Working back to normal

Blogging had to take a back seat in the past two years. That period has been all about deadlines. Not only was I immersed in work for Color Improvisations 2, I also filled a position as Program Chair for my local guild, EBHQ. So I had to stay on top of everything.

In those two years I've selected artists for a presentation and two days of workshops to fill 19 months of programming for the guild.

The illustrious guests for 2014 included Pat Pauly, Velda Newman, Sandra Bruce, Suzi Parron, Stacey Sharman, Jane Dunnewold, Jenny Lyon and Els van Baarle.

The lineup continued in 2015: Judy Coates Perez, Terrie Hancock Mangat, Sue Rasmussen, Youngmin Lee, Jean Cacicedo, Jo Fitsell, Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Cynthia Corbin and Jiyoung Chung.

Still yet to come in 2016: Leslie Tucker Jenison, Sherri Lynn Wood, Rosalie Dace and Jacquie Gering. Check the guild's website to see who's coming soon.

And the members enthusiastically responded; enrollment averaged 18 to 19 students (out of 20!) per workshop. So if you are considering any of these wonderful people and want to know more, just ask.

My tenure ended on June 1st. After some residual business, I am a free-er and more relaxed woman who intends to post less erratically as well as keep on working in the studio!

in the studio

Prepared for Pauly

I'm ready with two strip sets for next weekend's workshop.

two strip sets 

Instead of the usual solids, I am using prints in hopes of reducing that print stash. One is a set with five different fabrics. The other is a set with five similar fabrics. Can you tell which is what? Maybe I'm stretching the directions just a little due to limited tolerance for combining prints.

Pat Pauly will teach a two-day Slash and Burn, Techniques for Improvisational Quilts at my guild. This will be the very first workshop I've added as the guild's Program person (I'm now the Program Chair). A two-day workshop is usually a harder sell, but it's full with a waiting list! My critique group will host a dinner for her next Saturday. Maybe she'll share how she does it all - maintains her good humor, her energy and her productivity. Wouldn't you like to know? 

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. 

Quick & simple projects

Some time ago I'd replace the binding on an old blanket: 

new binding on old blanket

and transformed it into a designer item. Buoyed by that success, I made some quick & simple pragmatic things while the studio was in transition.

Studio trash container repurposed from a 25-pound rice sack:

simple & quick studio waste basket

Case for my tai chi sword & saber:

case, saber & sword

Designing the pattern and adjusting the fit were not so quick nor simple, but at least it didn't take that long.

Then there's the long promised bed quilt, which I'd posted about previously. Due to its size, definitely not quick but fairly simple:

on the wall before corners were filled in

 trial layout on the bed, unquilted

It looks quite different on the bed - something to keep in mind for the next (if ever) bed quilt.

I was on a pragmatic roll and signed up for a guild workshop. A collaged vest to kill three birds with one stone: make my first art-to-wear, use a clothing pattern from my ever-growing collection, and reduce the stash of print fabric.

First I made a fitting muslin to try out the two different front placket options. The pattern is Lois Ericson's In the Studio - 7, Folds and Edges.

muslin vest on the design wall

muslin vest on an old (deformed) dress form

During the workshop, the instructor, Christine Barnes, helped me with the right front panel. After the workshop, I worked on the other two sections, the back yoke and the left front under panel, on my own. These took forever to look right; tortuous instead of quick and simple. 

collaged front panels and back yoke, before stitching

covered with stitches & washed

By the time it will be finished, it'd be too warm to wear. So it's going into the ufo pile. Not permanently - just until fall.

Then there's the baby quilt for my first grand nephew due in May. I decided against that project (that's how I spell relief). Instead, four siblings and I got together on a group gift off their Pottery Barn baby registry - a dresser with a changing table topper - that'll match the crib from my nephew's mother (another sister).

Remind me not to do start any quick & simple projects; enough pragmatism for the year. No more diversions or procrastinations. The studio may be a work in progress, but it's time to refocused on my non-pragmatic work.

Maturing twins and other things

quilted

I've finished quilting the challenging twins and intend to have it squared, faced & sleeved by next Wednesday's mini-group meeting. Then they'd be ready to hang at the next EBHQ community show. I've learned a lot from this project. More about that later.

No more quilting projects before my October trip. But I intend to continue with fmq each day by quilting more little 4x4 samples of Leah Day's beginner-intermediate designs.

In the meantime, I'm preparing for a two-day dyeing feast with my friend Pat. We'll combine a couple of exercises from True Colors with Carol Soderlund, to dye neutrals in dark and medium-dark values. All one yard pieces - at least 26 yards total. A real dyeing experience (as opposed to little sixteenths last year (here and here).

