Eclipse, deconstructed

November 5, 2017November 1, 2017 Elizabeth E.18 Comments

This is the post where I reveal all my beauty secrets. Kidding.

This is the post where I tell you how I made my Four-in-Art quilt, showing a technique I’d read about this technique somewhere, but that crazed-woman-at-the-computer didn’t bookmark it or file it away neatly. So I had to wing it, which is okay.

First, cut yourself a square of black fabric. I used the wrong side of a fabric that I hoarded about 15 years ago, and I’m still trying to get rid of it. (It’s a great fabric, really.) Then get yourself some Steam-A-Seam II, the fusible applique stuff that will be sticky when you lift up the transfer paper, after you’ve ironed it on.

I did check to make sure that I adhered the non-release side of the Steam-A-Seam II, leaving the side that would release easily facing me.

Gather together some scraps in the colors you want to place on your background. Since I was doing the eclipse, I basically had three: yellow, black, blue. Throw in some related colors, just to keep it interesting. For me, that meant some lighter blues, and orange.

Pile up your color, then randomly cut through the fabrics, and then do it again. You need some bigger pieces (1-1/2″), but also lots of smaller pieces (1/2″).

I traced a circle on my paper, slightly off-center — because none of us saw that eclipse dead-center — and cut out a hole out of the paper backing.

I laid out my black scraps, making a loose circle. Then I tucked my yellow/orange sun flares behind the circle, pressing down with my fingers to make them adhere to that sticky surface.

Then I oopsed:

I went to the ironing board and ironed it all down. WRONG. While this seemed like a good idea, you know–to make sure all those pieces were not going to go anywhere — in reality it prevented me from lifting up the edges and tucking in more yellows, and the blues. So maybe if you can protect the edges of your design from the hot iron it might be a good idea? Or just wait until the end?

Milky Way MJA — Star Fields, by Matthew Anselmo of MattsClicks

Then my son Matthew, who is an expert landscape photographer, put up pictures of the Milky Way on his Instagram, MattsClicks. This gave me to freedom to really add in color to the heavens, so I pulled a greater variety of blues (and some with purples) and started scattering them around, trying to keep a “street” of lighter blues to represent the Milky Way. (Thanks, Matt!)

Eclipse_4inart_methods8 Add in your bits and pieces, filling up the background in a random, organic way.

NOW go to the ironing board, lay your transfer paper over the design (the crackly sheet that came with your fusible), and press, lifting up and down, not sliding, until you think it’s adhered.

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I used three different colors of thread, and just ~~scribble~~d free-motion-quilted the pieces down. I did a series of circles in black in the moon, the followed the shapes for the solar flares, then a random loopy design in the heavens.

Eclipse_4inart_methods9a This is where I notice that the moon has two eyeballs staring right at me. And this is where I go get some more scraps, use a regular old-school glue stick and paste more fabric scraps over the eyeballs (you don’t see it in the first one, do you?). Quilt, again. And then I thought that the moon looked more like a black lump of coal than the moon (even though it does have a mountain-y horizon…it’s not THAT bumpy). More scraps glued on, more FMQ. I finished up by going in giant circle around the perimeter of the moon, to reinforce that Orb in the Sky thing.

Well. Not quite. But that’s what my work table looked like after I trimmed it up, bound it, and made the label. ~~I’m a total believer in a clean workspace at all times.~~ I’m a total believer in a clean workspace at least once every couple of weeks. I mean, I’d like it to be all the time, but I create in small room, and I decided to adjust to the life I have.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the Deconstruction Post for the Final Four-in-Art Quilt. I probably won’t leave the art quilt in the dust, though, as it’s a quick way to make a quilt while trying out a new technique. Given that it is often smaller (most of mine were 12″ square), you can crank one out in a day, or an afternoon, if your design is not too complicated.

Thank you for coming along on this five-year journey.

~Elizabeth, of OPQuilt.com

Rewards for WorkingCreatively

Four-in-Art · Mini-quilt · Quilts

Eclipse: Final Four-in-Art Art Quilt

November 1, 2017November 1, 2017 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Eclipse • Quilt #189
Four-in-Art, Series Four: Light
12″ square

Click to enlarge any photo.

This is the final post of our Four-in-Art Art Quilt group.

