Even more quilts from Empty Spools 04-24-24

As I said last evening I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I had, or as I should have taken.  Perhaps someone  who reads this will  contact me and share pictures they took, especially the 12"X12" Bird quilts. Anyway, I will continue to  post the pictures I have. 

These two 12"X12" by Terry Grant of Beaverton, Oregon, were hanging on a separate bulletin board from the others.

Cotton fabrics, cotton batting. Fused, machine applique, machine quilting. 

"Making Quite an Entrance"  Yvonne Porcella - CA  

Commercial cotton fabrics, hand-dyes.

Machine appliqued, pieced, and quilted. About 45" square.

One day I posted three crows and three owls, all 12"X12"

"The Raven - Nevermore"   Pamela Burns  2019

"Another Collector"  Diane Wright - CT  2012

"Everyone Loves a Party"  Diane Wright  CT  2015

"Borrowing Owl"  Linda Frost - KS  2019

"The Sentinel"  Judy Warren-Tippets - CA 2013

"Night Owl"  Judith Roderick  2011

#   #   #

Catching up, I hope! 03-29-22

I am sorry I have not been able to blog while at Empty Spools.  Trouble with my cell phone and with my laptop, along with exhaustion every night!  And now, even at home, I cannot change the margins on this paragraph.  Computing doesn't seem to be my thing anymore.  Anyway, I will blog pictures from my class until I run out, maybe be the end of this week. 

I can't find words to say how FABULOUS it was to be back at Empty Spools.  I felt like I was home after a long trip away.  Some students I knew from the previous 29 years, but there were new people to meet and a couple new teachers.  Of course, Suzanne and Gayle, the owners of this seminar event were there and Carolee with her shop in the back of Merrill Hall.  I did visit all the classrooms on the walk-about on Thursday after class and attended all the evening programs.  This time I had two friends riding along with me, Andrea Bacal and Judy Warren-Tippets, from San Diego.  Andrea and I roomed together and our room in Surf was only four doors from our classroom in Surf and Sand.  Very convenient.  

The building is the furtherest west on the campus and this is the view out the sliders.  On the far left is Sunset Road that goes along the Bay and in the dip in the right middle is a view of the waves in the Bay.  Those spikes at the top are the ends of the rafters that extend the roof over the little deck outside the back of the room.  We had four beds - a double and three twins.  Lots of room to spread our our stuff and, by choice, no maid service so we never had to tidy up.  

The classroom has great light since it is just floor to ceiling windows on three sides, but it is a little small for twenty students, each with their own table and all their piles of fabric and equipment.  The noise level can be dithering.  But we managed as has every class that has been in this location.  I took this picture while standing in the door, pretty much shows how together we were.   The class was all about ABSTRACTION.

Our first assignment was to take the picture Sue Benner gave to each of us and abstract it into a 12X12 fused fiber image using five preselected 20" square fabrics.    The original timing was 20 minutes, but we managed to stretch it to more like 40!  We then pinned them up on design boards and critiqued. The smaller images are the original pictures.  

The picture Sue gave me is an aerial shot of tundra with trees.  And this is what I did with it.

       And in middle right is Andrea's image of a deep water fish and her abstraction. 

I will share more with you in coming days, but right now I need a night's sleep, even after all the naps I have taken today.  Old age is upon me!

#   #   #

Art Quilt group in SDiego 12-07-21

Saturday I drove to SDiego for the in-person meeting of the art quilt group I belong to down there.  Everyone was able to attend and we had a great meeting.  There was Show & Tell, including some work from the past, before the group was formed.  It is always interesting to see these earlier pieces and recognize the growth the artist has made.  I had nothing new or in progress, so I took a set of small works purchased at silent auction at the SAQA 2015 conference in Portland, OR.  Including these three.

"Bird"  Kristin Shields 2015  Machine pieced, hand applique and embroidery, machine quilted.

" New Zealand: Pukeko"  Martha Wolfe - Davis, CA  2015

Machine pieced and appliqued, hand embroidery , machine quilted.

"At the Market"  Terry Grant - Beaverton, OR  2015

  Machine Embroidery and applique.  This is done from the back. 

The meeting was at Judy Warren-Tippet's home and I supplied the refreshments.  We had a large fruit plate (which I failed to photograph) with Fuyus, green grapes, oranges, raspberries, dates, and honeyed pecans.  And for dessert after our bring-your-own-lunch we had a fabulous carrot cake from Katella Deli in Los Alamitos, CA.  It is very moist and coarse textured with all the fruits and nuts and not too heavy on the spices.  And then there is the yummy cream cheese frosting.  

It is an eight inch round cake with three layers and it is very rich, so one doesn't need a huge piece.  I brought home enough to share with my neighbor Mark-to-the-South, who takes care of putting out and bringing in my trashcans every week.  What a good neighbor who deserves a large slice of his most favorite cake. 

The traffic wasn't bad either direction and it was easy to drop off KoKo with Nancy Ota and to pick him up on my way home.  She wore him out and he slept almost all the way home.  

Altogether a really enjoyable, memorable day. 

#  #   #

Quilts at PIQF 10-14-18

Pacific International Quilt Festival is an annual show presented by the Mancuso brothers in Santa Clara, CA, near San Jose.  I used to attend every year, but for several years have had scheduling conflicts and have missed it.  It is quite a good show with hundreds of quilts in the judged competition and many, many special exhibits, from the World contest down to people like the ArtStream group from San Diego. The Art Stream group has only eight members and we have been working on this exhibit challenge for about two years.  Some members finished their quilts well over a year ago and I finally finished mine last month.  There is always a poky person in every group, isn't there?  Anyway the quilts were finished and I drove them up here on Tuesday and was there when the guy crew hung them and I pinned up the labels.  Easy job.  

I had some trouble editing the pictures I took, but I seem to have succeeded at last and post them below with titles, artist, etc.,  This is our first exhibit in a quilt show, although we have shown quilts at San Diego galleries.   These quilts plus a companion piece from each member are scheduled for an exhibit at Visions Art Museum in 2019 from April 20 to July 7. 

The theme is "Urban Elements" and each quilt is 24" wide by 36" long.  I think the reason they look different lengths is where the sleeves are put on.  The area they are hanging is on the outside perimeter of the room and it bends, so they are not all visible at once. Here is the beginning on the left hand side. 

And here is the other end.  The labels are hung at different distances because behind the drapes is a storage area that needs to be accessed where the drapes meet.  So, I hung the labels so they are close to the quilt and not on a place where the openings are.  

"Checker Cab Company"  Deb Mackay   Hand-dyed (by artist) fabrics, linoleum cut printing with acrylic paint, machine quilting. 

"My grandfather owned stock in Checker Motors Company, but sold it after the October 29,1929, stock market crash.  My dad would tell me that we would be wealthy people if only his dad had kept the stock.  I have always had an affinity for Checker Cabs when I am in the city.  They have been an important moving element of the urban setting."

"Glass Ceiling"  Ellen Spellman   Hand-dyed (by the artist) and commercial fabrics,  machine piecing, machine and hand applique, machine quilting.  

"Contemporary architecture brings modern art to life in urban settings.  Frank Gehry's iconic buildings unfurl, bend, twist and soar from their urban roots, flaunting unusual materials and assembled in collage-like forms.  They stop me in my tracks and make me smile.  My quilts honors one of his ceilings, full of windows and curved to meet the sky, a ceiling to look up to in wonder.  I took liberties with the design, but the intent was to capture in some way the beauty and surprise of the original." 

"Summer in the City"  Andrea Bacal    Hand-painted (by artist) canvas mixed with canvas reproduction of artist's hand-painted canvas, hand-dyed (by artist) and commercial fabrics, machine piecing, fused applique, machine quilting.  "I had previously painted a canvas with textile paints, and wanted to use the images from it.   I had several images printed by Fabric on Demand.  I used this new fabric to create the piece, recreating the feeling I always have when listening to the 1966 Lovin' Spoonful's Summer in the City." 

"Birds in the City"   Del Thomas    Commercial, batik, and hand-dyed fabrics, fussed applique, machine quilting.   ""Since I am not an urban dweller and avoid cities, I tried to think of something in a city I do enjoy.  Sitting in a park and observing the natural environment surrounded by birds, trees, flowers, and water sources is my first pick.  So, all these are shown in my quilt."

"Reflections"   Carol Sebastian-Neely    Commercial fabrics (painted by artist), hand-dyed (by artist) fabrics, fused applique, painting on paper fused to organza to create mono print, machine quilting. "Reflections was inspired by a photograph of buildings looking down at the cool flowing waters moving below them.  Lights glowing under the surface.  Linear elements reaching skyward.  Tiny windows keeping life secrets within. 

