Qulting “Up and Away!”

 

Here’s where my new piece, Up and Away!, stands now. Last night I added the purpley-blue at the top, since the piece was looking flat to me. I think it has a lot more magic in it now. Funny how one change like that can make such a big difference. I also went back in and re-painted some of the grass with more saturated color, and I like the way some strands look hazy, like they are out of focus in the background. This helped to add some depth, too.

The placement of the butterfly is not exact; I just plunked it down there for the photo. (It is already stitched and ready to position once I have quilted the sky). That is next. 

Getting started

Okay, I know I'm cutting it close. There are just three weeks until the opening of Meadowood Stitched, the exhibition by the members of Fiber Art Options at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. I have finished one piece, and have just started the second. Well not really, part of it has been done for years. I think I made this butterfly about five years ago. It is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. 

Clarification: The photo above is of a three-dimensional butterfly made from fabric and thread, positioned on impatiens. (I remember sending this photo to my mom, and she thought it was a real butterfly, until I pointed out the scale, and told her, “If you saw a butterfly this big on your impatiens, you’d be running for your life!” But I was really pleased that it looked that realistic to her.)

My idea is to position this three-dimensional butterfly on a painted background, soaring up into a bright blue sky, with grass at the bottom. Something like this grass:

I took this photo at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden’s meadow area that they are calling Meadowood, which will officially open this fall. This afternoon, I started the piece I am planning by tracing this grass:

I am going to have to “hustle my bustle” to complete this piece by the deadline. But hey, I love deadlines! Stay tuned. 

Masters Vol 2 winner announced!

Mary Jo Bowers is the winner of Masters Vol. 2. Congratulations Mary Jo!! Please send me your snail mail address to: ngcook1atbellsouth.net and I will send the book to you.
Nancy

Come see me this weekend at Matthews Alive

I’m all set up for Matthews Alive!

Matthews Alive, one of the biggest festivals in North Carolina, and one that boasts the biggest Labor Day Parade in the Southeast, is this weekend. I’m the featured artist at the Quilt Show, which contains work by lots of local quilters. The show encompasses beginners and experts, and many types of quilting; I got a preview, and it is just terrific!

Carnival midway, rides, corn dogs and cotton candy, music, arts and crafts – it’s all here. There’s music, too, everything from rock and pop, alternative, beach music, and a Beatles tribute band. The festivities start tomorrow and run through Monday.

One of the coolest things about the festival is reflected in its motto: “Good times funding good works.” The celebration is dedicated to the support of non-profit organizations through music, arts and community involvement.  Nearly 1,000 volunteers – including Megan Shein (who organizes the quilt show) and her husband — put in more than 2,000 hours of volunteer time to run the three-day festival.  One hundred percent of profits go to local non-profits; to date, that is more than $750,000! Everything from marching bands, scout troops, adult day care centers, and charitable groups all benefit.

Quilt Show organizer Megan Shein with one of her beautiful quilts

The online map shows you where I'll be; in the Community Center, just off the main drag. It is a beautifully restored school building. I’ve been warned to expect a lot of traffic. Last year, the quilt show got more than 2,500 visitors! I wonder how much of it has to do with the fact that we are indoors, and the air conditioning in the Community Center is excellent! I’ll have my books, DVDs and patterns for sale, and will be working on new work and demonstrating the whole time I’m there. Come and see!

They even gave me a VIP all-access pass, which I am wearing around the house this evening so that the kids don’t mess with me. Hey, I’m a VIP!

Come and join me tomorrow. The parade starts at 10!

"Heat Waves" for SAQA: evolution in action

A while ago (yikes...where did the summer go?) I posted about the piece I was making for the SAQA auction.  The auction is right around the corner...it starts on September 12th.

Like so many things I start, I thought I was all set.

I'd fuse a square from my UFO pile onto a piece of dupioni silk. The silk would bring some texture and shine to the piece. A little free motion quilting would finish it off and the piece would be done!

The project was practically finished before I began.  

 

But the best laid plans....
 Once I put the two pieces together, I wasn't satisfied.  Everything looked too static, too blah.

What did it need?  Maybe a little shine, a little *bling.*

So I went diving into my small stash of  lame (shades of frowning French professors -- this needs an accent on the "e" -- but my blogging skills aren't that refined).

I cut some strips and extended them beyond the square to bring extra movement and that extra bling.  

 

 I thought that helped.

But now the light green top and bottom edges of the square weren't "weighty" enough to anchor the square on its silk background.

