Project Runway Faye is Finished

Three weeks ago, I finished everything on this quilt except the label.  Finally got that done yesterday, so it's ready to show.

The pattern is "Project Runway ... Faye" by Laura Heine.   The technique is fused applique.  I made a number of changes, some because I wanted to, and some because of technical difficulties on my end.  

Changes to the pattern:

1. hair
2. face
3. legs
4. border

 

Here's my version, measuring 20" x 34" (2" smaller than the pattern).

Explanation of changes to follow...

 

I gave her more hair under on the right.  I think the pattern was designed to look as if her hair was tucked behind her ear.  Instead, it looked like a bad haircut.  Now she has equal amounts of hair on both sides of her face.

Speaking of her face, I didn't put in any features.  It's hard to get a decent expression on a face and rather than risk a mess, I opted to go for the anonymous look.

 

The pattern had the legs smushed together with no daylight between them; I like them separated a little, with two distinct shoes.

I liked the border on the pattern better than what I did.  But I had technical difficulties, like I said.  I blame it on the crummy fabric (loose-weave fabric from a chain store) that I used for the background.  The fabric got all stretched out on the part that wasn't fused.  So after all the ironing of the fused pieces, the center was flat and the edges were all poofy and up in the air like a stretched-out bias angle.

The border called for more fused applique, which wasn't an option on all those waves.  So I cut the four corners of the block on an angle, cutting off as much of the "wiggle" as I could.  I patched in some nice flat fabric.  Then I did a conventional border.

For the quilting, I edge-stitched along the fused edges, then did free motion echo quilting on the background.  That helped take up some of the poofiness.  Then I did a bunch of straight-line rows in the border, and blocked it after binding to make it nice and flat.

The back.

And the label.

I have three other fused applique patterns in the queue - a bicycle, an elephant, and houses.  You can be sure I'll be using good fabric for the background.

But before I get to them, I want to make an ironing board cover, a cushion, a cover for my glider/rocker, and a quilt for a bale challenge.  And before I start any of those I want to finish that big block quilt with all the options I showed you last week.   That thing looks a bit different now!