Looking
Looking involves being aware of what has been done traditionally and open to what can be done going forward. Defining a traditional block, understanding its construction, and how to master the skill are all parts of the equation. As a teacher, I love to give students the power to add new skill sets. I also tell them that it’s up to them to decide where the importance of perfection falls in their work. It is one small step in the process of the build. Improv piecing has the same value as a traditional, technically pieced block, as long as it adds to the visual effect.
Redefining the shapes by looking, taking the name off each particular part, and filling that shape with many colors, or with negative space is the next crucial part of the process. It’s where you tell your story with the textile and colors you choose to create visual expression.
Understanding construction allows you to create easily without having to think about it. This can seem overwhelming if you think, I have to create a king-size quilt. But if you break it down to I need to fill this two-inch space with color, the task of building becomes so much more achievable.
Try to stop thinking about the final vision of the quilt. Think about each small part, as being a part of the bigger story. Often, I will have an idea, and as I build, the story changes and is often better than I could have predicted. It doesn’t need to look like what I initially set out to make.
I work with a parts department; meaning, I select a large group of fabrics and cut a large number of shapes I’m working with, just to get started on an idea. I cut way more than I need of any given shape. I have to have parts to play with and really look at or I can’t make any decisions.
Find your intuitive nature and pull what you like. You can make choices, you do it all the time. Don’t waste time making these choices. Pull a large pile of fabric, choose one piece and keep making choices based on whether it has any relation to the previous one. Or perhaps just choose it because you like it. Why not? You have nothing to lose.
Limiting choices is also a way to look differently. Becoming comfortable making these choices and being aware of what you are choosing and discounting is very important information. Why aren’t you choosing some? If you say, “I just don’t like it,” be more specific: Is it the color, the scale of print, too dull, or too bright? Putting language to your choices when asking questions is what it’s all about when it comes to enhancing creativity. These questions lead to you make choices based on textiles you may not have tried and pushes you toward a new reality!
I continue this process as I evaluate the shapes I want to cut. Start asking questions: What is the block called? What do we know about the block? Is it within your skill set, or is there something you need to learn before you can proceed? How is the block generally constructed? How does it repeat? What secondary patterns are made when the blocks are placed next to each other? Am I focusing on the traditional aspect of the various shapes? How do the shapes connect when the blocks are next to each other? Do I need to enlarge or shrink the block for effect? Can you change it from a block into a completely different shape?
Asking some of the questions ahead of time gives me a place to start to cut. Perhaps I need to make the block as it usually appears, so I can explore the options of filling spaces further. Can I fill the negative spaces with the same color or multiple colors? Can I take information out of the block to create something entirely different? Can the seam allowance represent lines I need to tell another story? Being active in the process of exploring is what will guide you to your next steps.
Detail of Fade to Purple
Deconstruction / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2015, 62˝ × 62˝
When looking at an individual shape, think about the negative space. Should your focus be on the traditional sense of the block or can you play / adapt / change the background to become foreground? Playing and considering each space as individual to the process lets you decide what depth and movement you can add. You will then make purposeful decisions for the next steps of your story/design.
Be conscious about the questions, and trust your eye and instinct as to what is working and what is not. Step back after each adjustment you make, and get perspective on the choice, again, taking photos with each change, so you are really seeing what is happening and not what your brain thinks.
Get in touch with your intuition. Feel the choices and continue to ask more questions. Does this stand on its own? How does it relate to the fabrics around it? Is it telling me anything about the composition, about where it sits, or does it need to be in a different position? Balance is an ongoing set of questions when designing. For example:
• Overthinking is the biggest problem that can arise in your creative process. Working something to death, until it has no life visually, is a place many people get “stuck.” Being mindful of that can bring you to a wall, where you have to decide if you need to look at it differently. Often, this is a great time to take information out of the quilt and focus on negative space, because often, less is more.
• Busy compositions are satisfying, too, and must balance well with color, light and dark, places of visual rest, and contrast. A couple very good examples of that are Clear View and Bright Lights, Big City.
• Get involved in cutting, experimenting, and looking. Don’t stand to the side and wait for inspiration to hit you. You have to be involved and work hard to make it happen. You have to focus, so you can enjoy the ride.
• Adding new elements is not just about adding technique. Improv work is a brilliant way to test your eyes. It can push your drive to let go and ask questions. I start my days by sewing scraps of fabrics together for several reasons: I don’t want to overthink. I want to allow color combinations to happen, I want fabrics to be cut up to give me unexpected patterns and effects. I want to give permission to my eyes to see something I cannot label with words but feel that it is something I can work with and build on.
