Keeping it Straight

And So it Goes...

John Lennon once said "Life happens while you're making other plans." And so it goes...
My Fab Fabric Painting Workshop at ProChem in Fall River, MA was wonderful, albeit much condensed.

I need to commend my flexible participants in maintaining the best of spirits and bending to the will of hurricane Irene. We cut our 3 day class, first down to 2 1/2 days than just 2 in order to beat the hurricane's driving wind and rain. Less working time, same instruction. Lots of humidity. But still tons of wonderful fabric and samples for future reference.

Good job everyone and Good Bye Irene!

Anita

Steffanie

Todd

Fiber Resist Workshop Trailer

A picture can say a lot of words

Best in Two Dimensional Design!

The League of New Hampshire Craft's,' Living with Crafts Exhibition. at the Sunappe Fair, is a fine art exhibit is created in room like vignettes furnished entirely with handcrafted works. My works Out on a Limb and Before I Knew you are both exhibited this year. I am pleased to announce my work, Out on a Limb was awarded Best in Two Dimensional Design!

This award is sponsored by Loring Stevens. I am delighted and honored.

Can't Help Myself!

Dreams Awaken 1
Ok- This art quilt's colors have bugged me from the get go. I like the format and quilting but pink?

So I decided to use my current protectant of choice- Satin Varnish by Liquitex- and coat the piece with it. Usually it deepen colors, at least on my digital fiber work. Not so here. It deepened it alright but too dark. I forgot to cut it with water- 1-1 proportions. Yikes!

Distressed, I left it to work on over projects. I returned to my Digital Fiber. I am creating another piece which I can not show here as it may be an entry where I need a virgin art work. It's a digital collage. I am really liking this new way of working and I will present it in my new format of tying sections of the work together. It's tones are in neutral palette. Unusual for me as earthy colors are more my thing but it is subtle.
Inspried by my recent conversation to neutral palette, I decided to paint the sucker.

Dreams Awaken 3

I think I made the piece more successful. I hope I can leave it alone for awhile. What do you think?

SAQA Benefit Auction 2011

Whoa!

It's almost time for the Annual SAQA Auction! Collect some beauties and create a wall. Collect from your favorite artists!The funds raised through the Auction are critical to supporting SAQA's exhibitions, catalogs and outreach programs.  All of 2010's auction quilts will remain on our website for viewing only, until the 2011 auction is underway.

This year's Auction will begin on Monday, September 12th at 2:00 pm Eastern and conclude on Sunday, October 2 at 2:00 pm Eastern. Price points will again be: $750, $550, $350, $250, $150 and $75.
How the Auction Works

View "dream collections" of auction pieces, curated by SAQA members.
I curated a dream collection on page 8

 "Feminine Figures" The woman alone, standing, contemplating, balancing, remembered and honored. 

Moments

Witness

Wichita National All Media

I was fortunate enough to be accepted again to this prestigious gallery event. Last year Pause and I came Singing were displayed. This year...

Opening

Fiber Holographic  Images,  Mutli-level Surface Design-Mixed Media

additional stitching details. 20x25

Land Locked

Mixed Media Collage, Digital fiber. 19x16

more info here

Touch the Sky

Touch the Sky

"Come away from the din.

Come away to the quiet fields,
over which the great sky stretches,
and where, between us and the stars,
there lies but silence;
and there, in the stillness
let us listen to the voice
that is speaking within us." - Jerome K. Jerome

The Space Between

The Space Between

at International Quilt Festival

Long Beach, California

July 29 - 31, 2011

Trees Singing 

Forty artists interpret the theme, "The Space Between," showing variety in thought, expression, and technique. Trees Singing Statement Have you ever taken the time for a walk though the forest, to see between your thoughts?  In that space, between the raucous pressing thoughts of your mind, you can sometimes, if you listen very carefully, hear the Trees Singing. Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center 300 E. Ocean Boulevard Long Beach, CA 90802 (562) 436-3636 www.quilts.com  another blog post here

Rumi Quote

This is a Quilt!

SAQA’s second Trunk Show is curated by Deb Cashatt and Kris Sazaki. It was designed to showcase SAQA’s diversity of talent and its mission to “promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development, and documentation.” Learn more about these quilts and how to bring a trunk show to your area.

Each quilt is framed in a 12" archival white mat (not shown) with an 8" opening.

My Work- Language of Touch

Eileen Doughty and her web assistants spent a lot of time over the past week or so putting all the trunk show pieces on the SAQA website, 
http://www.saqa.com/about.php?ID=1904.

