textile art – Page 7 – Virginia Greaves

Applique and the Stabilizer Snob

March 28, 2013March 28, 2013Virginia GreavesLeave a comment

I’ve never really addressed applique on my blog. I’ve stated that I do it — I may have even specified that I use a tight zip-zag — but I’ve never really talked about it or why — which seems a great omission given how often I’m asked about it from other quilters.

Some people fuse and then go directly to quilting. I’ve considered this, especially recently. Applique is tedious and is probably the least creative process I do. However, it gives a very neat finish. Raw edge applique without it can get rather messy over time, and I like the completeness that I get with a secured edge. I’ve used a blanket stitch and a satin stitch, but I prefer a tight zigzag — 1.0 mm length & 2.0 mm width (although I vary the width in tight spaces).

Why use stabilizer? I had someone ask me that recently. Years ago, I started using stabilizer and haven’t really questioned why in a long time. The answer is that it gives a professional finish. Yes, there are many layers of fabric which can stabilize the stitch, but in some areas, only two fabrics of cotton are too flimsy. The stitch will look much better if you use a stabilizer.

For years, I’ve been using tearaway stabilizer from embroidery shops. I had one that was soluble for a while but paper-y like a tearway that I really l liked but eventually couldn’t find anymore. When I was making the raven, I used the scraps of all of my old stabilizer. They were all good — except one. We’ll get to that in a minute.

This, by the way, is the beak on my raven as I showed it in my last post. It wasn’t right.

This picture, although taken when my studio was growing dark for the evening, shows how I changed the colors a little.

The raven shows up a little better on my design wall. Whenever I lay something on my design wall, I’m tempted to just lay it on black fabric and call it a day. BUT, my intention in making this piece is part of a story — and I had plans to work on the Tower of London.

I drew a stylized version of the towers and hoped that my fabric choices would get me where I wanted to go. I had no idea if it would work — but I took a leap of faith. This shows the two right towers with the brown decorated with the white architectural details. It was almost like frosting a cake. I was careful to use a white print that wouldn’t show the brown behind it. I would usually put the lighter value down first to avoid shadowing, but this design was more structurally sound to have the full brown background with the white fabric carefully cut and laid on top.

Then I added the black details.

And finally the rusted copper turrets.

The left towers were constructed in the same way.

With the darker details and turrets added, they make more sense.

I put the towers on my design wall — and you can clearly see where the raven will sit. I posted this image to my FB Page and was surprised to find EVERYONE wanted me to finish the piece just like this. It does have a fascinating quality to it — but it isn’t the direction that I was working on. I will certainly consider it for another piece.

This shows the raven sitting on the design wall with the towers. Again, the black background makes everything look good.

This next photo shows the raven and towers once they were appliqued to muslin. Keep in mind that I had run out of my stash of stabilizer. The fabric stores only carried Pellon, and unwilling to take the time to traipse over to an embroidery store, I decided to try it. I use Pellon’s Wonder-Under all the time — how bad could their stabilizer be?

It was AWFUL. It is much thicker than any other stabilizer I’ve ever had, and it often interfered with my ability to move the fabric nimbly under the needle and get the thread where I intended it to go. It is my hope to never have to use it again. So there — I suppose I’m a stabilizer snob.

Certain in the belief that I had nothing in my stash that would do for the sky, I went to the fabric store and picked out a beautiful blue-gray — only to bring it home and find, in the bright natural light of my studio, that the fluorescents of the store had deceived me. The color was more powdery blue than what I wanted. So I searched my stash and found this funky batik. I love its contribution to the story of the piece. It’s a strange choice, but I’m happy with it. This is what the piece now looks like, fully appliqued and ready to be pinned for quilting.

Next week is Spring Break. I may not be able to begin quilting for a while, but I hope to at least get it pinned tomorrow.

One last thing — Martha Sielman has written a second book in her Art Quilt Portfolio series — People & Portraits. My piece, Celtic Woman, is on page 32. I feel privileged to be included — although I’m not overly happy with the photograph. I’ve always prided myself in taking my own pictures — but I’m missing something in terms of color. The printed picture is not anywhere near as good as what I see on my monitor. I need to start using a white balance card when photographing and re-calibrate my monitor.

I received my complimentary copy a couple of weeks ago. Beyond the thrill of having one of my pieces in publication, it’s a nice compilation of work. Several of my FB friends are included and it’s been fun to read more about their work.

