Sew Pieceful Bee Exchange 2015

I sometimes think I am the most fortunate person in the world for 100's of reasons but this year I added another one.  At last year's exchange, I drew the name of friend, Karen Mills, to make a wall-hanging to be given at this year's exchange (Karen is the daughter of one of my dearest, most beloved, quilting friends - Inez Miia Libersat).  When I asked her what she wanted, she said, "It's all about Mother".

I knew I wanted to do a portrait of Inez but I wanted to capture her essence not create an exact replica or literal translation of my photo of her taken earlier in the year.  So, I did it the slow way (large square grid and hand-drawn portrait, squinting, arm's length, at the photo for guidance).  I also wanted to use monoprinted fabric I created with her in mind...and Thread Trash.  I then focused on:  1.  Words her family put together in a book featuring her work.  2.  Her career as a life-long stitcher and quilter.  3.  Her favorite colors.  See All About Mother below (Fig. 1).  Note about Miss Inez:  She is 99 years young as of March 16, 2015, and is still very much a modern woman, or as my generation would say, a "hip chick".

S.P. member, free-spirit, Nikki Bracken, drew my name and she did a wet felted piece which I love.  She said it was her first effort and she would never do it again.  She said I could embellish it any way I wanted - a very tempting offer, indeed, given my penchant for working a piece ad infinitum.  Another friend thought it should be mounted, as is, on a quilted black background.  I thought perhaps some rough, homespun fringe.  I'll have to study it awhile to see if it speaks to me.  See Untitled below (Fig. 2).

All About Mother                                                              Fig. 1

Untitled                  Nikki Bracken                                     Fig. 2

 

Friends & Quilts at IQF 2015

I was able to be at Festival 2 1/2 days this year so my goal was to see as many quilts as I could.  Here is mine and a few made by friends.  I took many photos but not all came out well due to light reflecting off the quilt or accidental shadows.

I was able to talk about my quilt, Tobacco Road, based on the book by the same name.  The book was a bleak one about one family's futile efforts and inabilities to survive the great depression.  It was a contemporary novel of it's day.  Reader response was such that the majority doubled and tripled their efforts to survive.  I made Tobacco Road as cheerful as I could in the hope that if I was confronted with medical adversity I would take positive steps to survive with as much grace as possible.  The U-Tube video was made by Quilt Alliance so I will post it when it becomes available if I can jump that technological hurdle.

                    Tobacco Road-Art Pictorial                                                        

Nikki Strimpel, Marily Diemoz, me, Judy Ayers at the Garden

                         Mary Ann Littlejohn-Tactile Architecture                          

                                  Nancy Dickey-Art People, Portraits & Figures                                   

Nancy Dickey-Hoffman Challenge    

Linda Teddlie Minton-Dinner@8     

                       

Susan Fletcher King-Dinner@8          

             Carol Taylor-Traditional Applique                                     

                                      

Heather Pregger-Art Abstract Small   

              

Susan Engler-Dinner@8                    

                     

Beth Porter Johnson-Art Abstract Small

                

      Janelle McCall-In Full Bloom                 

                  

                  

                                                      Hope Wilmarth-In Full Bloom

                                          Frances Holiday Alford-What's for Dinner

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

Fiber Fabrications

The East Texas Art League will be hosting the opening of Fiber Fabrications, showcasing the work of Beaumont Area Fiber Artists, Elizabeth Ann Broussard, Dot Collins, Susan Cornell, Jerry Lynne Domingue,  Connie Marie Fahrion, Kathy Risinger, Christine Schmelebeck, Sherry Walker, and Sylvia Weir, from 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Saturday, September 26, 2015, at the East Texas Regional Art Center in Jasper, Tx.  Do go see it if you can.  The show will run through October 31, 2015.

July 2015 BAFA Meeting

We spent the morning photographing submission work for our upcoming exhibit, Fiber Fabrications, at the East Texas Art League in September.  We talked about artist biographies and statements and will discuss commissions at our next meeting.  We also looked at work-in-progress and other classwork, challenge work, etc.  Sylvia had an impressive collection of yardage she dyed with Procion MX dyes.  I especially loved seeing Dot's grand-daughter's design exercises on postcards.  How wonderful are these?  See Figures 1-4.

