Be sure your sins will find you out …

there, THAT got your attention, right?

Quilter’s and crafter’s sins I now realize I’m guilty of:

Not cutting across the width of the fabric (WOF).  Silly me, I thought it made sense that if you have half a yard of fabric and you need a strip that’s 8″ by 2″ you would cut parallel to the selvedge, leaving 40″ of fabric wide by 18″ long.

2010 was the year in which I had the light bulb moment and realized it just doesn’t work like that.   I needed WOF for trading at our Guild’s retreat, and I needed WOF in significant quantities to make pillowcases for the million pillowcase challenge.

Several times I pored through my entire stash only to realize what I had been doing all those years, it finally caught up to me!  This led to a change in my evil ways, a gargantuan stash busting project, and (surprise!) fabric shopping for half-metre and bigger cuts.  Although for 2011 one of my watchwords is use what you have.

Have also resolved to be more attentive to thread.  Valdani is my favourite, and I do use what I have!  Actually had to buy a second spool of Gem Symphony when Andrea Hamilton was quilting my Shattered Angles quilt.  I look on Valdani as chocolate minus the calories.

Cindy Scraba is another amazing Island lady.  Her knowledge of threads is astounding.  Trivia:  Egyptian cotton is in the process of being protected legally, just like champagne in France.   It is so superior and they need to protect it.

Cindy sells Superior thread and I’ve started tracking in the catalogue what I have in the different lines.  The catalogue is great because it tells you which thread to use in every situation.

At the Guild retreat, I won a sample set of Wonderfil threads.

And I still have threads from my grandmother’s store that go back to the forties — on wooden spools with names for the colours.  They live in a case designed and built by my grandfather.  I use them for basting and minor embellishments.  After all this time I don’t trust them for anything that has to stay together.  But back then thread colours had names, not numbers, like Apple Green, Mauve, Primrose.

 

Something I gotta try … and a confession

I’ve been studying Pat Langford’s Embroidery from Sketch to Stitch, Quilters’ Resource, Inc, 1996, ISBN 0-9629056-7-4

This lady is first and foremost an embroiderer, which I’m really not, although various little things are nudging me in that direction.

Sketching is obviously a huge part of what she does.  Maybe this will be the impetus that will get me sketching on a more regular basis instead of wringing my hands and being a sniveling wannabe.

I’m intrigued by the way she pushes the envelope, using puff paint on a baby blanket (although you would never know from looking at the finished work), and crayoning onto microfibre.

Specific things I want to try:

Polychromos coloured pencils on microfibre, ironed to heat set

Transfer dyeing with Crayola fabric crayons on paper, ironed onto the microfibre fabric.

Pentel crayons directly onto linen in several layers.  Langford actually covered the fabric in places.  Hmmm, thrift store hunt for old linen coming up maybe?   Too bad I no longer have the orange linen tablecloth that was in my wedding registry, that would have been so dramatic!

Langford has many platters, which are round or oval art quilts.  That’s a possible direction.

CONFESSION

After the busyness and frenzy of preparing for and being in the Artists In Motion @ The Empress show, I vowed to take things easy/take the summer off.  Of course THAT’S not gonna happen, but as I recuperated I challenged myself to write down all the different outstanding projects and tasks of every description that I have on my plate.  It’s four pages long, so I’m forcing myself to look at this list every day, cross things off it as and when possible, and not undertake any more new projects.

So in order to stay focused artistically, I’m starting a new page on the blog for things I want to try, so that I can have a handy reference.  Of course I have a sketchbook on the go too but this will be a good handy way to preserve links electronically.

Before the show I did find that restricting myself to working in a series was helpful.  I am continuing with that series in order to have more to show at the Moss Street Paint-In, where we will be exhibiting on Thurlow Street next to the Moss Street market.

 

Spring Quilt Festival

Finally we are having somewhat spring-like weather here on Vancouver Island although our jackets stayed on throughout our family picnic last weekend.

This is my entry for the Spring Quilt Festival.

It’s just 12″ square, and beaded with vintage beads from Austria (among others).

The cut-and-slash style has developed from a workshop I took eons ago from John Willard

It’s similar to my Geode, but on a smaller scale.  For ages I’ve been talking about working smaller, blah, blah, blah, but the impetus to actually do this was the upcoming Artists in Motion at the Empress Show I’m going to be in, for which I need a body of pieces to sell, especially as we’re all donating 20 percent of our sales to the Canadian Red Cross for Japanese earthquake relief.

Knowing that my work will be displayed alongside painters and photographers I quizzed Dale MacEwan about how to mount them on artist’s canvas, which I think is very appropriate for this size of piece, what do you think?

The painterly fabric is Paintcubes, designed by Ormolu, a.k.a. Jay Trolinger from Spoonflower, so you too can get it!  The orange is my own hand-dyed.

Am so looking forward to the online Festival and the chance to see what everyone else is doing.

Alzheimer’s ~ Chance to do your part

Idea Tree was made over a year ago, mainly to teach myself beading in order to complete Geode.

Just 7 by 10 inches, it’s small enough for the Alzheimer’s Quilt auction.  So that’s where it’s gone, and is waiting to go into an auction!  Please pop over to their website where you can look at a better photo, plus pix of all the other little quilts others have made.

Check out the current auction for a chance to get in on this great way to own a piece of original fibre art AND do something about the ever-increasing tragedy of Alzheimer’s.

The auction runs every month, so quilters, take a look and see if you have something small to send.  If not, challenge yourself to make something!