Better, but I still wanted more weight

So back to the design board to add some strips of dark blue velvet...










Okay...let's make the strips a little thicker.


I also wondered if it might be fun to extend the patterned fabric into the background.

No go on this idea...the extra pattern distracted from the main square and the flow of the lame.  


So maybe I needed a little more lame...something that would help integrate those two large strips of lame with the rest of the design.   So once more, back to the lame stash for two more pieces of the shiny stuff. 

This did the trick for me (plus the deadline was rapidly approaching).

A little hand-guided machine stitching, some blue metallic thread around the large pieces of lame, and here's the finished piece.
In the midst of the blistering summer heat, the title seemed to be a natural:  Heat Waves (you can find it on page 3b of SAQA auction site).

A side note:   I thought it might be apropos to include the word "evolution" in the title of this post.  Here's why:  the project that was "practically finished before I began" - a 10.5 X 12 inch piece - took on a life of its own.  Between cogitating and experimenting, 2 1/2 months passed between start and finish (and this doesn't count the time I spent on the little UFO square!).  All I can say is that I'm glad quilting efforts aren't measured in geologic time.  

Looking forward to the cool breezes of Fall

Debbie

Synchronized Synchronous Fireflies, Part 2

“Synchronized Synchronous Fireflies” by Susan Brubaker Knapp. (Work in progress)

My latest piece, “Synchronized Synchronous Fireflies,” is coming along nicely. I have added some synchronized grass – regular grass would have looked weird, I decided — and started the threadwork. The shot above shows it pinned to interfacing (Pellon 910), with a bit of the thread sketching done. I have also added smaller circles of lime green Angelina on top of the green Crystalina fibers that make up the fireflies’ glow. They were not showing up quite as much as I wanted with just the Crystalina.

I am having fun with this piece, but it is very different from what I’ve been doing in the past year or so. More playful perhaps, and definitely less realistic. I added the grass to give the piece some more luminous color, and I love the way it glows against the blue twilight fabric, and how it plays off the fireflies’ glow. 

But there is something somewhat sinister in the way everything is perfectly aligned. It gives me the same chill up the spine that much of Jane Sassaman’s work does. I think it has to do with taking the marvelous chaos that is nature, and making it mechanical, clinical — more perfect, and at the same time, less perfect. Messing with the work of the Creator. The Stepford Wives effect. There is some malevolent intent here. This may go back to my childhood battle with poison ivy. I am incredibly allergic to poison ivy, and had many very bad cases of it when I was young – so bad that I had to have monthly shots as a child, and that I missed several weeks of school. But that is enough psychoanalysis for today.

This is one of two pieces I am doing for Fiber Art Options’ exhibition called “Meadowood Stitched,” which will premiere this fall at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden near Charlotte. All the pieces will be based on meadow life, to celebrate the opening of a new section of the garden that includes meadow and woodland.

I have a good idea for my second piece; I will be using (or as they say in the crafting world, “repurposing”) a three-dimensional Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that I made about 5 years ago. He has a wingspan of about 20" (the photo below shows him sitting on my impatiens. Stay tuned!

Bead Book Give Away

Amanda Jensen is winner of Bead Book.

Amanda, please send me your snail mail address and I will send you the book.

Nancy

Masters Art Quilts Vol. 2 Free Give Away!!

In Masters Art Quilts Vol. 2, Martha Sielman has gathered the art work of 40 contemporary art quilters into a lush volume that is a perfect companion to Masters Art Quilts Vol.1. Each artist is represented with 6-12 pieces of their work, including some details to give a really rich overview of their style. Sielman accompanies each of the artists' work with a brief description of their work, their inspirations, and their techniques. Each piece of artwork is labeled with title, year created, dimensions, materials and techniques.

The book is well designed, easy to use with a softcover and front and back flaps, and the photography is exquisite.

I selected several artists' work for this review to illustrate the level of work in the book. It was truly a hard decision.


Urubamba by Jan Myers-Newberry showcases her exquisite shibori dyed cloth. She has used a lively interplay of small and larger textures, warm and cool colors, and has created much energy and movement by connecting shibori patterns across many different fabrics.











While Myers-Newberry's work showcases her fabrics, Frisian Sky by Dirkje van der Horst-Beetsma owes its pattern to her intense machine stitching.

Horst-Beetsma creates pattern with multiple small squares of hand dyed fabrics, and also with stitched lines on whole cloth.

This piece consists of five panels that are attached with zippers of varying lengths. There are even half zippers on each side, indicating that the piece could be zipped together into a three dimensional column. Her thread choices make the sky lively. Her sky abstraction tugs at memories of beautiful sunny days.






