New Theme for Four-in-Art

November 2, 2012November 2, 2012 Elizabeth E.2 Comments

While we are still figuring out the rules and learning our way around this little group, it’s my turn to choose the sub-theme to our grand theme of “Nature.” I’ve gone back and forth between three different ideas, and while I won’t name the other two just in case they pop into someone else’s head, I’ve chosen “Tree.”

We all have memories of trees that we’ve climbed, going up high secure in the branches to touch the clouds, or merely to hide away from doing chores. I’ve planted more than my fair share of saplings, skinny and pliable in the wind. During the holidays many of us will decorate trees and with trees, bringing winter scenes into our homes. Our autumn colors arrive in January, when the liquid amber trees turn a bright rusty red, like a belle-of-ball who arrived too late for Northern fall colors.

January in Washington, DC found me photographing stark limbs, their branches like sculptures marching down the National Mall.

Yet I also love the cherry tree’s shy blossoms of pink and white, and then all the spring trees unfurling their green buds to summer’s fat wide leaves, shading me on a hot summer’s day.

But I also think of family trees, of generations linked by blood and branches. (This is a picture of my son Matthew, his lovely wife Kim and their four daughters.)

So, there’s the new theme. Let’s see where we go. Reveal date is February 1st.

English Elizabeth: First Four-in-Art Reveal Day

November 1, 2012October 26, 2017 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

English Elizabeth

Made and quilted by Elizabeth Eastmond,
for the Four-in-Art Quilt Group

Elizabeth Frances Fellow Critchlow, a lass born in England in 1855, in the county of Staffordshire, surely did love her garden. She is my great-grandmother and I am named for her.

When Rachel announced the theme of Queen Anne’s lace for our first Four-in-Art quilt, my mind immediately thought of my great-grandmother and her gardens. I looked up the origin of the name of this flower, and most sources believed it had origins in British royalty references, which reinforced that I’d be working with my English Elizabeth, as I came to think of her. A dedicated Anglophile, she listened to major speeches by the King on her wireless set, tuning in from her home in the mountains of Utah. My mother tells me that she loved to garden, and her gardens were renowned, with even the local university coming over to study some of her plants and trees. Although she lived most of her adult life here in the United States (she arrived here at age eleven), I often wonder if she spoke with a British accent here and there on some words.

I chose to work with this picture, because of her smile–just barely there—but a warm welcoming face. My mother says she likes this picture, but also remembers her grandmother out in her gardens, her straw hat on her head.

And then I thought back to the most recent wedding in our house, that of my son Peter to his bride Megan, and they chose a rendition of Queen Anne’s lace for their announcements as well. I love how you don’t “see” a flower, and then suddenly it’s everywhere.

~~And now, Two! for the Price of One!~~

Betty lives in Virginia, and unless you’ve been under a rock this week, you know about Frankenstorm, the combination of weather patterns that spelled disaster, weather-wise, for the East Coast. Sunday night, before the storm was to hit, Betty emailed me her photos and artist’s statement, just in case her power and internet should go out. I’m pleased as punch to present to you her Queen Anne’s Lace quilt.

Betty writes:

“This Four in Art challenge, our first, was an opportunity for me to stretch – to stop, for a moment, the churn of easy quilts and do something new. When the theme – Nature: Queen Anne’s Lace – was revealed, I sighed. Love the flower, although it isn’t as highly regarded on the east coast as apparently it is on the west coast, but I drew a blank when coming up with a setting. So, I took a practical approach: just love the Union Jack and decided to use that as my backdrop. I planned to paint my flag, but could not get the red and blue faded enough so decided to go the fabric route. I was excited to use the crown and copying that onto Kona Ash was a first; one of my favorite details in this piece is the silver metallic stitched onto the crown (which did not come through in the photos). I had hoped to actually stencil the lace to form the flower, but that didn’t work well so I opted for real lace with pearl cotton accents. The flower is my least favorite feature of this little quilt, but it is holding its head up boldly and doing its part and I am, overall, pleased.

“The backing is, appropriately, a simple flower piece and I loved making the label. It is bound in simple navy Kona – had tried to overcast the edges with silver metallic, but that did not work well.

“This was fun and without boundaries (except for the size) and provided we do it again, I will find other new methods to try and apply!”

Betty Ayers • Powhatan, VA, USA

Here are some more photos:

Label from Betty’s quilt. We hope that all will be okay on the East Coast soon. Betty usually publishes on Flickr.

Check out Leanne, of She Can Quilt, and Rachel of The Life of Riley to see their Four-In-Art Quilts.

And tomorrow, a new theme is revealed!

Four-in-Art

Four-in-Art Quilt Group

October 21, 2012October 21, 2012 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

When I was in Long Beach at the quilt show, I fell in love with the Twelve-by-Twelve art quilts that graced one area of the exhibit hall. I wrote about them *here,* and wondered on my blog if anyone wanted to join me in a new group? Three other quilters did, and we came up with a name and a logo. Four-in-art, a play on “foreign” and the four of us, was dreamed up by Betty, and we were launched. Some of the Twelve’s work is below:

While Betty doesn’t have a blog or a Flickr page, the other two do. They are Leanne of SheCanQuilt and Rachel of The Life of Riley. We set up some rules, using a lot of the guidelines from Twelve by Twelve: roughly two months in between quilts with an extra month over the holidays, size about 12″ by 12,” any medium is okay but it has to be a “quilt” with a front, middle, back. All kinds of techniques are encouraged and are possible.

For me, it was a bit scary. My father and my sister Christine are artists, both with dedicated studios. My father does painting, and my sister does that as well as mixed media. But all of my family exhibits creativity in one way or another, from the way they arrange their desk (really, it’s quite artful) to their gardens to the choice of art that is hung on their walls. But I’ve always been a quilter/photographer and only occasionally, a digital artist. So to jump into the idea of making art quilts, well, really I just swallowed hard and did it.

The four of us chatted via email and Flickr and came up with a theme for the first series: Nature. And then Rachel selected our first art quilt theme of Queen Anne’s lace, a flower that can grow wild.

That last photo is from Leanne’s garden, the first is from some random grab off of Google Images. It’s helpful to think about the meaning of the flower as well, trying to draw out ideas, so we have posted ideas and insights on our Flickr.

One of the artists in Twelve by Twelve confesses that she loves commercially printed fabrics and while she’ll make some changes here and there, it’s always her starting point. Since I’ve never taken a dying class or tried it myself (although in the Hippie-Dippy 1970s, I once tie-dyed everything in my camp suitcase while up at a church girls camp), so I knew I’d be starting with commercially available fabrics, too.

Our first reveal date is coming up on November 1st. Check back then for my art quilt, but for now, here’s a sneak peak: