Catching my eye

I go through stages where different shapes or textures or colors suddenly catch my attention. For a long time it was grids, and then more recently odd triangular shapes. About this time last year, I noticed my eye being drawn to a new shape, a new inspiration, basically the gentle arcing of fan shapes. I was seeing in the wings of various birds a possible new arrangement for my triangle shapes, although I haven't been able to work that out with any success yet.


But that hasn't stopped my eye from being attracted to additional photographs of wings. Some of the more interesting ones seem to be of the wing as drawn forward, not what my mind instinctively things of.


But the lovely easy drape of feathers along an extended wing is pure poetry and gives me insight as to where the women of the 1800's found inspiration for their elaborate feather quilting designs. Surely I will find my own way to incorporate these shapes.


I also noticed another part of a bird giving me that lovely fan shape, in a slightly more asymmetrical way - a crest.


These photos are from National Wildlife Magazine, where I also spotted this one of giant clams; I have scanned it next to some antique reproduction fabric from my stash. I've always known that these designs were supposedly based on clam shells, but they rather puzzled me. Not very much like the clam shells I was used to. But now that I have been introduced to the giant clam, boy do I see the connection!

Perspective

We get so used to seeing things a certain way. Allowing a change in perspective can open up new avenues, exciting ones. When auditioning fabrics for "Willow" I pulled batiks that I'd had for a long time. The one above was marked 1998, and I'd never used the 1/2 yard length. As I considered it for my sky, I rued that there was so much light blue blotches - I was looking for something a little more medium blue and mottled. Maybe this was why I'd not found a use for it yet. Not until I considered how it would be quilted did I see those blotches as clouds - the perfect sky!


I've had this fabric for nearly as long - liked it enough to buy it in two colorways. I've used it several times, to represent grasses along water.


No doubt my seeing it as grass is influenced by, yes, this type of grass I see all the time.

But because my mind was on willows, when I pulled it from the stash and gave it a turn, well, don't those look like willow branches hanging down now? Truly never saw that before, and now it has sparked an idea for another willow quilt.

Opening Reception: Flora and Fauna of Northern Idaho

I must admit I'm a little stunned at the response to "Willow" at last night's opening reception for POAC's Flora and Fauna Of Northern Idaho exhibit at Panhandle State Bank. It got more than polite comments or that one person really taken with it. Many viewers verged on gushing over it, spending time pointing out to me all the things that worked well, what they liked about it. Oh my - several people called it a show stopper. One felt it was the best piece in the exhibit. I'm just happy that the things I hoped I was getting across actually did, like the branches swayed in a breeze. And it was especially fun to have a woman point out something I had not noticed: faces in the sky. It took me a bit to see what she was seeing, but by golly, she was right. Think cartoon clouds that are faces screwed up ready to blow a big wind.


Well, if mine really was a show stopper, it wasn't the only one. I didn't get many pictures as it would be better to go back during the day and take advantage of the natural light, but there were some spectacular photographs and paintings of wildflowers. The flash is really not helping here - this is a large and stunning piece.


And of course, moose and mountain lions were represented. I particularly like this cat.


No opening reception would be complete without good food and wine. And since it's Idaho, that big urn of punch has huckleberries in it. This is Carol Deaner who coordinates the exhibits at the bank. I affectionately refer to her as my handler - she does a great job of herding us sometimes unruly artists.

Another definition of art

From an article in the June 2010 issue of The Artist's Magazine, Rudolf Stussi talks about the fifth perspective, but I think his thoughts here apply to any work of art:

"Art is a subjective practice - not about reflecting the world, but rather restructuring the world through the experience and knowledge as well as the fantasy of the creator. Art is an effort to garner new insights and, most importantly, to transmit them. Not to mince words, art is communication, a process of inspiring others to take a new look at things they thought they knew. Therefore, on some levels, art must be accessible to others. Because my pictures have a recognizable subject matter, viewers find a connection, which then carries them through the more unfamiliar and bizarre aspects of the painting and leads them to new understanding or, perhaps even better, new mystification! In this unique way, the fifth perspective combines the power of observation with the freedom of the imagination."

I particularly like the part about garnering new insights and transmitting them. That is what I try to do.

"Flora & Fauna of Northern Idaho" Exhibit

"Willow"
23" x 30" Art Quilt
Sheila Mahanke Barnes 2010

Here I am running right down to the wire again, but I am pleased to say "Willow" is finished and I am very happy with the results. (Click on any picture for a larger view.) It, plus "Willow Leaves II" and "January" will go up tomorrow at the Panhandle State Bank as part of POAC's invitational exhibit, "Flora & Fauna of Northern Idaho." The opening reception is this Friday, details at the end of this post for any of you able to attend.

