quilting

Meet Fizzle

February 1, 2023

Happy 1st day of February! Today is reveal day for those of us in The Endeavourers Art Challenge Group. Our theme for this challenge was portrait. I was inspired to create this portrait after watching an interview of Freddy Moran. If you’re not familiar with her, you can watch the interview here. 

Meet Fizzle. 

Small quilt featuring a portrait of a woman with orange hair, purple head band, and cat earrings - piecefulthoughts.com

Fizzle is just a bit of fun I had while creating a portrait. She is not fashioned after anyone, but there are some little nods to things about me and about my mom. It was delightfully fun to create Fizzle and see her come to life. 

Why the name Fizzle? My mother’s name was Phyllis, which was how most people addressed her. However, I had one cousin who could get away with calling her Fizzle now and then – no one else could (or ever tried). She would always make my mom laugh, so I think that’s why she got away with it. Fizzle does not look at all like my mom, but my mom did have red hair (not bright orange, though!!). She also had green eyes, so that’s a nod to my mom, too. 

Let’s take a look at that face up close: 

Detail photo of a quilted face with green eyes, blue nose, red lips, and cat earrings - piecefulthoughts.com

While the green eyes are a nod to my mom, the rest of her face has significance to me. Note those cat earrings – you know I had to get cats in here somehow, and who wouldn’t want a pair of dangly cat earrings like that? Fizzle has a blue nose, because my favorite coffee is Blue Nose Coffee! 

The portrait was fun to construct. I decided to make the face two-toned, so it would stand out a bit more and not fade into the background. The background was the first thing constructed – improv piecing in low volume and black/white prints. Once the background was ready, I cut out all the components of the portrait and laid them out until I was happy with them. Then I took a photo, and deconstructed the portrait so I could begin stitching it down. It is all raw edge appliqué, and most of the pieces were cut without rulers. The entire portrait was stitched down to the quilt top before I added the batting and backing. 

For the face itself, I pieced the two colors together, then cut out the face shape. I placed the neck piece in place using a glue stick, then placed the face. I stitched that down using straight lines following the seam line of the face. Once that part was done, I just began adding the rest of the portrait components, layer by layer. 

The eyes were fun to make. The lashes are from a piece of Marcia Derse fabric, which I was surprised to find in my scrap bin. Stitching around those little black pupils was not as much fun – ha! 

Her lips and headband are from a piece of Kaffe Fassett fabric. I enjoyed fussy cutting the cats for the earrings from a fat quarter print. I did some quick stitching with some embroidery thread to create the dangly part of the earrings. 

Fizzle’s dress is another nod to me – our family’s love of birds is represented by the feathers, and it just happened that the wording “Inner Artist” was on one of the feathers. 

Feathers on fabric with wording "inner artist" on one - piecefulthoughts.com

The headband and dress had added quilting done after the batting and backing were added. 

The hair is short strips of orange fabrics, some straight, some curly. Each strip was stitched down; that probably took me the longest. 

Close up photo of orange fabric strips used to create hair - piecefulthoughts.com

Once the quilt was ready for quilting, I just did a simple meander through the background. I also did a bit of stitching on the headband through the “veins” of pink for some added fun. Then I added a smaller meander on her dress. 

Fizzle finishes at about 16-1/2 inches. I had so much fun with her, I actually made another miniature portrait which you will see in another post. 

I’m glad you stopped by to meet Fizzle. I’m curious – have you made a portrait quilt? You can see the other portrait challenge quilts here. 

Wendy

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40 Comments

  • Cindy Pieters
    February 1, 2023 at 5:44 am Reply

    WOW! I love Fizzle! A wonderful artistic memory piece, from the hair to the perfect wording in the feather.

  • texasquiltgal
    February 1, 2023 at 7:01 am Reply

    I’m so impressed with this one I can’t even begin to make my comments complimentary enough! I think my favorite parts are the hair and the earrings, and I love the fabrics you used. You are wonderfully creative, and I love how you express it.

  • Vicki in MN
    February 1, 2023 at 7:11 am Reply

    OMG your mind works in wonderous ways for sure! I love that you told us how you did it. Love those cat earrings:) And those eyelashes, I bet you let a little squeal out when you saw that fabric!

