids. Small bits, and pieces up to fat quarters. In this case, more is better.
Avoid high-contrast or large print patterns—these are hard to use to show lights and shadows.
Choose fabric that is tightly woven—if it frays, it’s hard to use in the small pieces.
Muslin for the background, larger than your finished project will be. Wash & iron this.
SCISSORS
Paper scissors and fabric scissors. A pair of small scissors for fine details is also good.
PINS
MISC
A phone to take photos which helps you see the balance of the colors and shading in your quilt. Phone photos distance you from your work so you get a better perspective on it and can see where it needs changing.
A light box would be handy, but optional. Tracing paper, Sharpie Extra Fine Line Permanent Marker, Elmer’s School Gluestick, toothpicks, poster-sized sheet of foamcore (Dollar Tree, Michaels, Walmart). Freezer paper can be handy for small pieces.
A piece of transparent plastic the size of your quilt can be handy for placement (I used a show curtain liner from Dollar tree).
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Preparing photo to make a pattern for your quilt
Save your photo on the desktop. A close up, well-lit photo is best. Using your photo editing program clean up the picture—sharpen the focus, crop it so the main element shows well, adjust light/dark, adjust colors. Don’t worry about the background, you will be replacing it.
If you don’t have a photo editing program, save the photo to your desktop & double click on the photo -- you will have an EDIT choice. Click on that to adjust & crop.
Save new enhanced photo to the desktop. I print a full page color copy of my photo now to use as a reference.
Black & White photo
This helps you see the various shades of colors in your photo. If you Posterize it in color, sometimes the colors get very strange when they’re separated. B&W can help you see the changes in values you’re looking for. If your photo editing program does black & white, you can use it.
Or…
Go to IMGonline.com.usa. Go to EFFECTS and find Black-and-white choice. #1 click CHOOSE FILE & select your photo. #2 GAMMA CORRECT choose ON , then click OK. Then OPEN PROCESSED IMAGE. SAVE a copy.
Posterize
In IMGonline, go back to EFFECTS to POSTERIZE. Again, CHOOSE FILE & select your photo. It defaults with 8 shades of greys. Try different numbers to see how it works best on your photo. When you can distinctly see the difference in the areas of light & shadow and have one you like, save it. The easiest way to compare for me is to print out 3 or so choices, label them with the # of shades. (Sometimes I use a combination of 2 photos to get the look I want in certain areas.).
To Resize:
Open new saved posterized photo in PAINT (right click on desktop photo and go to “open with—” and select Paint)
Now you want to change to the actual size you want (a good size would be about 18” on the short side.) There are rulers along the top & left side so you can see what size you have. (If yours is not showing in inches, go to FILE, then PROPERTIES and select INCHES.) Don’t worry about the size and the paper size you are using—this will print on multiple pages to get the size you chose. You can then cut off the border & tape the pictures together.
Go to HOME, then double click on RESIZE. This brings up the RESIZE & SKEW choice. Keep the PERCENTAGE option checked so the relative size/shape will be the same as your photo. The 100 x 100 that shows is the % size your photo will print. If it’s too large, try something smaller, ex 80 x 80, if it’s too small, change to something like 125 x 125.
Once you have the correct size, go to FILE > Print > PAGE SETUP. In the lower right box SCALING, choose Adjust to 100%. This will keep the aspect ratio the same. Further down it will show you how many pages it will take to produce the photo, ex 2 page by 3 pages. Click OK.
Go back to FILE and PRINT
(You can also just go to Kinkos, Office Depot or Staples or a blueprint shop to get it enlarged to whatever size you want.)
I also like to print a full -sized color copy for reference.
TIPS:
The eyes are one of the most important features and sometimes this area is a bit dark and hard to distinguish exactly where the pupils are, the irises, etc. If that happens, I often make myself a cheat sheet of that area—I make a copy on the desktop, crop so just that area shows and brighten it up a bit so I can clearly see how it should look, where the lines are. This also works with noses and mouths. This is for reference—you will still use the colors of your original pattern, but now you know the underlying anatomy.
Crop away as much background as possible so you’re not printing extra pages with 1” of an ear on it.
Please call me ahead of time if you have any questions on this process of getting the right sized posterized image to bring.
Karen Stockwell
727-992-1068
Karenstockwell.com
