The Latest Get Together

My art group got together this week, one last sharing between holidays and before the end of the year. I didn't have a great deal to share, just the Inktober Zentangles finished since the last meeting and this article from Smithsonian Magazine about a fascinating portrait technique by artist Kyle Meyer. If you can't read the text when clicking on the photo for a larger view, this link will take you to the article on the magazine's website. It is not only an interesting story of how he came to do these portraits, but what making them involves, a melding of photography and basket weaving. I think how he does it may surprise you.

You've already seen all my Inktober Zentangles but here are some that Terrie worked up. She was so intrigued by what I showed at the last meeting and that I learned from books I got at our library, that she went straight from meeting to library to check them out. It was fun for me to see how she interpreted the same lessons I had worked through and how she is trying out working some of the tangles into her quilting designs. Above are just a few of the pages she's filled in her sketchbook with this play.

Terrie's original design includes her hand-painted and hand-dyed fabric

Terrie also shared a 24" x 30" "fabric design", quilted and stretched over canvas, that she is submitting to a call for artwork to be displayed on an old carousel purchased by a local couple and now under restoration. Read more about the Carousel project at https://thecarouselofsmiles.org/ This link will explain the Art Panel Project that Terrie is submitting to: https://thecarouselofsmiles.org/artist-participation/

1 yard sample printing of Meg's original designs

Watercolor sketches used to develop designs

Meg was anxious to show us the results of her efforts to develop a fabric line. She's been working up her own designs and motifs with sketching and watercolor before bringing them into a program that lets her combine individual motifs, work out repeats and play with different colorways. Learning a lot, she says, but it's a beginning what she has put up on Spoonflower.com. She's had them printed out twice on a sort of swatch layout at full size to see how they read in real life. The first printing was on an inexpensive cloth much like muslin, and the second on a better quality Kona cotton which produced a sharper, more colorful image. This experience makes her think this is really what she wants to do, design fabric. You can take a look at her shop at:

 https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/megmarchiando

Anne's resin pours

Our newest member, Anne, brought examples of some trials she is running on resin pours, something the rest of us had not heard of. It started with a project her husband is working on that he wants protected with the resin. She couldn't resist trying out mixing it with paints and inks to see what would happen.

She also brought along another eco printed scarf (she'd brought a dozen or more to the first meeting she attended) as well as some pieces of regular cottons that had been eco printed with rusted objects for the mordant. And because we all love hand-dyes, she also brought a sample of some of hers. We just want to steal all her stuff when she's not looking! No need to steal though. She's opened an Etsy shop featuring her beautiful scarves, EmdaArt.

Meg's testing of Craft-Tex

Finally, Meg proudly showed me the results of her putting the samples of Craft-Tex I'd given out at the last meeting to the test. First up, a square that she'd applied paint to, fused fabric to and stitched through. The second square is one she applied oil stick paint to, washed, crumpled, dried and ironed. At some point she handed it to her daughter who promptly put a big tear in it. Well, so much for the manufacturer's claims that it does not rip! However, the paint did not scrub off in the wash, but the wrinkles did not iron out (although it would flatten out - the piece here we all had balled up to feel how it changes the hand). She liked it enough though that she has ordered some for her own purposes, which made me very pleased I'd shared this, thinking she might be interested.

I'm still working off and on on my dragonfly-themed bookbinding project and to spur me on, Meg handed me this heavy wrapping paper with dragonflies printed on it! Yes, I was unduly excited and thankful, and now pretty much have no excuse for not finishing my book. 

May's Art Group Meeting

Just a few things from my art group's meeting this week. I took my book in progress and latest leaf cluster with quilting completed to share so am not including pics since you've already seen them. Last month Terrie shared a grid round robin challenge she is involved in and here is the last one she'll be working on. Picnic is the theme and she is considering adding a couple of glasses of ice tea or water and eating utensils as well as filling in some areas with fabric. The "reveal" is coming soon so she will see what the others in the challenge have added to her starter piece. One aspect of the grid challenge that is unlike regular round robins is that the owner doesn't have to sew hers together in the way it has returned to her. She can rearrange the individual pieces and even relegate some of them to the back of the quilt if she wants.

Terrie is close to finishing up another challenge, one where she was given three vintage Dresden plates to work into a design any way she'd like, as long as all pieces of the plates were included. Terrie chose to disassemble the plates into 3, 5, and 9 petal sections and back the pieces so she could use them in a three dimensional fashion instead of attaching them by stitching along the edges. I particularly like the three-petal one at the top that forms an opening bud like a calla lily.

