More Fabric Portraits

 I have done a couple more fabric portraits since my last post about them in early February.

This time I tried to do a self-portrait. I chose 5 levels of fabric and left them out on my table overnight.

First choice of fabrics

When I looked at the fabrics the next morning, I thought I was being too safe and needed to challenge myself a bit more. I pulled out some more fabrics to work with.

Final choice of fabrics

Here is what the portrait looked like after I had used the 3 lightest fabrics.

3 values done

You can still see it's a face but it really shows how important those darker values are.

Here is the portrait with all 5 values.

Portrait of me.

When I showed my portrait to our on-line group, someone thought that my second value was too light. I must admit that there is a lot of light values in it because my skin is quite pale.

I considered making it again using a lightly darker colour but then I couldn't be bothered and used a fabric pen to darken the value!

Here is the portrait with the pink darkened.

portrait changed

I wish that I hadn't done it now, it looks too pink. One of my friends said that I look sunburnt!! Oh well, just another lesson not to jump into changing things too soon. 

I think that I will do another one now, but maybe I 'll find another photo to use. Next time, I'll stay away from pink.

I also did another portrait of my cat, Misty. Here is the first one that I did.

Cat portrait 1

This time I used the collage method, where I cut up little pieces of fabric in 3 different values. I laid the fabrics down on a line drawing that I drew on a piece of Steam a Seam 2 fusible. When I had all the pieces of fabric in place, I ironed them down. Because there were still lots of loose bits of fabric, I put a layer of black tulle over the top.

Cat Collage

This is what it looked like after quilting.

Cat Collage

Quilting definitely improves a piece. I liked doing both methods but I didn't enjoy quilting the last collage one as much. There were quite a few layers of fabric and the machine had to really work hard to quilt it.

I prefer it if quilting is smoother and freer. I put tulle over the entire top instead of just the cat and it did darken the background a bit, if I did it again, I would try just having the tulle over the cat.

I must get on to doing some more portraits so I can improve and not forget how to do it. I have been distracted lately doing some surface design techniques. There are only so many hours in a day and you can't do everything.

Bye for now,

Linda

Sue de Vanny Exhibition

 Hooray, I finally got to a quilt exhibition last week. The first one in 12 months. The last exhibition was actually my own show that was on this time last year and then the world seemingly stopped and there has been nothing on since.

Sue de Vanny's exhibition is currently on display at the Kyabram Town Hall Gallery in Victoria, Australia. It is a large gallery space with professional lighting and it specialises in textiles. We are so lucky to have a gallery like this.

Sue de Vanny is an art quilter and it was so wonderful to see all her quilts together and have a close look at her techniques.

Sue has been to South Africa a few times and uses her photographs as inspiration for many of her quilts.

Close to Me by Sue de Vanny

Long Tall Sally by Sue de Vanny

Majestic Presence by Sue de Vanny

I am amazed at the realism she has achieved in the lion quilt above.

I have always admired her quilt Limelight.

Limelight by Sue de Vanny

I remember Sue's tram quilt at the Australasian Quilt Convention back in 2014, it was very popular and won Viewer's Choice, I think.

Tram Route no. 10 by Sue de Vanny

Sue has started with a different pieced technique lately and this quilt has recently won 3rd prize at Quilt Con, the Modern Quilt Guild Competition. It was able to be at the exhibition because the show was a virtual exhibition this year.

Shape I'm In by Sue de Vanny

I drove the two and a half hour drive to Kyabram with my friend Marion, who was also my room-mate when I went to Uluru in 2018. It was good to spend time with Marion again. I asked Marion to take a photo of me in front of the quilt that I love the best out of all of Sue's quilts.

Me in front of Time by Sue de Vanny

I felt so inspired by the exhibition that I wanted to come home and start sewing, of course I didn't, life got in the way but I do have some ideas percolating in my mind.

Bye for now,

Linda

Exploring Emotions with Quilts

 For the past few years, I have been thinking about how to explore emotions with my contemporary quilts. One of my latest quilts is called Grief.

