Last weekend we went to buy a frame for Dad’s portrait, but came away without one. We were sent off with stretcher bars instead and were told to come back when I’d finished all the sewing and attached it to the stretcher bars.

So I thought I’d better get on and finish the sewing today. I had done most of the quilting on the actual portrait and spent about 2 hours last weekend tying off all the ends of the monofilament thread, which I hate doing. Today I tried to make some of the wrinkles deeper with not much success and quilted the background. I also used monofilament thread for that, but only had 4 ends to tie off.

So here are some photos. First of all the finished portrait.

And here’s one to show the most successful wrinkles. I think in the other places there were too many layers of fabric and steam-a-seam, so that the quilting didn’t make much impression.

Here’s a close up of the background. I decided to use monofilament thread because I didn’t want it to be too prominent against the actual face.

I have been slaving over a hot sewing machine this weekend. I think I’ve spent about 8 hours on the thread painting so far. It makes a difference. The portrait is getting to be even more lifelike. Although Dad looks quite a bit younger on this portrait than in the original photo. I am hoping to add the wrinkles with the quilting.

Here’s the full view:

And here’s a detail: