Linda's Art Quilts: 2013

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

"Fiber Reactions" -- Slideshow of SAQA Regional Show

My camera's battery held out long enough to take pictures of all but one quilted art and artist statements and I was able to create a slideshow for you. Here 'tiz...

Customize a free slideshow

Friday, November 15, 2013

Three Quilted Works Juried into Poudre River Gallery in Ft. Collins, CO

Today I received notice that all three of my submitted works will appear in the Poudre River Gallery in Ft. Collins, Colorado from November 29th through December 28th. This means that 6 of my 6" x 6" quilted works will be shown in two different states during this period. Happy, happy day.

This is a particularly meaningful acceptance for me because my mother and father met at Colorado State University in the mid to late 1920's. At that time I believe it was called Colorado State Normal School. Both had fond memories of Ft. Collins and of their college life there, so for my works to visit Ft. Collins it is, indeed, a fine moment for me.

These are the works that will be on exhibit in the Poudre River Gallery show.

Friday, November 8, 2013

"Fiber Reactions" - A Must-See SAQA Showcase Exhibit

"Fiber Reactions" is definitely a must-see for art aficionados. This SAQA showcase exhibit, curated by the illustrious artist, Mary Tabar, will feature diverse quilted fiber art created by many talented and nationally recognized artists. It will held at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts in San Diego County at 15498 Espola Road, Poway, CA 92064 and will run from December 3 - December 27, 2013. For those of you who are able to attend, don't miss the docent Tours on December 5 and December 11 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Postcard Announcement

I am truly honored to have one of my quilts hanging among such notable works of outstanding artists.


"Cosumel Musings"


Close-up of "Cosumel Musings"

The artist reception will be held on Saturday, December 14, 2013 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

"Small Works" Exhibit at the Chait Galleries Downtown

I am totally elated to report that the artist reception for the "Small Works" at the Chait Galleries Downtown in Iowa City, Iowa, is this coming Friday and kicks off a two-month show. It is rewarding to know that three of my works were juried into the show and will hang along side paintings, sculptures, and mixed media works. Pictures of the gallery show it to be a fantastic venue for art.

Chait Galleries, Downtown

Here are my three works that were accepted into the "Small Works" Show.

"Blowing in the Breeze" (6"x6" mounted)

"Water Spirit" (6"x6" mounted)

"Soaring" (6"x6" mounted)

A Heart Emerges in November

It happened again! I was trying, really I was, to clean my worktable of small remnants but a nice little white remnant jumped up and grabbed my attention. I just had to do something with it other than toss it in the trash. A fun Valentine greeting card emerged.

It all started with a heart and an arrow drawn on the fabric with Pentel Fabric Fun Pastel Dye Sticks blocks of color and words of love hand written around the heart with a #03 Alvin TechLiner technical drawing marker. These drawing tools can be purchased at many art supply stores but, if memory serves me correctly, I believe I bought I bought my 4-pack through Amazon.

To stabilize the fabric I placed Timtex interfacing behind it and then secured it in a round, machine embroidery hoop and stitched around the heart in red and the arrow in black.

Once the stitching was complete I cut the fabric to an even 1/4" away from the Timtex, glued the edges with Weldbond, a non-toxic white glue that will bond almost anything but still cleans up with water.

As the glued edges were drying, I cut a piece of red craft felt on which to mount the stitched heart fabric and cut it just shy of the 5"x6/5" blank greeting card stock that is in my paper stash. At first I mounted the felt onto the front of the card with Weldbond since it was at hand. WRONG. The moisture in the glue distorted the card stock terribly so I discarded that attempt and turned to 3M Super 77 Spray Adhesive and it worked like a charm.

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=SSSSSuH8gc7nZxtUOY_xPxm9evuSeChshvTSevTSeSSSSSS--&boundedSize=310

Last touches included using a red Inktense Watercolor block to make a border for the heart.

To soften the edges of the border, I painted over the red line with only water in a Niji Waterbrush.

http://cdn.dickblick.com/items/051/33/05133-1000-1-3ww-l.jpg

Finally, I sprayed the back with the same 3M Super 77 Spray Adhesive that I used to adhere the felt and the card was finished. When February rolls around, I'll post it in my ETSY shop along with some other cards that I've made to celebrate Valentine love. I might even consider posting it now. Fortunately, there is no edict that love can only be expressed on February 14th each year.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

From Remnants a Story Grows

A few months ago I "gifted" two large bags of fabric remnants to a local group and decided to try to emulate Eleanor Burns by tossing out small remnants but, try as I might, I just couldn't bring myself to throw beautiful snippets into the trash. Oh, woe, within the year I had two more bags of remnants but this time, I rolled each leftover piece of fabric, tied it with string, and once again started to save these little treasures. A couple of weeks ago I pulled out the bags, sorted the remnants, cut them into swatches with parallel sides and started stitching them to 6" blocks of cut newspaper.

Here is what is developing.

In the second row from the left, 2nd block down, I inserted netting instead of a block of strips and then stitched a mini quilt onto the netting...and here it is :-)

What is seen through the netting is the end of two storage shelves that sit behind the block so this picture does not adequately show the transparent quality of the netting. When I make the quilting sandwich with batting and backing, 6" holes will be cut in those layers, also. How I will finish the edges, I am not quite certain yet, but I'm sure that a refined finish can be accomplished. Ah, the challenges. They just keep coming and I relish them--well, most of the time I relish them. At other times I pull my hair.

When I hung the piece to see how it was developing, I liked it but it lacked a story and I knew there was a one hidden in it that need to be told so...

