Uncategorized Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Valerie Wilson Fibre Artist

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Girl Sitting on the Step

I have completed the little girl sitting on the step!

Little girl on step - Valerie Wilson 2015.

A little girl on a step – Valerie Wilson 2015.

I love the pink socks and Mary Jane shoes. The colourful polka dot fabric for her dress was a great find. This piece came together well. I am very pleased with her hair, as I tried a different technique of layering small pieces of fabric to create it.

I wonder what her story is?

She looks a bit hesitant and somewhat sad and is biting her lip

Did a best friend not come to play?

Is she all dressed up to go someplace special, and has been told to go outside, but to stay clean, until the family leaves for the event?

Is it her birthday, and she didn’t get the present that she most wanted?

I always wonder about the back story behind the photographs that I use. Do you see a story in this piece?

I think that she needs a name. One person suggested Violet.

Would you give her a name, or name the quilt? Such as “All Dressed Up and No Place to Go” or …………..

Let me know your ideas!

Little Girl on the Step

As promised, here is my latest piece in progress. The background is done. I had fun working on the door, to get the highlights and shadows in the panels. Having once owned an architectural antique business helped here, as I have seen a lot of this type of panelled door.

A quilt in progress shwoing the side of a house and the doorstep with an outline of a little girl.

Little girl on step – in progress

Isn’t it neat the way that the background defines the space for the little girl? This demonstrates the importance of the negative space surrounding something.

I layered two colours of brown for the boards on the side of the house. I liked the effect but thought that it looked a bit plain, so added some slightly darker bits on top to give it some interest. I am almost out of this fabric and will be sorry to use up the last of it. It has been most useful for portraying aged wood, or fence posts.

As you can see I have started working on the little girl’s face. It looks really strange with only the face there! I may yet adjust the shading on her face, but will leave it for the moment, as this piece is still in the “ugly phase”. I also need to remember that I will be adding detail with the stitching, and quilting, later on. Do you find that your quilts go through an ugly phase before they are complete?

Sun and Sand

A little girl in a sunsuit holding a sand

My latest vintage portrait is one of a little girl with a sand pail. I loved her smile, the funky sun suit, pail and sandals. Don’t you just love the tan line on her legs? It looks as though she normally wears longer shorts.

Since so much of her face is in dark shadow, the trick was to create what I couldn’t see.

I think that she is coming along fairly well. Her face will gain more definition after adding stitching.

It is always hard to remember that the stitching adds so much life, and detail, to the portrait.

And now, I see below, that I need to move one of her irises, as she is looking a little cross-eyed.

Girl started

I have changed her hair twice now, as I didn’t like the first set of highlights that I did. And originally I had given her a little flip of hair on the left side but decided it looked odd, so cut it off. I like the rounded look of the cap of hair better.

Do you make adjustments as you work, or do you keep to a set path in your work?

I find photos a great help for me to notice little things that need adjusting. It is so easy now with digital cameras!

Do you take photos of your work as you go?

Snow fun!

“Fun in the Snow” has been completed! Thanks for all the suggestions for names!

Fun in the Snow

I didn’t quite finish it by my deadline of the 15th of June. However, I wasn’t far off, as I had it quilted and blocked by the 18th! The faces looked a bit too wrinkly, so when I blocked the quilt, I blocked the faces separately, along with the edges of the quilt. It worked great! The faces look better now.

Just the sleeve, and the label, to add, which I will do when I take a break to watch TV.

I wish that you could see it up close. The sparkle on the snow fabrics is really great.

I quilted it on my HQ Sweet 16, and found it easier than using my regular sewing machine. All that throat space is quite wonderful!

Next Project

I am now on to the next project – a little girl in a sun suit and sandals, holding a sand pail. Keep watch for updates coming soon!!

Next Project

I am now on to the next project – a little girl in a sunsuit and sandals, holding a sand pail. Keep watch for updates coming soon!!

Exhibition Update

Well, I didn’t get them all sewn down before I left for Quilt Canada, but I was happy with what I had done. I knew, that I only had a few more pieces of fabric to sew down, once I got back home.

The plan is to get these guy done by mid-June, for my solo exhibition, so I have to concentrate and work hard!

The kids were cut off the backing that I had used – in this case, stabilizer. I will never use this again as it is too stiff, and wrinkles badly. Lesson learned! I was able to cut some of it away but left the rest in place.

The kids were then placed on the background that I created.

I found a lovely fabric, at a local quilt shop, that looked to me a lot like falling snow. Wonderful for the sky!

The trees I had painted were appliqued to the background. I played with positioning them as I wanted them to act as a frame for the kids on the sleigh.

