World of Threads and Quilt National Work

This is the last of the pieces I will be exhibiting in World of Threads next month.  It's called "Losing His Mind",  and it's the second in a series of Alzheimer's pieces.  It's 58 inches long by 43 inches wide. It is similar to my past work, with the white fabric dyed black, then soy wax marked and discharged.  The background is organza, shrunk with wool batting, and the hand stitching of broken rows become more pronounced towards the top, signifying to me the missed connections that take place when struggling with this disease.

Here's a close up.  I had to decide if I wanted this to be entered into World of Threads or QN, and I went with World of Threads, mainly because I think the work is a little edgier, and I'd never submitted to it before.

This piece below, "Smile" was entered into QN.  It is 25 inches long, and 37 inches wide, made in the same fashion as the piece above.

And the close up

This weekend, I traveled down to San Diego to attend the opening of Visions.  I always run into someone I know here, and this time was no exception.  Lisa Kijak has a wonderful piece in the exhibit in her continuing series on neon signs, and Marianne Burr was there with her piece "Eleven 3 Eleven", which won the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Recognition Award.
Speaking of Del, here we are, cooling off and catching up from the show.

My favorite piece from the show was by Shin-hee Chin, titled Ryu, Gwan-Sun

The stitching is incredible, and I think it's done by hand

It's one of those pieces you can't stop staring at.

Of course I had to check out the gift shop, and found some Twelve by Twelve books for sale

If you get a chance, try to check out the exhibit, if you can't they have a catalog available.

Patchwork Professional

Some of the good publicity to come out of my solo show at Art Quilt Gallery New York  was the attention it got from Dorothee Crane, the publisher of Patchwork Professional

This is a German magazine, published quarterly.

I was surprised to see the length of the article, I had only expected one or two pages.

Originally Dorothee wanted to focus on my travel journals, seen below,

but she ended up publishing pieces from my current work with "A View Within", from my texture series, and from the "Twelve by Twelve" challenge.

It's pretty cool to see my work in such a beautiful magazine.


Patchwork Professional

Long Beach Quilt Show

It's been a busy few days for me, starting with the Long Beach Quilt Show, where the Twelve by Twelves had a special exhibit, sponsored by Del Thomas.

Terry, Gerrie, Del and I spent the day Friday roaming around the show, then coming back to our display to lurk and hear the comments people were making about our work.  It was so much fun be able to casually mention I was one of the Twelves and chat with about our work.

The exhibit was crowded every time I wandered by and my heart still fills with emotion to realize what we have done.

This is half of the Rituals exhibit, curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison.  This exhibit was sponsored by Moore's.  My quilt is the black/gray piece. This was taken from far away because there was no photography allowed at this exhibit, but if you'd like to buy the book, just go to http://dinnerateightartists.blogspot.com.

The day was capped with a wonderful boat cruise and dinner with Del and Corky's parents.

Long Beach

This is just a reminder that the IQF Long Beach starts Thursday and runs through Sunday.  I will be there most of the day Friday.  I'm in two special exhibits this year.  The first is the Twelve by Twelve exhibit, which will have all 288 of our quilts exhibited.  Terry Grant, Gerrie Congdon and I will all be attending.

The second exhibit I'm in is Dinner at Eight, curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison.  The theme this time is Rituals, and my piece, Meditation is in this exhibit.

For more information on this exhibit, check out the blog http://dinnerateightartists.blogspot.com/
       
                             International Quilt Festival, Long Beach, CA  - July 26-29, 2012
                                             sponsored by Moore's Sewing Centers

Achilles' Heel

This is the newest creation for the Twelve by Twelve's 12 x 20 challenge.

To read about the process, please go to our blog at http://www.twelveby12.blogspot.com/

2012 Maps

Over on the Twelve by Twelve blog we are revealing our new theme "Maps" today  http://www.twelveby12.blogspot.com/.  I made two  pieces for this series, and would like to make more.  This is the second one here, which I titled Heartthrob.

Here is the close up.  

I think the reason I chose Arrhythmia for the challenge is that this one is a little too realistic for me.

SAQA Auction

I have been working like crazy in my studio, creating new pieces for my collaboration with Paula, "A View Within", and making a small series for the Twelve by Twelve theme Metamorphosis.  I also took some time to make a 12" piece for the SAQA auction.  This is from a sample I made for a larger piece, trying to see if wool felting I used as batting would cause too much waffling of the fabric.  Turns out, when I blocked it the piece was fine.  I cut this down to size and added  little handstitching.  It's one of those pieces that's difficult to photograph properly, because of the black/white and because there is so much texture. This is not an official photo, just something quick for the blog.

For the body images series, I'm working on a fractured wrist next, and I wanted to do some shibori  for the two arm bones (radius and ulna).  This worked out really well, with some random marks left over on the side.

This will be the 15th in a series for this work, and I can't see slowing down yet.

At Last

The final Twelve by Twelve colorplay quilts are being revealed today on this site http://www.twelveby12.blogspot.com/, and they are great.

I'm not sure where we are going next, but I'm sure it will be as amazing as the rest of the adventure has been.

Kyoto Revisited

Today is the reveal of our new Twelve by Twelve theme, which is complimentary, purple and yellow.  This is my contribution.  To read the story and see the rest, please visit our blog http://www.twelveby12.blogspot.com/.

Energy Flow

Today is the reveal of our latest Twelve by twelve challenge and the results are posted here http://www.twelveby12.blogspot.com/. The explanation of how I made this is on blog, but I have included a side view here which hopefully will show the depth of the piece.

Dandelions

This is the first in a series of challanges for the fiber art group I belong to called twelve by twelve. The theme was dandelions and to view the others just go to the side bar on this blog site and click on the image.