Quilt from TCQC - Karen Rips 05-22-22

 Revisiting a small quilt by Karen Rips originally posted 05-03-12

               

"Asilomar"  Karen Rips - Thousand Oaks, CA   2011 12" square

Hand-dyed and hand-printed cotton fabric, perle cotton thread. Machine quilted. Wool batting.

http://www.fiberartmusings.blogspot.com/

To create this gorgeous texture Karen used 100% wool felting for the batting. After stitching the front to the batting, she washed it in hot water to shrink it a lot. For a quilt this size, she started with a piece about 18 inches. She drew her inspiration from all the sea grasses growing on the grounds of Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA.

This piece is very flexible, which makes me wonder how a lap sized quilt would be to snuggle with on a wintery day. 

Her hand stitching and French Knots, along with the loose gauzy fabric sewn into the quilted lines, add more depth.  They give the feeling of the layers and layers of grasses.

 

Hand-dyed sateen on the back.

A minimal label, but it does have an e-mail contact.  

Additions to TCQC 03-02-21

 During this past year I have added only a few quilts to the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection.   A few from the SAQA online auction in the fall and now there are three from the SAQA Traveling Trunk Show - 2016.  Every year there are several trunks of 10" X 7" quilts that are available to show what is happening in the quilt world.  They can be rented from the SAQA website and they travel all over the country.  At the end of three years these "quiltlets" are put up for sale.  I have purchased a few in the past, adding them to the "small quilts" section of TCQC.  When they travel they are in cello sleeves to keep them clean and have Velcro dots on the back of the sleeves to allow mounting on a fabric wall.  

I love scraps and use them a lot.  But I never thought of doing something like this. 

There are several Karen Rips pieces in the Collection.  I particularly like this one because of the variety of textures and lines. 

I know this Ikea fabric!  Sonia has used it in her unique way.  Like it a lot. 

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Re-visiting a quilt by Karen Rips 10-29-17

I became friends with Karen Rips soon after the International 12X12 group started.  It has been a pleasure to watch her style develop and I am a great admirer of her very elegant, subtle quilts.  The only trouble with this quilt is my inability to photograph it to show it at its best. The light color is a soft sage green, surrounding the dark sage green center rectangle  and the outer edges are a deep purple, as is the faced back.  Karen has used her unique technique of sewing the front, batting, backing together with channel quilting and then doing a sort of felting process using hot water to make everything shrink up. 

 

"Gravida"  Karen Rips - Thousand Oaks, CA  2013  35"W x 46"LHand-dyed cotton, wool batting, hand embroidery, paint, silk, machine pieced and quilted.

[Gravida (noun)  a woman's status regarding pregnancy; usually followed by a roman numeral designating the number of times the woman has been pregnant.]

There are many areas of embroidery stitches. The black lines are paint.

Karen has also used some strips of frayed silk fabric to embellish the quilt.

More of the silk strips and black paint along with hand embroidery.

Here are multiple rows of straight hand stitches done in variegated purple/pink thread.

 

If you enlarge this image you might see the bearding of the wool batting.  I like it as it gives even more texture to this very textured quilt which is very soft and pliable - more like a hand quilted work.

 

I faded out this image so you can see the facing with the curved inner edges.

This is the third of the pieces of silk couched down with embroidery stitches.

An  adequate label which gives two ways of contacting the artist, her name, the date and even the size of the quilt in the lower right hand corner. 

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Quilt by Karen Rips added toTCQC

This is the last quilt I purchased from the SAQA 2016 online auction.  I do love Karen Rips' work.  There is a subtlety of expression in each of her pieces and this one spoke to me.  Tundra is defined in a dictionary as:

 

"A cold, treeless, usually lowland area of far northern regions. The lower strata of soil of tundras are permanently frozen, but in summer the top layer of soil  thaws and can support low-growing mosses, lichens, grasses, and small shrubs." Although I known that Karen has been to lands where tundra is found, I have only  visited in books and movies, but I have a feeling for tundra and no desire to see it  in the flesh.  The absence of anything familiar is some how frightening to this city girl  from California.  And yet I like looking at the emptiness in this little quilt. The texture is unique, a technique created by Karen using silk with wool batting.   Very flexible,  I imagine it would make a soft, warm, lightweight bed quilt.  But I  will enjoy having this special look at tundra on my wall. I wish you could all feel it in  person. "Tundra"  Karen Rips - CA, 2016  12" x 12" Whole cloth, soy waxed, discharged, wool batting, hand and machine stitched. The black behind the red is in the fabric, the red is stitched. A little swatch of lichen. Necessary info on back. The back is plain and knife edged.  #   #   #

 

TCQC program today

Today Liz and I drove to Los Angeles (the other side of Los Angeles) to do a presentation of quilts from TCQC for a group of SAQA members.   I think the ladies that were present enjoyed seeing the quilts and I enjoyed their show & tell.  We also had a delicious salad buffet and yummy desserts.

 

Here I am in front of Karen Rips "Breaking Point" on the left and two of Deidra  Adams "Tracings" series.  (Photo by Sandra Lauterbach)

One of the great things about having the Collection is sharing it with others.

 

Would the Sally who asked to see the SAQA trunk show please contact me at DELQLTS@aol.com , I have no contact for you.

In San Diego tonight. 04-18-15

I feel that I have spent a week driving on I-5.  Last Sunday and  Wednesday to San Diego and back, today to San Diego and Tuesday and Wednesday to San Clemente.   I decided driving home in the dark tonight was more than I could handle, so am staying  at Homewood Suites near Visions Art Museum.  This evening was the opening reception for the new exhibit - six artists and 64 challenge quilts.  The place is stuffed with art.  I am particularly fond of Karen Rips work and she has seven pieces hanging - they look great.  Check out the artists being featured:  http://www.visionsartmuseum.org/

I'll be driving home in the morning and maybe it will be clear enough to take some more ocean views.  It was a little too hazy and too much traffic on the way down today.

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Karen Rips quilt in TCQC 02-22-15

I became friends with Karen Rips soon after the International 12X12 group started.  It has been a pleasure to watch her style develop and I am a great admirer of her very elegant, subtle quilts.  The only trouble with this quilt is my inability to photograph it to show it at its best. The light color is a soft sage green, surrounding the dark sage green center rectangle  and the outer edges are a deep purple, as is the faced back.  Karen has used her unique technique of sewing the front, batting, backing together with channel quilting and then doing a sort of felting process using hot water to make everything shrink up. 

 

"Gravida"  Karen Rips - Thousand Oaks, CA  2013  35"W x 46"L

Hand-dyed cotton, wool batting, hand embroidery, paint, silk, machine pieced and quilted.

[Gravida (noun)  a woman's status regarding pregnancy; usually followed by a roman numeral designating the number of times the woman has been pregnant.]

There are many areas of embroidery stitches. The black lines are paint.

 

Karen has also used some strips of frayed silk fabric to embellish the quilt.

More of the silk strips and black paint along with hand embroidery.

Here are multiple rows of straight hand stitches done in variegated purple/pink thread.

If you enlarge this image you might see the bearding of the wool batting.  I like it as it gives even more texture to this very textured quilt which is very soft and pliable - more like a hand quilted work.

I faded out this image so you can see the facing with the curved inner edges.

This is the third of the pieces of silk couched down with embroidery stitches.

An  adequate label which gives two ways of contacting the artist, her name, the date and even the size of the quilt in the lower right hand corner. 

Exhibit at Visions Art Museum 11-02-13

After spending the night at an HIE near Sea World (ate TWO cinnamon rolls for breakfast), I drove back to the museum for a few photos while things were quiet - as they usually are in the morning. 
I enjoyed giving a little tour to a few ladies who came in, but I was very disappointed that the Gallery Guides have not arrived from the printer.  What a let down when we worked so hard to make them exceptional.  Hope they arrive by the opening next Saturday. 
Here are three views of the gallery showing only nine of the 28 quilts on exhibit.

On the left is Terry Grant's "Judith's Garden:, in the background is "Lizard Lock" by Charlotte Patera, "Gravida" by Karen Rips and just the side of "Flowers Grow in Stony Places" by Karin Franzen.

 

Far left is Ruth B. McDowell's wonderfully expressive "Street Corner". then "Strip Tease #1" by Mary Leakey, and on the right "Structured Chaos #14" by Beth Carney.
 

Jenny Bowker made the quilt on the left "Hot Water, Dead Sea", "Red Wave" is by Dianne Firth, and Carol Ann Waugh made "Allegro" on the right.

These happen to all be somewhat subdued quilts, one of the comments I heard several times last night was how bright and cheerful the exhibit is.   But for some unknown reason I photographed mostly calm quilts today.  I rarely see so many TCQC quilts hanging together, I can only hang one large quilt in three of my rooms - too many windows and doors.  Arranged in the gallery I appreciate the interspersed "quiet" quilts, although I doubt many people would count "Red Wave" as calm.  But with the rhythmic repeat of the lines and the limited color palette, I find it is almost hypnotic..

Quilt National '13 05-26-13

This was the last day of the opening events for Quilt National 2013 in Athens, OH. What a great weekend it has been with so many of this year's artists attending.  Here are a few people pictures.


Karen Rips - Thousand Oaks, CA - with her quilt "High Water Mark" 29"W x 46"L
 

Del Thomas in front of Jan Myers-Newbury's "Tilt-a-Whirl" 89"w x 63"L 
One of the artists thought I looked perfect in front of this quilt and took a picture with my camera. 
 

Elizabeth Barton - Athens, GA - talks about her quilt "Legacy" (44"W x 62"L).
 

Kris Sazaki carried this great purse embellished with flattened bottle caps.

Elin Noble - New Bedford, MA - talks about her quilt "Fugitive Pieces 11" which won the Quilts Japan Prize.  45"w x 65"L

I'll be on the road heading home tomorrow, but haven't decided on a route yet. 

Quilt National - a full day 05-25-13

As you can see, it is much too late for me to be up.  But I wanted to show you a bit of QN '13.


"My Town by the River"  Pamela Allen - Kingston, Ontario, Canada  60"W x 48"L
I like Pamela's work - a lot - although I cannot add some of her quilts to TCQC, because they are too embellished.   She said she is trying to work in more monochromatic values right now.  This is her first time in QNational.   
 

Karen Rips with husband Ted.  Karen's very original quilt "High Water Mark" is hanging and I did take a picture of her with it.  But that will have to wait for another post.
 

"The Conversation"  Mary Ann Tipple - Elyria, Ohio 72"Wx92"L
I met Mary Ann when I came to the QN opening in 2009 and I think her work is exceptional.  A few years ago I added one of her quilts to TCQC, but have yet to post it on my Sunday blog.  The people in the quilt are her dad and his sister.
Mary Ann's quilt won the QSDS and was purchased at the opening.
 

The quilt "Springfield" by Brooke Atherton - Billings, MT., won the Best of Show award.  It is encrusted with many small found items - rocks, glass, pieces of wood, paper - and more.
I don't have an ID on the woman on the right.
 

"Sunlit Canyon" by Patty Hawkins is one of several quilts that sold immediately, but not to me!  The quilt is 52"W x 28"L.  Most of Patty's quilts depict some aspect of aspen trees, she lives in Estes Park, CO.

Tomorrow is the last of the events and I will have to decide on a route to go home.  But I may stay here another night just to reorganize and get a little extra rest.  It is 1am now - much too late.   But I am having a great time.