Finishing Firecracker

March 4, 2013March 4, 2013Virginia Greaves2 Comments

I finished the Yorkie piece on the last day of February — which is great so now I can put February on the label. I know it seems silly but it validates that I worked really hard in February. I had it blocked and drying by the end of the day but didn’t attempt to photograph it until today. It took me a while to get it just right. I even used white as a background so I could align the edges just so. I think I’ve been using a black background as a crutch. Using the white makes it much easier to see whether everything is lined up correctly before I go open the file on the computer. It’s best to go ahead & do it right the first time than have to re-photograph it later for an exhibit application. I know I can always fix camera distortion in Photoshop, but most shows won’t let you make those kinds of digital corrections.

I decided to call this piece Firecracker. This Yorkie has such an explosive personality, it seemed only fitting. Her page can be found here. And in case anyone wants to know — yes it really is an applique piece. This is NOT a photograph — this is NOT an inkjet printed piece. It was insanely difficult but I feel like I’ve solved a difficult puzzle.

How To Make Lemonade

February 22, 2013February 22, 2013Virginia Greaves1 Comment

Last week I finished fusing the Yorkie. I put her up on my black design wall for a quick pic. Most things look so stunning on black.

And then I started the tedious process of appliquing all of those raw edges. I use a tiny zigzag. There is so much thread in this piece from applique, I doubt there will be much stabilizer that I can tear off the back.

I did applique the piece onto white muslin. I knew that my background was going to have its own applique elements — so it was easiest to use the muslin as my canvas.

Just as I was finishing the applique on the Yorkie, Pokey Bolton announced the exhibit It’s Raining Cats & Dogs at the IQA-Houston show in the Fall. I had known about it earlier because there was an invitational exhibit that included my piece Unconditional last year — and I was told that the following year, it would be juried. So I did have this in mind as I started this piece — and I also think that animals are much more marketable than people in terms of selling my work.

However, Pokey threw me a curve ball. The minimum on any side must be 25″ — the shortest side of mine was 24″. Clearly, I was going to have to make the best of things. I threw on my creative thinking cap and starting working. I considered a border — the easiest solution — but I don’t think that that would add anything to the design. I finally decided to extend the bottom. I freeform cut it too — I felt very brave. There is more here than I’ll need but there will be some shrinkage in quilting.

I also decided that the left eye just wasn’t cutting it. There is a sprig of hair obstructing our view of the eye, but I still felt like it needed more of the detail of the iris.

Now it makes more sense to me.

This is the final top. I have added the details of a jacket around her and the background behind the two figures.

I taught a class last week to my Fiber Art Fusion group about Color/Value & Picking Fabrics. It made me realize how dependent I’ve become on my color wheel. Can you see the tetradic color scheme (or double complement) I used? I think it works — although this is technically the hardest color combination to do successfully. I actually had no idea what to put in the background on the right — but figured out that pulling the green over from the collar but in a value deeper than the coat would work best.

So now I will start quilting. I just wanted to share with you how this little piece was coming along.

Enter the Angel

January 20, 2013January 20, 2013Virginia Greaves1 Comment

Back in December, I created a small 5″x7″ piece called The Dark Angel. As I’ve mentioned before, I loved it so much that I decided to use that as a study and create a larger piece based on that image. This is how I came to create The Bowl Judgments.

I do not usually add a border to my pieces but in this instance, I decided that a border could add another dimension to the piece. Just as the middle portion is about the luminosity of the colors on the black, I wanted the border to be the inverse. Using black fabric and a light purple thread, I created a subtle sweep of quilting lines.

I did, by the way, attempt the McTavish quilting technique on the borders. I probably got better as I went along. I suppose that the variance in the the quilting will just have to be chalked up to artistic variance.

I must admit that photographing his piece has been very difficult. My camera has not been happy and I have taken many pictures in an effort to create an image that accurately portrays how the piece looks.

At first, my camera locked up completely. As far as I can tell, it couldn’t tell where the image was — even in a room with special spotlights pointed at it. At some point, late in the day, it finally gave me something.

But really, this picture makes the border look almost like printed fabric. The quilting lines are more subtle and the image in the middle is not that washed out.

I finally realized that the camera would be happier if I used a white background. I thankfully had a large piece of white felt in my closet that I hung on my black design wall. From there, I set the autofocus point on the black border — and I think that this comes closest to the actual piece.