I admit to having a lot of misgivings as I worked through this design idea, most of them concerning technical execution. (See these posts: It Begins, Playing to Your Strengths, Stitch Stitch Stitching, Unstuck) But once I got past that, I inevitably bumped up against how I would finish off the quilt. From the beginning, I felt it would have some kind of a border, but because of the intense quilting, adding a traditional border with little or no quilting after the fact would be challenging if not impossible to pull off. Yet something was needed to give the quilt stability if nothing else. Once the quilted top was blocked, I could see I just had to square it up and figure out how to make an edge finish work. Here is how it looked on my design wall while I pondered my options.


I amused myself with imagined discussion with the art quilters I know who often suggest no border or binding at all, just turning the edge to the back with a facing. I had gone from questioning how good the quilt itself looked to really liking it, so I could imagine it free and unrestrained on the gallery wall. So while I admit it was one option I considered, I was worried that it would not be enough to give a clean, unwavering edge to the piece. Would I have to add stabilizer to the facing? Would I need to fuse another fabric over the back?

Then I remembered a mounting method I developed for use on smaller quilts and realized this was the solution provided I could find the right fabric. As I auditioned various ones, I was totally amazed at what the batik I ended up using did to elevate my quilt from ordinary to special, at least in my eyes. It created an additional feel of mountains and lakes while bringing the eye's attention to the real story.

The mount is simply your front and back fabric stabilized with Decor Bond fusible interfacing, sewn wrong sides together around the outside and then turned inside out. The quilted top is then center on it and stitched in place. To cover the raw edges on this quilt, I couched decorative threads over them: the dark brown perle cotton used to extend the branches in the quilt, an Oliver Twist hand-dyed perle cotton and a chenille thread from the same group of Oliver Twist decorative threads. I loosely twisted the three threads together as I stitched them down with a wide zigzag using invisible thread. You can see more specific instructions for this type of finishing option on this post.


This is the largest quilt I've used this mounting method on, and although it was a little tricky to keep things square, once in place, the overall effect is exactly what I hoped for, it hangs very nice and flat. Yeah!!!

And here are the particulars on the exhibit and opening reception:

POAC & Panhandle State Bank PRESENT:
"Flora & Fauna of North Idaho"
ALL MEDIA EXHIBITION

Nov. 5, 2010 - Feb. 24, 2011

Opening Reception

Friday, Nov. 5 2010
5:30 - 7:00 pm

Location:
In the Atrium of Panhandle State Bank

Free and open to the public

POAC’s “Out and About”
Art Reception

The Pend Oreille Arts Council and Panhandle State Bank extend an invitation to everyone to attend the opening of Flora & Fauna of North Idaho, an exhibition featuring more than 20 local POAC member artists. The artist reception will be held on Friday, November 5 from 5:30pm to 7:00pm, in the Atrium of the Panhandle State Bank at 4th and Church Streets in Sandpoint, Idaho.


The “Out and About” program exhibits original art at various locations around Sandpoint. Kim Queen, Executive Director of POAC said, “We have long been known for our gallery in the Power House building on Lake Street, with unique, themed exhibits and exciting opening receptions to meet the artists. However, the Power House isn’t the only place to savor the artistic flavor of North Idaho. We have been working diligently out in the community, to bring art to the places where you are, “Out and About”, every day.”

“Out and About” displays art at seven different local locations. It is bringing art to our residents and, at the same time, introducing some great artists to the community. In addition to the Panhandle State Bank, the other locations are Northern Lights, Starbucks, Bonner General Hospital, University of Idaho Extension Services, Taylor-Parker Motor Company, and Spokane Teachers Credit Union. These exhibits will be changing every 3 months, throughout the year. Kim invites everyone to stop by any and all locations, view the art, and thank the businesses for being involved in “Out & About”.

The Pend Oreille Arts Council exists to facilitate and present the finest quality experiences in the arts for the people of the Sandpoint area and beyond. For more information on “Out & About” locations and artists represented, contact POAC at 263-6139, by e-mail at poac@sandpoint.net, visit the website at www.artinsandpoint.org, or become a Fan on Facebook.

This exhibit will be on display through Feb. 24, 2011.

Rocky Point Autumn View

Yes, back into the rain today...

A break in a dark & stormy day

It was still pouring rain but I realized the sun was out. And then I spotted the big rainbow. Wow...talk about brightening up the day!