Out of my hand dyed fabric stash I selected a piece that might suggest a sunset sky, drafted a circle from brown craft paper to use as a pattern and then cut a circle from the hand dyed fabric. I then fused it to Heat-n-Bond Fusible Iron On Non- Woven Stabilizer* to give it stability. Next I cut a smaller circle from the quilt top so that it would overlap the edges of the hand dyed fabric circle and affixed the circle with satin stitching. And now, dah-dah, here is that element...

The story is beginning to develop--at least in my story telling mind. I plan on creating either an appliqued or a free motion embroidered element into the circle and linking it somehow into the mini-quilt that is set on netting, but that will be in the near future. As it develops, I will add pictures, but at the moment I have three other projects on the work table that are crying for my attention. Isn't that just the way it goes with artists--especially those who are also quilters?
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* It might be worthwhile to note that the Heat-n-Bond Iron On Non-Woven Stabilizer is very soft and does not, even slightly, alter the hand of the fabric.
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Friday, October 18, 2013

My 6"x6" works in Chait Galleries Downtown "Small Works" Show

I'm elated to report that three of my 6" x 6" works have been juried into the Iowa City, IA, Chait Galleries Downtown "Small Works" show that will run from November 8, 2013 through January 6, 2014. The selected works are shown below. This will be the second out-of-state gallery venue where these works will have been shown. Oh, happy day for the little things in life...

"Water Spirit"

" Soaring"

"Blowing in the Breeze"

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Slide Show of "Maps" Exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA

As I was perusing Alex Anderson's and Ricky Tims' The Quilt Show blog, I found that their August 10, 2013 featured a Smilebox slideshow of "Maps", the Quilts on the Wall exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, California. It was gratifying to see my Vetruvian Man show up on this little show. For a slice of fun, check out The Quilt Show blog post. The art work that centered on an interpretation of the "Maps" theme were varied and quite stimulating.

Here is the post card that went out to advertise the "Maps" exhibit. The image was taken from the outstanding interpretation of the theme by Trish Charity, artist extraordinaire.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

"Maps" Exhibit Now at Quilts Inc. in Houston

I'm happy to report that the Quilts on the Wall (QOTW) Exhibit, "Maps" is now at Quilts Inc. in Houston. If any of you happen to be in Houston between October 31 and November 3, be sure to take in The International Quilt Festival at the George R. Brown Convention Center. This is my work that will be hanging with the QOTW exhibit.

"Body Map In Honor of DaVinci's Vetruvian Man"

"Soar, Fly, Rise" - A New Art Quilt

For the longest time I've been telling myself that I really must finish some started, but never finished works. This is one of them.

It all started with remnants of collaged newspaper images that were printed onto white fabric and was used in my work, "Grey Matter Unveiled" for the Quilts On The Wall exhibit, "Magnified Views" that traveled throughout the United States with the Mancuso Shows.

Closeup of Newspaper Collage

The fabric became the background for "Soar, Fly, Rise"

I first over-painted part of the newspaper printing with orange Setacolor transparent fabric paint (purchased from Dharma Trading Company) and then used acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium to paint a stylized sun and words.

Next came the binding and hanging sleeve and, wa-la, one more UFO was complete and that makes me happy. This gives me hope that more unfinished works will one day be complete.

Revisiting old friends can be very fun. Do you also have unfinished works that one day started with great creativity and gusto only to find their way into a stash of "...one day...one day I'll finish this"?

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Book Light - Another Use for Fiber Artists

When thread matches fabric (especially on black and other deep, dark colors), have you ever found it difficult to see the stitches as you are sewing? I have a goose-neck lamp that illuminates the back side of the stitching line but I still have trouble seeing where the thread is going with dark colors.

Last week it dawned on me that I might need to light the needle from the front of the sewing machine and came up with an idea that worked quite well. I taped a book light to the machine with painter's tape and wa-la, I could see my stitching.

Here's what it looks like...

If you ever experience the same kind of problem, you might want to try this "fix" to see if it works for you.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A Peek through the Garden Fence - A New Work Underway

Here's a peek at a new work that is under way.

A while back I participated in Teresa Shippy's tin tile printing workshop, created some great prints and fell in love with the process. Because of other projects on my worktable I didn't explore the technique further until recently, but last week I set up a little work station in my driveway and set about making four fabric blocks with Teresa's technique.

This quilt top is now at the stage where I need to consider how I am going to quilt it and what, if anything, I need to add to really make the tin-tile* prints pop. I'll post more about this work as it progresses.

*Note: I used Teresa's technique, but I did not use a ceiling tin tile. I used a wrought iron piece that I picked up at a yard sale that a friend was having.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

"Cool Classic Rides" - A Solo Show of Teresa Shippy's Art

Teresa Shippy's solo art quilt show, "Cool Classic Rides" was like no other that I have ever attended. If any readers have a chance to visit the show, it will be on exhibit at Soft Expressions through October, 2013. I spent at least 2 hours at the show and still needed more time to be immersed in the grandness of creativity. Teresa has created 27 art quilts that feature classic cars. Her choice of fabrics, including the use of men's ties from the 1960's for some of the grill works, was absolutely stunning and her hyper-dense free motion quilting with Valdani Threads exclusively was out of this world beautiful. Be sure to check out Teresa's blog. It provides an insight regarding the meticulous detail that goes into each and every one of her gorgeous works. The post card to introduce the show were created by the curator and artist extraordinaire, Deborah Stanley.

If at all possible, you must try to see these in person to appreciate them fully, but if you are unable to visit Soft Expressions from today through October, 2013, they entire collection will be traveling with the Mancuso shows where you will have a chance to see these works up close and personal. I dare you not to want to touch then...but don't. :-)

Here is a closeup of the fantastic post card that the curator, Deborah Stanley, created. It also provides all the information you will need to find Teresa's show at Soft Expressions.