Book Review!

If you are a regular reader here chances are you have more than a dim notion about how to go about making an art quilt but how many times have you been asked by the uninitiated to explain what an art quilt is and how you actually make one?  Now you can point them to a valuable resource.

Some of us know that grabbing fistfuls of cloth, clenching scissors in your teeth and running howling into the woods at night will not get the job done. Like any endeavor worth pursuing, it's good to have a guidebook written by a master.

I'm please to have been asked to review such a book. “Inspired to Design – Seven Steps to Successful Art Quilts”, by Elizabeth Barton, is a comprehensive overview of the process of making a successful art quilt written in a user friendly voice with clear emphasis on good design.

Petergate (36.5"w, 53"h) 

The first time I saw an art quilt was at a solo show of Elizabeth Bartons work hanging in the gallery at the Hudgen's Art Center. I had been making crazed bed quilts and I was stunned by the idea of textile art being afforded all the respect due any painting or sculpture in a contemporary art gallery. I was hooked hard then and have been fumbling my hopeful way every since.

This book is a distillation of her years of experience and success as an internationally recognized artist and teacher. Liberally illustrated with selections from her amazing body of award winning work, “Inspired to Design...” will do just that  and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a light on the path. 

You can buy an autographed copy direct from Elizabeth for $35 (which includes priority mail delivery inside the USA)  by emailing her directly.  

You'll thank me later!

A Summer Day, Long Ago (46"w, 28"h) by Elizabeth Barton

The Sunday stitchery

I spent the morning working on the little piece that Sweetie was sleeping on yesterday after sticky-rolling her fur off of it.

It's clear to me that time spent with my hands busy at something familiar and comforting like this leaves the mind free to think about other new things from different perspectives.

 






There was also this very timely post about size  by Altoon Sultan

new WIP

The more I work on it the more I like it. Big, four by four feet and could get bigger. So far it's all pins and possible paths.

The past six hours have been blessed escape from the world and technology - the madness in  Boston, please be over.

And I'm coming out of the stone age phonewise going from a pre-blackberry to what I call a Pokephone. All this poking and swiping reminds me of cats in a sandbox. The learning curve is very steep.

And speaking of them, Sweetie looks like she is trying on a new pair of legwarmers this morning. She is seriously aggrieved with the weather going from the overcast 80s to the brilliant 50s overnight...springtime in Georgia.

cloth sketch

I extended my studio time last night by taking the scrap and tool basket to bed to do some cloth sketching while listening to TV. It helps me loosen up before working on  bigger pieces on the design wall

This one is only 22x25 - I like having a small piece to hold and work on at the same time that I'm designing something large that will most likely will be worked on the machine.

But today there's a homecoming to prepare for - my Goodman is headed back to me!

studio day finally

Who else do you know gets all excited about finding a box of oatmeal that has bugs in it?

I set out a few pieces of cloth this morning sprinkled with dye laden oatmeal but switched up the soda ash application to after-dye rather than before-dye and I'm not entirely convinced it's best for the buggy oatmeal approach to dye delivery.

and down here we have some broad strokes on the design wall. nothing carved in stone or even loose stitches yet...I've already hacked open two of the larger bound by black pieces..They are not sitting well with me at the moment but I'll leave this up and tinker on it later.

more players arrive

I reworked the white areas with dishwasher gel this morning, standing over them watching, checking, the garden hose ready. Then they were hustled into a rewash with antichlor and Synthrapol.


No sooner did I get them on the line when it began to sprinkle so I brought them indoors still damp and pinned them up on the design wall...all the previous fabrics dumped unceremoniously  into the river basket. Now to see if and how things will work together.

sunday escape

JR and I broke out of stir yesterday and paid a visit “uptown” that is, Phipps Plaza. In your average American mall they have the latest Ford or Chevy on display- here there was a Maserati.

It was Fendi, Gucci, Versace and the rest of the gang at every turn. Everywhere seemingly intelligent people were spending money like the government. I examined a 90$ straw purse in Belk that was the identical twin of one I saw (and rejected) at Walmart for 18$. Seriously people, how the hell does any mass produced item become so highly prized that criminals will kill you in the parking deck for it? Nothing is that well made or essential and I don't care whose name is on the label.