Then on to sewing everything down. It always surprises me how long it takes. Why I don’t know, as I have done this many times. Maybe wishful thinking that it will be faster this time!

As seen below this piece had more snow added and further detail on the faces.

The next step is the quilting. First, the detail quilting the boys, and then on to the background.

I always have a hard time coming up with names for my art. Is this a problem for you too?

I am trying to think of a name for this quilt. Perhaps the Four Musketeers. What do you think? What name would you give this piece? Can you help me out? I would love it if you would!

Last minute changes

Based on a comment by a reader – Thanks Marg – I added further detail to the eyes of the boy at the front of the sleigh. My husband says “he is now looking at you and not staring”. Check it out below:

Eyes on boy at front of sleigh have added detail.

Eyes on the boy in front of sleigh have added detail.

I like the change!

Preparing for a New Exhibit

Exciting news! I will have an exhibit in the Portage & District Arts Centre Gallery, in Portage la Prairie, MB next year, from April 4 – May 14, 2016.

The exhibit will be called “Past Lives“, and it will feature my portraits created from vintage black and white photographs.

To celebrate, I am planning on featuring my progress here in my blog, as I work on various portraits for the show.

The first one is four little boys on a sled.

Original photograph of four kids on a sleigh.

I loved the four children piled on to the sleigh. They looked like they were having a lot of fun.

Note: In my research on this unusual design of this sleigh, I found out that this is considered a bobsled. The definition is a sled, or sleigh, with the front runners moving independently of the rear ones. I found some pictures of log pulling sleighs with similar runners. The idea is if the front runners move separately from the back, the sleigh will go around corners easily.

Enlarged photo and line drawing of 4 chidlren on bob sled

Enlarged photo and line drawing of 4 children on a bobsled

Having recently learned how to select part of a photo, through a Photoshop Elements class at Pixeladies I removed the kids from their background – a rather boring part of a house and changed the direction they were heading. I plan on creating an outdoor setting for them.

I then enlarged the photo to the size that I wanted. I traced the main elements on to a plastic overlay this time. Usually, I use tracing paper but thought that I would give this method a try.

It didn’t work that well for me, although I know of many artists who use plastic all the time. First, I found the plastic much heavier to lift, and second, that somehow some of the fabric pieces ended up stuck to the plastic when I raised it to add another piece. Very irritating! I think that I will probably go back to using tracing paper.

Anyone else with a preference for or any hints for using plastic as an overlay?

Once I got started on the kids, I really enjoyed putting the pieces together. I had discovered some cotton fabrics at a local quilt store, Quilt as Desired, that looked like various woven or linen fabrics, and came in 3 or 4 values of the same colour. A real bonus when doing portraits!

Here are two of the guys with all the fabrics in place:

Picture showing part of the enlaged photo of four small boys on a sleigh and the line tracing.

Picture showing tracing overlay on plastic and two children completed in fabric

A lot of the fun of doing these vintage portraits is researching the elements in the photos. All the kids had those old fashioned rubber boots with the metal closures and big loose mitts. It was fun finding different fabrics for the mitts and socks. Did you know that in the 1930s McCall’s patterns had patterns for these snowsuits complete with the helmet-like caps?

Now on to finishing these four guys before I go to Quilt Canada on June 2! I have two quilts, Stepping Out and The Bather, in the Juried show and am soooo excited about seeing them hanging in the show.

Keep posted for future developments in the work involved in getting ready for a solo show. To easily follow my blog, subscribe to my Studio Updates (the box on the lower left).

Let there be light! Adding an LED lighting strip to Your Sewing Machine.

The thing that I most wanted for a Christmas present this year was LED lighting for my sewing machine. And, oh joy!, I go it! The LED light strip, with self-adhesive backing, mounts under the throat of your sewing machine. Once switched on you have lots of light, exactly where you want it!

LED Brightness

This is the light that I get with the LED lighting! This picture looks dark, as my camera registered all that extra glow. A great improvement from my earlier situation, see below:

This was my sewing machine before, with just the usual sewing machine light turned on. A pool of light around the needle.

Here is how the LED strip looks on my machine. I have tape holding the connector in place, but will replace this with double-sided tape, placed behind the connector.

I added a dimmer switch for those times when I don’t need as much light. You could add a regular switch or plug it into a receptacle. The whole setup cost $44.50, before tax, at Lee Valley Tools .

The parts purchased were one foot of LEDs (minimum length you can buy), a lead wire to connect the LED strip to the switch, a dimmer switch and a power supply.

Since I only used half of the light strip on this sewing machine, I have another 6″ to use elsewhere. The cost without the switch was $21.00.

The dimmer switch sits just behind my machine:

And the power supply sits next to the sewing machine.

