Happy Fall Quilting!

 

 

This is the piece just accepted into Art Quilts XVII in Chandler, Az. It will open on November 2. The call was for a piece that addressed the concept of integrating a paradox.... a truth not self-evident, a conundrum or opposites.

This piece is called Pair o' Docks and is a visual paradox... I painted on canvas with only 3 colors of paint and then machine quilted it with only 3 colors of thread. Even up close the green thread and paint appear to be two different colors, one minty and the other blue green. It is half of a diptych. I painted this (second one) thinking it would validate the green color difference of the first one. To my surprise, it created a second set of different greens... so four different greens. Only this one was accepted into the show (which was fine, it's a LOT of bright color).
Here is the first piece I did:

 

Both pieces are free hand painted with acrylic on canvas with 3 coats, no tape or stencils. It would have been easier if I had appliqued, fused or pieced it!  Maybe I will play with that for the next ones. I'm fascinated with the juxtaposition of color creating such interesting results. Because the orange bars are wider on the striped piece than the wavy piece, the green gets limey and more blue between the pink bars. Here is a detail shot showing the painting and quilting....

This week I found out my piece, "Aspens" was selected for the SAQA New Mexico regional show, "Enchanted Threads". It is all fused applique and free motion embroidered and quilted..

 

Sandra Branjord and Francie Murphy were accepted as well and we are considering going over for the opening Nov. 10.

In my last post I said I would upload photos of the pieces that are displayed at Vision Gallery in Chandler (AZ).  I have a felted vase, a couple of organza bowls and some felted bags on display:

                                      

 The beige bag was made from a cashmere jacket, fulled in the washing machine and then converted into a bag complete with its original slot pockets on the front (for cell phone and keys):

Hope you've had fun looking... I've certainly  had fun "working"!

More soon!

Betty

Well, another 7 months of ignoring my blog. I'll try to make up for it now...

Sandy Branjord and I just got back from the IQA show in Long Beach. Our quilts are still touring with the "Sense of Adventure" exhibit. It was fun to revisit them. The woman who bought mine came from Santa Clara to see it and to introduce me to her daughter.

Here is Sandy's quilt: "La Fete"











And mine: "Escape"

We enjoyed sitting at the SAQA booth selling and autographing the books that accompanied the show. (We felt like big stars)  :)   Working in the booth was so much fun. We met other art quilters and fiber artists who are passionate as we are about what we do.

If you haven't been to a big quilt show that exhibits many art quilts, you need to put it on your bucket list. There were over 1000 quilts that had been curated or juried in. So all the quilts were spectacular.
There were hundreds of vendors selling all manner of "stuff". Sandy and I were pretty resistant but did find a few treasures to take home.

SAQA is having an online auction in September of 12" quilts donated by almost 400 artists. You can visit them on the SAQA.com website. Click on the news/events tab and then auction 2012 to see them. Sandy and I each contributed. Our little quilts are on pages a ( me) and b (Sandy) of the quilts going to Houston for a live auction. We, of course will be going!  If you click on the red name below each quilt you can go to the artist's website or blog. If you click on the picture you get a full size version to drool over. There is also a place to see what the artist comments are.  It can be an afternoon adventure just going from quilt to quilt.

Here is mine, "Games":

 It's a painting on canvas, painted with acrylics and then heavily quilted by machine.

I am busy getting 10 pieces ready to take to Chandler to the Vision Gallery. Frances Murphy, Sandy Branjord and I were recently juried into the gallery. This is the gallery that hosted Art Quilts XVI and we will be entering that show again. All 3 of us have had quilts in their fall show. This is the quilt I had in the show last year :

I also entered it in the spring AQG show along with this one:

 

This is one of my bar code series originally titled "prompts for bare canvas syndrome". I am fascinated with bar codes as they relate to objects and have wondered about their use to connote feelings or concepts. I started this a a bare canvas on which I threw "prompts" as bars..



I quilted it after appliqueing, quilting prompt words into the spaces between the bars. I was disappointed with it so I started painting...between and under the bars and layering color over the "words".

The prompts include scrim, mulberry paper, cord, lace, hand-painted and dyed fabric, batik, ombre, and more. Paint has always been my best friend. It's showing up more and more in my quilts. I'm really enjoying using canvas paintings as a basis for my pieces.

Our little art quilt studio group, NGG recently made pieces as a thankyou to Betty Busby for her December workshop. Actually the others in the group made their pieces before March; I made mine recently.  :)  Here are our pieces:

Mine: Barcode/Flounder



Margaret Gorski's











Sandy Branjord's

My Mom, Anna Marie Peterson's

Frances Murphy's

Elizabeth Pfeiffer's

and Diane Kucera's

They were each (except mine) about 8" square. They were all made out of the painted silk we made in Betty Busby's workshop. We had a lot of fun playing with Betty and making these pieces.

Betty Busby had these pieces in the Long Beach show:

(the one with the ribbon!)



Seems like there was one more, but I can't find it right now. We are so proud of our Albuquerque friend!

That's all for now. Back to work in the studio. Comment or ask questions...