A year before the Covid event, my best friend and my younger brother both passed away unexpectedly within a year of each other. It was tough, even though life must go on, there is a hurt that you carry around inside. I decided to make a quilt about this sad subject. Don't get me wrong, I am not depressed or anything, in fact, I think I am the opposite, I am usually pretty upbeat and positive.

I chose fabrics in various greyed blues that I thought would represent the subject. I started to make this quilt last year when we were in lockdown. Luckily, there is a quilt shop within 5k of my home so I was able to order on-line and go and collect it. Once you have an idea for a quilt you don't want to wait three weeks for the delivery of the fabrics.

Fabrics for quilts

I decided to try and make the fabrics change from darkest at the bottom and gradually get lighter towards the top to represent feeling better as time went on.

Fabric gradations

I thought about the people that I was missing a lot while I was making the quilt and it was quite therapeutic. I really believe it helped me accept that they were gone and I could move on and be glad that they had been in my life.

Here is the finished quilt.

Grief ©2021 Linda Steele

My artist statement for the quilt was

'Grief cracks us open: eventually we reshape and re-emerge but we are different than before. We will never be the same, life is different now. With time we will become more compassionate, more human and more patient than before'

Here is a detail photo.

Grief detail

I entered this quilt into the SAQA Connections exhibition and was absolutely thrilled that it was accepted. SAQA is a top international art quilt group and I was very honoured to be chosen and be amongst some very prestigious company. The exhibition will premiere at Houston in November.

Bye for now,

Linda

SAQA Acceptances

 I've had good news recently, two of my quilts have been accepted into SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibitions. 

The first was a regional exhibition for Australia and New Zealand called Distance and Diversity, my quilt will be travelling around to various shows and galleries for a couple of years. The first exhibition isn't open yet and so we are not allowed to show the entire quilt until after the opening. I am allowed to show a detail photo though.

Reef Revelations detail

Can you tell that the girl reading the book is my granddaughter, Savannah? I actually painted her skin and appliqued the hair and clothes. It was a very nerve-wracking day painting that face, but I was happy in the end.

 SAQA have a conference every year and this year it is a virtual conference and the Oceania region (Australia and New Zealand) are the hosts. They are having a virtual quilt exhibition as well and the theme was Impressions of Oceania from Around the World. The quilt did not have to be a new quilt and people from all over the world entered, I was thrilled to have my quilt Firelight accepted.

Firelight by Linda Steele

This quilt is made from wool and it was a very different technique for me. I must get around to trying it again!

Here is a detail photo.

Firelight detail

I think that might be my last acceptance for a while unless I get onto some new work. I am still busy playing around with paint and portraits. I am learning a lot and hopefully it will eventually translate to some new quilts.

We have recently heard that AQC (Australasian Quilt Convention is going to be held in August instead of April and the Victorian Quilt Show that I coordinate has been changed from July to November. So, I have some time to get some more quilts done.

Bye for now,

Linda

New Improv Quilt

 I've been busy working on a new improv quilt but it takes so long to sew that I have to take lots of breaks. Sometimes, I don't sew anything for a couple of weeks then I get it down off the design wall and do a bit more.

Here's how I started.

Beginning my Improv

I haven't done a lot of improv so I am probably really slow compared to people who have done a lot of it. There is no pattern or plan, I just cut some fabric and then cut another piece next to it and sew it together.  I stare at the quilt and decide what to sew next.

Adding leaf shape.

Because I am using red, orange and brown fabrics, I decided to sew a leaf shape, then I have to work out how to add it to the quilt in a pleasing way.

The next photo shows the leaf sewn onto the quilt.

leaf added

Here's what the quilt top looks like now after many, many hours.

Improv quilt.

At the moment, I am thinking that this is the top left quarter of the quilt. That means there is a long way to go. I hope all this work is worth the effort. At least I'll be a lot better at piecing by the end of it.

