When the stars align

I remember taking my second workshop at the Crow Barn, before the Color Improvisations exhibition was slated to open in 2010. It was to be a stellar line up - one I wanted to see up close and personal. But that didn't happen: I didn't make it to Europe and it didn't travel to the United States.

Most of all, I wished for an invitation from Nancy Crow to participate in a exhibition. Now the stars have aligned!

I have been juried into a group exhibition, Color Improvisations 2, curated by Nancy Crow and featuring 50 works by 43 artists. I am honored by the invitation to participate, blessed by the acceptance of my work, Terra Verde, and flattered to be included with many acclaimed artists. A sure bet: I'll be there for the opening!

Color Improvisations II
Curated by Nancy Crow

Organized by Ginie Curtze

March 12 - August 28, 2016

Opening reception March 11, 2016 7pm

Museum Tuch + Technik Textilmuseum

Neumünster, GERMANY

Kleinflecken 1
24534 Neumünster
Telefon  04321 559 58-20

http://www.tuchundtechnik.de

detail from Terra Verde

Re-entry

Life has been hectic in the past two months. I've taken two great workshops: Potpourri II with Nancy Crow at the Crow Barn and The New Complex Cloth with Jane Dunnewold at Art Quilt Tahoe. Seen two great international juried fiber arts shows. Maybe I'll catch up and post about these. Maybe not.

For now I'm happily engaged in a new project. Started with the golden pieces from the workshop:

modules from Potpourri II

and made more with some in other colors.

more modules, more colors

Re-arranged the jumbled mess,

more cohesive but flat

auditioned more colors,

looking livelier

resulting in a small half-way decent composition.

a 36x36 composition

Added red, and made more to make it bigger,

a 42x53 composition

but not necessarily better. Why the heck is that?! Needs more work!

It's not too big yet big enough to become my entry for the EBHQ quilt guild show, Voices in Cloth, coming up in March.

Gotta be big enough to hang around all those big traditional quilts. 

A simple life

I came back from Italy only to be consumed for six weeks by two intensive projects for the job I didn't retired from. By the half year mark, my studio routine was non-existent and creative accomplishments sorely lacking.

I resolved to fix that with judicious pruning. I limited my gardening activities, limited my already limited housekeeping (furthering its decaying state), limited my social life, limited my internet usage and stole away to work in the studio. I've now re-established my nightly studio routine and made good headway on an(other) intensive project, so I can ease up on my monastic life.

You want to see what I've been working on? I'm not ready to show you the whole thing. You'll have to be at the Crow Timber Barn in Ohio to see it. I'll be there from October 7th to 11th for Nancy Crow's Potpourri II workshop. This top will be there too.

Yet I can't have a post without a photo. So here's a teaser:

corner of four modules

A continuation of circles with straight lines.

I previously teased you with this. Well, I wasn't happy with this which was a very symmetrical four-square, about 40x40. I took it apart and made six more modules. Still wasn't satisfied and made another six. After 60 hours just piecing, I'm happy with this bigger (100x60) better relative.

Oh, life should be so simple!

Quilt as desired

Are you someone who can be ready for a trip at the drop of a hat? Then return home and jump right back into your routine without much jet lag? I am envious because that's certainly not true for me. Out of state trips always knocks me out for a week.

This two-week trip was wonderful despite a couple of hiccups. I re-connected with a long time (not old) good friend near Detroit. Together we took a short trip to Toronto. Then I'm at the Crow Timber Barn for a workshop - Machine Quilting: Inspiration, Design, Critique with Sandra Ciolino. I'll save the hiccups for another time and get down to what you really want to know about - the workshop.

iso right thread color & weight for Golden Sol

Sandy, our fearless leader (she prefers facilitator), not only quilts beautifully, she's a great teacher! Communicative, structured, generous, caring, attentive, open, non-threatening, organized and more. The qualities you wished all your teachers had. She deserves lots of credit for setting up an environment for everyone to thrive. What a difference five days made!

We were a small group of seven with not a bad apple in the bunch! Couldn't ask for a better group of people!

Machine quilting wise, each of us started in a different place - from little to some experience. But that was okay. Sandy gave each individual plenty of attention and guidance from wherever we were. Nudged and nursed us along until we were quilting with confidence.

