It has been a slow month creatively- aside from the show now on display, it's been almost non-existant.  It's hard to be creative when you are feeling both emotionally and physically drained.

I'm trying to get back into it with a simple project that will nonetheless be very appreciated by the recipients.  I spent some  time over the weekend cutting up tees, hoping to get a couple of lap-size quilts.  I have twenty-five good size blocks, and plenty of plain fabric to fill in where needed.  Here's the first set up on the design wall--

First step is to get the blocks squared, then play with design options on graph paper.  Then I'll know what I have to cut out to fill in.  Add some medium gray sashing between the blocks, some simple straight line quilting- I'm hoping to get this done quickly (for me!), and hoping that this will get the creative juices flowing again.

I also chose some fabric and ironed fusible on it, hoping to play with some postcards.  Can you tell I'm craving some bright summer colors?

Another simple, quick project.

I had some learning moments while getting my pieces ready for hanging- but I'll need time and energy to collect my thoughts in a coherent manner.  So I'll leave you with this, and hoping for positive thougts that my muse and energy start visiting me again!

Artist of the Month!

I have been busy the past couple of weeks, preparing to have thirteen of my pieces hung for a month-long show at a community social service agency.  Prompted by one of their staff who also has a strong interest in the arts, they installed a hanging system in the waiting room, and invite community artists to show their work.  This month, it's me!

It was a fascinating experience preparing for this.  First, I had  to choose which ones to show.  I don't have a huge body of work- but I did want to showcase my best.  I chose several of my best pieces from the Interpret This! challenge, both of my quilts inspired by the wind turbines.  I wanted to show Green- but at twelve inches square, it didn't have much presence.  So I created a matte quilt, and sewed it to that.  You can see it directly to my left in the picture above.

I also wanted to show two other small quilts, Chaos and Tetes au Dessous.  I ended up painting two stretched canvases black, and sewing them on.  I couldn't believe the difference it made- but of course, I didn't have enough presence of mind to take pictures of them when I was done!

I also had some larger pieces- I couldn't leave these out!

One other artist who has been shown here had a fiber piece in her collection- but this will be the first show that's exclusively fiber.  It will be interesting to see what the response is.

Blogger's Quilt Festival, Spring 2013

I became aware of the Blogger's Quilt Festival through Nina-Marie's blog this week, and have decided to enter my latest quilt, Autumn Glory in the Art Quilt category. I've blogged about creating this quilt before- so if you seen and read all this before, bear with me!

I've lived in the desert southwest my entire life- a landscape that is more known for wide open spaces and lots of browns. I had the opportunity to take a trip to northwestern Michigan with my son and his fiancee last fall, and I found myself enthralled with a lush, green landscape very different from what I'm used to.  We hiked through woods that enveloped me with verdant greens (and the very beginning of fall colors), where the view above me was entwined branches with only bits of blue sky peeking through.  I loved it, and took hundreds of pictures.  So far, I've made three quilts inspired by this trip, and more are in my head.  A Walk in the Woods: Autumn Glory is the third in this series.

I do not want to create a realistic quilt of the woods I experienced, but rather give a sense of the tall, upright trees juxtaposed with the beautiful autumn colors.  This is actually two quilts: I constructed the pieced portion with hand dyed and commercial fabrics, then quilted and embroidered it using both hand and machine embroidery.  Then I constructed the wholecloth "matte", using a commercial cotton that I stenciled with Shiva paintstiks to depict the leaves.  I created the stencils myself, using actual leaves that I collected on the trip.  This "matte" was heavily quilted, then the pieced quilt stitched to it.

I feel like I am finally starting to find my voice with this quilt.  I love improvisational piecing, and prefer to use my own hand dyed fabric as much as possible.  I also like the 'calm' lots of negative space in a quilt provides.  I hope the viewer can get the same sense of peace amidst the grandeur of the trees that I experienced in those woods.

I've been absent

with good cause, dealing with needs of my family and child.  I haven't done anything worth blogging about, and haven't had the emotional energy anyway.  Hopefully we have turned a corner on that one--

Kicking Back

We are on out annual spring trek to Moab for the car show, and the chance to catch up with good friends. The weather has been great, the car show and Main Street drag were lots of fun, and we've just enjoyed the chance to relax and kick back. Take a look, need I say more?

Michael Berry G!allery Show Opening

Friday night our Utah Surface Design biannual gallery show opened at the Michael Berry Gallery in downtown Salt Lake.  I helped to start hanging the show last weekend, and came up to Salt Lake Friday afternoon to photograph the gallery and every piece for the group.  I'll have those to show later- I haven't even had a chance to get them off my camera!

Most of my family made it up for the opening, so I got Sean to take a picture of me with my piece, using my iPhone.  So here you have it- after all that work, my baby is out in the world!

John Hess had two beautiful dimensional and holographic weavings in the show, one hanging below Autumn Splendor.  Marilyn Fashbaugh's quilt is hanging to the right of mine, and two fantastic hand dyed silk scarves are below.  (If my memory is any good, Judy Elsley did the one on the left, and Sally Wilkinson the one on the right.)  I can't remember who did the weaving on the left side of my quilt- it was also at the Weaver's Guild show earlier in the year, and caught my eye there.

The show is beautiful, it came together really well.  Lisa Chin, another USDG member, has lots of pictures posted on her blog here.   Enjoy them, because I have no idea how long it will take me to get all the pictures I took off my camera and edited!

I am now frantically working on my next Tangled Textiles piece, due the 30th.  I was going to piece it, but decided that I just didn't have the time, and my idea would lend itself equally well to fusing.  So it is all ready to be machine quilted.  Now to just to find the time and energy to get that done!  (I'm sensing another mental health day home from work on the horizon!!)

Hope your week is a creative one!

The blur that was March. . .

I haven't vanished from the planet, or given up my art- life just managed to take over this past month.  I'm still getting used to having a three year old in my home again.  She is a delight, but has more energy that all four of the adults in the home.  Calling her the Energizer Bunny would be an understatement.

I have been steadily plugging away on the second piece in the Walk in the Woods series- all I have left is a label and sleeve, and that has to be done by Saturday when it is delivered to a gallery in Salt Lake to be part of the Surface Design show.  I am happy with how it has developed.

I finished the edge with zigzag and rat tail cord- kind of like with yarn, but I like the smooth finish the rat tail cord has.  I don't think I've ever gone through so much thread with a quilt, but it was worth it.

So now I have two weeks to complete the next piece for my Tangled Textiles group- Remnants.  I think I am going to use the remnants from some previous quilts.  The color palette certainly appeals, it is so evocative of spring.  

I'm thinking this quilt is going to have lots of negative space.  I really like the clean look of the modern quilts with that design esthetic.  We'll see what I can come up with.

I am very frustrated and sad. . .

ith the demise of Google Reader- I've looked around for another RSS feed, and decided to follow other quilters and sign up with Bloglovin'.  It looks like it will work for me- I never discovered the 'Next' button on Reader, so I won't have that to miss like others. 

So, Follow my blog with Bloglovin