It's show season!

It seems like fiber and textile art is expanding its appeal to more venues all the time. I have recently been accepted to three shows.  My At Ocean's Edge piece will be in The Mayor's Art Show at the Jacobs Gallery here in Eugene.  It opens this evening and runs through October 5.

I also have this piece, Just Read Between the Lines, Dear, in a show, opening this evening as well, at The Arts Center in Corvallis, OR.  The title of the show is (Sur)Face Forward.  This show is entirely fiber and textile related.  I decided to attend their opening rather than the one in Eugene because of the focus of the show.  I do believe that supporting fiber shows encourages galleries to continue to call for more of the same.  (Sur)Face Forward runs through September 28.  

 

I submitted this one because I could tell from the Call to Artists that they were looking for pieces that were outside the box.  You'll notice the edges are left unfinished.  It was part of my Coming Unraveled series I did a few years ago.

The final acceptance was for the 2013 Quilt & Fiber Arts Festival in La Conner, WA.  The Green Flash was accepted as a finalist in their competition.  I won't know until after October 3 if I am a prize winner or not.  It so, the quilt will be on display at the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum from October 10 to November 24.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed but am not expecting anything big.  Previous prize winners have included artists like Carol Bryer-Fallert's Best of Show at Houston.  Stiff competition!

 

Two Pears in an Auction

Got my SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) auction piece finished and in the mail today.  It must arrive in Santa Fe by June 1 so I paid 5 cents extra to get it there a day sooner.  (Funny how postage rates work sometimes, isn't it?)  This piece is similar to one I made for my Small Pleasures series a couple of years ago.  Reason being, I had started this at the time and decided the angle of the table curve was too steep.  Everything looked like it was sliding off the table.  I was going for an Impressionist look but not one that made me seasick.  In order to correct the angle of the table, I would have to un-fuse the top of the vase, several of the leaves and the large flower on the right side.  It all seemed like too much work at the time so I set it aside and started over.

The unfinished piece sat around in my studio for quite a while.  When the call went out for donations to the SAQA auction , I decided now was the time to rescue the poor thing.  I changed the angle of the table curve so it isn't so dramatic.  I finished the stitching of all the raw-edge applique elements.  The background is pieced and machine quilted.  On the "wallpaper" I used stripes of decorative stitches.  I have all these fancy options on my machine so I feel compelled to occasionally use them on something.  The auction starts on the SAQA web site in September.  I'll post links when it happens.

Here is a close-up of some of the stitching.

 

Life Gets Busy

Often, try as I might, life chores and expectations get in the way of making art.  Every other artist I know struggles with this same thing.  In order to produce art, one has to move from all those left-brained activities over to calmness of the right brain.  It can't just be turned off and on.  I am currently working on a new piece, but it is coming along slowly, due to all those life chores.  I will post some pictures of it in progress but until then I decided it might be nice to post pictures of old work once in a while.  I have many pieces that were produced long before I started this blog. 

So, here's an oldie but, IMHO, a goodie.  This was sold several years ago and I still miss it.  It was one of my favorites.  It was made for an international challenge where we were each supposed to use a piece of money as our inspiration.  I chose the Canadian "Loonie".  I did not go for absolute realism.  I had a great stash of black and white fabrics that I thought would produce a whimsical looking bird.  After all, the loon has pretty dandy looking plumage.

This close up view shows how I pleated the houndstooth print before placing it on the back of the bird.  It was a fun piece to do.  It raveled to Japan and New Zealand, as well as several place here in the US.  

Back to the Drawing Board

This is Emily, my husband's grand niece.  This portrait was essentially finished at the end of the year, however, I found myself coming back to it over and over.  There seem to always be endless lines and shadows to come back in and tweak just a little bit more.  I finally told myself, "Enough! It's finished."   It will never be perfect and that's not the goal, anyway.  I need to frame it up and give it to her.

The next challenge was getting a good copy of the drawing.  I guess I knew this but I found out for sure, pencil does not photocopy well. I tried scanning it. That was worse.  I was finally able to take a fairly decent photo by trying multiple settings on my camera.  It was still a little dark so I resorted to Photoshop.  This is probably as good as it can be other than being the original.  I have done so little in the way of drawing that I'm struggling with giving away a successful one.  Still, Emily will love to have it so away it will go.

Into Every Studio, A Baby Quilt ...

It has been a long time since I pieced a traditionally patterned quilt.  My new grand nephew, Declan, arrived this month and his mother has decorated his nursery with a Beatrix Potter theme.  Knowing this fabric was available, I made a wall hanging for his room.  It was fun to play with color and pattern in a way that is different for me.  I tried to use colors that would play down the pink in the themed print and keep things a little more boyish.  I really liked the addition of the taupe print.  

I found a panel with the same print on it that was almost the right size for the back.  I tried to eliminate the pink edge but it didn't quite work out.  Still it worked out great for a little surprise when it is turned around.

 Now to get it in the mail.  Happy Birth-day, Declan!

Threads of Spring Color

Spring.  Easter. A time of hope and renewal.  This season always feels a little bit like New Year's to me.  Everything is starting to look new and green and fresh.  Even the air smells like blossoms.  It becomes hard to chose between working in the garden or the studio on so many days.

Today I dyed the eggs for tomorrow's breakfast and dinner.  I used that little wax crayon in the PAS box and drew lines around each egg before I put them in the dye.  Then I remembered an idea I had put on my Pinterest board from the Martha Stewart web site.  The eggs were charming with just the white wax lines but MS always gives me even greater inspiration.  The idea was to wrap the eggs with thread.  Well, there's NO shortage of that in my house!  It really took the eggs from charming to stunning.

I even got fancier with two of the eggs,  I had a yellow and a pink that didn't come out so good, so I drew the wax lines over the color, rather than just the white egg, and put them into another color of dye.  You can see them better in this close-up.  The two-toned effect is pretty fun.  It will be hard to start cracking these open to eat.