Dot's grand-daughter's design exercises                            Fig. 1

Susan Classwork                                            Fig. 2

Liz Surface Design                                        Fig. 3

Sylvia Challenge Work                                 Fig. 4

Birthday Greetings

I was the lucky recipient this year of birthday postcards (Fig. 1-2 below) and one special gift from friend, Susan (Fig. 3).  "Grampie" collects washed up crabs so this could not be more perfect for us.  And, I have a bowl of sea shells at the beach cabin that look exactly like these.  They are very delicate and usually crushed under foot so not easy to find.  Thank You, Susan and Jerry!

Beach  4"x 6"      Susan Fletcher King

                                                    Fig. 1

"C"    4" x 6"         Jerry Lynne Domingue

                                                          Fig. 2

Blue Crab   15" x 20"            Susan Fletcher King

                                                                      Fig. 3

BAFA Meeting June 2015

Beaumont Area Fiber Artists met in June.  Our design exercise was to use extension lines from a magazine or fabric sliver to create a new design (see Figures 1-2).  Classwork by Dot Collins from a week-long class with fiber artist and friend, Ginny Eckley (Figures 3-5).  Classwork by Susan Cornell from a one-day class with Dorinda Evans (Figure 6).  Work in various stages of progress for the upcoming East Texas Art League show, Fiber Fabrications, in September, and other venues, was also shown but not photographed.

                                                                        Fig. 1

                                                                       Fig. 2

                                                                       Fig. 3

                                                                       Fig. 4

                                                       Fig. 5

                                                                       Fig. 6

Pillowcases 101

Last year the grand-girls pieced squares which became quilts for their doll beds.  This year they decided they wanted to do pillowcases, creating one also for the little Fin-man himself.  We did the fold-over, french seam method.  I did the rotary cutting.  They pinned and sewed seam twice (Fig. 1-2).  Voila!  Pillowcases! (Fig. 3).  Next year, they say they want to do a bed-size quilt top, working out of my many scrap baskets - bits and pieces, orphan blocks, etc.  I may have to do some pre-cutting for this one!

Getting it ready to Stitch     Fig. 1

A Happy Stitcher                                           Fig. 2

Yay - Pillowcases!                                         Fig. 3

Paper Collage

I began working with paper some years ago, beginning with some painted paper backgrounds for photos mounted on mat board which became ornaments for the family photograph tree (Fig 1).  From there I moved on to paper towels and coffee filters (see Quilting Arts, 2013, Mar/Apr Issue or scroll down this blog to The Art in Fiber 2014 - "Connected" Now Open.  See also Children's Art, Finley's artwork, Grammie's collage, this blog).

When working on a gelli plate for monoprints at the last Fibervoices retreat, I transferred monoprints to deli paper in addition to cotton fabric. I was actually getting two prints for one image - one on cotton and one on deli-paper.  I created an abstract using only assorted painted deli-wrap (see Fig. 2) on mixed-media paper and assorted painted deli-wrap and painted paper towel representational work on peltex stabilizer so I could quilt it (Fig. 3).  It made me take a second and closer look at a tissue paper collage hanging in our office that my grandmother created in 1968 for my dad.  I believe hers was made with paint, assorted paper including tissue and paper bag, twigs, moss, sealed in encaustic wax (it is quite smooth.  Fig. 4).

Assorted Photo Ornaments               Fig. 1

Bastrop Burning                                   18"x 24"              Fig. 2

 Earth Born 2             12" x 12"                   Fig. 3

Two Hearts, One Life    12" x 24"    Selma Charlotte Thompson

                                                          1893-1974                  Fig. 4

Beaumont Area Fiber Artists

Our local art quilt group, Beaumont Area Fiber Artists, met here yesterday.  Design exercises and other work were viewed and discussed.  The design exercise for May was on the effect of scale (see Figures 1-4 below).  Other work by members, Figures 5-11, is also shown below.  Our next design exercise is on using the lines available from a sliver cut from a magazine photo or fabric to extend the line and build textural design.

Susan's exercise                                               Fig.1

Dot and Connie's                                            Fig. 2

Cropping for effect - Jackie's                          Fig. 3

Magazine Paper Collage -    Scale exercise-Sylvia

                                                                       Fig. 4

Susan's Work                                                  Fig. 5

 Dot-   Shadows variation   Fig. 6

Jerry - Shadows                   Fig. 7

Dot-Crayola Challenge - Bittersweet

                                            Fig. 8

Jerry-Zentangle Mounted on Canvas       Fig. 9

Jackie -         Painted Silk Classwork

                                                Fig. 10

Sylvia Crayola Challenge-Lime

                                        Fig. 11