You will notice at the bottom of each trunk show page, there is a Google
calendar that shows what region the trunk will be exhibited in and when.

Workshop at PRO Chemical & Dye, Fall River, Massachusetts Aug 26-28, 2011

I do not want exactness in my painted cloth but spontaneous colors. To be open for the unexpected-like the clouds.

http://t.co/JbxdKWi

using bits for the back of a piece

Fantasic Fab Painting Fabric Fun

fiberartgoddess.blogspot.com

Workshop: Using a wide variety of tools and tricks, you’ll have lots of fun as you explore the exciting prospect of painting on fabric. Learn lots of techniques to create completely incredible fabric! Each day will focus on surface design techniques, building your fabric with each consecutive skill....

My Digital Sketchbook Live

My Digital Sketchbook Live now at archive of the Brooklyn Art Library. Complete scanned sketchbook at
http://tiny.cc/qioso

Fiber Revolution: Visual Thoughts" at the Morris Museum

Check Out Lisa Chipetine's video on "Fiber Revolution: Visual Thoughts" at the Morris Museum"

Kevan Lunney curated this exhibit. She explains Gloria Hansen's work at the opening.

Kevan's piece from her Archeology series 

Visual Thoughts: The Art Quilts of Fiber Revolution
MorrisMuseum.org, Morris , NJ 07960
June 26 thru October 16, 2011
Kevan Rupp Lunney The purpose of life is to share your gifts.
www.KevanArt.com

LNHC Sunapee Fair is 75 Years Old This August!

The League of New Hampshire’s annual Crafts Fair, in Sunapee NH is one of the finest and most prestigious craft events in the country. It will celebrate its 75^th birthday this year. The nine day fair features both traditional and contemporary fine craft. Members must be juried in. I have been a member for 20 years.

 Out on a Limb

Triptych Digital Fiber

One of a kind multi-layered fiber photographs, collaged digitally and printed on inkjet prepared silk noil using a Epson 7600 and creatively stitched.

Please visit my work in Living with Crafts, in the main lodge. The exhibit features displays of beautifully crafted furniture, pottery, fiber and much more.

information here

Past Lives

I always remember fiddling around with cloth- from making doll clothes to my own and even in a art project in HS using commercial felt. I went to collage for Home Economics.
I was not interested in sewing at all.  My emphasis was Interior Design and Child Development. I still feel child dev should be a required course in High School, side by side with sex ed. I think if folks understood what a child is capable at each age/stage, there would be less child abuse.
When I got my different teaching positions, I attempted to change the mind dulling experience of Home Ec into a more stimulating experience.

circa 1979

Examples. For a sewing class- the students designed their own pillows, created the patterns and made them. It turned out like soft sculptures- from letter pillows, pencils and odd items. Boys too!

We hung them from the ceiling for parents night. Very cool. I'll never forget the principle's face. I guess he was expecting aprons.
Another time in Basic Cooking. We were discussing how what you see affects the pleasure of the meal i:e  presentation.

The students made chicken, potatoes, some veggie and cake. We colored the chicken red, the potatoes green and the cake was purple with multi color icing. We invited the principle to this meal. Everyone insisted the chicken wasn't cooked- even though they cooked it. The potatoes tasted minty because they were green. It was a good lesson.

So I evolved into quilting in the early 70's with the same approach. Use any fabrics and machine quilt. Then I moved to NH where I was told this was 'wrong'. I should use cotton and hand stitch so many to the inch. Unfortunately I listened. Drat.
So I learned to match my corners, miter borders till I grew bored and moved on.

First and Last Star 1984

I fell in love with folk art quilts and created them for my children's baby quilts. My second child's quilt, Jonathan's Dream was invited to the Quilt Museum in Paducak KY.  I didn't do it because it was my son's. I still have mixed feelings on that. Oh well.

Jonathan's Dream 1985

detail- all hand appliquéd and quilted

After I ran out of folks and babies to make for, I began the process of exploration. The guilds weren't allowing machine quilting yet so I left that supportive environment to experiment on my own.
When the digital camera, and personal computers came into existence, I embraced photography ( an old love ) on cloth and ran with it.

THE LISTENERs

THE LISTENERS by Walter de la Mare

"Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grass

Of the forest's ferny floor;

And a bird flew up out of the turret,

Above the Traveller's head:

And he smote upon the door again a second time;

"Is there anybody there?" he said.

But no one descended to the Traveller;

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,

Where he stood perplexed and still.

But only a host of phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

To that voice from the world of men:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,

That goes down to the empty hall,

Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken

By the lonely Traveller's call.