And how clever is this use of a zipper? The flower centers still need to be added, probably yoyos. She will be facing this one.

Busy Terrie also got this Judy Niemeyer pattern started in a class. She showed a diagram with the different looks you can get by changing the colors and value placements of the star diamonds. Scroll down the Twinkle Star Pattern page to see them.

Robin has spent the winter in Arizona so we were excited to have her back. While away, she experimented with Laura Heine's fused collage technique using the Hen Rietta pattern which called for a lot of floral fabrics. She loved the technique so much that she started work on the Abilene Cow pattern. Here is one of the background fabrics she is considering.

This time she used all geometric-patterned fabrics and is planning to quilt "Buttercup" using a grid design.

Meg has been working on building her website and has hit upon the idea of letting her little fabric birds and animals and kids do the talking and marketing, since she herself, like many of us, is quite uncomfortable with selling herself. So she will be talking through her quirkie creations, which we all feel suits her style and her art really well. She also wants to produce a time lapse video that shows how the pieces of her big tree go together up on the wall. She says one of the most difficult things has been to explain what it is that she makes and how a buyer could "use" or display them. She's hoping this video plus the newly vamped website will help. Go take a look - it's really cute! megmarchiando.com 

April Art Group

The Muse is so capricious. One moment she's leaning over my shoulder urging me on, giving advice and keeping me on track, the next she's taken off to who knows where and left me on my own. Thankfully, just as I realized she was off on holiday stranding me with confused and muddle thoughts, I was relieved to know the gals in my art group would step in to fill the gap. This is the first conundrum I presented them, as we sat outside on our first truly warm day of spring. Quilting up the sample of various thread colors for the garnet stitching of the latest leaf cluster did not give me a clear answer after all. I was leaning toward two of them which were not the ones the others were suggesting. They made their case and it forced me to dig deep and make my own. Other colors or values were suggested and I added a couple more test patches when I got home. It all boils down to the overall affect I'm going for, and after all that, I've settled on the original thread that I used on that other leaf cluster with the garnet quilting. In the end, what I really want on this one is pure texture and if any hint of color gets added, I want it to pick up the green in the fabric. I'm not feeling that the time spent stitching up the other colors was wasted energy though. I'm sure it will make a great reference in the future.

I had better luck on my zigzag piece. Seen out in the sun, it was pretty clear that the green fabric instantly pulled up the green in the top (maybe not so evident in this photo). The other works if a more subtle edge is wanted but with so much texture in that piece, I think more of the light areas than the dark ones would end up showing, confusing the eye. As for the leaves, they thought they would be a good addition, and they did look ok in this lighting.

I can't show what Terrie brought as they need to stay under wraps at the moment, but Meg had lots to share. Working at a recent weekend retreat, she got more birds cut out and stitched. These are fused to Peltex for individual display on walls and still need their legs.

And now there are hedgehogs! This group is at various stages as she experiments with the most efficient way to do the steps. The black around the ones on the right is the Peltex that will eventually be trimmed away.

Ok, I was a little too taken with these perhaps, but they are beyond cute in my book! She's been posting some of her small offerings on her instagram page where she is picking up some sales, and where you can contact her if you are interested.

I believe this is a commission, a smaller version of her girl with balloons.

On a personal level, she's started stitching on a boro to make a scarf for a relative, having been inspired by one of our other members who tried boro last year (scroll down this post to see it).

And she also took some time to try out the various decorative stitches on her somewhat new machine. Like most of us, she doesn't often need stitches like this, but had to admit there were some she really liked. This sampler will actually be made into a little mat or rug for the footrests on her daughter's wheelchair. Lucky daughter!

Finally, I had to share these that I received from my friend Alice who is taking part in the slice quilt project. She just amazes me with how much she produces and how effortless she makes it look. The photo is of her 19th selvage quilt which will be in next year's AQS engagement calendar. She makes these selvage quilts in all sizes and all kinds of traditional block patterns and has won quite a few awards with them. But as if that were not enough, she also makes pincushions out of selvages to give as gifts to friends like me! And because apparently she has too much time on her hands, she also made a small version of our bridge photo, cut it into 4 sections and finished it off as fabric postcards, one for each of us participating in the collaboration. Such beautiful work! speaking of the bridge slice, I've been given a sneak peak and it looks great, with an unplanned but perfect left to right progression of morning to night.

