More Diversions And Some Plants

Azalea Mosaic II: Garden Path

For all my good intentions to focus on the 5 Day Book Challenge last week, it turned into a week of diversions and distractions instead. The routine car servicing of the week before turned up a "sooner than later" need for a 3 hour repair that got scheduled for Wednesday - another hour each way run into the somewhat big city. Time was spent on Thursday digging out a couple of quilts to hang at University of Idaho Sandpoint Organic Ag. Center with this new charity group I've joined - see photo above and below. Both were exercises in matching colors from the garden with my hand-dyes. It's an absolutely gorgeous building with lots of wall space for quilts and I was happy to have a place for these two to be out again. In fact, I didn't realize just how long they'd been in the closet - both made during the time I lived by the lake prior to a move in 2012. And if you've ever had a quilt in an exhibit, you know it's more than steaming out any wrinkles and running a lint roller over them. There's paperwork to fill out and photos to attach and yes, all those things that are not my favorite part. Then Friday it was out to the location to drop off my quilts, but not just drop them off, hang them and help with hanging some others. Just like old times.

Poppies and Peonies

Ah but now it's the holiday weekend and surely I can make time to work on the challenge. But I mostly watched not just the instructional videos but also the daily hour long recorded morning and afternoon community zoom sessions where questions were answered and featured artists interviewed. Let's face it, I did my usual freeze up after making the signatures for two of the three little books in this challenge early in the week. Making life more difficult than it needed to be as I decided to use different kinds of paper for each book and possibly altering one of them to a book with more signatures. Plus we are encouraged to use leather for the covers and the leather from my 99 cent bargain jackets is too thin to use on its own - it needs fabric fused to it which means one more decision to make. So I went plant shopping instead. It's time and I'm getting pretty tired of viewing the dead plants in my deck pots.

It's a start. And there's a purple (!) geranium in there

Ok, yesterday was the day surely when I could make real progress if not finish at least two of the books. (The third is still waiting for me to decide on paper and if I want to paint a Kraft Tex cover.) Then my brother called to catch up. Nice of him to help with my procrastination - lol. But once off the phone, it was time to decide on fabric, find the few I have that are a little heavier than quilting cotton, match them up to the leather which in itself slows me down as I ponder just where to cut. And then this happened.

I'd briefly considered fusing felt to the leather like I've done with the blank journals I make for myself from fabric. I opened that closet door, shifted various small stacks of felt (I'd forgotten that I had more than just the eco felt I buy by the yard) and cracked opened a small bin, only to find these small marbled pieces I'd totally forgotten about. Done in the early days of experimenting with dyeing fabric, I was never very happy with my marbling but did manage some smaller pieces I felt good enough to sell along with Judi and my hand-dyes. My eyes were dazzled and a quick measurement told me these were big enough for the covers and some even on a heavier weight fabric. Now I only have to decide which ones to use . . . freezing up again.

No need to rush I guess. Rushing leads to disappointed results sometimes, and I've had time to think about my choices and how to approach the next step. More confident now to proceed. But first, it's a lovely day, and I have not been on the Bay Trail for too long. It's my maiden voyage as it were back out on a trail since my surgery. My stamina still needs some shoring up, and I couldn't keep myself from walking farther than intended, but it was oh so good to get that walk in. The book project isn't going anywhere.

The Reception And I'm Done

It was a beautiful summer Friday evening which made me fear we would not have a decent turnout for the Ode To Water opening reception. So I was most delighted to arrive to crowds already milling about before the official start time. It's not a huge venue so the 60 plus people who attended really filled it up. I'm very pleased with where my lovelies are hung, where they get not only light from above but lots of light streaming in through the glass doors at the entrance to the left. The quilting texture of both quilts really stood out and I think perhaps drew people over for a better look. The comments I received showed an understanding of the time and work behind the execution, and a real interest in how it was achieved. There were artists I hadn't met before exhibiting too, and it was fun to chat with them about their work. For instance, that picture to the left of my pieces at first glance looks to be black and white photography but is actually done with graphite pencil by Doug Fluckiger. His three pieces were very large but he said he tends to work quickly so the size is not a big deal to him. You can see more of his work on his website, dougfluckiger.com.

Dividing Up The Spoils

I've been toying since the first of the year with the idea of taking some time off from my art quilting, at least in terms of meeting exhibit deadlines. This is the last exhibit I committed to earlier, and I am going to try to make it my last of the year. That way, I have nearly half the year to myself. Perhaps this happens to you, wanting to work on something only to realize you really can't spend the time right now, there's something with a deadline that must be done first. Well, no more pushing things aside because of an exhibit deadline to meet. Nope, I've been thinking all along what my quirky illustrator Mattias Adolfsson says in the drawing above, except for me it's not that the rest of the summer is mine, it's that the rest of the year is mine.