"Rockefeller's Flags V - Atlas"   Nelda McComb    Commercial fabrics, embellished with ink, machine applique, hand quilting.   "Trips to NYC have inspired a series called Rockefeller's Flags.  The Center is lined with beautiful flags, hence the birth of six quilts extolling Rockefeller's flags."

"Midtown Massif"   Judy Warren Tippets    Commercial fabrics, embellished with pen,ink and specialty thread, fused applique, machine quilting.    "My inspiration comes from a photo my husband took in the High Sierra.  The massive granite ridge of the Minarets more than hints of a great city rising abruptly at water's edge.  Midtown Massif transforms the multi-pinnacled Minarets into a fantasized urban skyline."

"STOP"   Michalee Sloan    Commercial batiks and over-dyed fabrics, machine applique, machine quilting.    "I am always thinking about my art projects on my commute in the Southern California traffic.  Images of stop signs and stop lights became part of the graphic shapes as they are traffic icons.  Windows and scaffolding appearing in layers.  Red to emphasize the brake lights and stress often present in urban life."  

~~~~~~~~~~~

PIQF ends tomorrow and I will spend the day looking at the quilts and trying to find places to sit down to rest once in a while.  When the show closes at 4pm I can take down the quilts and drive back to Mary's.  Then I will drive home to Placentia and my KoKo dog on Monday.  

#   #   #  

Challenge quilts at Canyon Quilters 11-18-14

Here are all of the challenge quilts from last evening's meeting of Canyon Quilters.  There were four hanging racks with black drapes to which the quilts were pinned.  I hope you can enlarge and read the names of the makers.  I can't tell if that is possible until I finish the blog post and can try it myself.

The Challenge was "My Secret Garden"  and the size was limited to no more than 100" perimeter - so they came in many sizes.  There was some discussion about the pros and cons of quilts the same size and quilts limited to a perimeter, so that they were all different.  No conclusion.  But I like the varied sizes.  

The bidding sheets are out for the silent auction.  Starting bid ranged from $100 to $125.

For size comparison my quilt, second from left, 

is 14" wide and 11" long. 

And here are quilts that I like: 

"My Secret Water Garden"  Deb Mackay

The top section is one of her spectacular marbled pieces.  The flowers are Kaffe's Gloxinia.  

"3-D Garden"  Terry Seaberg

with folded flowers and appliqued leaves and stems. 

"Springtime"  Marty Gigler.  Surely made in or after a class with Laura Wasilowski.  It is beautifully done and has a great composition.   

 

"I Love to Bee in my Garden"  Carol Neely

This is done in the style of Barbara McKie and is nicely quilted.  

"Bee Happy"  Kay Laboda

Gorgeous quilt and awesome quilting.   This quilt won the viewer's choice award. 

"Poppies Worthy of Sorella"  Judy Warren-Tippets

These are Matilija poppies with blossoms about 6" in diameter.  Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida was an early 20th Century painter - an exhibit of his work was in San Diego in July and August.  

 

 And here, again, is my humble offering. I remembered the fabric having larger buildings and was surprised when I dug it out of my fabric library and found that the buildings were only 10 to 12 inches tall.  I had to size the garden to go a little better with the building size, but made the the flowers and leaves large enough to show the fecundity and how they take up too much space to be contained in a "secret" garden.     

#   #   #   

Quilt Visions 2014 - Opening

Last night was the opening reception for Quilt Visions 2014, "The Sky's The Limit", at Visions Art Museum in San Diego.  This is always such an exciting event with many of the artists in attendance (24 out of 40 this year) along with the staff and most of the volunteers for the Museum.  It is always over too quickly and I want to gather all these people back again for more discussion and visiting.  These pictures were taken at events that happened today - a breakfast for the artists, a walk through with the artists talking about their quilts, a panel discussion about the process of jurying for Quilt Visions and Quilt National. 

 

 The Museum is not large and was very crowded, as you can see.  This is the reception area and gift shop with the Alcove Gallery on the left.  The artists with quilts hanging there are telling this squashed together crowd about their work.

These are the artists gathered for a picture.  I cannot identify each one, but will do so and run this picture again soon.  The quilt on the wall behind them is Emily Richardson's "Swiftly" which received the President's Award selected by the President of the Museum Board of Directors, Andrea Bacal.

 