Our group had its genesis when I saw the Twelve-by-Twelve group at a quilt show. Rachel and I emailed back and forth about maybe trying to make some art quilts. I think we had done tons of regular quilts, and were looking for something new. The idea was to put out a theme, create a quilt around the theme and maybe try a new technique while we were at it. It started with just four quilters who wanted to try something, so we called ourselves Four-in-Art, and I made up a logo, incorporating the idea of four:

Sometime later, we added four more quilters, then switched the scheduling to four times a year, so we were still Four-in-Art. We created a blog to post our quilts, for once you archive, you are real.

Here is an overview of my quilts: (By the way, I am following the newspaper convention of captioning underneath my photos, so look there for details.)
Year 1: Nature

We took turns coming up with the overarching theme for the year, then again, turns for the quarterly challenges. The challenges are, from the upper left: Queen Anne’s Lace, Tree(s), Fire, Owl. It was liberating to craft this way, without getting out too many rulers or drafting things on the computer (see below for a glimpse of my journal).

Year2_FourinArt Year 2: Urban Quarterly Challenges (from upper left): Maps, Structure, Landmarks, Contrast, Light (we seem to like this topic).Year 3: Literature — We could choose what segment of literature to focus on. Some did a series of novels, Nancy did a series of children’s books’ titles, which she then donated to her local library, and I did a series of poems. I love the poems, pretty much hate these quilts, for a variety of reasons. Year 4: Color, and the challenges (again, from upper left): Microscopic, Music, Purple Passion, and I’ve Got the Blues.

And this year’s, with the yearly theme of Light. The quarterly challenges were: Shimmer, Light in the Darkness, Stained Glass Shadows, and Illumination.

It’s very satisfying to notice the growth, the steps backward, the consequence of leaving things to the last minute, and how having enough time impacts what you can create. I also learned new techniques, new ways of doing things, new ways to incorporate design beyond the grid and have it mean something.

A few pages from my notebook/sketchbook. It really helped to keep one of these, and not just for the journaling. I was often able to arrive at an idea for my quilt through drawing out (that old mysterious hand-brain connection) and writing out my feelings about the theme and the challenge.

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(I came back in later and pasted in the four quilts we did under that theme.)

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It was also a place to keep patterns, those bits and pieces of paper that led me to the final quilt, as well as notes and thoughts while on the run:

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Pages about this quilt (the second page is digitally pasted on top of the first). You can see the rejected ideas.

This little quilt, Ted and Maurice at Lorinc Pap Ter, is my favorite, not only for the idea of Contrast which it expresses (and was our challenge for this 12″ square quilt), but also because I learned how to print photos onto fabric [making my own photo-ready fabric, not buying it] and had a great time doing this.

I have more than one that qualifies for the Least-Favorite-Maybe-Even-Hate, so I won’t tell you which ones. But I can share the why: when I was trying to be too “artsy” and didn’t let the idea drive the design, or when I forced the design, or when I was new at this and just had no clue how to execute the idea.

Four-in-Art Index

I used to have a dedicated page for all the Four-in-Art quilts, but recently I was cleaning out around here and filed them away in the Master Index to my quilts. Now they are all on the 200 Quilts page, making them easy to find. Slowly I’m going through the posts, adding the tag “Technique” to those pages that show how I tried a new way of doing things, or a new method. I hope they will be helpful for you (use my search engines to the right–Wordpress has outstanding search capability).

It’s been a wonderful journey, these past five years, and my hat is off to those who started — and stuck — with me: Rachel and Betty. They were some of the best companions to have alongside me as I traveled this road. Other travelers were Leanne (SheCanQuilt), Anne (SpringLeaf Studios), Amanda, Carla, Jennifer, Nancy (Patchwork Breeze), Simone (Quiltalicious), Susan (PatchworknPlay), and Camilla. Finally, Catherine (Knotted Cotton) and Janine (Rainbow Hare), who were also members, will be carrying this art quilt group forward, through their Endeavorers. Click on their links to be taken to their blogs. And thank you for reading this WHOLE thing.

Now, please enjoy the final round of quilts for the Four-in-Art group!

