Art Quilts XVI

Friday, Betty Busby and her friend Holly Altman came to the studio to play and teach our art quilt group a new method of painting on silk. What fun we had! We spread out all over my great room which doubles as studio when there are more than 6 of us. From the left: Diane, Margaret, Sandy, Elizabeth, Holly, Betty Busby and Francie. Not pictured is my Mom who left before I took pictures!  You'll see her when I get pictures from Holly. She was official photographer.

After playing with silk paint and eating a gourmet lunch, we changed into our "artist" clothes and went to Chandler for dinner and the artists' reception of Art Quilts XVI. Betty's piece was the one honored to be on the invitation so we were proud to be attending with her...Here she is with her piece "Mourning Doves" a piece inspired by a foreign exchange student.



And Sandy in front of her piece, " Left Behind"

And of course "moi" in front of "Memory, Threads and Bursts":

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Francie and her piece, but I think Holly did, so I'll share it when I get her photos.

Today we got busy at 9:00 again playing and chatting with Betty and Holly. We added pearlescent ink to our silk paint and ate another gourmet meal. The highlight was sitting going through Betty's book of quilts and having her tell us about her different series and all the experimenting she does on the way to a successful quilt. What an exciting two days we had!  New friends, new techniques and new enthusiasm for finding fun ways to spend our time!  We look forward to playing again with our New Mexico "compadres".

comments would be welcome if you care to speak up!

Houston

What an adventure! My friend Sandy Branjord and I went to Houston for the first time. We each had gotten juried into SAQA's Sense of Adventure exhibit which will travel for two years, and since we were going for the opening of that, we entered World of Beauty and were fortunate to get pieces in that exhibit as well. We were there for four days and had the privilege of talking about our pieces during the gallery talks. We volunteered in the SAQA booth each day and enjoyed meeting many of the artists we have become familiar with in the SAQA books and other art quilt books. How fun it was to autograph our pages in the Sense of Adventure catalog. We felt "famous" for a couple of days. Then home to being "just us" again. Of course we brought home some treasures to use in our future projects.... thread, fabric, embellishments. We barely scratched the surface of the hundreds of vendors.

After coming home, I was notified that my Sense of Adventure piece, "Escape" sold. The new owner will not be able to have it until the show finishes travelling in a couple of years. I think I met her at the show. After I write her I'll know for sure. 

The other two pieces I had in the show were "Scottish Thistle" and "Sol y Sombra". A couple of days ago I was notified that "Scottish Thistle" sold! How amazing is that!

This is "Scottish Thistle":



This is "Sol y Sombra":



This is "Sense of Adventure":

This is Sandy in front of "Mirage" in the embellishment category:







And this is a far away view (and I got in trouble for taking it) of Sandy's "La Fete":



Her piece is at the far left in the row of Sense of Adventure pieces in the back of the picture. And this is what it looks like:
  
 

We made friends with Marianne Williamson, one of the artists in Sense of Adventure, who had about 5 pieces in the show and two of the pieces were in Sense of Adventure. I wasn't allowed to take a picture but should have grabbed her and taken it with her permission.. oh well.

And we met Betty Busby who is coming to Phoenix for the Chandler Art Quilts XVI. Here is Betty standing in front of a landscape piece in one of the art quilt exhibits:



We are really looking forward to her visit. We're going to play with a new silk painting technique. One of her pieces is the postcard piece for the Art Quilts XVI show.

Sandy and I got into the show ....This is mine called "Memory, Threads and Bursts". It is painted canvas with organza, satin, mulberry paper, silk carrier rods, painted fusible batting and ribbons applied to it before quilting.



I don't have a picture of Sandy's.  And our friend, Frances Murphy got a piece into the show and I don't have a pic of that either...You'll have to go to the show to see them! The artists' reception is Dec. 2 from 7-9 at the Chandler Center for the Arts and Visions Gallery. Would love to see you there

Today's adventure was finishing another painting that I wouldn't mind getting back from the client so I could quilt it and enter it in something. I'll just have to paint another one!  Here it is above:

Now it's time to make lefse for this afternoon's Thanksgiving celebration at my daughter Cari's.. 

Hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving!

SAQA Auction Quilt

I sent in a 12" quilt for this year's SAQA auction. It can be found on page 2A at the bottom of the page. I started it in a workshop with Sue Benner earlier this year.  She has a wonderful piece in the auction. Please go check out all the pieces and bid often and early. Go to saqa.com and click on the links for the auction. You can see close ups and visit the websites or blogs of the artists. Hours of inspiration and fun!

Comment if you wish....

Got home from my adventure to New York for Quilts=Art=Quilts and went to see the Chandler "Art Quilts XIV" with friend Sandy Branjord. We each got juried in. She got in with "Poemfish", which shows her flair for mixed media collage. This was an early art quilt for her. She has since really grown as an art quilter. Here is her piece:

This is my piece "Anticipation". It was made with Caryl Bryer Fallert's delicious fabrics and has been one of my favorite pieces.

 

 

It was made when I was beginning to teach art quilting as an example for a class, as many of my early pieces were. I am now playing with previous paintings as bases for quilting and I've started a new series called Barcodes. This is my newest Barcode piece called Prompts.

 

 

Each of the strips in the barcode are "prompts" for "blank canvas syndrome" which all artists, quilt or otherwise run into at some time. Prompts such as "dark", "skinny", "texture" are all suggestions for something to "throw at it"!

One of my acrylic paintings, which screamed to become a quilt, was juried into the SAQA call "Sense of Adventure". It started as a painting. I added lots of organza, satin, and dupioni silk as appliques, glued on with gel medium, and then quilted it.

Here is a close-up of the added "bits".

Sandy entered a quilt called "La  Fete" and got juried in as well. For both of us to get into a show with only 29 quilts was amazing. Our quilts will travel for up to two years together starting in Houston this year. Here is her quilt.

Can you see the Eiffel Tower that appeared in her quilt as she was piecing it intuitively?

We are going to go to Houston to see our quilts. How much fun will that be!

Well, I figured out how to add pictures. Enough for now. I have to go get supplies ready for tomorrow's Art Quilt Camp. I am teaching surface design for 3 days. We are going to create amazing things!  That's it for now. I will now send this out into the black beyond. If you comment, I will try to figure out how to respond!

Well, I intended to regularly post.....Every year seems to be what I manage. I did travel to New York for the opening of Quilts=Art=Quilts last fall. The class I took with Terry Jarrard-Dimond was as exciting as I hoped it would be. And the quilt show was amazing. I met quilters I have always admired and was thrilled to be included in a show with them. On Sunday I had the privilege of talking to the gallery about my "Thistle" and had so much fun!

I mentioned in my last post that I was making a piece for their silent auction. I ended up making a dyptich called "Celebration and Promise". They were constructed from a previously painted acrylic painting that I "deconstructed", appliqued with other deconstructed pieces and then quilted. All of our donated pieces were hung in a hallway and mine were lucky to be the last in the row on the way to the rest rooms!

I remember why I hated this process. Apparently I need a tutorial. I can't add photos without swearing, and my mother wouldn't approve at all. I am going to post this and then post again with new pictures. Comment if you wish. I love comments!