Meeting Apr 11, 2022 at 12 PM
followed by a
Presentation by Vivian Drawneek
Vivian Drawneek has elevated fabric collage to an art with her intricate fabric paintings. At OAG’s recent Exhibit “Stroke of Genius”, Vivian’s fabric collage “Contemplating” (inspired by Winslow Homer’s work “The Green Hill”) was awarded Second Place. Intrigued by her detailed fabric art, we invited Vivian to share her story.
At OAG’s April meeting Vivian described every step of her creative process. Vivian finds inspiration in photos, master works, patterns, coloring books, in short, everywhere! She begins her analysis by examining the photo for patterns and color values. A grayscale image helps with this step. She breaks the image into larger areas and continues to refine her line drawing with smaller shapes to capture texture and contrast. From her considerable collection of fabrics, she begins to choose pieces of cotton, blends, silks with colors and patterns that will meld to create beautiful painting.
Many of Vivian’s works are relatively small and created for decorative and artful pillow covers. Small panels may be combined to create a very special large quilt.
Once the line drawing is complete with value notations, a fusing tape (Vivian favors Steam-A-Seam 2 Lite) is ironed onto the back of each fabric swatch to be used. A lightboard is helps her transfer the pattern of each tiny shape onto the back of the fusing paper. Vivian then “fussy cuts” with very sharp small scissors. Each piece is laid on the pattern, similar to joining pieces of a puzzle, but overlapping the fabrics as needed. The backing fabric become an integral part of the design as the fabric pieces are ironed on carefully. A fusing matt used by quilters is helpful for this step.
When the fusing process is complete Vivian often decides to further embellish the piece with machine quilting to add more texture, detail, and interest to the work.
Even those members who may be experienced quilters gained a new appreciation for this beautiful artform. Anyone with a penchant for detail and a stash of fabric scraps would have fun creating small treasures like these. Thank you, Vivian!