Seed geranium with a coral tinge

And what do I plan to do with this time? Well, I sat down with a spiral notebook and started writing it down - 5 pages worth! I need more than the rest of the year for everything on my mind, but I can get an awfully good start. For one thing, I can spend more time on my back deck reading or doing handwork now that the weather is nice. I have 2 hand applique projects and a partially hand quilted wall hanging I haven't touched for years but that are tugging at me to enjoy the finishing of while also enjoying the flowers I've tucked into the deck planters.

Snapdragons in pink...

...and in yellow with a green tinge

There are other quilting ufo's to work on too - that baby quilt still needs quilting, the lap quilt needs its borders quilted, a stack n whack top perfect for the chest in my living room is calling to be layered and quilted and enjoyed. Any number of things could be pulled off the design wall and played with or pulled from a stack on the floor. Might any of these end up in an exhibit? Probably. But that will not be foremost on my mind.

Dianthus smelling of spice

There's also the bookbinding and altered book projects awaiting. Plus some things that fall in the mixed media category. No end to what catches my attention and intrigues me.

And when I want to be out of the studio, away from textiles altogether, there's always sketching: the buildings on my list to add to the architecture sketchbook, the urban sketching at the park, the sketchbook skool coursework to finish, the play with watercolor and other wet media added to my sketching. Just getting out - into the woods, out along the lake - with or without sketchbook.

Marigolds to add a dash of brightness and chase away the ants

I need to clean out my garage, rearrange, set up my dye station better, be able to make paper out there. Make paper out there and finish the dye runs from last year. I even have a couple of boxes from the move nearly six years ago that need to be unpacked (mostly things for the china cabinet). Shampoo the rugs inside. The list goes on.

A recently acquired & scanned slide of my oldest brother holding me

My biggest project though, which even if I did nothing else but work on it would keep me occupied into next year I suspect, is organizing and scanning family history ephemera, and perhaps doing some genealogical research as well. I'd already started on this a few years ago, in short spurts, enough to realize the scanning of photographs, letters and documents will take longer than I thought, and that the narrative I want to write to go with it will certainly add to that. And now I've recently gotten my hands on all the family slides I'd given to my brother to keep safe years ago - dozens and dozens to be scanned. But it is the sort of thing I really enjoy doing, and with no children of my own to hand this off to and family members, interested nieces and nephews, far flung, I realized I could digitally preserve what I have and put it up on the internet for easy access for them. Must get cracking on it though! 

'Tis Done At Last!

"Adrift" 24" x 26" - Sheila Mahanke Barnes ©2018

Another exhibit, another open house on the horizon and "Adrift" is ready! I dropped it off this morning, along with another piece, my contributions to the summer exhibit at The Power House - "Ode to Water". As the call for entry stated, "We are looking for works that celebrate water, Lake Pend Oreille and the boating season" because, well, we're pretty much all about the water come summer. And as I think I said before, I needed motivation to complete this quilt which I have worked on in fits and starts and long gaps in between since September of 2014. The shibori fabric was done in August of 2013 and a year later I'd paired it with the hand-dyed piece at the top. I let it intimidate me off and on over the next few months as I slowly got a handle on how to quilt it. In February of 2015, I was asking my art group for help, knowing that it needed more than the quilting and a few leaves floating on the water. In March 2016 I was back with the art group with a breakthrough but needing more help.

The original willows leaves were ditched for these batik ones

I brought it home from that meeting, rolled on a pool noodle and found I could not face it time and again. But with this enforced deadline and a renewed attitude, it was time to get it out again and resolve those demons that kept me second guessing every step of the way. That two year hiatus was worth the wait because I had not been idle in my thinking about the leaf placement up in the left corner and my foggy mind had cleared. It was pretty much full steam ahead, and with a purpose.

But boy did I cut it close! I spent more time working on it on Monday than I've been able to make myself work in a day in a long time. Sunday's output made it clear that the hand-couched grasses were taking longer than anticipated plus I kept needing to add more (and actually having fun with this part). I refused to quit until they were all on and then addressed the edge finish. I simply could not leave that for Tuesday, my last day to work, along with attaching the sleeve, taking pics and filling out paperwork. I'd already done a loose zigzag stitch around the outside and planned to stitch the braid along the edge, but that zigzag turned out not to be enough. I experimented with a few ideas geared to attaching the braid to something that would wrap around the edge, but ended up just doing a round of more tightly spaced zigzags. It was tricky keeping from stretching the edges as I did a double row of straight stitch through the braid, but luckily, it came out fairly even and any ripple steamed out.

detail of bushes stamped on after quilting

Still nervous about my shrinking timeline, I saw I had just enough time left to cut and stitch the sleeve. It had been so long since I'd layered this up that I had no idea if I had more of the backing fabric left. But I had set aside what I'd cut off during the squaring up process and low and behold, as I unfolded the backing that had been turned over the batting to the front, I found that I'd taken care of the sleeve issue by leaving enough extra backing on one side to cut the sleeve from. That was a hallelujah moment for sure! The sleeve was quickly cut and sewn and pinned to the back before quitting for the day.