I do have to say that, at least in this particular mall, all the sales people have apparently been trained NOT to judge the books by their covers. I go out in my usual everyday duds which, for me, means a denim work shirt, jeans and eight year old Sketchers 'cause they fit and they are comfortable.

In every shop we went into we were greeted by the staff in a friendly and respectful manner as if I very well could have walked into Arhaus or Bang & Olufsen and waved my arm and said “Have this entire room delivered to my palace by Thursday and take that old crap with you when you go”. Why not? They are operating on the assumption that it's entirely possible that, despite my retired rodeo clown appearance, I could be filthy rich and fresh in port.

The real reason we were over there was to catch “The Place Beyond the Pines” which I won't talk about much because I suspect (and highly recommend) that a lot of my readers would rather go see this than say, Evil Dead or the Croods. 

I don't want to be a spoiler. Just go see it soon.

Let's just say I found it to be about what happens when people cross paths and how some of them make lousy choices because they have limited their thinking about life's possibilities and spend too much of their headspace wrapped up in the moment of “me”. It was intense and emotionally compelling watching actors doing it all with their faces, eyes and body language - no curtain chewing or special effects needed.

The movie was filmed in and around Schenectady, New York at the upper reaches of the Hudson Valley. Homesickness washed over me repeatedly as the camera followed the two lane blacktops through green tunnels in the lush woods. I'll see it again for sure.

beautiful creeps

Wings?

 Each piece of cloth behaves differently under the dye. Wet, dry, soda ash or not,  always a surprise and not a whole lot of control over the outcomes.

I altered the black blend as I worked my way through the pieces, cooling with navy, warming with curry.  I may decide to correct these a bit with discharging. this one has too much creep but it's beautiful creep.

Hope to get these into the wash & dry before I got to work at 4:30.  Right now, I got a game.

carping my diem

It's going to be a spectacular day so I'll have to spend at least part of it outdoors. There's still planting and deck cleaning to get done.Such a suffering!  But even before I put the coffee on I took the dyestock out of the fridge so it could warm up.

I stuck most of the usual suspects up on the design wall - mostly to keep them from becoming a cat nest. I know that they all won't be major players but the flavor and size (46" square) for the next piece is semi-set. Yes, that is my gator head floating over all.

Despite appearances there will still be a lot of black and white going on. I am very interested in the wet in wet transition that happens in dye painting and have almost no scraps left over from last summer.

Once the dyes are up to temp, I'll be cutting and ripping some raw shapes and seeing what the new blacks from Prochem can really do.

auditions and calls

 That great white whale on the design wall is getting on my nerves so I've rounded up some Unusual Suspects for the  next piece. Yes, your eyes are not playing tricks - you are seeing a commercial print in there. No promises, just a thought.

I was going to dye paint some black&white pieces for it this morning but  got sidetracked with errands, gardening and supervising cooking (Colin had 90% hand in a batch of chili).

I just finished pulling up most of the mailbox ivy to give the other perennials a fair crack at the dog piss and neglect that goes on up there. The peonies are just breaking through the soil.

This shot has the look of a Renaissance painting somehow, hate to disturb it but if I don't someone will be making it her nap bed. Speaking of naps....

seams and the Eye

I finally decided where that blue eye belonged last night. Why be coy? I knew it was an eye when I found it in the bottom of the scrap basket.

Jude has posted about seams this morning. Here seams appear to be a way of gracefully transitioning  from one cloth to another. Mine feel more like electric fences and will get stronger as I wrap some of the ropes.

the blank canvas b00gie

Yeah, that's a big empty cloth canvas peering over my shoulder. Right now it's not wearing a welcoming smile -it's leering. I took the black one down. It never stopped laughing at me loudly.


I spent a lot of time sketching digitally last night without anything jumping up and waving its arms screaming "make me!" so my fleeting notion of direct dye painting has been effectively quashed.

