Very small quilts from TCQC 08-05-18

 Tonight I am posting some very small quilts from several different makers.  There came a time after I had been collecting contemporary quilts for a while that I had to decide how small could a quilt be.  Did I want to hold to 12X12?  Or would fiber postcards be okay?  And what about those artists who only made small quilts?  When I first started the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection in 1987 most quilt artist were making fairly large quilts, but as the years went by it seems that they get smaller and smaller.  Which works for me because I have less and less storage space.  I do have a box full of fiber postcards and I have made quite a few myself.   The standard size is 6"x4", but very small quilts (less than 12X12) come in many sizes.  I'll show you a few this week and maybe continue next Sunday also.   

"Just Because"  June Underwood  2005  5"WX4"L

Whole cloth.  Cotton fabric, machine quilting.

Simply but sweet, I keep this one hanging in my bathroom.  There are several of her quilts in TCQC, all larger than this tiny one.  

June's distinctive signature  "jou" is rather joy like.  

And what a pretty back - with a dedication.  Nice.

"Cherished Friends Flourish"  Tracy Chapman  2007  4"W x 6"L  

Cotton fabric  and glass beads.  Hand quilted and beaded. 

The beads are threaded on while quilting.  Notice the picot bead edging. 

The back shows her tiny stitches.   We have sort of lost touch in the last eleven years, but I still consider Tracy a dear friend and I cherish this symbol of that friendship. 

 "Happy Birthday"  Judy House  2003  8"Wx6"L

Machine appliqued and quilted.  Cotton batiks and glass beads. 

Judy and I became friends at Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar.  She was very talented and made some great quilts.  She succumbed to cancer in 2005, all of her friends, and there are many, still miss her a lot.  

The beads are hand sewn. 

She sang Happy Birthday on the back.

Vest Pocket Tour II   Joan Schulze  2001  7.5"Wx7.5"L

Cotton and silk fabrics.  Printing on fabric.  Machine pieced and quilted. 

Here is Joan's machine stitched signature on the front lower right. 

On the back of the quilt you see her signature in reverse and this long skinny label. 

This is one of several quilts in the Collection that have Velcro for hanging.  I never use Velcro hangers and I would take this off, but I have a hard time seeing black on black, so I left it on. 

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Throwback Thursday 04-20-17

Sometimes I enjoy looking back through my pictures and revisiting scenes from past years.  These pictures were taken in April/May 2013 when I drove to Washington State to take a class with Joan Schulze at the Pacific Northwest Art School in Coupeville on Whidby Island.  It was an enchanting trip and the class was terrific.  Unfortunately it was the last class that Joan taught before she retired from teaching (but she is still making quilts).  I visited friends along the way and drove some byways to see the landscape and the gorgeous spring flowers.  Wish I could do this exact trip all over again, but then I do have all the pictures and wonderful memories. 

Wild Pacific Dogwood

Tulips

Pansy planter on the porch in Coupeville.

The walk up to my little cabin in Coupeville.

Oregon Grape blossom - Oregon state flower.

 

Pink Rhododendron

Amazing blue Rhododendron - this color hadn't been "invented" when I was growing up.

Scilla and dandelion puffs

Dutchman's Britches/Bleeding hearts

Dandelion and puff

Redbud tree at rest stop near Grants Pass, OR.

Tulips in Coupeville, WA.

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Road Trip - Coupeville, WA - Joan Schulze W/S 04-25-13

Today was the last day of the Joan Schulze workshop and it has been a good experience for me.  As usual these days, I am tired and need to get more sleep.  I have not worked on the photos from the workshop, but I am showing you the plants and landscape and two fans that I have "in progress".  Blogger is giving me grief with the pictures, so if you can't see them let me know. 


The view from my back deck with a large walnut (?) tree.  The little house on the right is derelict with missing windows, an exhausted sag and a thick coat of moss.  Betwixt my deck and the old house is a playground for the children attending the Montessori school run by the family that rents out the cottages. 
 

The state flower of Oregon - "Oregon Grape".  I've always thought it the ugliest of all the state flowers, but it is native to the state and has lovely purple berries in the fall.  Before opening the buds have a red tint.
 

 
But when they open they are mostly bright yellow.
 

Right now the most common flower seems to be the dandelion.  They are huge - so much so that I thought they might be tragopogon (salsify), but they are true dandelions. 
 

This fan is made of fabric applied to paper with PVA glue which dries clear and hard.  I had too much glue on it so the surface was still tacky the next day.  Joan advised covering the material with silk organza applied with Steam-A-Seam Lite.  Worked great and the color is not notably diminished.  We were encouraged to find unusual things to use for handles - this is a silver plate butter spreader from an antique shop.  I have some additional work to do on this fan, maybe an edging all the way around.
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Fans need to be attractive from both sides and this is the back of the one above.  The butter spreader is glued on with PVA and the spreader part will be covered with more of the bright pink fabric.
 