I'd rather be in the studio (or the garden) but I'm actually doing some housekeeping. It's starting to look presentable for my critique group which will be meeting here next week. I clean for a reason!

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.

March madness

Life in March has been ricocheting about like the unpredictable weather. But no whining about all that boring stuff, let's talk about art and quilts in two noteworthy events. For eye candy, be sure to click on the links. Better and more comprehensive views than I can provide.

First, EBHQ - my local quilt guild - had it's biannual show, Voices in Cloth. I helped with set up and take down, but spent an afternoon enjoying the show. Even though it's non-juried, there was a fabulous variety of quilts from traditional patchwork to contemporary techniques, from realistic to abstract. Beautifully created garments and vendors too. For this new venue, we got the weather to cooperate with a break from the rain. With excellent lighting through the windows and skylights our visitors were dazzled. See the quilts and garments here.

I also caught the travelling exhibit of Quilt National 'll.at the San Jose Museum of Quilt and Textiles. Not every quilt that was at the Dairy Barn, but - wow! - quilts aplenty for inspiration. Going with two artists added a lot to the experience too. The museum website has two videos of the museum curator leading a tour of the show. Don't miss the highlight in part 2: Bonnie Smith talks about her creative process. Good pictures in their newsletter too.

Next post: art in an unexpected place.

Guild show

Very spring-like yesterday. Yet I was indoors clearing e-mails, catching up on paperwork, and cleaning up everywhere. I did manage a late afternoon hour in the garden pulling weeds. Some things can't wait.

My two submissions for the guild show can't wait either - they're due Monday.

Orange Rhyme

lap quilt

EBHQ's bi-annual show, Voices in Cloth, will be on March 17th and 18th at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, CA. The pavilion is an award winning former Ford assembly plant - a soaring space with skylights and big windows with views of San Francisco Bay. I'm very excited about this new venue - a welcome change from the downtown convention center.

The show is non-juried, but the caliber of work is amazing. Terrific quilters in the guild - award winners too. Am I lucky to be in such a good group, or what? We'll showcase more than 200 quilts. Get a flavor by watching the slide show of November's Show and Tell.

Come for the quilts, for the show, for the view, for the architecture and for the history. Come say hello.

I’m lounging about in my pj’s eating bon-bons and watching day-time soap operas. Not!

The first month of retirement past quickly. A week handling personal business. One week out of town pruning an almond orchard.

Another week of deferred housekeeping.

The rest zoning out, recovery and r&r. Where did that time go? Haven’t seen that full time studio artist yet.

Plans are afoot to be a stationary nomad. Rooms will trade spaces: studio with the guest bedroom, and my bedroom with the home office. The bathrooms are slated for a long overdue remodel. Retiring means making changes in other areas too.

Though I still haven’t cleaned up after Hurricane Elena, the state of domesticity allows some guilt-free time in the studio.

Four years after my very first quilt top, I now have a lap quilt.

Just in time for the guild’s annual Show-and-Tell in November. Orange Rhyme also got another moment in the limelight. A slide show will be posted here.

Just a peek at another project in the works.

At the guild's Monday general meeting, they announced 2780 people attended the EBHQ's biannual show, Voices in Cloth, held three weekends ago. That averages more than 200 persons each hour! Wow! Good show! Thank you, my buddies, for coming. 

Great quilts! I will post some of my favs from the show. Start with this delectable eye candy.

Joan Samuelson stitches a face every morning. She put together 49 for this arresting assemblage.

Take a closer look. Terrific fine motor control. So expressive and impressive.

See more of Joan's terrific faces on RoseGardenQuilts.

Can do!

The past weekend was lost to the EBHQ's quilt show. Saturday's dinner didn't happen until 10pm whereas Sunday I was in bed by 9pm. A great event but whew!

Only three weekends remaining! Yikes! Then I'm off to the Ohio for another two weeks with Nancy Crow. Feeling momentarily ambitious, here's my plan for the ribbon quilt, fmq and workshop homework.

Finish the quilt top for sandwiching on Saturday at the guild drop-in. That'd give me three weeks to quilt it. I already have an idea about that. Squeeze in more fmq practice sessions to give it a go. Sets and variables motifs will just fit in wherever and whenever.

Yes, I can!

The house that Mad Elena built

The architect Richard Neutra was was instrumental in introducing the International Style of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe to the United States. A 1947 Time Magazine article named him second only to Frank Lloyd Wright in making an architectural mark on the United States. In 1949 he was featured on the cover of Time Magazine (read the cover story to find out why it's captioned Architect Richard Neutra, What will the Neighbors Think?). His renown residence - Lovell House - perches on a steep hill in Los Angeles and epitomizes his geometric and linear forms.

