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

Finished UFO's 2015

I finally quilted and put the bindings on two UFO's, one new and one old, Home Spun which I began on a retreat last year (See Figure 1 below) and Masks in Blue which I began on a retreat about 4 years ago (Figure 2).  It seems I now get most of my work done on retreats.  Both works were created and quilted on retreats where I did not have to contend with life-at-home distractions.

Home Spun was created out of my scrap basket and was made deliberately off-center, off-grain and as perfectly imperfect as I could make it.  I posted a photo of it in its quilt-top phase on FB and in an earlier post.  I used paint for a few value fixes.  It pays tribute to many happy days I spent with spinning and weaving friends learning to spin and weave even though mastering those skills always remained one of my more illusive and dubious pursuits.  Masks in Blue used African fabrics and batiks passed on to me by a quilter friend.  I have two other quilt top works-in-progress using the fabrics.  Thanks, Jerry!    

 

Home Spun     33"x 53"                Figure 1

Masks in Blue            51" x 50"                                   Figure 2

SAQA Donation 2015

I thought I would never get this year's donation piece for SAQA finished.  In trying to photograph various steps in the creative process, I learned it was not easy to stop mid-stream to "take a picture" and was, in fact, a big challenge.  I can't complain though because it is now ready for its tripod, no flash photo, hanging sleeve and shipment to SAQA for inclusion in this year's fundraiser.  Hooray!

It began with an uninspired drawing - too still of a Still (Figure 1).  I knew it was not going to make it.  Critics from Fibervoices art quilt group agreed and suggested a new perspective for better visual interest.  I went back to the drawing board, changing up the scale and view, keeping the elements I liked while discarding those I didn't (Figure 2).  I began assembling materials (Figure 3).  I decided to use a painted fabric I created using texture stamps, corrugated cardboard and my own tile-stripped wall (thanks to a kitchen remodel) as inspiration for the design of the fabric (Figure 4).  I loved the energy of this created fabric which I thought would be a nice contrast to everything else.  I  made my quilt sandwich then would use my own cartoon drawing to place fabric design elements into place (Figure 5).  Pinned down, I free-motion quilted them to the sandwich (Figure 6).  I used Tsukineko ink to create shadows and highlights where needed (Figure 7).  After all design elements and background were quilted, I did a light Gesso wash over the top of the textured background to lighten it and enhance the black thread-stitched outline of flower and leaves (Figure 8).  I satin-stitched the edges using stabilizer to eliminate puckering-while-stitching then pulled it away from the back when done (Figure 9).  See finished work - Friendly Gesture (Figure 10).

 Initial Cartoon Drawing                         Figure 1

Back to the Drawing Board Success        Figure 2

 The Wall                                                    Figure 3

                                     Some Materials Used                                 Figure 4                                     

 Quilt Sandwich                                     Figure 5

                           

Placing Design Elements                  Figure 6

Adding Shadows                    Figure 7

Thinned Gesso Wash             Figure 8

  Remove Stabilizer on Satin-Stitched Edge -  Figure 9

Friendly Gesture                                    Figure 10

GTQG Book Challenge

Last year, I participated in the book challenge through my local quilt guild.  Ten people presented their work at the February meeting and talked about book motivations to create their work plus techniques involved in the process.  Some, not all (camera photos did not come out well), of the work is posted below (Fig. 1-9).  Of special note - The Shoe Tree, based on the book written by Janet's mother, Barbara Wright, currently available on Amazon.

Techniques included traditional piecing, English paper piecing, wool applique, photo manipulation and printing at Spoonflower, eze-screens, paint, inks, embellishments and tulle for non-traditional surface design, traditional applique and fabric collage.

This challenge turned out to be a perfect way to jump-start creativity.  Next year's challenge will be Alice in Wonderland, a book with fascinating visuals.  Figures 10 and 11 of previous Alice work for Beyond the Borders art quilt group in Houston, Alice Down the Hole (work in progress view) and Alice's Odyssey, are shown below.  It won Best of Show at Quilt Guild of Greater Houston and was displayed at International Quilt Festival in 2011.

Secret Garden - Carol Taylor (cropped view)  Fig.1

To Kill a Mockingbird - Dot Collins  (cropped view)  Fig. 2

Alan Jones           Fig. 3

Becky Miles           Fig. 4

Secret Garden - Cherisse Hamilton   Fig. 5

The Bible - Laura Casmore   Fig. 6

Secret Garden - Susan Cornell                       Fig. 7

Secret Garden - Susan Cornell       Fig. 8

The Shoe Tree - Janet Coggins          Fig. 9

Alice Down the Hole WIP - cmf    Fig.10

Alice's Odyssey - Members/Beyond the Borders    Fig. 11