Masters II Exhibit at NEQM

Over the weekend I was able to attend the gallery tour given by Martha Sielman, the curator of the Masters II exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA. What a great experience! She knew so much about each quilt that you can't get by just reading the cards on the wall. Unfortunately, while pictures were allowed, we were asked not to use them in blogs or on facebook, so there are a lot of links, not a lot of pictures.
One picture of most of the SAQA members in attendance:

Martha is in the front, center left. I'm smiling from the third row, third from the right. 

and it was great to see Janet, Michele, Maryann and Margaret!

The work in the show was fabulous! Someone asked what my favorite was and there is no way I could pick one, even now. Although there is one that I would take home in a heartbeat. A Time To Dance May 17 by Karin Franzen can be seen here. She used sheers in layers which gives a very floaty three dimensional effect. I'm pretty sure those cranes would be happy nesting here.

There is a piece by Maryline Collioud Robert in the show with brilliant colors and intriguing organic shapes. While her inspiration comes from the real world, she brings these visions back to her studio not by taking photos or sketching the images, but by collecting adjectives and then refers back to this list of words to create her quilts. What a great way to get an abstract image that completely represents the original scene.

There were quite a few pieces that incorporated hand piecing or hand quilting which was beautiful, it's such a different look and feel from machine pieced and quilted. It also made me a bit nostalgic for my hand quilting days. (Especially today after wrestling with my long-arm!) I loved the focus it required and the control I had over the materials. Perhaps a separate series in the future.

Please go see this show if you can, it is well worth the time!

New Class!

Yes, it's been a while. Last fall was so out of routine that I ended up just holding on and going for the ride!

I've started a new class with the awesomeness that is Lisa Call, her Master Class. It's a six month class, so I will have a much better vision of where my quilts are going and getting into the studio will become more routine. It's hard to argue with six months of (good) habit making!

I've started my first quilt for the class, based on Artem, which will become Artem #1, first in a series of quilts made with raised lettering and painted. No pictures yet! Next week should show some progress.

What would you do...

If you knew you couldn't fail?

I decided I can't fail. Why?
1. I'm in a class all by myself! I'm the only one who can be me, do what I do...
2. I'm the teacher... i design the syllabus and direction of the class.
2. I'm also the grader. I decide what's on the test and how to score it.

Methinks that I have things stacked in my favor...













I had a great time today making some really UGLY quilt tops. I can't wait to see what they look like when they are quilted and painted.

Handi Quilter Fusion has arrived!

I was expecting it on Monday, but it showed up today:

woohoo! But I have to wait to have the shop I bought it through, Bits 'n Pieces,  to come set it up. Apparently it's a wee bit complicated!

last two quilts for class

sigh. class is over. It was great, I learned a lot and there are still so many links and resources to get through. It pushed me to work hard and I have an inkling of what I am capable of doing. In the hecticness of summer I made 5 40"x40" (approximately) pieces, each of which i am proud of!

My classmates did AMAZING work. I wish I could share some with you! I think you will be seeing their work in publications and art galleries soon!

Assignment 3:

The assignment was to take our reference photo (for this I used assignment 2) and change the shape of the form, so I straightened out the curve and the angle of the diamonds. It was the week before SolarFest, so I was thinking about global warming and how so many people are ignoring it or denying it. Can you see my anger?

here is number 4:

a little more cheerful, no? This assignment was to change the lines up a bit, so I "shot" through the outer curves and this is the shape I got.

Assigment 5:

The assignment was to take a reference piece and make it more elaborate or more simple. I thought that number 4 was on the simple side, so I added to it... more fabrics, more threads, more quilting, more shapes. 

second assignment

For this one, I changed the perspective and scale of the circle. The quilting was supposed to suggest looking along the surface of quilt. It was also inspired by Color Field paintings

 Looking at the quilt in real life, it looks like you can walk through the blue part, like an arch or tunnel. 

a little more detail, and I also like the composition of this crop:

detail

First assignment

The first assignment was to use a different color from our reference piece (Artem) and here is the result. I chose a simple quilting pattern similar to Artem. I feel there is a look of layers of paint with some rust poking through, which was the goal.