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!

Latest Creation

So here’s my take on the Egyptian flag complete with golden eagle.  It’s draped over a throne (actually a camping chair spray painted gold).

To fully appreciate the title

Throne for a Loop

you need to look at the back.  It’s a Moebius strip so only has one edge and one side.

Now I just have to hope that somebody “gets it.”  It’s going into an art show in Sidney and no one but family has seen it as yet.  Feeling nervous.  Doing something three-dimensional is a new departure for me.  I even feel nervous about dropping it off on Monday afternoon, not just the weather and attendant family circumstances that I’m not getting into here, but how it will be received (this is a non juried show, but one of my quilts once didn’t get hung in a non juried show so you never know!)

 

Further musings on art, authenticity, value will follow — I seem to have hit a motherlode of synchronicity on this topic in reading, viewing, and thinking in the last little while.

Even making this had a LOT of synchronicity.  Actually in Tutenkhamen’s tomb they found a surprisingly modern chair.

 

So, feel free to share your thoughts!

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 …

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The Skype’s the Limit ~ Egypt

Since I signed up for the Post A Week challenge, every day WordPress emails me prompts and recent one was, What one piece of technology can you not live without?

There’s a companion post on my homeschooling blog, which is more personal, and said how important it is to have a laminator for homeschooling.   But this is important enough –history is being made, so I’m putting a textile related post here.

Up until this week, I would have said the iron.  If I didn’t have a sewing machine I would still sew by hand, doubtless making more placemats and table runners than king-size bed quilts.  And doubtless being exceedingly grumpy, too!  But without an iron you really can’t quilt, and the old fashioned irons I’ve seen at museums just wouldn’t cut it.

However, now that the Egyptian government has shut down internet, cell phones, and land lines, I would have to say Skype.  With Abu Sprout’s parents there we are in touch on a daily basis.  Now no one can get through, news crews are unable to gather information, and it’s a big black hole.  We just have to have faith.

Several years ago when Umm Sprout was in grade school our then family survived a major ice storm which left millions of people with no electricity.  We were lucky that ours was only off for five days and that we had a natural gas fireplace and stove.  But that was at least man against nature; this is man against man and much harder to accept.

So to me the most important technology is everything that connects us and lets ordinary people share what is really happening, be it Mounties Tasering an immigrant to death, tanks mowing down peaceful protesters in Tian An Min Square, or any other abuse of human rights.

Kiosk

Another drawing at the cafe, done in the early afternoon so light changing was less of an issue.  Let’s just say it’s a good thing they have cultured marble table tops and not white tablecloths.  I’m frustrated because I still don’t have enough control of the lines the pen is making to convey shading and highlighting or textures of surfaces.  This thing was a bugger to draw, in fact it has panels attached to its legs so that on each side you are looking at two panels that meet at an angle.  To show them you would have to work front to back, and for me to draw a structure like this, I have to build it as a structure.  It took 15 minutes to draw this, so although I could have gone on drawing the cobblestone pattern around the poured concrete circle, I decided to call it a day.  Actually the cobblestone pattern (which I suspect is also made of tinted concrete in a mould of some sort) would make a nice quilt pattern, either pieced fabrics in similar shades or actually quilting the lines into the finished top.