It always surprises me when the camera doesn’t just take a picture of what my eye can see. Our eyes are so much more complex than we give them credit for.

I so loved working on this angel that I would like to do another one — but I’ll have to plan some trips for pictures. Right now I’m researching another portrait to do but haven’t settled on an idea yet.

The Dark Angel

January 4, 2013January 4, 2013Virginia Greaves1 Comment

If you’ll remember, back in December I made a 5″x7″ piece for my art group holiday exchange entitled Dark Angel.

I loved it so much that I decided to use it as a study for a larger piece. It also coincides nicely with a show for which it is appropriate (although we’ll have to wait and see on that.)

I had my original image — and the image that I had manipulated in Photoshop and resized to 5″x7″. Interestingly, when I took the original image — which was larger — and tried to recreate the effect, I couldn’t. I need to take better notes as I work. So I was forced to upsize the small file. This has to be done carefully or the image quality will suffer greatly.

In Photoshop, I increased the size in 15% increments using bicubic resampling and then using the unsharp mask tool. I think it came out well.

I printed these out onto Jacquard cotton inkjet fabric sheets. (I considered sending it out to a commercial printer, but they all wanted minimum order sizes and I couldn’t justify the expense.) After printing them out, I sprayed them lightly with Scotch-Gard and let them dry.

I knew that sewing this piece together would be tricky. I had used PosteRazor to print them out and didn’t specify a border — and wouldn’t you know, my top border came out shorter than 1/4 inch.

I could have reprinted them, but given the expense of the sheets and the printer ink, I decided to make do with what I had. I used a lightbox to align pieces before sewing them together. I made sure that I couldn’t see a shadow of the one underneath — and then I glued them together. Yes — I glued them. I’ve been using the trick of ironing clear Elmer’s glue instead of pins when applying binding and it works so well I thought I would use it here as well. I used as little as possible though.

I used my open toe foot and sewed just inside the printed image so I wouldn’t see any of the white border on the front.

This shows the three rows sewn together. I did, by the way, iron the seam allowances to one side to add some durability to the seams that were cheated a little in fabric and also to help the rows sew together straighter (sewing a left and a right opposing seam together is more likely to give you a perfect match in the middle).

This is the final piece — well, before quilting and finishing. I will spray it again with Scotch-Gard one last time before I start quilting.

2013 Goals

January 2, 2013January 2, 2013Virginia Greaves1 Comment

Now that the new year has begun, it is time to start looking forward. This year, I’m planning more than I have in the past. Maybe by sharing goals on my blog, I’ll feel more accountable.

I went back and forth on some of these. The truth of the matter is that as much as I would like gallery representation, I know from my mom, a very talented impressionist painter, that the galleries in Atlanta typically demand 20 of your newest pieces with a regular rotation. My current mode of working requires a month or two to complete one piece. Last year, I completed only six pieces. So it comes down to the desire to enter exhibitions versus gallery representation (even if I could produce enough work to satisfy the inventory demands of a gallery). I could put both on my goals list, but I know that realistically, only one will work. I chose exhibitions.

I am, however, considering starting a different series of smaller pieces that I could complete more quickly and that I could then list on some online galleries. I’m going to experiment with that. You’ll notice I put it at the bottom of the list with asterisks as caveats. I’m uncertain about these goals for several reasons — we’ll see how it goes.

I’m also planning to start writing more on my Facebook Page and my blog — and I’ll be visiting my local galleries, getting to know them, and then I’ll share all of that local flavor with you. There are a LOT more galleries than I thought in my town — but I think that it’s important to get to know your local art scene as intimately as possible. I’ve been cooped up in my studio a bit too much. Time to get out and shake things up a bit. EVENTUALLY I hope to add some galleries in downtown Atlanta — but for now, I’m starting small.

Have at least 2 years of my blog printed into hardback books (plan to use Blog2Print.com).
Design & print new business cards.
Take a photography class (probably lynda.com).
Develop a workshop on Choosing Fabrics Creatively.
Finish a piece to enter Sacred Threads 2013.
Develop new method for designing quilt labels on the Apple platform so that I can finally pitch my PC.
Complete the first draft of a book about Textile Portraits.
Join Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance.
Increase blog posts to once a week.
Create at least six portraits.
Create an Art Contact email and snail mail list.
Double the number of Facebook Page fans.
Enter at least 6 different exhibitions.
Update Facebook banner with newer work.
Post to Facebook Page 3x per week.
Visit at least 12 art galleries in Roswell and write a review of at least one exhibition per gallery.
Increase web traffic 20% from last year.
Make spreadsheet with goals and dates to monitor progress.
*** Make two small pieces per month.
*** List small work on artfire.com or artfulhome.com.