We were also diverse stylistically. I expected more Nancy Crow students since it was at the Barn. Instead three had never taken any workshop with her and two had taken only one workshop. So we had a diverse range of quilt tops to critique.

The critiques were a fabulous learning experience. These were not a show-and-tell what's-good-what's-not likes-dislikes kind of free-for-all. Sandy provided a timed 5-step structure adapted and revised from Art + Quilt: Design Principles and Creativity Exercises by Lyric Kinard. Of course everyone wanted to know how to quilt their tops - our reason for being there.

The critique structure really worked and we really got into the swing of it. Sandy even joked she'll packaged us up and take us on the road! I got some helpful feedback and am no longer stymied by my larger tops.

The very first exercise was another fabulous learning experience. It made us take the plunge. Jump off the cliff. But in a non-threatening way. It opened up options. Very freeing. We learned there are no rules for thread color, thread weight and stitch lines. Sure, fiddle with the thread tension until that works. Otherwise, quilt as desired! 

I've heard that many times but was clueless as to what that meant. Now I know. There is no one way, no perfect way. Explore, experiment, play. Trust your instincts as an artist and quilt as desired.

With inadequate choice of threads, I didn't get far on the circle with straight lines shown at the top. So I started on these two small black and white compositions in the workshop:

geometric stitches with white, variegated white, variegated gray and black

organic stitches with contrasting variegated thread

A lot of intensive quilting. Geometric stitches requires focus whereas organic stitches flow more. By late morning Friday, I could only doodle:

stitcher doodles 

more stitcher doodles

Many thanks to Nancy Crow for going forth with the workshop despite our small group. Without your faith, this enriching experience would not have happened. When she offers this workshop again, go for it! You won't find a better teacher than Sandy nor a better facility than the Barn.

Apropos, Perfect Happiness was the title of Robert Genn's Tuesday Twice-Weekly Letter, which led with this quote from Winston Churchill: "The way to be happy is to find something that requires the kind of perfection that's impossible to achieve and spend the rest of your life trying to achieve it." Read the rest of it here. 

How do you do . . . ?

Update:
For another perspective on Sandy Ciolino's machine quilting workshop, see this post by Annette Guerrero. Annette was already an accomplished quilter when she took Sandy's workshop. What could be better than endorsement from another quilter?!


My apologies if you've seen the rest of this post before. Due to technical difficulties and user error, the rest of this post was temporarily un-published.

How do you do IT? Machine quilting I mean.

quilting Orange Rhyme

So many decisions. What designs/patterns/motifs to quilt? where to apply it?
Quilting to stand out or blend in? contrast or complement the quilt top?
And thread: color, solid or variegated, weight, fiber type.
Let's not even get into batting.
Use the walking foot? or are you comfortable with free-motion?
Quilt on a home machine? or on a mid or long arm? 
Do your own quilting? or have someone else do it? 

I've pinned my hopes on getting answers from Sandra Palmer Ciolino. She's teaching a one-week machine quilting workshop at the Crow Barn in October. 

I've already taken a basic introductory class, and a two-day workshop with Sue Nickels. I've followed Leah Day, Heather Thomas and Angela Walters online. I've stitched up many samples from The Free Motion Quilting Project. 

beginner designs

But I still don't get it - I have not mastered free motion quilting. Okay, admittedly I haven't practiced consistently. Yes, I know, practice, practice, practice! Two to three hours a day for beginners; more if not particularly gifted. Yep, that's me. 

the only finished project with fmq

My last quilt was intensely stitched with a walking foot.

lines up to 3/16" apart

Sure wasn't much fun getting the bulky thing to turn around under the machine arm. Free-motion would be the ticket to avoid that. Someone said, "don't let your skills limit what you can create". So my goal is to master fmq. 


A whole cloth quilt is not for me. Instead a perspective that'll work with abstract improvisational compositions. In time I may figure this out but I'm impatient. If fmq will never be my thing, then I want to find out soon. 

Sandy is a fabulous machine quilter using her domestic sewing machine. Check out her gallery of recent work on her website. I've heard much praise for her last workshop. She has quilted for Nancy Crow - that's alone is quite an endorsement. Plus she's a sweetheart to boot. 