• Once you can label something with words, it’s hard to break free of that thought. Working in abstract can stop the words from forming and push your eyes to see what is in front of you. If you find that you exclude colors, say brown, and you randomly sew brown, green, and pink together, and you realize you like it, then you can quit saying, “Oh, I never use brown!”
Allow your eyes to see, allow them to find things you like. We are so trained out of using our intuition, that sometimes we don’t even know what we like anymore. We buy the pattern, we buy the fabric to make the pattern, and we have no choices left to make. We are not using our creativity when we make that quilt, we are being a machine, to make someone else’s vision.
Say Cheese Bumble Beans / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2010, 28˝ × 24˝, hand and machine quilted
Never say never … because you will … ! (It’s also a very good challenge to get creative, figuring out how to make the process enjoyable, while making the thing you said you would never make!)
I Will Not Make a Cow Quilt / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2011, 25˝ × 22˝
Barn Star / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Jackie Kunkel, 2011, 95˝ × 95˝
Stained Cargo Windows / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2015, 69˝ × 54˝
Inspired by an Yvonne Wells quilt, circa 1980–1985; from the Robert and Helen Cargo Collection, International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2016.009.0005
Photo by Thomas L. Hauder
Looking at how blocks repeat and what happens in the spaces between the obvious placement of color is a way to boost your design sense. This traditional square dance block is exactly the same block as I used in Modern Square Dance. Think about the power of negative space!
Traditional Square Dance / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2016, 23˝ × 27˝
Photo by Mike McBride, Sizzix
Modern Square Dance / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2015, 54˝ × 58˝
Star Storm / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2017, 78˝ × 78˝
Complete quilt instructions can be found on my website.
My perfect T-shirt quilt! I used my Harley T-shirts, added stabilizer to them, cut them up, and cut my strips to make this quilt. Looking at the shapes of a design to find ways to fill the spaces with more than one fabric is what I am looking for when I make a quilt. I don’t always need to reinvent the pattern, but I can change the look of the quilt by filling the space with different combinations of pieced elements.
Harley Storm / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2017, 78˝ × 78˝
Complete quilt instructions for this variation of my Star Storm quilt can be found on my website.
Improv Star Storm / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Karlee Porter, 2018, 78˝ × 78˝
Complete quilt instructions for this variation of my Star Storm quilt can be found on my website.
Diamond Work / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2016, 71˝ × 71˝
Complete quilt instructions and acrylic templates can be found on my website.
I love looking at a traditional quilt block and figuring out how I can use the same block in several quilts that look nothing like each other. This one and the next three quilts were all made using the Victory block. Notice the color placement and how different the design can look without changing the block construction—traditional to modern!
Dancing Legs / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2016, 72˝ × 72˝
Complete quilt instructions and acrylic templates can be found on my website.
Fade to Purple / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Kim Hryniewicz, and Laura Clark; quilted by Shelly Paglia; 2015; 84˝ × 84˝; group quilt
Complete quilt instructions and acrylic templates can be found on my website.
To the Nines / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Frank Palmer, 2017, 92˝ × 92˝
Rose in a Storm / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2017, 96˝ × 96˝
This one and the next three quilts were made using a stretch hexagon and tumbler shape to get a variety of looks. I find discovering the different patterns very exciting. Look beyond the obvious.
Garden Variety / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2016, 70˝ × 84˝
Complete quilt instructions and acrylic templates can be found on my website.
Stretched Hex / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2016, 70˝ × 84˝
Tumbling Arrows / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2016, 71˝ × 80˝
Complete quilt instructions and acrylic templates can be found on my website.
No Two Alike / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2016, 80˝ × 80˝
Complete quilt instructions and acrylic templates can be found on my website.
Sometimes, when Shelly and I talk about how she will quilt the quilt, we have deep conversations about my ideas and thoughts about making the quilt. (We had a week’s worth of conversations about this quilt.) She then takes that info and decides how we can merge our ideas into quilting. Sometimes I leave it up to her, sometimes I have an idea, most of the time it’s a conversation to see if we both agree, and often, we quickly move forward with trust. Lucky for us, we work well creatively this way.
Cascade / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2016, 74˝ × 90˝
Complete quilt instructions can be found in my book Modern Quilt Magic.
The curved-braid template that I used to make Cascade is the same shape I used to make Flatliners. The idea that one simple shape can produce such a completely different design is what keeps me making quilts. It’s all an adventure and keeps me excited.
Flatliners / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2018, 83˝ × 87˝
Photo by Alan Radom
Modern Views / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, 2013, 49˝ × 60˝
Modern Views II / Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Shelly Pagliai, 2014–2015, 50˝ × 63˝