As always, click on any picture for a larger version. And if you are looking for a great deal on thread, my friend Mary has just listed a group of Mettler Threads for your consideration.

Seeing The Familiar With Fresh Eyes - Art Group Monday

My art group hasn't met since October, and even then it was only a couple of us attending. Yesterday's meeting with near full attendance was a great way get the art year rolling. It's really easy for a group like this to devolve into a show and tell only exercise with an emphasis on finished work, and we've definitely had meetings like that. Not this meeting, as perhaps we hit that refresh button of mine after not seeing each other for awhile. And the photo above shows what is my first project of the year, and my first opportunity to try out this resolution word of refresh. I've received my assignment for a new slice quilt with those Wisconsin quilter friends of mine, in which I promised them I would loosen up my approach this time - same basic project but with a different image and a chance to hit the design refresh button! Already, old habits have me choosing fabrics to match the photo, but one of the quilts shown at this meeting got my mind thinking in a different (fresh) direction. You'll hear more about that later.

Also shared is the beginnings of that baby quilt I need to get made. I haven't gotten any farther than what I've already reported about drafting and altering the block design, but I did pull out the stack of "lavender" (but actually purple) fabric dyed last year that I plan to use for the background.

Rebecca had baby quilts on her mind too plus using them to get back into the groove of quilting on her longarm machine after breaking her wrist almost a year ago. As with any good baby quilt, it has some really fun motifs in some of the fabric. She pointed out that the sheep look a bit like donuts if you don't look closely.

She was the only one of us to take advantage of the recent snows to do some snow-dyeing. I don't think my camera captured the colors very well. She also shared an indigo dyeing kit she plans to break into once the weather warms a bit and its ideas for folding fabric to create interesting designs in the finished product.

She was looking to recreate a sherbet color she'd achieved last winter to use in this Flamingo quilt. It uses a curved block made with a specialty ruler and technique, and Rebecca, seeing the ruler, wondered if that block could create interesting designs in her art quilts. Seeing the pattern for the flamingos convinced her that it could.

Finally she shared a piece of African batik given to her by her sister, who bought it while on a medical mission to Zimbabwe. It is a beautiful piece done on a nice weight of fabric, but her question was, what do I do with it and those big design motifs? I have my own collection of African batiks and that is ALWAYS the issue it seems. My reply was my standard: use it as backing. But a better suggestion was to consider cutting the motifs out of the fabric to rearrange into larger motifs on a different background. 

Terrie dug out some old unfinished work that began life as samplers for a class she taught. Both of these are wool that need to go the next step to the felting process. She noted that one has many layers of wool and that she broke many needles trying to felt it by machine. In the class she had her students doing the felting by hand and thinks that is how she needs to proceed to finish it up. She also mentioned that one of the students was allergic to wool. Any suggestions for how that person can learn about the needlefelting without working with wool?

Terrie continues to be inspired by the daily drawing that some of us have done in the past (not in my case but others still are). She showed us the latest work in her sketchbook, a combination of trying out different designs for freemotion quilting and developing pattern designs. She said she'd started adding notes beside the drawings such as where the inspiration came from, what she liked and what didn't really work. She's got quite the reference book that keeps growing, even though she admits the drawing does not happen every day.

Besides being a quilter, Terrie has several business ventures including pattern designing, her quilting books, machine quilting service, teaching and running a small quilt shop, all out of her home (Moose Country Quilts). And so she is often ahead of us in knowing about new products and fabric lines. This day she was sharing the new Hoffman digital panels from their Spectrum series. I've had some questions about how the all-the-rage digital fabric prints actually hold up under use as no one seems to be addressing this openly. So Terry will see what she can find out.

Terrie also shared this older piece that was an experiment in depicting a scene using a non-fused collage technique. This is the quilt that got me thinking differently about how I might approach my slice quilt.

Because yesterday was a no-school holiday, Meg's daughter, Adele, got to join us, which may be more of a treat for us than for her (although she is always very attentive while we talk and occasionally offers insights). Now a Junior in high school, Adele has been wowing us with her drawing skills since our very first meeting. She does draw daily, I think almost exclusively on the computer now with the aid of a Wacom tablet, so let us scroll through what seemed like an endless collection of images. I asked if she ever printed them out, and she answered, rarely. She does share on instagram though. Ok, what young person does not?

