Sewing With Nancy

Lola Jenkins, thread artist is today's Nancy's Corner guest. She's been quoted as saying, "I don't know the rules, so I can't break the rules of quilting." With that free spirit approach she creates amazing fabric art with raw-edge appliqu. Please welcome Lola Jenkins from Oklahoma City. She joins us via Skype. Hello, Nancy, thank you. Good to see you again in person, via Skype. Tell our viewers about your amazing artwork that you started doing not that long ago. Tell us when you started. Well, I actually started in 2004 but I did very little. I didn't do that much, five or six. It was in 2007 that I decided to get serious about it. And serious you are! I'd like to start by showing our viewers your college portrait of yourself, I assume. There's an amazing realism in your quilt. You used raw-edge appliqu, correct? Yes, I did. I love raw edge. It's an easy way to go. You start with a photograph. Explain the process that you use. I usually start with a photograph. Once I get the photograph, I use some type of software manipulation program in order to be able to get it posterized. Then, I blow it up the size that I want it. I lay it on top of a light box and I trace the image to the fabric. From there, I just cut out pieces. What I find so amazing about your quilts is that the hues of fabric even though they're not-- you wouldn't see them in real life it looks so real when you look at the image. For example, this image of Malcolm X you have a variety of colors in the hair, skin, eyes, shirt and the fabrics, some are prints and some are solids. Your artwork is phenomenal, is what I'm trying to say. Thank you very much. I like doing realistic portraits without using realistic skin tone fabrics. I believe that it gives it a whole lot more interest. It has a lot of energy. In addition, you use some free motion quilting sometimes very specific and sometimes very random. Yes, I do. The majority of time, I'm random. I start of with an idea when I start quilting. And just whatever happens at the moment happens and I just go for it. Sometimes I do overkill or overdrive and sometimes I just do a little like a stitch in a ditch, type of thing. Sure. Well, I like your overdrive analogy. The next quilt, "Many Faces" you have an interesting story about that quilt. This is the face of just one individual but in many different poses. Yes, it is. The idea that I came up with is, we never really get to know someone even though we think we know them. So, this is what happens they have many different faces. So, I take one individual and I did them in a whole bunch of different colors to represent the many faces that we put on before others. I love the way that they're overlapping and intertwined. It's such a pleasure to look at and study the faces on them. When we talked earlier, you shared with me that you learned something from a landscape quilting show that Natalie Sewell and I did many years ago. Do you want to share that with our viewers too? Absolutely. I learned that you can get a variety of quilting tools from Office Depot! One of those tools is Wite-Out. I love the Wite-Out pen! I use it for everything. I use it for eyes, shadows or highlights. I have used it for the teeth. I've used it for lips. I've used it for arms and other places in portraits in order for me to get a highlight or shadow effect. A little dab of Wite-Out really works well on fabric. And I know personally, it stays there for a long time. Yes. You're an amazing artist. The variety of fabrics that you include in each piece from prints, to solids, to batiks that's your palette, correct? Yes, it is. I believe in using a whole bunch of different fabrics. I use the fabric the way most painters use paint. The fabric is my paint. Well, Lola, don't quit. Just keep sending me images and maybe we'll have you back to show your new creations. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for inviting me. I'll look forward to coming back. If you'd like more information about Lola Jenkins' artwork please go to our website, nancyzieman.com and click under Nancy's Corner. You'll find information on Lola and all our other guests. Also at nancyzieman.com, you can watch 52 of the most current Sewing with Nancy programs and Nancy's Corner interviews. Thanks for joining us today. Bye for now.