Betty Blogpost on Four-in-Art

Catherine http://www.knottedcotton.com

Janine http://www.rainbowhare.com

Nancy http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com

Rachel http://www.rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com

Simone http://quiltalicious.blogspot.com

All of our blocks are on our blog, Four-in-Art.

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Books · Quilts

Gridster Bee Blocks & Catch-Ups

October 27, 2017November 8, 2023 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

Simone, the Queen Bee for September, visited Grand Teton National Park over the summer and wanted a block to commemorate her visit. I can hardly wait to see this one.

Gridster_October African Queen Leisa’s mother used to live in Ghana, a missionary for the LDS church. While she was there, she sent Leisa a box of fabrics that she’s turned into African Queen blocks. In case you want one, here’s the info on the pattern by Anne Batiste.

I also saw Leisa’s block in my latest Quiltfolk Magazine, issue #4:

Quiltfolk Issue 4 Quiltfolk Issue 4a I have to admit, even though it’s a bit more than I’d usually pay for a single issue, I do enjoy this publication, as it generally focuses on the regular people of quilting, not the big Brand Names of Quilt Stardom. A nice change, which exposes me to a wider range of our quilt world (and lets me find an African Queen pattern!).

Here’s another I really enjoy–Uppercase Magazine. This issue hit it out of the park, in my view, so if you decide to subscribe, make sure you start with #35. Neither of these publications have advertisements, they are subscription based only, which is why they cost a bit more: the advertisers aren’t subsidizing the costs. I like advertisements okay; it helps me know what my favorite companies are doing. But I also like not having advertisements, too.

If you join up with Jeanine’s mailing list, she’ll give you a deal on a new subscription, plus you get her cool little missives. Never heavy, only intriguing and fun, filled with art and creativity everywhere. I’m sure you can sign up to get those all by themselves, if you want. (And no, Uppercase doesn’t pay me.)

Okay, as long as we are in the panting-over-something-but-don’t-know-if-I’ll-get-it phase, look what came in my mailbox this morning:

You get one box at a time, filled with stuff to make two Di Ford blocks. I’m not even a Di Ford aficionado (although you might persuade me) and I’m tempted. They are only making 400.

This news comes from someone who has the complete set of Frivols, yes, boxes 1-12. It was my retirement gift to myself. I still haven’t made ONE of those quilts, although I still like seeing the boxes. Soon.

My box fetish comes honestly from my mother, who always had a cupboard full of empty boxes for gift-giving, and a stack of them outside in the garage next to the freezer, just in case we needed one. I’m sure there are other box-hoarders out there, besides me, right?

Coming November 1st: my final quilt in the Four-in-Art experience. Although I’ll not be a part of it, the art quilt group still continues on, however, as Endeavourers, with Janine and Catherine at the helm.

They had such a nice response that their slots are full, but having run a few groups, I know that the line-ups change all the time. If you are interested in joining them, drop either one of them a note and ask to be added to their waiting list. It has been a wonderful experience to make art quilts these past five years, and being a part of a group is wonderful.

See you November 1st!

European Patchwork Meeting · Quilts

European Patchwork Meeting • Final Post

October 19, 2017October 24, 2017 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

This has a billion pictures, so get ready to scroll. I need to wrap this up and bring my head back to what I’m doing in real life. This is the final post of my visit to the European Patchwork Meeting in the Alsace region of France, this past September. I have a main page that lists all the posts, in case you come at this from a side street on the web.

This quilt show, or meeting, was held in four different towns in France, and I’ll wrap up the first town, Sainte Marie Aux Mines, then move to St. Croix Aux Mines, and finally Liepvre. We didn’t make it to the last town, Rombach le Franc, but Jodie Zolliger, who lives in Europe, has written several great posts about what she saw, including the Amish exhibit. If you are interested, feel free to click over to her blog to catch more.

The Amish exhibit was beautifully laid out in this venue, and as I mentioned, Jodie wrote a great post about it, with better titles and information than I gathered.

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We walked down to the Temple Reforme, where the Val Patch Association, the local guild, had an exhibit titled “La Maison,” or Home. All of the quilts in that exhibit centered around the theme of home, showing slices of daily life.

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I took a panoramic of the colorful quilts across one side of the church. EPM_Guild3 EPM_Guild2

But fell in love with these panels, made by several members. Jodie has a great post on this one, too.