Mom Meg came with a technical dilemma and a need for ideas. I mentioned when showing her piece for the fiber exhibit that she is working out ways to present her individual "quirkies" that make up the vignettes she's been attaching directing to the wall in a more user-friendly way for collectors. Not entirely happy with the results of temporarily attaching them to cloth stretched over stretcher bars, and wanting to provide more depth, she wanted to know what we thought about an idea which struck me as "turning the framing routine inside out". In essence, I think she is moving towards a shadowbox type of presentation, with three different levels - the thread-painted background, elements in front of the background and an element or two attached to the edge (or face) of the frame. Much discussion ensued and she came away saying the wheels were turning and it had been very helpful. We'll see where she takes this next.

I think that does it for our January meeting. It definitely felt like a kick-start to the new creative year. And hello to Rebecca's quilting friends in Wyoming! I know I fell down on the job of reporting these meetings last year so you could see what she was up. I'll try to do a better job in 2018!

Art Group ArtWalking

From my perch on the 3rd tier - check-in station for artists at Columbia Bank

Early on, my art group realized our June meeting would be problematic from the standpoint of many members not having work to share or ask questions about. Most of us participate in the annual ArtWalk and would have just completed the big push to finish art which would now be hanging around town.

I can also see Meg's Moon in the corner on the main floor. She didn't get much traffic.

And because these ArtWalk participating members spend opening night tied to their location, they would not have had the opportunity yet to do the rounds of the many ArtWalk venues. So one enterprising member suggested we use our June meeting to go on a field trip so to speak, and do the ArtWalk together, including viewing our group's representation around town. Great idea and we've been doing that every year since.

Former art group member Cheryl and current member Robin

I didn't take many photos of other artists' work this year, either on the night of the reception or the following Tuesday with the art group. I'd noticed along the adjacent wall from where my work hung another fiber artist and went over to see who it was. It was Cheryl who used to participate in our group but now mostly concentrates on the art scene in the next town over which is closer to where she lives. She's found a gallery that loves her work and sells quite a bit of it for her. Lucky Cheryl!

This is what she had on display, a real variety of styles and techniques. The fiber portrait is of her parents who had mixed emotions about it. I look too wrinkly, said mom. I look like I have measles, said dad. Oh well, who DOES like pictures of themselves? But we all agreed Cheryl did a good job with a difficult kind of quilt art.

Photos on canvas by Christina Taylor

Just down from Cheryl's art were two large canvases that one couldn't help but notice. The poppies looked untouched but the barn had interesting photo manipulation. I liked both.

I'll let the artist, Christina Taylor, explain herself. Click on the photo for a readable size.

Vickie Edward's art quilts at ArtWorks Gallery

On field trip day, we started at the bank, viewing all floors. Meg and I were the only ones from our group exhibiting there, so we moved on to the locations of the other members. Vickie was at two locations, including Art Works Gallery where her work hangs year round. I was very impressed with her grouping there. Some of these we had seen in progress while others we hadn't seen at all. There was a counter between me and her art, otherwise I would have taken more individual and closer shots.

Off Centered by Vickie Edwards

I used my telephoto feature to zoom in on this piece. The simple geometric design and colors really appeal to me. I also took note of the quilting done in a way my regimented mind might not think of. I stay within and without shapes; Vickie quilted as if they weren't there.

Member Terrie had many quilts hanging in the hallways of the Music Conservatory - their first year participating in ArtWalk. Because Terrie teaches and designs patterns, she works in a wide range of styles from traditional to contemporary to art, and this space gave her room to show off her many sides. I can't believe I failed to get a single photo though, even though I spent much time studying one of her oval shaped art quilts, "Spring Bouquet", trying to suss out just how she did it.

We hit quite a few other locations - no photos forthcoming - noting how some styles fit perfectly with their location more so than others, and running across a few artists working in usual techniques, like the oil painter adding three-dimensional elements. But what we didn't see were red dots. Little art selling this year during the opening receptions.

Near the end of our ArtWalking tour, I made a small purchase at one of the ArtWalk venue businesses. I noticed the clerk slipping a small piece of paper into my bag. Once outside, I looked to see what it was. Why, it was a quotation, and a perfect one to end this day of viewing art, and also reminded me of my mother who had this gift:

Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.

Jonathan Swift  

I've always felt one has to have a vision in order to be successful at most things, and the best artists have the knack of seeing the invisible and making it more visible to the rest of us. Thank goodness for artists and their vision!