Hey guys,
Today I have a feast for your eyes!Sometimes, you come across a quilt that is pure art! You just cannot help but be inspired by it!
I came across this quilt-in-progress by Sandra Bruce.
An ambitious self portrait quilt. And I was rattled to my nerves! It inspired me to make one that I'm working on - not a self-portrait though.
I was really scared of contacting her. She is a lady with A LOT on her place and I wasn't sure how she would react to an enthusiastic - read pester-you-till-you-satisfy-their-questions kind of - quilter from across the globe. But not only did she answer my questions, she also helped me work out how to make mine! And she has also offered to Long Arm Quilt it for me!!! :)
Please welcome with a HUGE round of applause (this is when I feel like Oprah on her own Talk Show!)
Sandra Bruce!
And she's going to share a lot about her super Self Portrait!
Shruti : First, tell us about Sandra - the quilter. How and when did you first start quilting?
Sandra : I was introduced to quilting in 1982 when I luckily became next-door neighbors with Therese May, the renowned
quilter. She was on the cutting edge of the quilt world and I found her
work to be fascinating. Eventually she and I started a quilt group of
friends that met for about a year and a half. When I moved here to the
foothills of the Sierra Mountains in 1990 I became more serious by
taking classes and learning as much as possible. I love traditional
quilts and contemporary as well!
Shruti : About your Portrait Quilt, why did you think of making a self-portrait quilt? What inspired you to start it?
Sandra : My self-portrait quilt has been percolating in my mind for some time. I
belong to a wonderful group of quilters, Mountain Art Quilters, and the
one requirement for membership is to do one of their challenges per
year. "Self-portrait" is one of the challenges for October and I thought
it would be a great opportunity to try it. One of my favorite painters
is Chuck Close and I have always thought his paintings reminded me of a
quilt, and how fun it would be to try and interpret a photo of myself in
the spirit of how he paints with oils.
I began with a photo of me, that was taken very spontaneously and
without the usual primping associated with having one's picture taken,
as I wanted it to be real and factual. In a nutshell, I proceeded to
interpret each of the 1,600 squares with fabric.
Shruti : What machine did you use for it?
Sandra : I used my Bernina 1031, nothing fancy........all I was doing was sewing together 2.3 inch squares.
Shruti : Could you tell us more about the process? I can see, you have used
prints in the quilt. And the colors are also not exactly like you'd
expect. How did you decide which fabric goes where? And did you pull
some of those curly strands out when you just didn't find the right
fabric?
Sandra : This quilt is 40 squares by 40 squares for a total of 80 inches. I knew
that value was going to be a very important part of choosing fabrics, so
I went through my stash and selected fabrics for the background, hair
and skin that had a wide range of values. I have a pretty good stash but
did need to buy more fabric. Since, in my other life, I am an
illustrator and letterer, I wanted to have words and unusual swashes and
illustrative elements in the quilt. I love prints and commercial
fabrics, and wanted them in the quilt along with hand-dyed fabric. The
prints make it interesting, in my opinion. In areas where the squares
were on the edge of my hair and there was a mix of background and hair,
that's where I really went for the prints. I should say here that I made
a copy of the photo and blocked off rows of 4, then 4 by 4 square areas
to work in. I isolated each square (total-16) and focused only on that.
When I was happy with the 16 fabrics in relation to the photo I then
auditioned the 16 next to what I had already done to make sure it looked
right.
I had to stand back quite a ways sometimes to see if this was
accomplished or not. On 3 occasions I didn't like what I had done after
it was sewn and spent time ripping out and fixing........not fun! The
eyes were the hardest element and took a long time to get right. Some
squares are pieced, the ones that had the most "information" to
portray.....especially around the glasses and features. A tricky part of
this process is knowing when to be wonky and when it needs to be right
on, in terms of placement of lines and color. So, I went row by row,
doing squares of 16 into "big" squares and then joined those to make a
row of 4 by 40. Regarding color, I used the complement of the skin
tones, purples, on the shadows of the shoulder and around the eyes. It
works because the purples are the correct value. I love using
complementary colors from the color wheel. I did a lot of squinting and
used my reducing glass.
Shruti : What about the process of quilting it once the top was
together? Could you tell us more about it too? Which machine did you use
for quilting?
Sandra : I quilted this on my Gammill long arm machine. In addition to being an
Illustrator and Letterer (Calligrapher) I have a business doing long arm
quilting. I pretty much only do free-motion quilting and that's what I
did here. In the light background I stitched info about myself, since
this is a self-portrait. So often I see quilts and wonder about the
person who made it. I like the idea that 200 years from now someone
might look at my quilt and will be able to read about me in the
stitching. So....my name, my family, things about me are in there. In
the thread in the hair I used 4 different shades of brown. I did a
pencil sketch that I referred to, but for the most part I just jumped in
and went at it. In the skin I used clear mono-poly thread as I didn't
want it to be distracting. I did a little bit of definition in the
features, but not much as I wanted the initial design to be the focus,
not my stitching. I put white fabric on the back, and used Quilter's
Dream for batting. I had pressed open all the seams of the top to reduce
layers as the Gammill doesn't like going over layers in bulk. I will
use facings to finish the edges, as opposed to binding. Lately I am not
crazy about borders.
Shruti : What advice would you like to give others who want to attempt a portrait quilt?
Sandra : Advice? Hmm. My advice would be to be bold and always always think
"value", it' as important or maybe even more important than color.
Pre-cut 2.5 inch squares in your selected fabrics ahead of time so you
can play with the arrangement without having to stop so often to cut.
Resist the temptation to make things line up, unless it is imperative to
seeing the image correctly. This is a difficult thing to explain, and
came to me through trial and error.
Shruti : Is there a way that my readers can contact you directly for advice?
Sandra : My email is Sandra Bruce
Facebook page is Sandra Bruce Creative
Shruti : What other arts do you meddle in apart from quilting?
Sandra : I work on Thursdays at Sugar Pine Quilt Shop here in Grass Valley. It's
very fun and I love meeting other quilters and helping customers pick
out fabric. Aside from quilting and doing my illustration and lettering I
love to dye and print fabric, and make art clothing. I belong to the
Sierra Wearable Art Group. I am also a polymer artist and teach classes.
I sell polymer jewelry in my studio downtown where my long arm,
"Dixie", lives. I also love doing mosaics and paper art. I squeeze in a
few visits a week to the gym with my son.
Shruti : Can you let us peep into your studio?
Shruti : And now, the most important : How do you do so much all at once? Do tell us how you manage your time...
Sandra : How do I manage my time? It's difficult and I'm not really sure how I do
it. My family is very understanding about dinner being late, :-) ! I
make lists every day. No TV! I have been self-employed for over 30 years
so I am used to being in charge of my time, I try to get through my
list every day.
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Thank you Sandra, for the fabulous interview! I'm sure a lot of my readers will be totally inspired by your work!
What do you guys think of her wonderful quilt? Email her and tell her right away!