Unstuck

I hate it when I get stuck. Nothing looks right, I find fault with everything I do, feel my efforts amateurish, solutions elude me. Makes me wonder why I keep trying. I love it when the creative juices start flowing again. What I questioned looks just fine now, a feeling of competence returns, solutions that have been in front of me all along make themselves known and come together. The difference between the last few days and today as I work through the finishing touches on my Willow quilt.

When I'm in the midst of doubt, I can't always see what is causing it. When I come out of it, it seems crystal clear. I've been struggling with a medical problem that while not serious has given me constant pain to deal with. I do not do well working through pain. It clogs up my good sense, saps my energy, makes me want to give up. I finally got some relief yesterday, and today my approach in the studio has been like night and day, my old confident and interested self returning. Oh please stay for awhile...

It's been a cold, dreary, rainy week. I still get my walk in towards late afternoon, but today I decided on a morning walk before heading to the studio, taking along my camera. Even in cold dank conditions, one can find beauty and inspiration. Look at these raindrops hanging from the ends of pine needles:





At one point I looked up from the needles and spotted these two curling branches through a break in the foliage. Oh, and all the lichen on the branch running through the foreground is pretty spectacular too.


The tamaracks (larches) are what brought me out, though. These pine trees' needles actually turn yellow and drop in the fall, just like deciduous trees. They have just started turning, bringing such a splash and glow to an otherwise ho-hum landscape.

Stitch stitch stitching

Enough dragging of the feet, I have begun stitching the willow branches/leaves. It is pretty dense stuff so one thought was to create at least some of them as separate units that could be overlapped and attached with minimal stitching to the quilt top. Here is one sample, testing thread color and technique. I used the Super Solvy stabilizer over tulle, which worked pretty well - no hooping.


Still hesitant to stitch directly on the quilt, I couched some perle cotton as extensions to the appliqued branches.


But ultimately I had to push down my fears and start quilting those wispy branches. The rayon twist thread I chose didn't have enough oomph and while I was wishing I had a heavier one, I remembered the trick of blending two threads through the needle. A dark green rayon was just what I needed to make the lighter green/yellow rayon stand out better. Click on the picture for a larger view to see the quilting in the water.


Here you can see how I laid down the branch, then added the leaves over it. The first batch of leaves are a bit in shadow.


Here I've added leaves that are catching the sunlight. This is a King Tut variegated cotton thread.

Much much much more stitching to do, and I do think I'll be doing more of the stand alone branches/leaves to layer over the quilted ones. I'm definitely going to have some distortion issues here.

Making use of stolen time

The quilting on Willow is coming along with today being the push day to complete it. However, I got tied up unexpectedly on the phone this morning. And while I enjoyed chatting with the brother I don't hear from often, I couldn't help but think about my deadline. I'm still working out in my head how I'll do the branches and leaves, using the visualizing technique to give me confidence. But doodling works too. So I grabbed the nearest thing with blank space and a lovely aqua pen and doodled away my branches and leaves while catching up on family affairs. Just hoping I can stitch as effectively as I doodle!

Playing to your strengths

This may not have been my smartest move, considering the time constraints, but I decided to hand applique the mountains and tree branches on my piece for the upcoming exhibit. I knew I didn't want to fuse them on, but it was a toss-up whether to applique by hand or machine. Machine no doubt a little faster, but it was those three smaller branches that made up my mind - it would not be worth it to fuss with getting that seam allowance in those sharp v areas securely turned under in preparation for machine applique. Easier for me to needleturn it under by hand. Besides, hand applique is one of my fortes, and I find it most relaxing and enjoyable.

How did I get to this point? I placed some Golden Needles quilting paper over the batik (it's a bit like tracing paper) and started sketching in the mountains, using my photo as reference. Then I added the tree branches. When I was happy with the arrangement, I free cut the mountain sections, using the iron to turn under the seam allowance along the top. Since the fabrics are batiks, the allowance stays under without having to apply starch. I could then slip each piece under the quilting paper to line them up, securing them with pins.

For the branches, I reverted to my old favorite, freezer paper. I traced the branches onto the freezer paper and cut them out on the line to use as templates. Because I had not reversed the image, the freezer paper got ironed onto the right side of the fabric. I cut them out eyeballing a seam allowance, flipped them over and ironed the allowance to the wrong side, using the edge of the freezer paper as a guide. As with the mountains, I slipped the shapes under the quilting paper to position them correctly, carefully removed the freezer paper and pinned into place. As for that three-branch tangle, you can see I just rough cut around the trio and left the freezer paper on top to act as a stabilizer and turn-under guide. I'm using the YLI heirloom 100 silk thread for my appliqueing.