There's room in the workshop. I'm hoping it'd be a go. Worst case scenario, it won't and might not be offered again. So won't you join me in Ohio for the workshop? Would be good for you. But really - full disclosure here - I'm asking in my own self interest.

Terry-fic

Terry Jarrard-Dimond was here. 

Terry

Ever since I saw The Big Red Dog at Quilt Visions Biennial 2008 I've followed her blog. I was smitten with her work in the exhibition curated by Nancy Crow, Color Improvisations (still touring in Europe). When I found out she would be teaching a workshop for my guild, I signed up immediately.

I rate this terrific two-day workshop - Developing Your Shape Vocabulary  - at the top of all EBHQ guild workshops I’ve ever taken. She graciously encouraged and engaged our creative eyes & minds as well as shared thoughts and insights of her own. I love having an artist as teacher.

She also enlightened us with her talk Self Critique - How Artists Critique Their Own Work. Wish I had taken notes. The questions she posed to artists are fodder for thoughts for any artist in any medium at any stage.

You can follow Terry's blog - see what she’s up to. She'll introduce you to other fabulous artists. Check out her website to find out more about her, her textile constructions, and where and when the terry-fic Terry Jarrard-Dimond will be teaching next.

I wouldn't hesitate to grab an opportunity to study with her again.

Ready or not

I used up a lot of fabric at the Potpourri workshop. So when I stopped at Fabric Depot in Portland, Oregon,  I replenished. Of course!

These eleven new fabrics are now studio-ready. But the studio is not. What if I have two sets of everything: one set in the studio and another to go. Save on disruptions. But it'd be twice as much to maintain. Oh well  - just a thought.

Nevertheless, another great workshop week. Even though Nancy was juggling two workshops (Improvisations and Potpourri) and independent study students too, I've never seen her so relaxed and happy! That doesn't mean she eased up on exercises! Four for the week. Here's what I made:

Exercise 1: b+w configuration

Exercise 2: double configurations based on b+w, with limited palette

I have this one (above) up on the design wall. Might want to adjust and refine before sandwiching. Then I will have another project to quilt. 

Exercise 3: unfinished

I didn't do exercise 4. Instead I continued with exercise 3. Still has a long way to go.

Though the exercises were challenging, the week cemented what I've learned so far. I feel more confident about my goals: to finish tops from other workshops; to independently redo exercises; and to continue my own explorations. Plus I plan on completing more quilts and do some dyeing too. All in one year? Hmmm, how much can I accomplish in the nine months left? 

Madly piecing

Yesterday, while gathering supplies for the Potpourri workshop, I found not one good rotary blade in the house. So today I'm making a quick run to the store before loading up the car because I'm leaving at the crack-of-dawn tomorrow.

Prior to this I've been buried in the studio. Nancy had pointedly directed workshop returnees to come back with at least three new pieces. I counted only two: Orange Rhyme & the brown one from last year's workshop. Neither entirely new, but now finished quilts rather than tops (hey, that's progress - twice the production of years previous). She'd said before she'd rather see new quilt tops than finished pieces. So feeling the pressure to produce something new for no. 3,  I got the behind moving.

The genesis of circles with straight lines was here & here. I continued explorations here, here, here & here. After madly piecing  for days, I have no. 3 about three feet square. Here's a peek.

detail

Well, now you know: deadlines help my productivity. Otherwise I'd be chasing rainbows until the cows come home.

How about you? How do you manage your creativity? Or not? Do you set deadlines and goals? Do you set daily time in the studio? Do you focus on getting a finished product? Or do you allow yourself to just explore?

Compounded & confounded

 

Curves Sampler

  

The Bride & the Batchelors - Wild Bride

Two weeks at the Crow Timber Barn - 5:30am to 11pm days - compounded by a three-hour shift from Pacific to Eastern time has turned life topsy turvy and my usually disordered household into a disaster zone. Small price for priceless workshops.

First week - Lines Curves Circles and Figure Ground, Part 1 - was the least stressful workshops I've ever taken from Nancy Crow. I didn't finish all the exercises, but gained much confidence piecing curves. A terrific time making these too. 



breakdown screen print




resist on silk



Second week - Layers upon Layers with Carol Soderlund - was a enticing exploration of surface design techniques which also cemented dyeing knowledge gained in True Colors last fall. The starch resist and breakdown screen printing are my favs.  

resist on undercloth & direct resist on pimatex

The bags under my eyes are receding. My pants are not worn backwards. I'm back at work and recovering from these exciting times. If I find those papers I'd stashed somewhere safe, life would return to normal.  



