How to Make a Cat Castle and Scratching Post  

Back to List

How to Make a Button-Embellished Notebook Cover

How to Make a Mosaic Tile Portrait of Your Pet

Jennifer Stern, contributor

8 users recommend

This is my new wall hanging featuring a mosaic image of my dog Emma.

Jen Stern

Here's the original picture of Emma before I cut it up.

Jen Stern

There are a bunch of different brands of Inkjet Fabric Sheets. I think Printed Treasures works the best. It comes in an iron-on version that's great for this technique!

Jen Stern

This is my new wall hanging featuring a mosaic image of my dog Emma.

Photo: Jen Stern

Add Comment
Print

My quest for fun pet projects has inspired me to decorate one of the blank walls in my new house with a unique portrait of Emma, my pet and beloved running partner. Some days I don't know what I would do without Emma; she motivates me to get out there and just do it! I was thinking that I didn't have any good pictures of her hanging around, so I took some—what a pretty girl, she loves to pose for the camera! I decided to have fun with the pictures—after printing them onto Inkjet Fabric Sheets, I cut them up into squares. After piecing a fabric background out of neutral tone-on-tone prints, I spent the next few hours playing with pieces. I have to admit, I wish I had more time to experiment with spacing them in an arrangement that was a little less traditional...I challenge you to see what you can come up with! When I was happy with the arrangement, I added a sprinkle of machine embroidery and a quick stippling job with some monofilament thread to hold all the pieces in place.

Just a technical note: I whacked my camera lens (and broke it—yuck). I had to use a 50mm without zoom...I did the best I could.

These printable fabric sheets are a little pricey (around $10 for three) and so are ink cartridges, so take care that you put them in the printer the right way. If your photo ends up on the paper side, you can try to print it again on the right side.

This is my new printer—I love it! The ink cartridges are all separate, so if I run out of blue, I don't need to buy a whole new color cartridge...I think that works out better.

Here is my Emma, printed on the fabric side of one of the sheets.

I use these sheets a lot to make wall hangings...they make great wedding and anniversary gifts. The images are pretty durable; I've washed wall hangings in the gentle cycle with good results.

Before you start cutting up the picture, peel off the paper backing—it would be really time consuming to peel it away from each individual square!

I cut my photo up into 1-inch squares. You can play with the size and shape of your pieces—there is no rule saying they have to be squares!

Use a rotary cutter and ruler to cut across the picture going in one direction.

Without disturbing your strips, cut across them, creating individual pieces. As you start cutting, try to keep all the pieces in order so you don't end up with a mess.

If you want to make different size pieces, cut the picture into sections. Cut each section into the size pieces you would like to work with. Keep in mind that tiny details will get lost the smaller the individual pieces are.

Here is my chopped-up picture.

I replaced all the runaway pieces and covered it with a big square plastic ruler to keep them in order until I was ready to work with them.

I thought it would be more interesting to piece various neutral squares together to make the background. You can do that or use a single piece of fabric. After I got going pretty good, it occurred to me that I could have taken a picture of the red-checked fabric Emma was sitting on and incorporated it into the arrangement as well...next time.

If you like things in order, it's hard to let yourself go and mess up the pieces a little...I ended up straightening up my picture when it got down to the final draft.

If your photo has a face or other detail, space the pieces slightly closer together so you can see the details through the pieces.

I tried to get the pieces around the eyeballs a generous 1/8 inch apart!

When you're happy with the arrangement, stick the pieces to the background fabric. Truth be told, I used the wrong package of printable fabric to do this project...I had to individually spray each piece with 505 Temporary Adhesive Spray. My fingertips are a little gummed up! And, I also had a package of the fusible version sitting on the shelf!

After sitting back and looking at my arrangement, I decided that it needed something in the corner opposite Emma's face.  I hooped a piece of Tear 'n' Wash Stabilizer and stuck the corner in my largest hoop. I chose a flourish design and stitched it out around the corner and partway down the side of the picture.

Because I used the largest hoop, I wanted to get more than one design out of it.  So I snugged the embroidery design into the top half of the hoop so I could gently tear it out, keeping the lower half intact—I did all the embroidery using the same piece of stabilizer!

Here's an embroidery action shot!

I rehooped the leftover stabilizer I had in the extra-large hoop to stitch out "Emma." I then added 3-inch borders. After layering Warm and White Cotton Batting and a plain Kona Cotton backing, I used monofilament thread to stipple over the entire quilt.

The clear thread was a good choice because it did not distract from the overall design.

Add Comment Print

Comments (4)

littlednme writes: What a cool idea! I LOVE mosaics and my dogs! I can't wait to give it a try. Thanks for the idea!
Posted: 7:13 pm on July 19th

JenniferStern writes: Hi Meredith and Linda, Thanks for ringing in. I would use the fusible version from Printed Treasures, it works great, and you don't have to do the step of dealing with separate webbing. And, I've washed it in gentle and it stays fused and the colors stay pretty good too! Here's the address for Printed Treasures (that will take you right to the fusible version. http://www.printedtreasures.com/products/ironon/Pages/IronOn.aspx
Happy sewing!
Posted: 1:13 pm on February 15th

LindaPermann writes: this came out cute. do you have a recommendation (as far as brands, etc go) for the printable fabric sheets? i have been curious to try them, but the last ones i bought were not washable. thanks!
Posted: 8:31 pm on February 14th

MeredithP writes: I love this mosaic idea. Having never worked with the printable fabric, it sounds like there is a fusible version? That's cool, because as I was reading I wondered whether you could fuse some web on the back before cutting. My "subjects" would have to be locked away while working on this, they would love to help with all those pieces. This is a neat idea and any photo would work. Thanks for the inspriration.
Posted: 2:02 pm on February 14th

You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.