Quilting and drawing

I finished the t-shirt quilt today.  I used diagonal lines across the quilt so each square has a quilted X in it.  I gave it a final washing to get rid of the basting lines and the basting spray.  It also shrinks the quilt a little for that lovely antique cozy look which I love.  Here is the final quilt

 I've also been working on some charcoal and graphite portraits.  I'm trying to improve my skills in that area.  I heard about a book called Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis.  The book is out of print but still available through multiple sources.  I got mine off Ebay.  It is a great book which I've slowly been absorbing but I've already seen improvement.  He also wrote a book on drawing the human body so, that may be next on my wish list!  I've mostly been practicing on faces of family and friends but I also tried one of Marilyn Monroe.  I'm not completely capturing her image but I think I'm much closer than I was 6 months ago.  I asked a fellow charcoal artist to recommend pencils because I just had some cheap stuff.  She recommended several but, I'm already familiar with the Derwent brand so, I went with that for the graphite and the General brand for charcoal.  I was so excited to see a fantastic deal on Dick Blick's art site so, I got them for a wonderful discounted price.   Here is my Marilyn picture.  I'm always open to constructive feedback if you have suggestions for me.