Dreamy two

I’m setting up at the Barn. Other workshop participants doing the same. Or they’re meeting new friends and reuniting with old. Atmosphere is electric with energy.

With a sinking heart I realized I’ve no boxes of fabrics. Uh oh. I can visualize them in the studio all ready to go.

It’s bad. Nancy tells me I can’t be in the workshop without materials. No point in being there if I can’t do the work. But . . . but . . . She says I have to leave. Waah! At least she takes a little pity and gets flight info for me. I don’t want to go. Waah!

Don’t worry. Just another variation of going to the first day of school in pajamas. I've had this type of dream before. A sequel to yesterday's Dreamy one from 2009. Okay. Worry.

After these heart pounding nightmares dreams, I prepare. Fabrics packed, labels printed, boxes ready to drop off. But I forgot - out of sight out of mind. Drove off without them this morning. Thank goodness for a sweetheart. He'll bring them to me in exchange for lunch. A small price to pay.

Boxes and chocolates

In another week I'd be on the road with Diana to Indianola, Washington for another workshop week with the esteemable Nancy Crow. Sixth workshop and seventh week since the first in fall 2008. It'd be my first workshop with her outside of the Barn.

Nothing worthy may result but I've loved each and every workshop. It's my vacation - my retreat from the everyday – a week to focus creatively and productively. Exactly what I need despite the challenges.

My shelves are nearly empty. I've packed my fabrics - about 165 hues, 250 yards, 90 pounds ready to go.

Most of them fitted so perfectly into this big Ikea zippered bag. But it was impossibly heavy. Oh well. I've whittle them down to fit into three manageable boxes. Packing the other stuff tonight.

So my friend, Diana, doesn't accuse me of hogging all of her trunk space, I'll make a test run by packing my car tomorrow after the rain has stopped.

Thank you all for your well wishes for my sweetheart. He's much improved. No more pain only itching. He drove 4 miles to the opthalmologist without incident. He's been feasting on Girl Scout cookies and watching his favorite sitcoms. His appetite has returned. Yesterday he made a salmon dinner and we started on the one-pound box of chocolates. Wonderful to have him healthy again! and wonderful chocolates!

Old new tried & true

With long term intensive projects at work and at home, 2011 doesn't look promising for studio time  Work means much frustration. Home means much disruption. So what about artistic goals for 2011? They're less concrete, more nebulous, reflecting the state of affairs - guidelines.

Something old, something new,

Something tried, something true.

Old. During studio clean up, I unearthed many ufo(ld)s. I will not finish them all nor are all of them worth finishing. More workshops mean more ufos. So I will finish at least one for the EBHQ's biannual show in 2012.
New. I may not have time in the studio, but creativity doesn't take a break. I have ideas and am itching to start new work.
Tried. Something I've done before – like redoing an exercise from a workshop. Or someone else has done before -  maybe even adopt a pattern.
True. I feel the emergence of a series.

What else is store for 2011? Three week-long workshops. End of February: Indianola, WA for Nancy Crow's Lines, Curves, Shapes & Figure-Ground Composition, Part II. Mid May: Crow Barn for Dorothy Caldwell's Human Marks. End of September: Crow Barn again for Nancy Crow's Lines/Curves/Circles, & Figure-Ground. I am backing out of Carol Soderlund's Layers upon Layers in October since I haven't dyed a thing since last fall's True Colors and probably won't.

I know, I know. At some point I must stop taking workshops and develop what I know. While I am still earning a paycheck, I will continue taking workshops. Until retirement rolls around in a few years. Where I started almost four years ago seem light years away. Even if I haven't made many tops, haven't redone workshop exercises multiple times – all is not lost. Everything is starting to meld and jell. A little voice is speaking up.

Restructuring report

All right! All right! For friends chomping at the bit, here's my lowdown on the second workshop week at the Crow Timber Barn – Strip Piecing & Restructuring with Nancy Crow. I'll report about the first week in True Colors with Carol Soderlund later.