And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,

'Neath the starred and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote on the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head:—

"Tell them I came, and no one answered,

That I kept my word," he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house

From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,

And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,

When the plunging hoofs were gone.

Found

ART QUILTS LOWELL 2011: The Sea

ART QUILTS LOWELL 2011: The Sea
The Brush Gallery & Artists' Studios
256 Market Street, Lowell, MA 01852
Exhibition Dates: August 11 - September 10, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 13, 3 - 5 pm (during the Lowell Quilt Festival).

LOWELL, MA (July 17, 2011) Art Quilts Lowell is an annual, juried exhibition of the finest art quilts in Canada and the United States.

Time to Grow, Wen Redmond

Today, quilts are finally overcoming their old-fashioned reputation. Once perceived as blocklike, follow-the-rules fabric sandwiches, contemporary art quilts — with the emphasis on art — break the conventional code.

The quilt artist seeks to innovate by applying art principles and art experience from other areas like drawing, painting, and sculpting as well as working with the tactile richness of fabric and by adding the textures of quilting stitches

As defined by The Art Quilt Association, "The contemporary art quilt is an original exploration of a concept rather than a traditional pattern. It experiments with textile manipulation, color, texture and a diversity of mixed media." 

The concept for this year's Art Quilts Lowell is The Sea and there is a remarkable breadth of interpretation and materials by 31 artists from all over the US and Canada. 


This Year's Artists

Betty Busby - NM

Victoria Carr - MA

Gerrie Congdon - OR

Lisa M. Corson - CT

Nancy Crasco - MA

Grace Errea - CA

Diane Franklin - MA

Sandy Gregg - MA

Carol Anne Grotrian - MA

Beverly Hertler - NJ

Rosemary Hoffenberg - MA

Lauren Horowitz - NY

Janice Jones - MA

Deborah Lacativa - GA

Susan Lenz – SC

Ingrid Lincoln - Manitoba


Valerie Maser-Flanagan - MA
Jeanelle McCall - TX


Lorie McCown - VA


Penny Prudden Myles - MA


Suzanne R. Neusner - NY


Gay Ousley – TX


Gladys A. Perkins - MA


Time to Grow, detail

Wen Redmond - NH


Susan M. Rouleau - SD


Norma Schlager – CT

Carolyn Spiegel - NY


Pamela A Stanton - MA


Carol Ann Waugh – CO

Juror: Gerald Roy, Member, Executive Board, National Quilt Museum, Paducah, KY; Chair, Acquisitions Committee; Member, of National Advisory Board, Administrator, Quilt Appraisal Certification Program - American Quilters Society, Paducah, KY; Acquisitions Board: New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA.

For further information, please contact Eileen Byrne at director@thebrush.org or visit our website www.thebrush.org.

The Good Fountain

The Good Fountain

Sitting on the Edge,
of this thing called Life.
People live, people die and then
there's the space of in-between.
The moments of wandering,
edge to edge,
time borders.
Brackets our little space
here on planet reality.
Have I done my best? Could I have done better, more?
What would that have looked like?
What difference would it have made?
We all have regrets in the end.
Choices made, Paths followed
or not.
We end up, what we are-
a little left of yellow.
Imperfection our lot,
acceptance, our grace.

Thoughts while pondering. Pondering by the lake.

SDA Confluence Exhibit Highlights- Reflections on Water

Reflections on Water: Recent Works by Mary Edna Fraser,  

Linda Gass and Barbara Lee Smith  

This combo exhibit really complemented each other well in subject matter but the styles were quite diverse.

Barbara Lee Smith

detail

I have been a fan of Barbara's for some time now. Her courageous use of synthetic fiber and free applique were a parallel road to my own explorations. Barbara has found a successful and well deserved niche. 

Linda Gass

SDA Confluence Exhibit Highlight- Tim Harding

Apparitions

 Long know for his innovative cut work Art Wear. He is draping figures in this exhibit. 

I love his use of the textiles inherent fluidity.

Textile works exhibited in Apparitions are concerned with the juxtaposition of body and soul. The beauty and fragility of fine silk is the working .metaphor .for .the .same .at- 

tributes .of .the .human .form . . .

When I Think of You

When I Think of You

College of hand dyed organza. Surface design includes printing, stenciling, painting, and cyanotype, sprayed and creative stitched. Bonded with medium.

12x12”  

My SDA workshop- Mix It Up- Media Mix Collage- the BIG Finish!

Show and Tell Begins... Liz

What was one thing you learned?

Jane

Sara, my assistant

Miriam

Mary Ellen

Vickie

Don't you think we got some great pieces!