A few of the artists didn't fit in one frame! On the wall to the left is "Points In Time" by Vicki Carlson of Fort Collins, CO.

 

Charlotte Bird is the chair of the exhibit and has managed, I believe, four of the previous Quilt Visions exhibits.  She is the person who puts all the pieces together and we all need to say "Thanks for a job well done."

Janet Steadman (Langley, WA) on the left is a long-time quilt maker whom I had not met previously,  yet one of her quilts has been in TCQC since 2000.   Friend, Visions volunteer and fellow artist Judy Warren-Tippets is on the right.  On the wall between them is Marianne Burr's (Coupeville, WA) "Eleven 3 Eleven" which won the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Recognition Award.  On the left above Janet's shoulder is Elizabeth Busch's (Glenburn, Maine) "Summer Walk". 

 

 

Mariam Machell is shown with the quilt that received the Mariam Machell Award for Beauty.  Mariam is one of the founding members of Quilt Visions.  The quilt selected by her friends at the Museum is "Ryu, Gwan-Sun by Shin-hee Chin of McPherson, Kansas.



A Chocolate Quilt from Judy Warren-Tippets 10-20-13

Visions Art Museum held their annual fundraiser last evening and it was a great time.  There were  silver colored raffle baskets with wine, restaurant gift certificates, sewing supplies, fabric, mugs, coffee, tea, and CHOCOLATE!  Every basket contained chocolate - bars, bonbons, designer, covered nuts, cookies, just about every form you can think of.  Wine and sparkling water were served along with munchies, including some of the best cookies I have ever eaten.  I will pursue the source and obtain a recipe if possible.
 
Also offered were twenty-four small chocolate themed quilts made by members of the museum.  The artists were disappointed that there was not much bidding.  Although all the quilts were sold they did not bring in the funds we expected.  Was it that the quilts didn't appeal?  Was it a "non-quilt" crowd? (to support a quilt museum?)  The starting prices were around $100 - $150.  I bought four at those low prices - including my own!  I couldn't bear to see it go for peanuts and I know someone who will love to have it.  The one below, made by Judy Warren-Tippets, is ideal for her grandgirl so Judy asked if she could buy it back.  Good idea - the quilt is connected to memories from her childhood which her little grandgirl will hopefully appreciate as she grows up - and beyond.   I am flattered that Judy feels comfortable in our friendship to ask, and I am happy that the quilt will have a loving home.


"After the Recital"  Judy Warren-Tippets 2013
Pieced, appliqued, fused, embellished.  Machine quilted.
 

The spoon is from a photo printed on fabric, cut out and fused.
 

Here is the menu.

 
This chocolate topping is made with a glossy brown material (maybe vinyl), cut out and glued to the background.  The whipped cream and the cherry are both cut from felt.
 

Oh, dear, Judy has not been intimidated by my preaching about adequate labels.  No contact for the artist - how could anyone interested in her work locate her?  Not even a town, much less an e-address or snail mail address.  JUDY, Judy, judy, don't let an opportunity for promoting your work pass by.
 

Does this mean that Picasa is refusing to show their own logo?  Weird, eh?

Quilt Festival - Long Beach, CA #1 08-01-13

Preview night for Quilt Festival - Long Beach 2013 was tonight at the Long Beach Convention Center.  This will be the last time it will be in LBeach, next August it will move to Portland, OR.
I was scheduled from 7pm to 9pm, but arrived about 5:30 so I could look at some of the quilts.  However, I only looked at a very few, but talked to many people I know, or who know me.  And, of course, I visited with Judy Warren-Tippets and Beth Smith from Visions Art Museum who were tending the VAM table - handing out cards, selling Visions catalogs, and encouraging everyone to visit VAM and become a member. 

I did look at a few quilts as I came and went, but only photographed two that are part of the "Maps" exhibit.   They are about 26"W x 36"L.

 

Both Beth and I have our reservations about the white runway, but otherwise I think the colors in this piece are wonderful.
 

 

Annette was there this evening and stopped to talk to us at the Visions table.  Again, it is the color that attracts me to her quilt.  She has controlled the values to give the surface almost a 3D look.
 

Del Thomas and Beth Smith at the Visions Art Museum table at Quilt Festival - Long Beach.  On the left is a quilt by Cuauhtémoc Q. Kish and on the right a quilt by Karen Cunegin.  08-01-13
 

Judy Warren-Tippets and Beth Smith at Visions Art Museum table - QFestival - Long Beach  08-01-13