Playful Portraiture LIVE

Making faces from photo to fabric, together, in one afternoon

October 19, live on zoom
TWO TIMES TO CHOOSE FROM
12-4pm eastern
or
6-10pm eastern
Suitable for all levels.

You have a photo you love. And the wish to make it into something that lasts.

Maybe it is your grandson's grin. Your mother, young, in a picture you have looked at a thousand times. The dog who is getting old now.  You have thought, more than once, "I wish I could make that in fabric." And then, almost in the same breath: "But I can't draw a face to save my life."  

So the photo stays in the drawer. My, friend: the thing standing between you and that portrait is not talent. It is a method. And the method is a lot simpler than you think. 

Let's Play - Register Now

What we will make together

This is a live, 4-hour workshop on Zoom. Not a video you watch alone at midnight and mean to come back to. A real afternoon, together, where you start with a photo and finish with a face. In our time together, you will:

  • Learn the map of the face. Where the eyes actually sit. How placement and proportion do almost all the work of likeness. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. 
  • Turn a photo into a pattern. How to pick a good photo (and spot a bad one before it frustrates you), how to trace it into a clean pattern, and the shortcut apps that do the fussy part for you if you like working on a tablet or phone.
  • Choose fabric like an artist. Why value matters more than color, and how to build skin, shadow, hair, and light out of the scraps you already own. 
  • Build your face in fusible appliqué. Cutting, grouping, positioning, and fusing your shapes into a portrait, with tips for quilting faces that you will not find by guessing. 
  • Play. Because the whole point is that this is allowed to be fun. Wild skin colors. Unexpected backgrounds. Your voice, your choices.

You do not need to know how to draw. You do not need fancy supplies. You need a photo, a pile of scraps, your iron, and a few hours with me.

Save Your Seat

No More Fears and a Fantastic Quilt

I want to tell you how much I REALLY enjoyed the Playful Portraiture class! You made it SIMPLE and FUN! You started at the beginning and broke down our blinders and self doubts, and EACH of us made a FANTASTIC portrait!
You covered every detail of making these portraits and I look so forward to doing one of my grandsons!
I'm just so thrilled I took the day of to do something I've been wanting to learn!

I highly recommend taking this class!!! What a GREAT FUN DAY!!
~ Nina Clotfelter

Here's what you get

  • The live 4-hour workshop on Zoom with me, guiding you from photo to finished appliqué pattern for a face 
  • Real-time feedback on your own photo, your own fabric, your own portrait, as you build it 
  • The practice photos and patterns provided, so you can learn on ours before you risk a treasured one
  • The full supply guide in advance, so you walk in ready 
  • One week of access to all of the pre-recorded tutorials in the on-demand version of this course

The Details

  • When: October 19th Noon - 4 pm eastern OR 6 - 10 pm eastern - you choose at checkout
  • Where: Live on Zoom (link sent after you register) 
  • How long: 4 hours, with breaks 
  • Level: All levels welcome. True beginners thrive here. S
  • eats: Limited to 24 so I can give everyone real feedback

Supplies

For creating your own pattern by tracing

• Pencil
• Black regular sized Sharpie (fresh is best)
• Tracing paper 
• Photo (practice photo provided in lesson), US letter-sized print, preferably black and white, the face filling the page.
• Light table or LED Light Box Tracer

For creating a fat-quarter sized fusible appliqué portrait

• Pattern (11 x 17 practice pattern provided in lesson) 
• Baking Parchment (NOT dollar store parchment - it does not work for this method)
• More parchment or Silicone press sheet 
• Black regular sized sharpie 
• Opaque silver sharpie, or light table and white pencil 
• 1/2 yard Fusible Web (Wonder-Under, Misty-Fuse, Steam-a-Seam) Scraps of solid white and black fabric 
• Iron and pressing surface 
• Scissors (still loving Karen Kay Buckley's 6-Inch Perfect Scissors) 
• Fat-Quarter of fabric for "skin" (be wild and creative but keep it tone-on-tone and not large patterns!) 
• Scraps that are a little darker than your skin fabric 
• Various other scraps that might work for hair and shadows and eyes 
• Fabric for background (can be chosen after face is formed)

Let's Do It!

Recorded Tutorials Available after Live Workshop

Lyric Kinard

Artist, Author, Educator

© 2026 Lyric Kinard Workshops