Monday, October 5, 2015

Juried into IQA, Houston 2015


My quilt, Tobacco Road (see Figures 1 and 2) has been juried into the Judged Show at International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX, and can be seen there October 28 - November 1, 2015.  It was inspired by the book, 'Tobacco Road' by Erskine Caldwell, set in 1930's great depression.  My quilt tells its own open-ended story (before the battle anyway) and bears a similar resemblance to the book only in that it asks the question - how will you survive adversity?  With ineffective action and inability to cope?  Or, with positive, effective action and as much grace possible under the circumstances?

For design, I was inspired by non-copyright photos I saw on the net, Japanese wood-cut and Aboriginal art.  The quilt is machine pieced, 4 seams, and raw-edge appliqued.  My own Eze-screens and acrylic paints created some of the flowers and the cross-sections of lung cancer. Fused fabric bits compose cross-sections of cigars and cigarettes.  The design percolated and morphed in my head for about 6 months before I was down to the wire and had to "fish or cut bait".  It is the first quilt top I have appliqued and quilted at the same time making it a one-step instead of a two-step operation.  


Tobacco Road            21" x 53"                                        Fig. 1




Tobacco Road Detail                                    Fig. 2


4 comments:

  1. It looks great. I loved watching this one in process as it talked to you.

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  2. Connie, even having seen this one in progress, I learned even more by reading your description above. I'm always in awe of your free spirit in art quilting.

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  3. That one step raw applique-then-quilt is a favorite of mine as well, the one step approach allows for changes of thread color and density that allow colors to flow more subtly. Good work!

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    1. Thank you for kind words, Sue Kaufman. I like your thread color and density suggestion. I plan to work this way again.

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