Rise Nagïn works with sheers. They may be layered, painted, appliqued or any of the other techniques of the quilter. By working with sheers, light becomes a constant in her work. Heliotaxis at 138 x 420 inches ( 3.5 x 6 m) is large enough for the audience to walk in and among its panels.

The energy of the piece comes from the overlapping layers of abstract organic designs, some in the foreground and some shadowed in layers behind.

Each of the artists in the book has developed their own signature styles, but the book shows how one can work within a very defined oeuvre and still be growing and changing.

Please leave a comment about this book on the blog with your email address by August 23. One lucky person will win a copy of this book.

Nancy

Synchronized Synchronous Fireflies, Part I

Synchronized Synchronous Fireflies by Susan Brubaker Knapp

This week, I started work on one of the pieces I am doing for Fiber Art Options’ exhibition called “Meadowood Stitched,” which will premiere this fall at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden near Charlotte. All the pieces will be based on meadow life, to celebrate the opening of a new section of the garden that includes meadow and woodland.

I am calling this piece “Synchronized Synchronous Fireflies.” 

“What the heck does that mean?” I can hear you all thinking.

Well, synchronous fireflies are a phenomenon that you can only observe in two places in the entire world – the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and Southeast Asia. The Smokies are only about four hours from where I live. My mother told me about this phenomena demonstrated by the species Photinus carolinus, and she went to see it in the Smokies, but my family has not made the trip yet.

According to a website for Gatlinburg, Tennessee, “This species of fireflies has an internal sensor that lets them know when a nearby firefly has lit, in which they respond with their own light as quickly as possible. It may take a minute for them to get in sync, but all of a sudden that start performing together with flashes that last as long as six seconds. This, in turn, presents an amazing wave of blinking lights that is truly astonishing.” You can watch a video about these fireflies here.

The name made me think about synchronized swimming, which in turn made me think about cute little beetles lined up in the night sky in perfect formation, like the synchronized swimmers in the Olympics, firing up their little green lights at just the perfect moment in an outstanding example of simultaneous bioluminescence, tiny swim caps on their heads. Okay, maybe without the swim caps. 

So I made five little fireflies and arranged them in a position reminiscent of the synchronized swimmers. Their lights are made of Angelina fiber that reflects the light and gives them their signature glow. The fabric is a piece I hand-dyed last summer; I picked it because it reminded me of twilight, the gloaming – the time between twilight and dark.

 

As a child, I spent many a summer evening in Pennsylvania with friends, chasing and catching lightening bugs (another name for fireflies) and putting them in Mason jar to make a lantern. It was magic. I didn’t realize until recently that there are no fireflies in the western United States. My husband had them in Oklahoma, but when I took a class with California artist Jane LaFazio when she came to North Carolina last June, she was all abuzz because she had seen fireflies the night before. Apparently they don’t have them in Europe, either. How sad!

What’s next for this piece? I’m going to add some grass coming in on either side. The finished size needs to be 24" square. I think it will be very orderly grass, to emphasize the very orderly nature of the insects. And then I will thread sketch the fireflies, and quilt it. I’ll post more photos as it progresses.

Fiber Art Options to exhibit at Barnful of Quilts

Fiber Art Options will be featured October 8 at the ninth annual “Barnful of Quilts.” This year’s show will benefit Samaritan’s Purse, an organization that provides food, medicine and assistance to the world’s poor, sick and suffering.

The show will feature exhibits, vendors, a bake sale and a quilt sale. Admission is a $5 donation to Samaritan’s Purse; it is free to those older than 80 and younger than 18. The show is in the amazingly beautiful barn at Fox Farms in Waxhaw, just south of Charlotte, NC.

For information, e-mail Valerie Fox at vfox@windstream.net, or call 704-516-8060. We will have more information on this blog as we get closer to the date.

Book Review of Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance - Free Give Away

I really enjoyed reading this visually delightful hardcover 127 page book published by Lark Crafts.

Maggie Meister has written an excellent book for the beader of intermediate skills. However, to widen its usefulness, she offers opening chapters on tools and stitches that are good for review, or as a reference for the learner.

Meister draws from classical art for inspiration to create exquisite designs for her motifs and wonderful chains to enhance the motifs.

I loved the spiral designs on the necklace in the second photograph. It is built up of small components that are then attached to each other.






















This last photograph has a delightfully complex and visually interesting three dimensional pendant and separate chain each of which would be lovely created and worn separately.