It was great having familiar faces there, including three from my guild - EBHQ - as well as meeting new ones. Everyone was focused and produced terrific pieces. I can't show you their work but here are mine.

Out of many many strip-pieced fabrics, we produced three compositions. What? You only see two?

I am not showing you my third and final composition. It was a disaster. I was constipated - not bodily, but creatively. And Nancy absolutely agreed. I don't know what happen or why. Let's just say my approach did not produce the desired results. I will begin that final one anew.

I am very pleased with the first two compositions. And miracles do happen - I finished them on time! They came together easily. Even Nancy was surprised! She revealed that my so very s-l-o-w deliberation in the very first workshop - Best of Strip Piecing 1 & 2 -gave her fits! Ooh! Sorry about that Nancy! That was only two years ago, yet seems ages.

Despite the labor intensiveness of strip piecing, I like this way of working. But there's no way I could do a quilt top a

week like Nancy's recommends. Maybe one each month. Or so (yes, I'm hedging).

Addendum: see Robert Genn's, The Painter's Keys, post about choking. Did he read my mind? To prevent creative constipation, I will sing as I work. You may suffer a little dissonance, but better that than a visual cacophony.

Possible madness

I was just there in May. But in less than two months I'd be off to the Crow Barn once again. I'm taking a dip in the dyeing waters with True Colors with Carol Soderlund followed by a week of Strip Piecing & Restructuring with Nancy Crow.

Last time there I got a very clear message: make pieces between workshops and concentrate on tops rather than finished quilts. So I'd started here with a black and white study. Then I got off on a tangent. 

First circle was shown here. Yes! a circle is piece-able with only straight lines. (Don't listen to naysayers calling it a multi-sided figure.) The struggle with bulky seams around a second smaller circle showed I needed a little more method for this madness. 

I draw the circles with a compass and then locate equidistant points for the tangents. Points too close together mean struggles with bulky seams. Points too far apart call the naysayers out of the woodwork.

With a little math, I pieced two more circles, one smaller, one larger.

Ooh boy, possibilities!

Inspirational Color Improvisations exhibit

Color Improvisations is an exhibition that opened on July 11, 2010 in Stuttgart, Germany. 50 large quilts from 26 artists.

Nancy Crow had invited artists to submit pieced tops which had to be new and large – minimum 6 feet in both directions. Upon approval, the artist finished these tops – all the while keeping these works under wraps. I awaited the unveiling with high anticipation.

Twenty four of the artists, as well as Nancy Crow and co-curator Ginie Curtze, were at the opening reception. The excitement is palpable in the photos. Oh, to have been there to bask in that creative atmosphere!

Here are links to postings from a few of the exhibition artists:

Lisa Call posted her two works, but was unable to attend the opening.

Kathy Loomis was the first artist at the opening to report. You can see her two magnificient contributions and a link to her photos.

Bonnie Bucknam posted her three beautiful painterly pieces.

Terry Jarrard-Dimond posted most recently. Not only can you see her two fantastic pieces, she also provided great photos of other artists' works and their statements too. ***7/27/10 update*** Terry added photos of her three pieces and describes her process in another post.

What an inspirational work! Congratulations and kudos to all! These works will contribute immensely toward perceiving quilts as an art medium.

There is a catalog available through eBay.

Two prayers: may I have a chance to see this exhibition and may it travel in the United States.

Recovery from two tough weeks

It is one week after finishing two weeks of workshops with Nancy Crow - Sets & Variables I & II and Sets & Variables III – and I'm still in recovery mode.

My focus the past year was in making that quilt sandwiches and stitching those quilting lines. Though I can pat myself on the back and say, yes! to bringing a few quilt tops to their ready-to-hang state, these skills did not help me in the workshops.

The month before I'd struggled with finishing the ribbon quilt. How many times did I sew together something only look at it, blanch, then begin anew? So I left for the workshop feeling like I'd forgotten how to create. And I did.

I was unprepared. Despite slogging through those weeks, I got a lot out of them. I'll post more about the workshops later.

I've now spent in total five weeks in four of Nancy's workshops. I am still in awe of the woman – she's amazing and inspirational. Words alone cannot convey how fabulous a teacher she is. She teaches more than piecing, more than quilting, more than art. Much more.