Later this morning, I'll take some raw cloth outside and paint some shapes...weather permitting. We are about to take our spring weather licks here in Georgia.

closing in on done.

its been a lot of fun.

First fruits of the season

Here they are washed and dried. Early outcomes are always guideposts for me. I can see that one of the warm color blends has a level of Fuschia in it that I will have to ferret out. The muslin that I pulled from the closet seems to have a level of resistance to dye that I find surprising while the old damask remains extremely open to the dye...less would be fine.

I'm taking the three intensely colored pieces straight to the design wall..the pale one will go back to the dye table for further clean up service.

color rescue

I thought about it some overnight and remembered how much I liked the  results from using various dry agents to carry and distribute raw dye powder.
(see Sugar Dyeing for a full explanation and some rules) .

Today it was a half pound of quinoa that I bought last year with the intention of cooking it up to see if I like it.  I wasn't in the mood for cooking or eating any weird or good for me so it's languished in the pantry since last summer.

 Since then there's been some controversy about how the booming demand from other places for quinoa has driven up the price devastated  the local culture and economies where it was a staple crop. More about that here and here.
So I went ahead and put my half pound to work in the service of my art.

These are outside in the garbage bag incubator baking in the sun. I'm wondering if the dry grains will swell with the heat and water and make patterns on the cloth.  If there's time I'll hatch them out before work today. Below is the first tablemopper of the season - always full of promise.

color fatigue?

As nice as it was outside today, I had to mix the dyestock in the kitchen - it was too breezy out for safe handling of fresh dye powder. Running water was nice too, instead of dipping and rinsing tools and containers in a big tub on the deck.

So I took my time and got the basic colors mixed but I ran out of gas and

and squeeze bottles for the variant colors. I had a few pieces of cloth ready for wiping up but did a few quick and dirty baggies instead.

The violence of everything seems shocking to me. I think my brain has been regrooved in recent months. I put the dyes in the refrigerator and will think about what comes next.

sunday early

In preparation for mixing the first new batch of dyestock for this season I spent some time inventing some new color names...the colors themselves won't come until I get to the worktable later today...among the contenders: Octaria, Spar, Beaucoup, Slurry, Plush and Sunday Sauce. There will be my standards: Monkey Blood, Steel and Blue Lightning! New names help me think about regular colors in a new way when I am building a palette from red/yellow/blue.

Meanwhile I spent the morning visiting with Jake who stopped by to render the verdict on Colin's car (well worth salvaging to our collective relief)  and packing up a box of Art to go off to market.  I was a bit distracted and forgot to put the duck pillow in the box. Next trip.

And that's not a breast on the box - it's a piece of a page from an old calendar with paintings by Georgia O'Keefe - a painting of a shell rather injudiciously snipped by yrs trly trying to make a pretty label. I'll make a pasty before I subject the inmates at the PO to anything that could possibly be interpreted as racy. The blue marker didn't take over  the tape.

freed

Here they all are freed from that fusty pink background. I'm not even going to address "now what?' for a while.

They have the feel of patches to be sewn on something  wearable.

But I'm going to set them aside for now because this weekend, the sun is supposed to be out and the temps in the 70's.

It's been so long....

moo

It's been that kind of a day - rainy and cold, only fit for curling up in the stitching chair.

But first thing this morning I got bogged down ordering postcards from MOO.  25% off is hard to resist when you chance upon something you actually need.

What I should have done was select images before hand and checked that each one was adequate to the print process, but I worked "on the fly" as their web process encourages. It's a lot like what happens at a buffet...so many tasties out there that you put one tiny dab of 20 things on the plate. Too much to eat but not enough to satisfy. I was upset to find that many of my images were not large enough.  This is my first MOO experience...I'll let you know how things pan out.

some redecorating

As much as I loved the old header, it's time for some shaking up. In anticipation of the new dye season, the image behind the title above is a damask table napkin that I got "hands on" with last season. Errand number one today is a stop at the pool supply place for a tub of soda ash.

I've also tried to improve readability, enlarging the fonts that matter...let me know if I've made a difference. So much depends on each users viewing settings.

fiber surgery

Nope, not a background....