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Off we go to the next town.

I selected to head to the Espace Expositions first, to see the Beauville Company’s exhibition of prints from their archives, but was entranced by the skilled and exquisite use of log cabin construction by Andrew Leblanc in her quilts. I am listing the sizes of the quilts in centimeters, as noted on their title signs. (100 centimeters is roughly equal to 39 inches.)

It was pretty amazing to me how she’s used the width of the strips to create her portraits and pictures. Again, the lighting was superb.

I laughed at this one, because my husband is a professor (but he doesn’t look like someone out of 10th century Russia, or what I thought this man looked like). Detail of the glasses, below.

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While this isn’t a figurative portrait, the use of these fabrics was so interesting–not ones you’d associate with creating a design of any kind. Detail, below.

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EPM_SCM6 — Colin-Maillard, 1995 • 110 cm x 220 cm

EPM_SCM6a — Colin-Maillard, detail showing fabrics

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I like how they’d put other constructions of hers in a tableau on the floor. She had many quilts there.

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She was always busy talking to people at her table, so I could only get this sideways shot of her. Her website shows many different parts of her creativity.

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We headed down the road, again, to Liepvre (and try as I might, I cannot get my blogging program to allow the accents over their words, so I apologize–it keeps kicking them out when it spellchecks), to the Eglise de l’Assomption where an exhibit of Hildegard Muller (Germany) was hung. The lighting was very “contrasty” so I did a little photoshopping on these to render them closer to what I saw.

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Detail. She hand-dyed her fabrics and then let her mind find the scene that was in the cloth, or so she told me later, when I asked. However, other times, she had an idea in mind when she was dying the cloth, and made it that way.

EPM_LiepreMuller2 — Love in wartimes, 2015 • 102 cm x 70 cm

EPM_LiepreMuller3 — Dreams of Amsterdam, 2014 • 102 cm x 70 cm

EPM_LiepreMuller3a — Dreams of Amsterdam, detail.

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We walked from their to the Exhibition Hall to catch a couple of exhibits; we had to choose as we didn’t have time to see them all. So many of the quilts in this building were perfectly done, all Best-of-Show-type quilts. The one above took my breath away, so I have a few details shots of it. I loved that it was an imitation of one in the Shelbourne Museum — another way our patchwork influence crosses the ocean. The title of the quilt was Marie-Henriette, and was made by Martine Crabe-Lanux.

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The Twinkle-Stars Remake Quilt by Helga Huisman Hildebrand was also in the “France Patchwork” association section. There were several countries represented in this hall.

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Another France Patchwork quilt, titled Bleus, and made by Maria Vuilleumier.

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She also had one done in gray, black and white strips, but that one was called Insomnie, or Insomnia. (Because I’m trying to wrap this up, I’ve heavily edited what I’m posting.)

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Last section, last group of quilts is from the Patchwork Gilde of Germany. These quilts blew me away. Every year they have an exhibition and members are asked to enter what they’ve been working on (more info on the placard, below). This grouping was titled “From Tradition to Modernity 21.” Because your scrolling fingers are probably worn out at this point, I’ll post the title and the maker on the quilt; some titles are in German.

EPM_GermanPlacard

EPM_German1 — *Komposition,* by Christa Ebert • 110 x 142 cm

EPM_German2 — *Frau Hansen Klaverquilt*, by Uta Rodemerk • 183 cm square

EPM_German3 — *Mannerschmuck in Frauenhand*, by Sabine Koch

EPM_German3a — Mannerschmuck in Frauenhand, detail

Okay, as near as Google could translate it, I think this means “Men’s Jewelry in Women’s Hand,” which I thought was really clever given that these are neckties.

EPM_German4 — *Ausrangiert-neu sortiert*, by Inge Bohl of Germany

Discarded, rearranged is how Google Translate interprets this title.

EPM_German5 — Zerbrochene Illusionen, by Lilo Hartmann

Zerbrochene Illusionen means Broken Illusions, as translated by Google Translate.