I am quite pleased with how these lights work! I can now easily see my stitching, but find it especially helpful when I do free motion quilting with light thread on a light background.

Cool Quilting Gadgets – Wonder Clips

A lot of you may know about Clover’s Wonder Clips already, but I just recently tried them out, and I am thrilled. This is one of those cool quilting gadgets!

Close-up of Wonder Clip - cool quilting gadgets

Close-up of a Wonder Clip

These clips work well for holding the binding on the edge of the quilt when you are sewing the binding to the quilt by machine; are great for when you are hand sewing the edge of the binding down, or for holding the edge of the facing in place for sewing.

The back of the clip is flat, and this allows the layers of fabric to move smoothly towards the presser foot, when machine sewing. The rounded top edge allows for all those layers of fabric and batting to lie flat. The clips are easy to remove as you sew, and do not distort the edge of the quilt, as happens when you use straight pins. The clips have a good firm grip as well.

Wonder Clips holding the binding for machine sewing

I can see a further use for these amazing clips, such as holding the layers of fabric together while I sew a tote, or other bag.

Note that Clover has just recently come out with Jumbo size Wonder clips for those bigger projects.

The smaller clips, reviewed here, come in two different size packages. The small pack contains 10 clips, while the larger pack contains 50 clips. I bought the smaller pack, but quickly realized that the larger pack is a better deal. With more clips, I can clip all along at least 2 sides of a big quilt, so when I am sewing I spend less time moving the clips, and more time on the actual sewing. With a wall hanging, I can clip and go. I keep a small container close by to put the clips in, as I remove them from the project. No more getting poked by straight pins!

At first I thought that they were too pricey, so avoided trying them, but I am so glad that I did! Definitely a product worth the cost.

Have you tried these clips? What did you think of them? Tell us about it here!

Portraits Class

A recent class on Portraits was a lot of fun, and the students did some really great work!

They were a quiet group, as they were concentrating hard!

They started by making a tracing of their enlarged photos. The tracing is shown here used as the overlay, for help in positioning the pieces of the portrait.

They then progressed to adding small pieces of fabric, like a jigsaw puzzle, to a base fabric. Adeline was doing a portrait of her grandfather.

Adeline found some great fabric, that mimicked the 70`s print, that was in her grandfather’s shirt in the original photo. Her portrait looks great now, but will look even better, when the final details are added with the stitching!

Ricky had some initial problems with values in her fabrics:

But was able to overcome these early problems to create a good likeness of her husband:

Of course, this portrait is still in progress. Here Ricky was auditioning fabric for his hair.

Helen chose a photo of a friend, who had been in a Passion play with her. Although, the fabrics that she had brought to work with were a little on the green side, they made for a dramatic portrait.

Here is Helen hard at work:

The face done:

Adeline said that she had had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I can hardly wait to see the completed portraits!

An Insiders Look at Creating an Art Quilt.

People often ask how I create my art quilts, so I have gathered together some process photos for you to enjoy.

My piece, The Ladies, evolved from a black and white photo taken of a garden party, sometime in the 1920’s. What fascinated me the most, about this photo, was all the hats, so they became the focus of the design. One woman, wearing a trench coat and beret, seems quite daring, in comparison to the rest of the “ladies”. The faces were less important to me, than the hats, but still convey a lot of character through the use of hand-dyed and batik fabrics.

These women belong to that era when women were called “ladies”, and thus, the name of the piece – The Ladies.

Sketch for The Ladies art quilt.

With each piece, I start out by enlarging the photo, or sketch, to my desired size. Then I create a tracing to overlay the foundation piece of fabric. This helps me to be sure that I am placing the pieces in the correct spot. I use a fusible web, on the back of the fabric, and temporarily stick the fabric pieces to the foundation.

This is what the start of the process looks like:

Detail of hat

I start placing small pieces of fabric, fitting them together, in a similar fashion to piecing a puzzle.

Gradually the picture develops:

Four ladies in various stage of dress.

If I am satisfied with the look of the picture as it develops, I keep going. Otherwise, I can replace pieces, as needed, to get the correct shading, and look, that I want.

The Ladies showing the progress.

I love adding little details, such as the purse, that the woman in mauve is holding.

Finally, I look at the whole piece, and decide what background I need, to accent the piece.

A process photo of The Ladies art quilt.

In this case, this lovely, multicoloured fabric creates the look of a garden behind the ladies. Just the look that I wanted!

Next I add stitching to hold everything in place and to bring out all the finer details.

Here is the finished piece:

The Ladies – full view

And a detail view:

Detail of The Ladies art quilt, showing a close-up of the hats and faces.

The Ladies – Detail

I hope that this glimpse in to my process, answers some of your questions. If you have further questions, please leave me a comment. I would be delighted to help out!