I suppose I am slow at it because I am also busy with the portrait quilts, plus I am doing a colour course which is time consuming and I am doing some on-line painting classes.

I don't know why am doing these painting classes because I am not very good, but I am totally addicted to them. It's supposed to be good to learn new skills and keep your brain exercised! It will probably help with surface design in future quilts. Most of the classes I am doing are abstract and I am learning a lot about paint and mixing colour.

I am still planning to do another two weeks of classes with Nancy Crow next year. Who knows if that will go ahead. I suppose it depends on the Covid Vaccine and how well it works. The vaccine  has arrived in Australia this week but health care and aged care workers are getting it first, then people over 70. I'll probably get it in the third stage later in the year.

Anyway, that's what is keeping me busy these days.

Bye for now,

Linda

Fresh Fish-SAQA

 Last year, SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates) put out a call for fish or fish quilts for an exhibition in Florida USA. It was actually more than textile fish, they also wanted poets to explore underwater life. It sounded like a perfect challenge for me, so I made a thread painted fish. 

My fish

I put him or her on a fabric to photograph but it is actually free standing not attached to a background.

You can read about it here.

A selected number of artists and poets were included in a book called Fresh Fish and I was thrilled to be accepted. My copy of the book has arrived.

Fresh Fish Book

Here is my fish on page 72.

My fish on page 72.

My fish is with a poem called Longshore Workers by Phyllis Wax from Wisconsin.

I received another book in the mail; every year I publish my blog posts from the previous year. It's actually a really handy resource for me as I often look up my blog books to remember how I did something or where a quilt was exhibited. 

My blog book for 2020 is here, I am amazed I wrote many blog posts at all because after my solo exhibition on March, we were locked down for most of the year. Somehow, I managed to carry on and keep busy though.

Blog Book 2020

Bye for now,

Linda

Portraits in Fabric

 I have been doing an on-line class via Zoom with Phyllis Cullen from America. The class is all about creating portraits in fabric.

I wanted to work on portraits last year but I got too involved with my circle series and never got the time for portraits. When the opportunity for a class with Phyllis came up, I jumped at the chance. The advantage of signing up for a class is that it makes you actually do the work instead of thinking about it.

There are only 6 of us in the class so we can be free to ask lots of questions and she doesn't mind us contacting her at all.

This is the first portrait I made from the class pattern. We all made this one first. All the portraits I have done are A4 or 8" x 11"

Class pattern

We used four fabric values and I used batik fabrics.

Next, we had to use our own photo and Phyllis checked the pattern that we made to make sure it was ok.

I used blue batiks this time for my portrait of Adam, my oldest son.

Adam

It looks like him and I thought it was pretty good for a start.

Then I found a photo of one of my daughters to use.

Bec in Fabric

It does look like her but I used ordinary quilting cotton and it was much harder to get the fine detail, there are little bits of fayed fabric on her face. She wasn't very impressed because she thought she looked fat! I must admit she was 6 months pregnant, but it is really hard to get a photo to use. My family do not appreciate me coming up to them with a camera, snapping photos.

Next, I tried my grandson Jack and went back to using batik fabrics.

Jack in Fabric

I tried something different his time, I used coloured variegated thread for his hair. Once again, it does look like him but I am starting to understand faces and portraits better now and I know there is room for improvement.

Phyllis thought I was being too safe with my fabric choices and encouraged me to be more adventurous. She suggested that we do a pet portrait because pets don't complain about what colour we make them.

I couldn't find a photo of our cat so I had to take one. Poor Misty is 16 years old and has kidney disease and not really feeling her best these days, but she let me take a photo.

Misty the cat

Here is Misty's portrait and I think I was very adventurous with the colour.

Misty in Fabric

I am really enjoying making the portraits, we only have one lesson to go and we are going to learn a collage technique next, it's where you use lots of different fabrics instead of 4 or 5.

So, I have decided to continue making portraits this year and see where it takes me!

Bye for now,

Linda