The illustrations - both photographic and graphic - make the instructions easy to follow.

There are 20 unique designs and there are several options available to further enrich the offerings in the book. The designs are based on individual components that Meister then gives instructions for combining. By building on basic stitches, the projects build skills step by step. The author then gives suggestions for other ways the individual components can be combined to spur the reader into new interpretations.

If you love a good visual treat on beading, I recommend this book. If you are an intermediate beader looking to increase your skills and design options, this is a great book.

If you leave a comment by August 15 along with your name and email address, I will randomly draw a name and send the book to one reader.

Nancy

DeLane Rosenau

DeLane Rosenau

DeLane Rosenau of Denver, NC, is the latest artist to join Fiber Art Options.

DeLane’s work is organic and spontaneous – rarely working from a sketch, she lets the materials she is working with dictate how she works and what she makes. Her work is eclectic: pieces can be realistic or abstract; traditional, modern, or folk art; and can contain fabrics of all kinds including those she dyes herself or wool she has felted. DeLane loves trying new techniques and styles and enjoys using the various methods to create one-of-a-kind pieces.

“Cold Foot Contest”
by DeLane Rosenau

Doll by DeLane Rosenau

Beaded button by DeLane Rosenau

“Asian Dance” by DeLane Rosenau

E-MAIL: delanequilts@bellsouth.net

BLOG: http://delanequilts.wordpress.com

My book will arrive July 20!

Me with no makeup and still in my jammies, holding my advance copy of my book

I just got news that the big box of my new books is on its way from C&T Publishing in California, and will arrive next Wednesday, July 20. I’ll start shipping them out either that afternoon, or the next morning. If you want to get one of the first copies available – with an autograph! – you can purchase one here: http://www.bluemoonriver.com/PointClickQuilt.html

"Queen Charlotte" is Getting Ready to Travel....

It's fun to open your e-mail and receive good news (far more rewarding than those advertisements for pills online or requests for credit card numbers to "verify" an account).


I just got word that "Under the Watchful Eye of Queen Charlotte" is one of 20 pieces - selected from 141 entries - for SAQA's (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Layers of Memory exhibition.

The show is curated by Doria Goocher and it's designed to represent the human processes of memory.

"Queen Charlotte" uses images of Charlotte, NC people, places, and events to explore the city's past and present.










The images represent the collective human memory of the city.

They come together to form a section of Queen Charlotte's face (the British monarch for whom the city is named).


(BTW: Here's a photo of of the statue of Queen Charlotte that served as the model for her face. The statue stands in uptown Charlotte. It's probably a highly romanticized version of the queen since she was never known as a particular beauty)





The exhibit will be touring with the Mancuso Quilt shows starting in August at The World Quilt Show in Manchester, New Hampshire and ending at the Denver National Quilt Festival in August, 2012.

In between, "Queen Charlotte" will be thumbing her way to venues across the country (Santa Clara, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Somerset, NJ; Hampton, VA; West Palm Beach, FL)...a well-traveled lady to be sure.

Wishing everyone a Happy 4th,

Debbie

Fun with Glasses Cases

About once a summer I have lunch with 5 high school (aka, "old"!) friends. I like to use these irregular meetings to test drive a new technique or pattern. For this summer's meeting, I've made eyeglass cases using a pattern from Quilting Arts Gifts 2009-2010. I started with some peach colored cotton from some unremembered-but-definitely-not-purchased-by-me source. Using acrylic paints, I randomly whisked on some pink, purple, yellow, aqua, and green, with the rough thought of creating a mid-century pattern. Then I stitched with similar colored threads, layered, quilted, satin-stitched the edges, added alcohol-inked buttons, and some conveniently variegated yarn, and voila! 6 unique-but-related glasses cases. Hope my friends like these!

My new book is almost here!

My second book will be here very soon! If you want an autographed copy, and you want it as quickly as possible, you can pre-order it on my website here now. I'll ship the books out as soon as I get them!

Point, Click, Quilt! Turn Your Photos into Fabulous Fabric Art will be released by C&T Publishing in mid-July. It includes 16 artful projects inspired by my digital photographs. I teach how to compose and shoot dynamic digital photos from a quilter's perspective. There are lots of fun exercises to help you become a better photographer, and step-by-step directions to help you turn your photos into small art quilts, both realistic and abstract. Most of my projects use fused batik and hand-dyed fabrics, but four projects include innovative materials (paint, Tyvek, Angelina fibers, and foils).