And needless to say once Idea Tree is in the auction I’ll be posting again, in utterly shameless self promotion!

Grommet Glory

A dynamic member of the Quilt Guild, Susan Teece of Bent Pin Creations is spearheading a project to create a new Guild banner to reflect the varied techniques the members are exploring.  She gave everyone who signed up a focus fabric to be used in a recognizable amount.

I volunteered to do the letter O, and here’s my block. The focus fabric is at the top.

A visit to Susan’s website shows her exciting use of holes.  Because this block has to be pieced and sandwiched with batting and backing, it wasn’t feasible to make a hole all the way through, but those grommets gone wild I told you about here are brought to play their part.  I had accepted the challenge before the Sewing Show and only thought of using a grommet when I actually set out to create the block, it wasn’t an aha moment while I was at the show.

Grandmother to Grandmother Activism

Turning the Tide … One Ripple at a Time

is a fibre arts show at the Martin Bachelor Gallery

712 Cormorant St, Victoria

through March 10, Monday to Saturday 10 – 5.

More info from 43patgv@telus.net

The dozens of art quilts made by the North Island Quilters and Guest Artists in collaboration with the Glacier Grannies of the Comox Valley will be auctioned off at a Gala Dinner on March 12 (call 250 532-9038)

A gorgeous catalogue shows all of the quilts with comments explaining the issues which will be a permanent record of the show.  This is available for $30 from germel3@gmail.com or call Gerry at 250 598-7785

Proceeds from the book will go to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which assists African grandmothers, women, and children affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

On the back cover are quotes from women of the Kitambaa Sewing Project in Southern Uganda, started by Pippa Moore of Vancouver Island.  Reading  “I have been able to buy a door for my house” certainly put my life into perspective.

At our Quilt Guild we were privileged to be given a sneak peek of all the quilts, but seeing them properly hung was much better.  The volunteers from the Victoria Grannies who were staffing the gallery told me that earlier about 15 people were there at the same time, which for a commercial art gallery is really heavy traffic!

Political Installation ~ Better shot

Here is a better photo of Throne for a Loop, complete with (empty and well washed) Coke can.  Until you try, you have no idea how hard it is to handle an empty soda can without it buckling.  The days when strong men amused their fellow office inmates workers by crunching cans in one brawny fist are gone forever.

Happily when I dropped my pieces off at Tulista Park quilters from our guild were there setting up, and two of them spontaneously exclaimed that they love this one!  I was so relieved I had to hug them1  Whenever I am planning to show anything controversial I always have a speech in my head about “You don’t have to show this, no problems, I can take it away,” but so far I’ve never had to actually give that speech.

Cool New Toy

For some reason I love holes, so at the Victoria Sewing Show I was delighted to find Luveta Nickels from Grommets Gone Wild, a range of coloured and metallic-look grommets that are easy to use and don’t need extra tools.  Above is my first attempt, just on a piece of scrap fabric.  These can be used for shower curtains, purses, art quilts, and embellishing clothing.

People often say they’re like a kid in a candy store at sewing shows.  This time I felt more like a deer caught in the headlights ~ it’s hard to choose colours for notions, grommets, threads, beads, etc. without a specific project in mind or swatches.  I chose blue and clear grommets but have been thinking ever since about the hot green, pink, and purple ones.

The second grommet has already gone into a mini art quilt block, to be revealed here soon!

Political Project

During the coverage of the Egyptian revolution I was struck by how flexible the design of their flag is, because it consists of three coloured stripes it can be as long as you want.  Now I’m sure there are probably heraldic rules about proportions and so forth, but in Tahrir Square there were some super long ones.

Sometimes a whole bunch of little things disparate elements come together and inspiration strikes.  I’m putting the finishing touches on what to me at least feels like one of these inspired creations, although I realize others may differ.

This has involved a lot of running around, networking with different people to get design hints and how-tos, Dumpster diving for supplies, tweaking the printer to convince it to print in yellow (the eagle on the right is a reject, not a statement about gender or anything!), spray painting,  and even more ironing than a regular quilting project.  I’m not ready to say a whole lot more about this one in case I jinx myself. It’s three-dimensional and I’m just hoping it turns out close to my concept, so stay tuned …

+

Just Magic Challenge

The local fibre arts group I belong to that meets at Satin Moon decided to set ourselves monthly challenges this year to keep things interesting.

The challenge for January was anything starting with J, which one member dubbed the J-Cloth Challenge.  Here’s my finished piece, well finished except for the hanging sleeve.  The centre medallion is a sketch I made in the fall in Melanie Testa’s drawing challenge.  Thanks to Spoonflower it’s now on fabric and you can even buy it!

I considered beading this, but Young Sprout greatly admires it so I think I’ll leave it child proof at least for a couple of years.  Plus, his last name is different than mine and it’ll be cool to be able to say “Just Magic, in the collection of Mr. Young Sprout.”

This detail shows Dale MacEwan’s sunpainted fabric. It’s the pale pink and green in the middle between the green batik and my red and green shibori made in Susan Purney Mark’s class.

Combinations of red and green fascinate me.  It’s often found in nature from rhubarb and red leaf lettuce to geraniums, yet not exploited that much by artists for some reason, nor in decoration.  Maybe people think it’s too Christmassy?  What do you think?  Can those apparently overdone combos like orange and black or pink, red, and purple be revamped into something that doesn’t scream “Boo” or “Goo”?