Neutra House is my homage to him and attempts to emulate his architectural lines. It is 35w x 38h and will hang in EBHQ's biannual show on April 10th and 11th - Voices in Cloth where I will be a white glove hostess at the show each morning from 10am to noon. If you're there, come and say hello.

9-day countdown

The guild depends on volunteers to put together their biannual Voices in Cloth. Members with a quilt in the show must volunteer 4 hours for the show.

Two years ago no quilt but I volunteered anyway as a white glove hostess. I touched the quilts, flipped over to backs, answered questions as best I could and got a chance to really look at every quilt. Despite the tired legs, a great experience. This year I will white glove again both mornings from 10am to noon.

Neutra House is not finished, but I'm not worried. Quilting is done; facing is 99% complete; sleeve is ready to be added;  finally attach the show label and it'd be ready. All small stuff I can finish in a couple of hours.

With my design wall free, I've put up the strip-pieced ribbon quilt. Do I dare think I can finish it before heading back the Crow Barn on May 8th? And develop motifs for the Sets & Variables workshops too?

Turning to leave my studio last night, my eyes caught the quilt and I was captivated by its colors. Magic moments like these keep me going.

Thank you, but no

Last night I returned a call from an EBHQ member. My first thought was duty assignment for Voices in Cloth the guild show in April. But that wasn't it. She wanted to know if I would run for the member-at-large position on the board.

I am extremely grateful to EBHQ for the workshops, books and show opportunities. Further thanks goes to them for my monthly get together with my Quilt Therapy group. In return I volunteer at the library before each monthly meeting and co-curated the last two local shows. Much as I would like to be more active, time is a luxury. I declined.

As Kathy Loomis advises, I must make more quilts to develop my own voice. To step up my quilt productivity, I must not stray off on tangents. To stay focused, I must eschew workshops and other activity that does not add to my knowledge base. I shall pursue art with near single-mindedness. I can do it. I just can't do it all.

30-day countdown

The pressure is on. I entered Neutra House in EBHQ's quilt show, Voices in Cloth, happening April 10th and 11th. That means turning in the quilt on April 3. I have 30 days to finish it. Trying to avoid coming down to the very last minute.

This quilt will roughly measure 3'x3'. So it’s not huge - only about 15"x36" bigger than the first. But that extra size has made a difference. More surface to cover. More weight to push around.

To figure out the white quilting lines, I first drew onto tracing paper covering the quilt. I was too close or it was too big. Couldn't see the whole thing.

My art instructors were right: start with a thumbnail sketch. Then not too much time spent if it doesn't work out. I am sketching again with a 4"x4" photo.

My goal for the week: make a satisfactory sketch and sew those white lines. Then facing, sleeve and label left. The end seems so close. Musn't think that. I do tend to procrastinate. Then rush to finish it in time. Uh, uh! Not this time! I want to finish with time to spare.

Talking quilt

My quilt for EBHQ's biannual show, Voices in Cloth, has proceeded in jerks and stops. The top was on my design wall for a month before I reworked it. Then another month as I wondered how to quilt it. I posted about it here and here and here. Still undecided about that, I went ahead and sandwiched and basted it. Then it spoke to me.

From it's inception, it had a landscape orientation. I've turned it and looked again. Nope, landscape. But with the basting stitches, it spoke loud and clear: turn me! Even my quilt group heard it. Now it has a portrait orientation. Here it is on the right with only basting stitches.

The same thing happened with my first quilt, Straight Talk. I am amazed by the power of stitch lines.

Now it looks like a modernist building. An abstracted façade of with walls, overhangs, recesses and reveals. So along that theme I've added a 2x4 grid in brown then a 4x8 grid in teal. I do like my quilt lines to show but both grids are subtle. Well, they are background. Here it is on the left with brown and teal quilting lines. 

Next will be a heavy white thread that would stand out. The white reflects the exterior color common to modernist buildings. To pay homage to Richard Neutra (pronounced NOI-tra), a California Modernist architect, I am researching his buildings to cull design elements and sketch the quilt lines.

It's an architectural tradition to name a building after the client. Well, he can't be anyone's client anymore. Nevertheless I've named this quilt Neutra House.

The queen

Sue Nickels is the queen of stippling and feathers. Her quilts are gape-mouth knockouts with lots beautifully detailed quilting. She deserves every single award. 

I just finished her two-day EBHQ workshop on machine quilting. She was a fabulous instructor - organized, clear, concise and very patient and upbeat with everyone. Though she claims to be a non-techie, she used a microphone, camera and projector. Hurrah for Sue for embracing technology and enabling her students to see and hear her demonstrations

Despite having no interest in traditional quilting, I learned much even though my free motion quilting did not show any marked improvement.  Practice, patience and preserverence was her pep talk cry. No one becomes an award winning free motion quilter overnight. See - there's hope!