Couching stitches atypically showing on the back.

And so on Tuesday, the day before it would be delivered to the exhibit site, "Adrift" got its sleeve sewn in place, was given a good steaming and a photo shoot, and its label inked on the back. Yes, I keep thinking I am getting lazy about some of these things like making a separate label to be sewn on the back, but maybe it is just being more expedient. I'm surely not quite as neat and tidy on the back as I used to be when I knew a quilt would be inspected both front and back by quilt show judges. There was a time when I definitely would have carefully traveled that couching thread between the top and backing so that it did not show. The busy backing print helps disguise some of it, but in truth, I could hear my "I don't care" mantra kicking in as I couched away. Time was of the essence!

My other entry - "Far From the Midwest Prairie" ©2007

So it was with a great deal of pride and relief that I loaded up the car this morning with quilts and paperwork and dropped them off well within the time limit. It really is a bit of a boost to my ego when I can meet these deadlines and am happy with the work. Of course, I KNOW I can do this sort of thing if I just apply myself, but it doesn't hurt to prove it to myself every now and then!

If you are in the area, please stop by the opening reception on Friday and say hi.

 

The Reception

Horrible lighting for photos, great lighting for viewing

Road construction, detours and frequent showers be damned, Sandpoint art patrons came out in full force for the ArtWalk opening receptions last Friday. I discovered that my pieces were hung at the end of the second floor of the Cedar Street Bridge in POAC's office. Sway was the one chosen to hang at a separate location with other representational artwork of artists exhibiting at the bridge. These remaining three made a nice grouping in this little corner space. I was pleased. And I was a bit surprised at some of the superlatives used in reaction to these. Fracture has been out before, maybe more than once (I lose track), but I don't remember it garnering the high praise it got this time round (stunning, exquisite, oh my!). It's always interesting to get others' take on a piece and one man who is a native but now runs a shop in Japan said it had a Japanese feel to it, high praise indeed in my mind. Of course, there were many noses close to Leaf Cluster VIII studying that garnet stitching, then looking over at me with either a look of disbelief (You must be crazy! Yes, just a bit!) or a nod of approval that all that stitching was worth it to get that kind of background texture. And then there was the man who confided that Float reminded him of a tarot card and took the time to point out why. I'm not overly familiar with Tarot cards but I could see his point.

There's not a great deal of wall space in this office but the windows looking out onto the walkway allow visitors to peek in at the art even when the office is closed. These sculptures are by Patrice Webb. It's a good location for fiber pieces as even with the windows, it doesn't not receive any direct sunlight. I didn't have a chance to check out the exhibit beforehand and no time to take pictures during the reception so you will have to wait to see the rest of the art at this location and the physical attributes of the bridge. POAC was able to take over several empty storefronts along the length of the bridge so visitors were treated to several "galleries" as they traversed the walkway as well as some pieces hung on wall space along the walkway. A challenging but effective space for exhibiting.

Back to the office space, besides my pieces and the sculpture, one of my art group members, Terrie, also had quilts there. She displayed four original designs that she has patterned either for individual sale or have been published in one of her books. The realistic nature themes always go over well here - more than one man stopped to take in the fishing one, pointing to the details that make it so special. Click on the photo for a large view to see those details. Rounding out the selection were four photographs of local birds and flowers. The Cedar Waxwing got the most comments. All of us seemed to have a story about encounters with that bird.

Once again, it was great to see so many people come out to view the art and interact with the artists. Such positive feedback as I received has me once again feeling I'm on the right track with my current little obsession with leaves.

ArtWalk 2018

"Sway" - 17-1/2 x 39" - Sheila Mahanke Barnes ©2018

ArtWalk officially opens tomorrow with receptions, music, and ART at many locations throughout downtown Sandpoint. My work is at a new location, The Cedar Street Bridge, and I have yet to stop by to see how everything looks, just taking it on faith I guess. It is a more awkward location in terms of accessibility since it does not have its own parking lot like the bank where I'd displayed in previous years, and of course, there is street work going on just a block away making it challenging for even the locals to navigate, but there is hope that this will not deter the loyal crowds who always come out for this event.

I don't think I've shown you Sway in its finished state. I think of it as my showcase piece of the four that will be on display. You've seen the others: Leaf Cluster VIII, Float, and Fracture. If you live in the area, I hope you will stop by my location and say hello!