I have a list of things to work on. I have exercises and ideas to develop. Projects to finish. I have direction and aspirations. I am now much more clearly focused. I intend to sustain this feeling this drive until I return to the Barn once again.

First motifs

I've been sketching motifs for my Sets and Variable workshops with Nancy Crow in May. I was itching to make some sketches a reality. My first is a simple one based on a traditional patchwork block.
Some variations on the design wall.

Variations could go on forever. Enough with rearranging. I impatiently sewed together my first set of twelve.
Then modified the motif and sewed set number two and three.

What looked good on a sketch didn't necessarily look as good sewn together. I find set two isn't as interesting due to the regular opposition of black and white. In set three the ones with non-matching seams at the point of the v which created an interesting jagged edge. There aren't enough of them.

To keep pace with the intensity of the workshop, my goal is to create a one-seam motif that can still hold interest. By considering how to cut and piece my motif to create reversals and non-matching points, I may be able to achieve that.

More studies to come.

Stuck in the middle

This top is on up on my design wall as I contemplate quilting lines.
From last spring's workshop - Nancy Crow's Improvisations – Let's Experiment! - it was the second assignment: make it BIG & BOLD. The almost centered spot certainly commands attention, so I've satisfied the exercise. If you've taken a workshop with Nancy, you know you don't have much time to tarry. Piece it and move on.

My eye is drawn and glued to that center. That bugged me - too strong a center. I tried moving the spot off center by adjusting the edges. Nah, didn't work. So a virtual but simple re-piece with Photoshop: It's not as bold but I move between the two sides rather than being stuck in the middle. With another teal strip or two, I'll get a more circulation around the composition. Then it'll be ready to quilt.

Quilted for exhibition

I am co-curating another local guild exhibit which opens at the end of October and runs into January. My two co-curators will have quilts in the show. So why not me? Yes, why not? It is non-juried. I scrambled to find something to finish.

I picked a top created last spring in Nancy Crow's Improvisations workshop, previously shown here. Now it's quilted. Yeh! Another tally toward the goals! You can see this and others from the fabulous East Bay Heritage Quilters at:

Alameda County Arts Commission 2009 EBHQ Quilt Exhibit

Alameda County Administration Building

Tax Gallery, 1st floor & Board of Supervisors Gallery, 5th floor

1221 Oak St., Oakland CA
October 26, 2009 to January 14 , 2010, Mon-Fri 8am to 5pm

A tasty tidbit before of the guild's bi-annual show, Voices in Cloth, April 10-11, 2010.

Excruciating piecing

Here's an improvisational composition with black and white from the two-week Improvisations workshop. The composition came together quickly. But figuring out the negative spaces and piecing it all together was excruciatingly s-l-o-w.

The next exercise: repeat this in 30 to 40 colors. That's when I asked if I could proceed with it in color without finishing the piecing of the black and white. That's when she read me the riot act. No, I must finish the black and white first. And she wanted every exercise finished for the final presentation.

Later she came back to ask if I could do it in color without sewing together the black and white. Yes, I can pin it up. Well, she named a later time and would check back to see where I was with the piecing then. I was done and started with the color version.

Slowpoke me. I tried to catch up with everyone else. I'd hurriedly translated it into color then called Nancy over for a critique. Oh, I didn't get it. She wanted the colors to create a sense of depth. Oh, okay. Adjusted the colors, got Nancy's okay, and sewed it up. Used another approach but still another excruciatingly s-l-o-w piecing process with technical difficulties. Nancy loved this piece. I can't step back and say it's a good piece. I prefer the black and white study. Though I love this improvisational process, I remember the excruciating piecing. Twice.

The colored composition lost freshness and spontaneity. Due to the different approaches in piecing, there were some good things happening in the black and white that didn't happen in the color. The way the lines broke and shifted over adds interest.

We weren't allowed to make a pattern to repeat the shapes. Everything was cut freehand. The curves and shapes became studied and stale. The negative spaces distorted, sometimes through technical glitches.

Here are Robert Genn's thoughts on maintaining freshness when repeating a composition.

If I were to use this approach, I would do a black and white study cut without piecing. Out of fabric. Or even out of paper. Make it smaller. I may suffer piecing a colored composition. But I just don't want to go through the whole excruciating piecing twice.