EPM_German5a — Zerbrochene Illusionen, detail

EPM_German6 — The Power of Blue, by Gabriele Schultz-Herzberger • 75 x 132 cm

EPM_German7 — Flussaufwarts, by Susanne Fellmann-Horsch

EPM_German8 — Crazy Canadian Square Dance, by Barber Reschka • 108 x 107 cm

EPM_German9 — Schattenspiel, by Monika Flake • 107 x 131 cm

EPM_German10 — In GrossmuttersNahkastchen gekramt, by Christine Naumann • 78 x 86 cm

EPM_German10a — In GrossmuttersNahkastchen gekramt, detail.

EPM_German11 — So what do you do about it? by Maire-Christine Chammas • 108 x 147 cm

Very cool quilting.

EPM_German12 — Vogelwild III, by Tina Mast • 129 cm x 94 cm

I was told that she teaches art at the local university. This was stunning.

EPM_German13 — Leaves, by Christine Brandstetter • 99 x 132 cm

I talked for a few short minutes to the Uta Lenk, who was the International Representative of the German Patchwork Guild, and she said they would welcome the chance to exhibit at American shows. I know our local show, Road to California, often has exhibits come from other places, and I would love to see these there. I almost joined the German guild, but realized that all their materials would be in German, and alas, I wouldn’t be able to read them, but I did buy a pin.

All in all, going to the European Patchwork Meeting taught me that while we Americans fanned the flames of patchwork, the idea of three layers held together somehow, has taken wings, and taken off. If I were to go again, I’d leave at least two days for the show, and perhaps stay somewhere closer (we stayed the first night in Mulhouse, about an hour away) and in Turckheim the second night (35 minutes away). It’s near Colmar, and there is much to see in that town, as well. And…bring an empty suitcase!

European Patchwork Meeting · Quilt Shows · Quilts

SAQA in France: Studio Art Quilt Associates

October 13, 2017October 8, 2017 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

This is one in a series of posts I’ve written about the Carrefours European Patchwork Show held in September of 2017, in the Alsace region of France. This exhibit was titled My Corner of the World — Canadian Quilts, and is by a variety of artists. As I mentioned in the last post, I was giddy with the ability I had to photograph these, as SAQA usually has big NO signs up everywhere, barring us from photography in shows in the United States. Here they are in no particular order:

Washday Blues, Northfield Drive by Millie Cumming, 2017

You’ve Got Mail by Susan Tilsley Manley (2017) I may get some of the names not quite right, as they had reversed the first names and last names on all the cards.

Rocks on Lake Huron by Hag Gunnel (2017)

Good Morning, Canada by Toni Major (2017) Detail, below.

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Looks Like a Nice Day Up There, by Phillida Hargreaves (2017)

Beaches #1 by Mardell Rampton (2017)

Poplar Point, by Jaynie Himsl (2017) Detail, below.

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Ted’s Garage, by Robin Laws Field (2017)

Albert Cote’s All I Need is a Garden and a Chair (2017)

Ann Fales’ The Blueberry Patch (2017)

Reflections of the North, by Arja Speelman (2017) You can tell I really liked this quilt and the way she constructed it, judging by the two detail shots below.

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Down on the Farm, by Shirley Bailey (2017) This handmade, homespun-looking piece is not one I’d usually expect to be in a SAQA show, but I thought it wonderful.

Janet Scruggs’ Looking Down (2017) Detail, below.

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It appears to be raised and embossed, but most of that was done with color and contrast and quilting. Very cool effect.

European Patchwork Meeting · Quilt Shows · Quilts · Something to Think About

Luke Haynes, Ian Berry & Nancy Crow

October 11, 2017October 23, 2017 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

I hope the combination of the above three piques your interest, for it was an interesting juxtaposition of quilters. We also had SAQA in the same space, as well as Mirjam Pet-Jacobs, with her pieces on wastefulness.

I kept track of who was where by looking at my charts:

(You can click to enlarge them, but really, they are just my scribbles.)

These artists were all in the Space des Tisserands, a large room that had been subdivided to accommodate all these quilters. While some of these pictures are tiled in groups, you can click on any individual image to see a larger version.

First up is Ian Berry. Yes, he’s the blue jeans guy. He cuts up blue jeans into shapes and tones and colors and contrasting pieces, then re-assembles them via gluing, into recognizable images. We had a few minutes before the crush of fans wafted in again to visit with him, and found him a lovely conversationalist. We talked about quilting, what else?