2012 Accomplishments

December 31, 2012February 22, 2015Virginia GreavesLeave a comment

One of my art friends on Facebook, Kimberly Baxter Packwood, asked yesterday what was our top accomplishment for the year. Lisa Call and Dale Anne Potter chimed in — and I began to realize that making a list of what I accomplished in 2012 was definitely something I needed to do. My first list was less than twenty, but after reading Lisa’s list (she lists 100 every year), I realized I wasn’t giving myself enough credit. So I’ve been working on it.

At first I also had a list of disappointments, but I decided that those were actually risks that I took that should be counted as accomplishments. Without risk, we’d never travel anywhere new.

– Accepted into Fulton County Artist’s Registry in Atlanta, GA.

– Accepted into the La Conner Quilt Festival in La Conner, WA (Bukonyan Elder).

– Won 1st place at the La Conner Quilt Festival (Bukonyan Elder).

– Accepted into the Georgia Artists Show at the Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs, GA (Amelia Earhart, Beach Guardians).

– Won 3rd place at the Georgia Artists Show (Amelia Earhart).

– Accepted into International Quilt Festival/Houston: World of Beauty in Houston, TX (Beach Guardians, A Walk In Twilight).

– Included in the invitational show International Quilt Festival/Houston: Pets in Houston, TX (Unconditional).

– Included in a IQF exhibit review by Sophie Rubin on Youtube (Unconditional).

– Accepted into the book Art Quilt Portfolio: People & Portraits being published by Lark Crafts in April 2013 (Celtic Woman).

– Included in the invitational show Fiber Art Fusion: Artifact at The Art Place in Marietta, GA (Arminta Patterson, The Ties That Bind Us).

– Spoke about my work at the Gwinnett Quilter’s Guild & taught my workshop on Pet Portraits.

– Gave a seminar on Textile Photography at Fiber Art Fusion in Marietta, GA.

– Created five portrait pieces, two of them with two figures.

– Made a portrait almost exclusively with ties from my stash and local thrift stores (The Ties That Bind Us).

– Updated my website for each of my new pieces.

– Reconstructed and updated my art resume.

– Updated my LinkedIn resume, adding my exhibition achievements.

– Wrote 22 blog posts (23 with this one) — averaging almost twice a month.

– Submitted work to Art Book Archive: Atlanta for inclusion (haven’t heard on e-book publication yet).

– Created a Page on Facebook for my art & syndicated my blog posts to it.

– Lost 11 pounds and dropped two clothes sizes.

– Developed a way to create figures in large sections so that I could construct them in manageable pieces on a temporary surface and then build a more complicated piece on the background.

– Went zip-lining in Honduras.

– Went cave tubing in Belize (after hiking over river rocks and breaking my toe).

– Went snuba diving in Mexico.

– Took thousands of sports photos and learned to share them through DropBox.

– Photographed the Fiber Art Fusion Artifact annual exhibit and holiday exchange.

– Indoor trained a new puppy.

– Converted hundreds of printed family pics to digital.

– Finally found the names of my paternal grandfather’s parents and was then able to take that part of my tree back to 466 AD with the birth of King Clovis I.

– Served as a Unit Leader and Troop Treasurer for my daughter’s American Heritage Girls troop.

– Created a 5”x7” piece for the Fiber Art Fusion holiday exchange that I’m using as a model for a larger piece.

– Visited Mary Jo’s Cloth Store in Gastonia, NC.

– Learned about head concussions and other soccer injuries from my daughter.

– Spent a week in Ponte Vedra, FL for Spring Break taking lots of beach pictures and exploring Saint Augustine.

– Helped Rebecca Reasons-Edwards curate Fiber Art Fusion: Artifact exhibit.

– Played roles of volleyball mom, lacrosse mom, soccer mom, and choir mom.

– Saw MacBeth downtown at Shakespeare’s Tavern.

– Applied for a part time job at local children’s hospital (not accepted).

– Applied for entry into Quilts=Art=Quilts for the first time (not juried in).

