Category Archives: colored pencils

Eye Contact exhibit sponsored by Sacred Threads

Earlier I posted about a small quilt I made and entered into an exhibit sponsored by Sacred Threads. The exhibit has just closed. Although I haven’t seen any photographs of the actual exhibit, I did receive a copy of the “catalog” for the exhibit. It is nicely done. Photos to follow!

But first the big news. The exhibit was successful enough that the sponsors believe they can put together a travelling exhibit, and have asked permission to keep all the quilts until May of 2021! I have sent in my permission. Hopefully enough other exhibitors will also do it so the travelling exhibit can happen. Since I was not able to see the actual exhibit, maybe it will come to a venue close enough that I can visit it.

Here are some photos of the very nice book produced by Sacred Threads:

Front cover

Back cover

My page

Eye Contact Exhibit – July 11-28, 2019

The Eye Contact: creating a connection special exhibit is being held from July 11-28, 2019 at the Floris United Methodist Church, 13600 Frying Pan Road, Herndon, VA 20171. This is very close to Dulles airport outside Washington DC. For more information, visit: www.sacredthreadsquilts.com

I entered two quilts in this show. All entries are of human eyes looking at the viewer, and must be 5 inches high and 23 inches wide. I wish I could see the exhibit; hopefully there will be some photos available online.

Here is a photo of one of my entries:

This quilt was made with using white high thread count cloth and pen and ink to draw the details before it was sandwiched and quilted.

The other entry is much more colorful. Unfortunately I have lost my photo of it. My quilts are to be returned in a couple of months so if all goes well I can take another photo of it then.

Coloring fabric with colored pencils

Last fall I took a Craftsy class from Lola Jenkins on making portrait quilts using colored pencils. Lola has a wonderful relaxed approach to her art and it was a fun class. I recommend it if you are interested in this subject.

I used an assortment of colored pencils for the project, mostly Prismacolor pencils but also some Crayola pencils, and occasionally a Derwent Inktense pencil (I have a limited range of colors in those but they have a lot of pigment so you can get a stronger color with them).

The process used is to print a line drawing on paper and then trace it onto fabric using a light table or a convenient window. Lola likes to add interest to her portraits by adding shapes in front of the portrait. For the class, I used her example, which is Vermier’s “Lady With A Pearl Earring”.

After the drawing is traced on the fabric, the fabric is fused to an interfacing. The traced drawing is stitched with black thread. Then the colored pencils are used to make the portrait.

In the image below, you can see the result. Since this was a class project, I haven’t completed the background. This allows you to see what the original fabric looked like. I was impressed with how vibrant the colors were and how little the fabric color showed through.

girl with pearl earring quilt After the pencil work was completed, the fabric is painted with textile medium to set the color. This is supposed to make it permanent, although I haven’t conducted a test yet.

More recently I was working with a photo of a cute wild rabbit I took in the local park. where I was photographing flowers and he/she hopped by to look at me.

Here is the rabbit photo.

wild rabbit

And here is the small quilt I made based on the photo, again with colored pencils. Remembering Lola’s approach, I added the daffodils in front and behind the rabbit to add some more interest. I stitched the outlines of the rabbit and flowers, then quilted the background completely before coloring with pencils.

bunny rabbit quilt

I call this one “Daffy Bunny”. I think it’s kind of cute — although it certainly isn’t my usual style!