Freeing the elements from that sad background is underway. One done and my right hand is shot even though I've put my Dad's wire cutting shears to work.

I'm thinking an exacto knife might make things a little easier.

You can see the thickness and density of the cotton batting. This was actually a sheet of printers felt that I scored a long time ago. It was not a good choice for the purpose. Now I'm paying.

a short digression

I finally got all those wormy, deeply carved machine stitches picked and washed out of this piece .

Its' been blocked on the design wall because the thick cotton felt batting that I used has felted and allowed the base cloth, a very old piece of damask, to pucker and wander in places.

I'm still at a loss over its lack of sense. It looks like a chunk of 1920s wallpaper.

Thanks to the magic of digital manipulation, I'm sorely tempted to take the big knife to it and get several small things that work all on their own, like this:

taking steps

After all the festivities and hostess-ing I'm also proud that I made a deadline!

"Material Witness" being held by the WCAGA right here in Georgia.

Time to get some of these creatures out into the public eye. I'd cross my fingers but I have work to do.

all manner of celebrations

It's been an interesting weekend.  Discussions with a young and successful commercial artist (the great Bamboota!) has led me to new paths of thought regarding specialization and niche marketing. This article about the death of art galleries and the games played out there was a brain expander as well.

detail from current wip

Throw in an orgy of unaccustomed physical activity (that pot garden) and few thousand alien calories and I feel like the day after certain illicit activities back in the late sixties with some new grooves in my brain and some old ones paved over.

As an unaffiliated and unshriven heathen I'm always interested in the religious and secular festivities of other groups. Neighbors up the street have roasted something large on a spit and are now soccering loudly. Folks were rioting for chocolate bunnies in the stores around noon today and a local hardware store was giving away bunches of nearly dead flowers. I took some of course.

So I left TB with my holiday lunch (chalupas and lime spritzer) and crossed the street to a decommissioned church and sat in the car listening to jazz and waiting out the sudden downpour. When the rain stopped I could see that I had backed my car right up to the edge of the abandoned cemetery and so, left my raggedy but hopeful and highly redolent purple hyacinths planted over Mrs. L. E. Paris, dead of the grippe in 1888. Once home, I sat through most of my favorite vaguely religious cartoon - "the Prince of Egypt" . Happy Easter y'all.

 Now it's time to settle in for a nice stitch fit.  I dreamed my way through several approaches and have decided that I'm going to spend a good long time embroidering this one.

You can see why the look of this animation appeals to my magpie brain.

Now it's Spring..

I used chunks of broken cast iron and some good sized pebbles to keep the drainage clear and built a base of bricks to get pot up off the ground. This tub is nearly three feet across and tall, a real beast.

Bless Colin for all the heavy lifting and shoveling. I got the fun part, setting the plants and watering.

Our first garden visitor of the season looks like royalty.

I really like this....

Happy Friday everybody!

There is nothing like having company to shake up a lax household. Since my Goodman has gone on the road for his job this place has become rather like Animal House without the liquor and the orgies...just the Sloth, thank you.

But because one of Colin's friends is here for a short visit I was out the door at 8 to get the makings for breakfast and a spaghetti dinner. Bathrooms were sanitized, and the whole place generally deloused before the arrival. I may take up offering the living room couch once a month on AirBnB just for the incentive.

I don't think I've cooked a decent meal since Jim was last home and that didn't turn out all that great. The other night I even let Colin talk me into having TB for dinner. I do not want to know what is in a Baja Chalupa or the Apple Carmel Empanada, I just know they were delicious.  If left to my own devices I would be eating bread, butter and sugar sandwiches, turkey pot pies and Nestles Quik stirred into water and the occasional roll of raw cookie dough . Yes, that bad.

While I was out shopping I was waylaid by the displays of annuals banked up in front of every place with a cash register and did my bit to support the economy of Plant City, FL.

I started pulling the old dead stuff out of the giant planter by the front walk only to find that just under the surface  the pot was filled with water. I was able to get it turned on its side to drain but the whole gardening thing will be on hold until I can  clean it out and start from scratch.