David and I have turned in our pieces to Quilts on the Wall for the "Black and White with a Twist" exhibit. If our pieces are selected for the exhibit they will debut at the Long Beach show in July. These pieces were created side by side on the design wall.
David enjoyed working in black and white and is planning on a series of quilts highlighting different children's issues. This is his first on hunger. He has three more of the quilts already designed and will be working on one for the Textures show.
David gave me the best Valentine's present ever! A brand spanking new computer. It is love. This is the first new computer in a long time so the improvement over the laptop I was using is amazing. Who would have known back in the "old" days that I would become such a computer geek. I adore technology.
I won't bore you with details but it is everything I wanted it to be. Big hard drive, a decent amount of RAM and faster than the laptop. Now to get everything loaded on it. tested, working and I can start to strip things off the old one. Now I can have everything on one drive and find things. I will be getting used to the new Windows 7 but so far I am liking it. All my older software seems to be liking it too, which is the best thing.
I have the best husband IMHO.
I had so much fun on Saturday playing with glue, epoxy, paint and a bunch of junk. Who knew it was going to be THAT fun.
| | I took a class at Soft Expressions on Saturday with Richard Freund. If you haven't checked out or tried assemblage or found objects art, you should. It is such a fun thing to do and a new way of thinking about "throw away" objects. My table top object was made with my base (something that David found while we were in Arizona) and tons of costume jewelry that David's dad has found at garage sales. The jewelry never looked so good. I had fun taking it all apart and assembling in different ways. I constructed this piece so that is is viewable on all four sides. Several of the Quilts on the Wall members were also in the class along with other fabulous artists. It was fun to see the bases and applied objects that everyone used for their project. I have a whole new appreciation for decapitated dolls, old shoes, plastic wedding items, rubber snakes, spiders, skulls, skeletons and other ephemera. Check out Richards website and search other artists who are doing similar work. I expect that working in this medium will spur me onto other areas in my fiber art. |
David and I have gotten to the point where this project is almost done. He finished up some beading on his and I just have to do some color work on mine. The biggest issue with mine is that it seems to have shrunk from the massive stitching and the washing I did to get the "wash out pens" washed out. I used the pillowcase method of finishing it and I did not allow enough extra in my measurements to make up for the shrinkage. The exhibit requirements are:
BLACK AND WHITE WITH A TWIST is a themed exhibit to be shown at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival in July 2012. The quilts should be 30” wide x 54” long in a portrait format. The quilt shall be all black and white, with no grayscale, unless it is used as the 10% color. The “Twist” of color shall not exceed 10% of the total area or the equivalent of a 13” x 13: square, cut up and spread anywhere onto the quilt.
My only option at this point is to try to block it to recover some of the width and length. It is still a great piece. I am very happy with it and will use it for some other exhibit if it doesn't work out for this one. I will be bummed if it is unable to be in this exhibit as I am out of time to do a second piece. Wish me luck and send up some prayers.
David and I are included in the latest issue (Feb/Mar 2012) of Quilting Arts magazine. We are really excited to make the big time. Pokey Bolton approached us last year at the Long Beach show during the SAQA reception. We had our "Noble Seasons: Winter" quilts with us. Those two quilts and a picture of our "messy" studio are included in the article.
Ellen Seeburger did a fabulous job on the article. We are both very pleased with the write up. Quilting Arts even sent us some additional copies. (Jane LaFazio and Jamie Fingal must have a boat load!) I know David's dad will be very anxious to read the article.
It is fun to hear comments on the article from our friends. Even my sister's art group sent their congrats. They are an extremely talented group and I was happy that they liked it
David and I are busy, as I am sure you all are at this time of year. We are trying to get ready for the holidays and also get some projects finished and others started for deadlines next year.
The Textures show has closed and we have our quilts back. The members will be reviewing the input from that at our last formal meeting of the year today. We have one more gathering for a Christmas party but that is just pure fun, no work. We will also be deciding on our challenge topic for next years show. Our "Wings N Things" topic for this year was very well received by the public. There was lots of positive feedback from everyone that attended the opening. I have not seen the comments from our attendance book yet, but am looking forward to seeing those remarks.
David and I will be working on our "Black and White with a Twist" quilts that will be for next years Quilts on the Wall exhibit. David has his designed, mine is about half done but I have it well defined in my mind what I want to do. David has even started picking fabrics.
We are now back in the studio! This is a huge relief. I am so happy to be able to walk in there, pick up a project and actually start working on it right then. The new sewing machine cabinet is great. I love the fact that it has the power lift for the machines so we can raise and lower them as needed. We are currently waiting on our custom inserts so that everything will be flush to the surface while sewing.
I am now in the process or starting my savings plan for a new computer. I am in the market for a desktop (a little more bang for the buck) so if anyone has a PC brand that they love please let me know. I am going to try to get one in about 6 months.
New Coastal quilt series
David and I had a wonderful time when we were in Morro Bay for a week. It was cool on the coast and mostly overcast, but when we drove inland to do some wine tasting, it was warm and beautiful. Warm, of course, is a relative term. If you have ever been in Arizona, 90 is warm, if you grew up in San Diego, 90 degrees is hot.
We did some sightseeing while we were there, rode our bikes, and visited some of the local galleries and shops. We are not really "beach" people but were inspired while there. It must have been the slower pace of the town and the trees. Because of the wonderful time we had there we have decided to start a new series of art quilts to honor our trip.
We will be calling the series "Coastal Impressions". While in the area, we purchased some wonderful hand dyed ribbons, trims, shells, beach glass, fabric and other items that we will use when creating our pieces. We frame our smaller pieces in a shadow box for easy hanging and display.
Pictured is a preliminary piece that I am working on. I still intend to add some beading, hand stitching, and a few more shells. This is not an actual view where we stayed but an impression of the area from our travels around the bay and the coast.
Forgive the photo, I took this picture as it was hanging on my wall, hence the little "clippie" things at the top and the background.
Let me know what you think. I would love your comments.
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