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Then he was called in for a group picture, one of many I saw him do that day. I wish I would have snapped the photo of the group of ladies posing on the blue tiles in front of the washing machines in the laundromat. I didn’t know you could step into a work of art that way, but no one was stopping them.

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Next up is Luke Haynes (self-portrait, above), who burst onto the scene about three years ago, and remade the quilt world into his world, by utilizing traditional art studio techniques. This means that he uses assistants to do the work, but they work under his name, and in this way he mounted his Log Cabin show. At QuiltCon 2016, some quilters weren’t too happy with him, for to them this smacked of the subsuming of “women’s work” into the male creative world. But Luke is a happy guy (really fun to hear him talk, and I admire his creativity) and he then morphed into this show (of course, this is all MY view of things–he may have a different take), which was called a collaboration of quilters. Or Quiltllaborations, as his exhibit was called.

Top Row: [Collab #8] Indigo DWR by Luke Haynes and Rachael Dorr (2017) 90″ square
Second Row: [Collab #6] Polka by Luke Haynes and Libs Elliot (2015) 71″ square
Third Row: [Collab #5] Kills It with Fire by Luke Haynes and Libs Elliot (2015) 68″ square
Fourth Row (L): Untitled It is one of my favorites, so please click on it to enlarge; however, it is not quilted. Still cool, though.
Fourth Row (R): Another wedding ring, but I didn’t find the title card. Some of his were nearly on the ground, or around a corner.

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Nancy Crow, who helped co-found the Dairy Barn (in previous post) also had a few quilts there under her name; I assume they were either colleagues or students. One of my fantasies in my younger quilting years was to travel to Ohio and take one of her two-week classes. I have just about every book of hers, and screwed up my nerve to read her class supply list. I was completely intimidated and decided that wasn’t the direction I’d be going. But still, she is one of my Quilting Fairy Godmothers, although she probably wouldn’t like me calling her that. (She is a serious quilter–she has a quilting studio with multiple GIANT design walls, scads of tables holding yards and yards of fabric). Serious.

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Sea Ice–Cook Inlet, by Bonne M. Bucknam (USA) 79″ long

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Conflict No. 7 by Judy Kirpich (USA) 76″ square If you’ll remember, she had a quilt in the Quilt National exhibit titled Conflict No. 5 Mugging. I know that Crow encourages those she teaches to work in a series. If this is two quilts away from No. 5, Kirpich seems like the anguish has eased (if you can read that into a quilt)

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Thirty-four? by Helen McBride Richter (USA) 75″ wide 70″ long Did I mention that the name of this exhibit was Mastery: Sustaining Momentum?

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Colleen Kole’s Time Fragments #11 In the Distance (USA 2015) 82″ wide 83″ long Detail is below, that shows the really interesting quilting.

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EPM_waste1 — US – THEM, by Mirjam Pet-Jacobs

Okay, I didn’t love this exhibit of Mirjam Pet-Jacobs, with her pieces on wastefulness, but that could have been just my mindset, or how things struck me that day, for she is a talented textile artist with many exhibits on many different topics (please visit her website to see the range of her artistry). Her exhibit was called “What a Waste!” The above (on the floor in the middle of the gallery) is the waste that came out of a creative quilt studio. [Update: She wrote to me to explain that this was a three-years accumulation, which made it feel more real, for after three years, perhaps my waste stream would be the same?] Perhaps I don’t like to be reminded that there is lots of waste in quilting, and how many of us donate doggie beds full of scraps to our local humane shelter? My hand isn’t up. I try to recycle my scraps, using them, sharing them. But I do know that our textile has long been known for waste–just type in “waste in the textile industry” and see the listings. We try to ignore all that. Maybe the way it was presented to me just didn’t make my heart leap? Or maybe I don’t want to know about this? Does our cycle of quilt fabric collections — almost too many to keep track of — contribute to this waste?

You can see that it caused me to think. Also in this building were the quilts from SAQA–Studio Art Quilt Association. They never let us photograph their quilts in stateside shows, so I felt positively delirious to be able to take photos of these quilts. That’s in the next post about the European Patchwork Meeting. I have created a main page, with a listing of posts.