– As of 12/30/12, there were 12,680 views on my website for the year — which was down 23% from 2011. This was caused by a bubble in 2011 from a mention of my blog in Quilter’s Home Magazine, but although views dropped between 2011 and 2012, views increased 154% from 2010 to 2012 so I was able to keep a lot of my traffic after this unexpected marketing windfall.

– Created a Facebook banner highlighting my work.

– Learned how to make resin jewelry.

At this point, only half of the work is done. I’m still working on my goals and will share that in another post.

Quilting Lincoln

December 21, 2012December 21, 2012Virginia GreavesLeave a comment

I spent a long time quilting this piece. I took about a week to quilt his figure — but then I needed to do something for the background. I found that incorporating two different ideas gave me something workable without being overwhelming.

Like many people quilting on a domestic machine — I found some angles to be very challenging. My first design was a parallel flowing line which wasn’t too hard — but then I added swirls in the open spaces. These had to be done all in the same direction — so the left hand side of the quilt became a bear to manage. I found that rolling up the right hand side and holding it with rubber bands at the top and bottom gave me something to hold on to.

From this angle, you can see the background quilting better. I am so glad I took the time to add this texture to the piece. I think it adds to the feeling of age in it — and it’s a nice contrast to the contour lines on the face.

I think I’m slowing getting better at quilting. Although I’m not a huge proponent of the quilt police guidelines that the stitch length has to be perfectly consistent — and I do not have the luxury of a stitch regulator on my machine — over time, that is what is happening. I did not mark my design and chose instead to keep the framework of wavy lines organic — but even those became more uniform the more time I spent making them.

After a week of background quilting, I finally completed Lincoln. When I sat down to write my artist’s statement, I found it entirely too political, so I decided to merely include some of Lincoln’s quotes instead.

It feels good to finish before the holidays. I already have ideas for my next piece.

Holiday Spirit

December 12, 2012January 4, 2013Virginia GreavesLeave a comment

Last night my Fiber Art Fusion art group had our holiday party and we exchanged 5″x7″ sized pieces.

I created this from a picture I took in a church in New Orleans. I’m so pleased with it that I think I will make a larger version for myself. I love the dark angel against all of the ironwork. My friend Hellene Vermillion took this home. She is an incredible silk painter — you can visit her on her website here.

We brought all of our pieces in a plain brown wrapper so no-one could cherry pick. A couple of women wanted to turn it into Dirty Santa and have stealing — but we decided that that might lead to hurt feelings so we kept what we opened.

I was lucky indeed to receive this piece entitled Here Comes the Sun from Martha Myers. The sun wraps around the back. I love the sashiko stitches in gold thread — and the colors are wonderfully vibrant.

I have quite a collection of pieces from past parties. I almost didn’t go — everything is so crazy this time of year — but I set aside several hours yesterday to finish my piece so I could go. I’m glad I did.

I feel blessed to have such wonderful friends — and artists to boot!

Me and Abe

December 4, 2012December 13, 2012Virginia Greaves3 Comments

I am guilty of ignoring my blog. I took many pictures as I made his shirt, tie, coat, and finally his hair — but the progressions are not that interesting. The white doesn’t photograph well and the black — well I was overcome with black. Lincoln has a dour personage and although I didn’t intend this to be a dark piece, by nature of his hair and his clothing, there are a LOT of black prints in this piece.

This is how he looks on my black design wall. Not bad — but I thought he would look really good on a deep navy — something that would be lighter than his hair but still strong enough to evoke images of the Union flag. I even considered adding flag details in the background but decided that it would only distract from his piercing stare.

Clearly, I was wrong. It is hard to tell in the artificial lighting of most fabric stores how a value is really going to work. This one is much too dark. Sadly, I had been to a couple of local quilt stores, and this is the only one I felt had promise.

I found this sky fabric in my stash. It has a cool feel about it, almost as if Lincoln is standing on the battleground — but the white in the clouds is too distracting — another reason I finally declared that he needed a plainer background.

And then I found this green batik. It has a feeling of age to it. It has some texture in the print, but not much. It is exactly the right value. I wouldn’t have thought this would work — but there is some smoky blue in it that pulls out the color in his eyes — a faded gray that hopefully reflects weariness.

Today I’m pondering how to quilt him. I’ve been drawing on my picture of him. The lines of his face are so distinctive and different from what I’ve done before that I had to pull some new tricks out of my bag. The line under the left cheek for example had to be highlighted. The chin also sits in an awkward fashion and makes the joining of the cheek to the chin different from how I’ve approached it before.