home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for the ‘Quilting Organizations’ Category

Secret Project Revealed

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

At the end of June, my good fiber friend, Judy, who lives in Georgia, posted this photo of her mother and her grandson that was taken on father’s day, just a couple of weeks before her mom passed away. I just love this photo. Her mother was failing, but rallied on that day when Charlie came to visit. It just speaks volumes about our lives and moms, grandmom and great grandmoms. I knew I just had to create something for Judy with the photo as a remembrance of her mom.

Using Photoshop Elements, I created a line drawing/sketch of the photo.

 

I experimented with different colors of organza and background fabric and finally found the right combination. I fused the photo to the background chiffon and took it New York with me where I worked on the background stitching, a combination of French knots and seed stitch.

Here is a detail:

I decided that it needed a frame to set it off instead of having a hanging rod. I am very happy with the result.

I sent it off, priority mail, last Friday and Judy called me today, in tears, as she had received it.

I had a really nice long week-end. I managed to stitch the rod pockets for several  black felt panels for the Twelve by Twelve exhibit at IQF in Houston in November. Terry has been cutting the panels. When they are all finished, we will attach the quilts and send them off to Houston.

On Sunday, Mr C and I went to the lighting store to find new pendent lights for the kitchen. We have four, two over two separate counters. They have always been a problem. The lights keep needing to be changed and finally, this week, one of the globes broke and fell in shatters on the counter and floor. Here is one of the old ones.

Here is the new one. Makes more of a statement and provides better task lighting.

Channelling Ellsworth Kelly

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

For today’s fiber sketch, I took a challenge from Kathleen Loomis. Her blog is Art With a Needle. She does a quilt date once a month and invites readers to try something she has done.

Today, she featured the work of Ellsworth Kelly, whose work is very quilterly.  I was particularly taken with this piece.

Ellsworth Kelly — Study for “Cite”: Brushstrokes Cut into   Twenty Squares and Arranged by Chance, collage of ink on paper, 1951

I do not like to spend a lot of time on the fiber sketches. So, I quickly cut strips of black and white and then fused them together.

I cut them into into squares and “arranged them by chance”. The size of the sketchbook limited the size I could do, but it whet my appetite to try a larger piece using this technique.

On another note, the Quilt Art @ 15 entries were revealed today on the QA website. Click the link and look at all of the fun quilts made to celebrate the 15 years that QA has been in existance. Here is the piece that I made – Pearls of Wisdom.

It consists of 15 hands holding “pearls of wisdom” that are generously shared amongst the members, new and old.

Today, I had the preliminary work done for the new crown to cover the tooth that I broke last month. I had to go to the funky Japanese run dental lab and meet with a technician to select just the right shade to match my other teeth. There are loads of colors to choose from — who knew?

I also got some work done on the purple yellow challenge, which I can’t show you! And because you love to see him — here is a photo of Mr Cuteness in my studio today.



Some Quilty Stuff

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Want to know what I have been doing for the last couple of days? Click here. You can see all of the fabulous fiber gallery shows that will be going on in the Kansas City area during the Surface Design conference. From that page you can click for each show and see more images. Really cool stuff!!

Today was the 40th birthday party for my guild, which until today was called the Columbia Stitchery Guild and is now the Columbia Fiberarts Guild. We are trying to move into the future. There are not that many embroiderers left in the guild.

Here is the beautiful cake that was served following a delicious lunch.

cake

Many of the past presidents were our guests. They brought samples of the work that they do. Here are some pics of my faves.

buttonquilt

This quilt has tons of buttons.

ginkotree

This was a beautiful ginkgo leaf quilt.

img_5513

img_5536img_5508

There, I promised you quilty stuff. I really enjoyed hearing these women talk about their tenures as president of the guild.

Tomorrow, STASH is meeting. We are going to try to become more productive this year — do some workshops and such.

An Artist

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

I got some validation, yesterday, that I am an artist. Terry and I drove to Eugene to take part in the twice yearly Oregon Art Quilter’s critique. We are a group of 15 – 17. It was a gorgeous day. We saw some beautiful fall scenery. I took a couple of photos from the car. (Fortunately, Terry was driving.)

We met at an upscale grocery, Market of Choice, in their community room. I was entranced at how a grocery looks from above: (Be sure to click to see larger!)

I digress! Our guest critiquer is an artist, photographer and graphic designer. We found him to be very articulate and interesting. The whole group seemed pleased with his comments and style. I was extremely happy!! Woo hoo!! I took Red Sky and Urban Sunlight.

He said that he would not change a thing about either piece. First of all, he loves abstract. He talked about the chaos that I create with my complex cloth pieces that are controlled in my construction process. He felt that the fabrics and compositions give the viewer lots to examine and think about. I was pretty happy. And if you think he said that to everyone — he didn’t!! He did say that after all the feminine color he had seen, he was going to have to go home and ride his Harley!!

OK, back down to earth. I haven’t gotten any work done in the studio. I need to get busy again tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone for your concern. I have been doing some reading and research and I am feeling a little better about the situation. Some day, I will explain, but not yet.

APNQ, Seattle

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

The APNQ show was here for the first time this year. It was a great venue and the show looked great – the quality of the work was wonderful and the number of art quilts was pretty large.

Here is my official name tag for being a finalist.

I have some very blurry photos of quilts. I think I had my camera on the wrong setting. So I will have to reshoot my faves tomorrow. Here is my quilt hanging in the show. I entered in the new art quilt division, hoping that my quilt would hang with other smallish quilts, but no, it is next to gigantic sunflowers.

Here is Terry with her quilt. She got to hang next to the cows from Sonoma County.

I love, love the architecture of Seattle. Some of you may remember that I did my journal quilt about Seattle architecture last year. Here are some shots from the Convention Center, which has wonderful windows, even in the ceiling.

I captured two different planes flying overhead.

This is how I amuse myself when I am sitting and waiting.

Linda and I at lunch. I was showing her how I can flip the viewer on my camera and take a self-portrait.

Teyy’s sister, Becky, took the ferry over from Port Orchard and spent some time with us. Here they are leaving the show for the day. (Hi, Beck!!)

I got some great stuff today, but I haven’t photographed it yet. We went out for dinner at a Greek restaurant where the service was very slow. But the company was great. Terry’s sister-in-law, from Montana, was here with her business partner selling hand dyed wool and ribbon and yummy embellishments. They had dinner with us tonight and I really enjoyed chatting with Jamie, who won a third place on her applique quilt.

I was so happy to get in my Jammie’s tonight. It is grueling doing a quilt show.