The book is 112 pages, and retails for $27.95. My shipping prices are $5 to the U.S. and Canada, and $11 to anywhere else.  

PAQA-S Part I: Marketing Your Art

I recently spent a fascinating two days in Durham, NC attending this year's PAQA-S Spring Conference. Our speaker, Alyson Stanfield, led an extraordinary "Shameless Self-Promotion" workshop on the art of marketing art.

Alyson, a former museum educator and curator, is the author of I'd Rather Be in the Studio (the artist's no-excuse guide to self-promotion) and has a successful career as an art business coach.

She's definitely a model of terrific marketing. Case in point, her website and blog are treasure troves of information and good reminders for artists at any stage in their marketing careers.

We began the workshop, at Alyson's urging, with the following mantra:

I Can't Do It All!

(Five simple words that apply not only to art marketing but to just about everything in our hectic lives.)

Next on the agenda...a guided tour through the steps of comprehensive, soup-to-nuts, promotional planning.

Not surprisingly...the workshop attendees were part of the bonus of attending the workshop. We had about 50 folks there...and not all of them fiber artists. Mixed in with the fabric-addicted were ceramic and wood artists, a good handful of painters, a children's book publisher , and, of all things, a professional Santa Claus (and yes, he really looks like that - minus the costume - in real life).

It was a lively group and Alyson's presentation was informative, fun, and engaging.

Also not surprising...we spent a lot of time on social networking --- the pleasures, the pitfalls, and the practicalities. The social networking section led to another mantra...

one that's specifically designed for blogging, Facebook, and Twitter; but it too applies to almost every area of life (ever regretted hitting the "send" button on e-mail?):

Be Helpful, Be Generous, Be Nice...

Words to live by....

PAQA-S Part II: a post for another day!

Cheers,

Debbie

Work continues on "Fall Farm Stand"

After some delays, I‘m back to work on a piece based on a photo of gourds I took last fall. I’m calling it Fall Farm Stand. It is for a nice couple who traded me a piano for my daughter to play. 

The gourd I painted today is the one in the upper right hand corner of the photo below. It is dark orangish-red with dark gray sploches and a big yellow place where it was sitting on the ground while it grew.

I’ve decided that I should try to keep track of the hours I spend on some of my new pieces. Everyone always asks me “How much time did it take you to make this?” and I never know exactly what to say. I wonder whether these people place a monetary value on things that take a long time to make, or whether they are simply curious. Or do they think I just whip these things out, and that my prices are way too high? What is the appropriate hourly wage for an artist, anyway? Pricing is always a difficult issue for an artist.

After about two hours, here’s how the gourd looked, with the dark orange and yellow painted in:

Here’s how it looked after four hours, with the dark and light grays filled in, and some highlights and shadows added:

I will be adding the rest of the details with thread sketching and quilting. I’m doing all of the gourds on this piece separately. Some of the bumpier ones will have melted Tyvek pieces on them. Then they will all get needleturn appliqued down to the background before thread sketching. 

I spent about two hours working on the gray pumpkin earlier. You can read about it in my previous post. Total hours on this piece so far: approximately 6.

Underway: SAQA 2011 Auction Piece

I've started working on a piece that will eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later) be submitted to SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) for inclusion in their annual fund-raising auction. The pieces for the auction are small...measuring between 10" and 12" on each side.

Last year my piece was a miniature version of my "Out of the Mouths of Babes" mosaic series.

This year, my starting point is a single 5"x5" square that I made some time ago.









The technique for the square is one I learned a while back from Phyllis Tarrant, a member of the Charlotte Quilter's Guild. Phyllis, in turn, learned it at a workshop that she took. Phyllis, can you help me out here? I'd love to give credit to the workshop leader. (Phyllis to the rescue: the workshop she took was from Sue Brenner...)

You start out by ironing some fusible web to the wrong side of a fabric square. In the picture here, the fabric is sheer organza.

Other squares of fabric (also with fusible web) are cut up into funky shaped strips and shapes which are arranged on the the first fabric square.
Eventually, the various bits of fabric are ironed down and the "embellished" square is ready for use.

The squares can be used in any number of different ways.















In this piece (called "Havdalah") I took 16 squares, butted them up against one another, fused the squares and a border onto a piece of batting and backing, quilted the piece and then bound it.


The auction piece, will be different. I plan to use a single square and place it on a background of orange Dupioni silk. I like the texture and sheen of the silk.


The fun will be in making the rest of the decisions: what fabrics to add, what type of quilting, how to handle the binding....

Stay tuned, I'll let you know how I progress....

Debbie