The best part of deciding to do hand applique became clear today when I poked my nose out the door to see how warm it was. Cool crisp fall days are upon us and the sun is very weak, it's warmth even weaker against the breeze, so it really hasn't been warm enough to sit outside. But today, today it was, and I was able to stay out in it for several extra hours after my lunch break on the porch because the work I needed to do on my quilt was handwork. Isn't that what they call a win win?

Fading into autumn

Sunday morning fog

A Certain Kind of Symmetry

Can you blame me for being distracted lately when views like these are beckoning just steps away?  The draw-down of the lake has begun, some trees have already lost their leaves, no better example of seize the moment.

It Begins...

...with an idea and the inevitable auditioning of fabrics. "Willow" is underway, its size no doubt dictated by how much of the winning fabrics I have.

I've been worrying over those dangling branches, wondering if I have the wherewithal to render them.  Remember my simple little booklets that I tried as a creative warm-up to actual work in the studio?  I played with one before starting the search through fabric, just keying off random words printed on each page, no particular idea or intent in mind.  On the front I found myself mimicking the lines those branches make.  Further on I realized I was developing the motion stitching would take to add each leaf along the whip-like branches.  Thank you, right brain!

Padfolios Galore!

I've just finished the 10 padfolios which are for a commission where I was pretty much given carte blanche to use whatever  fabric I wanted.   This sort of thing always makes me nervous - what if the customer says she doesn't care, but when she sees what I've come up with changes her mind?  This has been made easier for me since the customer is a cousin and anything she doesn't like, I can either sell elsewhere or use as gifts. It has given me the opportunity to print out those photo-manipulated designs and see how well they work in this format.  The top two on the left are just that, while the bottom two use commercial fabric.

All have "quilting" which mainly consists of stitching around motifs in the designs.  I was surprised that most of them could be satin stitched with black thread.  This really saved time.  Some of the flaps were left as is, but some were trimmed to accommodate the design of the cover fabric.  I really like the way the kaleidoscope designs off-center and allow for a curved flap.  The bottom one was fussy cut so the cricket would fall on the flap.  I really like that one.

While inquiring about what types or colors of designs were preferred, I was told half of these are going to men. I'd been wondering if, given the proper fabric, a man might find a padfolio something he would use.  I asked about hobbies or any other info about them that would help me choose a suitable design.  Several are into motorcycles, one's an architect, one loves anything Asian - this sort of information was very helpful. Here are the ones for the cycle enthusiasts.  I'm hoping they see in the cover fabric the curving roads that are a motorcycle rider's joy.

These two are my very favorites.  Can't tell you how long I've had that crane fabric hanging around - enough for a Japanese style jacket that probably won't get made.  The other is one of my designs, I'm hoping one that an architect would appreciate.  It has a black wood-grain fabric for pockets and lining while the crane one has an oriental chrysanthemum print.

I was a bit nervous about the stitching on this one, but really like my thread choice and the waving lines I came up with.  Clicking on any of the photos should bring up a larger version to see detail.

Here are some of the lining/pocket choices.  Each padfolio a little different depending on its outer fabric.

And below is one last shot showing how the collaged kaleidoscope falls on the back of the padfolio.  All padfolios have velcro closures and have been treated with a UV protectant/water repellent product.

Return

Oh, blogger, how I've neglected you these past few weeks - are my readers still there? Do I have a good excuse? Depends on your definition, I suppose.  I've been working away on the padfolios, nothing much to share yet.  They are done except for closures, then I'll share. They have come out well.  But they are only part of the story.  I've discovered I had an ear infection so have been trying to get that cleared up.  And we have had some of our nicest weather, with leaves turning, and it has pulled me back outside.

The landlord has packed up and gone back to the city so I am back on my daily rounds of the grounds, back to having access to the lakeshore.  I've been spending time sitting or standing on the breakwater in meditation, pulling strength from the sun, the wind, the water, and I sense the vision that has been absent most of the year returning.  This is the surface of the breakwater, not new to me, but really seen perhaps for the first time.

October 2010

I've committed to an invitation only exhibit themed Flora and Fauna of Northern Idaho - right up my alley and me without a real idea in my head.  I know I can work with birch trees and willow leaves, but how?  I think I have an idea at last - the huge willow tree down by the breakwater, the one damaged in a windstorm a few years ago, finally speaking to me, and me finally listening.  The only question is whether I can master the technical part of my idea in the three weeks I have to execute it.  Wish me luck!

February 2009