 
This process is laser printing on cotton fabric.  I didn't bring much plain fabric, but had some shirting fabrics and used those for my backgrounds.  Maybe not the best, but using what I had.  First the false bamboo was laser printed on a sheet of transparency.  Then laser printed on cotton fabric which had been fused to freezer paper so it would go through the printer.  I placed the transparency on the copying surface and then placed a sheet of Japanese/Chinese calligraphy on top of it.  After the copy is made the freezer paper is removed and discarded.  The fabric is pressed with a hot iron and the image is permanent on the fabric.   I need a better/sharper cutter to clean up the edge.
 

 
The back is covered with a Japanese fabric (or a look-alike) and the handle is a slat from a disassembled black-dyed bamboo mat.   I have wrapped it a bit with red cord.  Sorry for the masking tape, but I think I need some gorilla glue to hold the handle on securely
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After the class ended I walked along the waterfront street with little shops and restaurants and this great view across the Sound to the snow covered mountains on the mainland.  It was another gorgeous SPRING day with even more flowers open and leaves popping out on trees.  I think these Washingtonians just tell us it rains all the time so Californians won't move up here permanently!

Road Trip - class work at Pacific NW Art School - 04-23-13

The truth is - I am too tired to post much tonight.  Here are pictures of some of the three-layer, articulated fans we have made.  The ladies didn't want to put their names on them, so I am showing them as "anonymous".  Not something I like to do.  I will admit that mine is the one with the yellow tassel.

These are all made from scrap paper, old postcards, magazine pictures and such.  Joan's critique so far is that we haven't used enough contrast - too much the same values in each fan. 

 

 

 

Road Trip - Eugene > Coupeville, WA Posted 04-22-13

Blogger is acting weird tonight - let me know if the pictures don't open.  Del

The four day class with Joan Schulze started today, there are seven students so we have lots of individual space and help.  The class is "Fanning Creativity", which I had thought was an expression like "fanning the fire", but it is more literal and the subject is indeed fans - of all kinds.  We are learning many different techniques which can be used to create fans, but also to create a lot of other things.  There are no rules - only creative thinking.  As usual I have flunked "GLUE", but at least this time I didn't get it all over myself.  I don't know why it is such a struggle - I failed GLUE in kindergarten and have never improved.

Joan's website:  http://www.joan-of-arts.com/  

School website:  http://www.pacificnorthwestartschool.org/all/fiber-arts-workshops/schulze-joan-fanning-creativity-apr-22-25-2013

Tonight I am posting a bunch of photos taken on the trip here - trees, flowers, landscape. 


Several years ago I drove up here about this time of year and felt I was following Spring.  Starting in Pacific Grove where everything was blooming, I moved through trees with lots of leaves and arrived in Portland where many trees were just leafing out.  A little later this year and the drought has depressed the blooming and leafing out, but fascinating to see the differences the further north I came.  When I took this picture I thought especially of Gerrie Congdon  who loves the bright acid greens.  I'll bet she LOVES this time of year.
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Even with the gloomy sky the wild mustard still glows.
 

Whatever state one lives in during their primary education they learn the local history.  This was part of my history growing up.  I didn't realize until an advanced age how deficient I am in local history anywhere else in the country.  This sign is one of four different "history lessons" at a viewpoint on I-205 which splits from I-5 and curves northeast around the downtown and over the Columbia River before rejoining I-5 above Vancouver, WA.
 

The falls and the locks are below and Oregon City is on the opposite bank. 
 

Here is my favorite Douglas Fir tree which is rooted on the hillside below and towers several hundred feet in the air.  Dogwood grows below it down to the river.
 

Pacific Dogwood
 

Lichen and moss are abundant in the Pacific Northwest.
 

Unfurling leaves - sycamore?  maple?  As my brain goes old and sluggish I have forgotten things I once knew so well - like the names of trees, flowers, birds, ... and my friends!
 

This crow was determined to sit on his branch and let me get closer and closer.  Just after I snapped the picture he hopped down into the foliage. 
 

I noticed how colorful the woods and waysides are with new leaves in many shades of red, rust, orange, yellow, and acid green. 
 

A closer view of the tree above.
 

And an even closer view!  I was parked when I took these pictures.
 

This group of several trees was quite beautiful.  They were across I-5, hence the speeding cars.
 

Seattle skyline and the arena (Kingdome?)  I almost never take pictures of cities.  Hard to negotiate speeding traffic and take good pictures.  These trees moved in the way at the last minute.
 

North of Seattle I took the ferry from Mukilteo to Whidby Island - a 20 minute "sail".  There are two ferries that go back and forth, passing in the middle of the route.
 

Lots of these blossoming trees in Coupeville.  The houses behind are new - the one on the left seems to be a primary residence and the one on the right is perhaps a rental unit. 

I believe this is a cherry tree.  But, again, my memory is poor.