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.

Road to recovery

Ever been away from something so long you forget how? After that exhausting August, no problem threading the Janome but mis-threaded the bobbin winder. Twice wound up a tangled mess. Goes to show the last thing learned is the first thing forgotten.

To jump start back into quilting, I took another terrific EBHQ workshop at the end of August. Valerie Goodwin gave map making lessons in Map Maker Make Me a Map. Not quite up to speed so I didn't get very far on either of two maps: first Why-o-Y City
Then a map of the Japanese Tea Garden. Don't see it? What about a bird on the back of a pig?

For another boost of creativity another workshop at the end of September: Painting with Machine Embroidery with Carol Shinn . The room full of sewing machines brought me back to much younger days spent at the sweat shop where my mother worked. Those weren't good times but the drone was soothingly meditative as I free-motion embroidered. First: embroidery over painted canvas which started as a rectangle.

Second: embroidery over iron-on image transfer which created a heavily plasticized surface.

For I used my Bernina 830 - no, not the arm-and-leg one, the original - to sew these. In the weekend between tried this out on my Janome 6600P: What a difference! The old Bernina was so easy to use whereas I really had to study the Janome manual to get the settings right for freemotion.

I tried out a stiff non-woven material - truth be told, weed blocker fabric. The image is a freebie from Dover Publications (sign up for their free weekly samples). It'd probably distort more with additional stitching. See Carol's new book Freestyle Machine Embroidery: Techniques and Inspiration for Fiber Art for more information about the distortion. Or take her workshops - she's a terrific instructor.

But that did it. Once again in the habit of going into my studio from 9 to 11pm. And clear headed enough to make visual decisions.

Curatorial experience

In June EBHQ had quilts hung at the Lakeview branch of the Oakland library. I helped curate – my first experience. And wrote about it for the guild newsletter:

Tale from a Virgin Curator

cu•rate (kyoor′-āt′) To act as a curator – as a person in charge of an exhibition.

Like a student waving her hand at the teacher because she finally knows the answer, I jumped in when Jennie Aldrich asked for volunteer curators for the Oakland Lakeview Library show. So did Sandy Ellison and Pati Fried. Since we three volunteers were without curatorial experience, we were the students and Jennie our teacher.

Unlike an institution like the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, we did not have a cadre of curatorial assistants. We did it all.

First task was to collect and store the quilts. Pati and Sandy manned a table at the May general meeting to collect quilts. Both of them and Jennie were especially persuasive convincing others to participate. Responsibilities included getting the forms completed and signed, checking for a label and a hanging sleeve, and keeping track of all the quilts collected.

A week before the exhibition, the four of us met to review the submissions and lay out the display. We reviewed all the quilts and started grouping them. Some quilts just sung with one another and begged to be together. We were challenged to identify specific wall locations to fit each group. Thankfully, Jennie had measurements of the display spaces. Sometimes we had to shift quilts around but tried to create a cohesive visual display. In the end we found display space for all 33 quilts submitted.

Then we documented the quilts and their locations with photos and notes. Otherwise we would've been lost on the hanging date. Hanging them was only a week later but you know how that is! Before packing up the quilts, we prep them for hanging and made notes to get more supplies.

On Monday, June 1st we hung the quilts. Jennie was on the ladder and the rest of us were the ground crew. Other than a scramble halfway through the hanging, we fell into a rhythm – two to hang and two to prepare. We made a great team!

Jennie and Sandy had to leave for the EBHQ board meeting. But they left only one wall for Pati and me to finish on our own.

On the ladder, I realize how adept Jennie is at hanging. I knocked off the picture moulding hooks several times for each of the three quilts. I'm sorry, Pati! As my ground crew, she was fishing among the books stacks for the hooks that flew off. I was so close to the quilts, I couldn't see the display and depended on her help to adjust them. Going it alone would've meant getting up and down the ladder constantly. That would've saved me a gym workout, but also would've resulted in noodle thighs!

Looking around the two rooms after we were done, I took pleasure in having a role in brightening and transforming the library. I hope you'll have a chance to visit this library and see the quilts whether you have one hanging there or not.

A lot of credit goes to Jennie for the curatorial lessons. What I learned was well worth the few hours I put in. My three co-curators were all fantastic and cooperative co-workers. And I got close looks at all the quilts. What a fabulous experience all around!

How about you - would you like to curate a show? Perhaps your very own show someday? Start small, start with experienced help, and start here. Volunteer for the Oakland Lakeview Library exhibition next time. Or some other EBHQ show. It'll be an excellent opportunity.

Ellen who's no longer a virgin curator