  • Danette
    February 1, 2023 at 7:58 am Reply

    Fizzle is just a lot of fun! I love the cat earrings, plus the “cabbage head” – Kaffe fabric. To me, it looks like cabbage head(?). You have done a wonderful job on Fizzle. It will be fund to have around the house.

  • Kathleen McCormick
    February 1, 2023 at 8:34 am Reply

    Fizzle is wonderful. I love that she is part you and part your Mom and all the little things you added as an homage to her or to you – eyes, hair, feather, earings, but best of all Blue Nose! Never would have guessed that one. Great job, Wendy.

  • The Morning Latte
    February 1, 2023 at 8:35 am Reply

    Oh Wendy!! This is just so great I had to share it with my sisters! You are so so creative!! WOW! LOVE it! Down to every little detail!

    • Sandra Healy Designs
      February 1, 2023 at 1:22 pm Reply

      This is just wonderful, Wendy! So fun and creative and I love all the personal details incorporated into her design. Fabulous!

  • exuberantcolor
    February 1, 2023 at 10:36 am Reply

    You really had fun with this portrait. Great job! I did a portrait 21 years ago in a 2 day Jane Sassaman workshop. It’s a little scary in the beginning whether it is going to all work together.

  • Rochelle Summers
    February 1, 2023 at 10:57 am Reply

    Fizzle is fantastic! I love all the little details like the lashes and the earrings. The feathers are wonderful and the words so true of you. Alla those black and white scraps flow together so well and those bright green eyes make Fizzle seem alive. Your quilting on this piece is wonderful. I did a “portrait” of my granddaughter for an art quilt challenge. I had a book and bought a Craftsy class. It was done 3-D with the hair yarn and very curly. I added a necklace of a peace sign and some glasses (I think). The lips were a bit bold. I don’t think my teenage granddaughter though it looked like her! I think it is harder than it looks.

  • aquilterstable
    February 1, 2023 at 11:01 am Reply

    Wow! I am in awe of any type of quilted portrait and love what you did here. And those cat earrings! I especially love Fizzle’s hair!

  • Rose Mikulski
    February 1, 2023 at 11:06 am Reply

    I am so in love with Fizzle, the story and the explaining on how you created this masterpiece. Of course the fabric selection made Fizzle sizzle.

  • Janine @ Rainbow Hare
    February 1, 2023 at 3:54 pm Reply

    Your Fizzle is amazing! And thank you for the link to Freddy Moran on you tube. I just watched it and I really enjoyed seeing some of her faces and hearing all her thoughts about quilting and creating. I’m really inspired to try to make a quilt like this myself!

  • Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting
    February 1, 2023 at 6:50 pm Reply

    I’m so impressed with the eyes, Wendy!!! And of course I noticed the cat earrings right away!!!

  • Tracie
    February 2, 2023 at 12:45 am Reply

    Wow, I love how you created Fizzle’s two-tone face. The extra dimension makes such an impact. All the details are impressive. Utterly cool!

  • Needle and Foot
    February 2, 2023 at 10:08 am Reply

    You’re talents for art quilting have grown tremendously and this piece is just fantastic. Love the use of Bloomston’s fabric (the feathers), the cat earrings, the pretty green eyes and the crazy hair. I think I would really like Fizzle in real life. She seems like a fun woman with great taste. She would be open to some great adventures and I also think she has loads of self confidence. She is wonderful Wendy!

  • Carol in Texas
    February 2, 2023 at 11:38 am Reply

    Ah, Wendy! Thank you so much for the connection to that piece with Freddy Moran. I bought her book of houses years ago and I always enjoyed looking through it, though I never made a quilt from it. I loved the photos of her very colorful house. She is still a delight! I had not heard anything about her for so long, but there she is still teaching at the age of 92! What an inspiration!

  • Janie
    February 2, 2023 at 12:45 pm Reply

    I LOVE Fizzle ❤️❤️❤️
    Wow, I want to try a portrait now… wonder how my older sister would react to a portrait of her…
    Thank you for describing your process with all the details!
    Blessings,
    Janie @ Isabella’s Whimsy

  • Sandra Walker
    February 3, 2023 at 3:46 pm Reply

    Well Fizzle is just terrific! I have a favourite aunt named Phyllis though she goes by Phyl 99% of the time. Thank you for all the detail and close-ups as to how you created her. I loved reading about the entire process. What absolute fun!

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