Virginia Greaves

During the summer, I do not have time to produce much work, so I try to finish up all of my large projects before the end of May.

The stole that I gave to Jonathan was well received and helped to brighten our Easter service. It reminds me of a stained glass window, which is nice since we don’t have one in our current building.

(You can read more about this stole on my website HERE.)

The portrait that I am working on is ready to sandwich and prepare for quilting. I finished the applique work in time to put it on my design wall & show my mother who visited last week. I realized then that I could easily change her eyes — add some color and thus some realism. I did it this morning, very easily. (My mom is an oil painter and I always benefit from her critiques. I wished she lived closer.)

It must be the season for liturgical stoles. I have been working on one for my Anglican priest and decided that he should have it in time for Easter. As I was making a page for it on my website, I noticed that someone else on QuiltArt has recently posted several stoles that she has done.

Jonathan is Anglican — but fairly nontraditional — and was interested in having a stole that he could wear throughout the church seasons. It only made sense to make it with a rainbow. I painted the colors on white fabric — blended them — added salt — and then let it sit on my design table knowing it needed more. I wasn’t sure what. I thought about it a lot & knew that time was ticking by. I eventually stamped gold filigree on it — but it wasn’t enough. I finally decided on a Celtic knot stamped in purple.  OK — that seemed to make it come together. Then I reverse appliqued a cross on each side and a dove on each shoulder (reverse since the fabric is satin and would shred like crazy if I put it on top). I used some watermark purple taffeta I had in my stash for the lining — and finished it today.

You can also see detail shots of it on my website page here. The camera went nuts with the color range and the sparkle, but I did the best I could.

By the way, I spent quite a bit of time worrying about a pattern. I didn’t really want to guess on the neckline. I finally found a copy of Simplicity’s discontinued #7950 for sale on eBay. It baffles me that there is such a demand for liturgical garments and no-one is currently providing patterns for them.

Photoshop is such a great design tool. I have the little Elements version — but it never ceases to amaze me. I don’t know what I would do without it. Julie Hirota showed me how to manipulate a piece of my work in Photoshop a couple of years ago — and I still use it a lot. It is always easier to visualize the piece before you cut everything out & then see your mistakes.

This morning I’ve been looking at my latest piece trying to decide what to use for the background — and if I should change the brown in the background of the hair. Stacy West suggested I use black for the background — and then I added some lines in a light blond/orange color for the quilting lines.

I think that the dark brown will work fine once I add the lighter color thread in the quilting stage. I tried to use a color closer to ash as a substitute — but then it kept fighting with the 3rd value range in the skin.

And I love the black. I haven’t decided if I’ll also use it for her shoulders or not.