Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Siblings

Siblings
76" x 37"


This work is composed of two selfies, one of my brother and one of me. It always shocks me to see the stark contrast between myself and my brother knowing that we grew up in the same house and were raised by the same parents. Though we took vastly different paths, we are both survivors of a dysfunctional beginning. 

My brother's side is called Half In, Half Out. And, he gave me permission to make a quilt from this image. This work speaks to a universal human experience, the degree to which we are prisoners of our past. This is perhaps more evident in this selfie of my brother who spent decades in prison. It does not seem like a coincidence that he is so comfortable in the cab of his big-rig truck, which approximates the size of his previous cells in state penitentiaries. 

Closeups: 


The bars on the left were made with Mistyfuse and black organza, then they were stuffed to make them dimensional.  The bars on the right were also stuffed and defined by a lack of quilting.  The green quilting thread on the right was intentional and symbolic (though I am keeping that private). 

And, while it might be more obvious for an ex-con, there are experiences of my past that imprison me into patterns of behavior that don’t help me either.

My side is called Keeping My Head Above Water. When I made this quilt, it felt like the water was just below my nose, and when I put the blue organza there, it was so disturbing, that I had to lower it to something more optimistic. I don't know, perhaps the making of this work actually helped me, consciously lowering my stress level.

Much too frequently I feel like I am waiting for the next big disaster to happen. I am treading water, trying to keep my head above it, and breathing in and out. I am probably doing better than I think I am. But curve balls from the universe threaten my anxious existence. When will I be swamped by the next tidal wave? It is about survival. I am separated into my many roles like colors in a halftone pattern, frequently overlapping to show the whole picture when I can only see what is right in front of me, indecipherable in the present. Colors and dots, illusion of transparency to create images...

Closeup:


Both of these were made with Photoshop and then printing the images at Spoonflower.  The quilting on my half was ridiculously hard with the neutral thread in straight lines on the halftone of circles... keeping the lines level, as I try to remain level-headed. And, it was a very emotional piece to make, so much so, that it has taken me 6 months to post it after completion. 

I did enter it into Quilts=Art=Quilts, and it was rejected.  After seeing images of the show, I can see why, it did not fit in. I also entered my brother's side into SAQA's virtual exhibit called Imprisoned.  (My half was not finished by the deadline). It was accepted into that show, and they made a mock up gallery, since the show was online only, and used my brother's image for the entry into the show. It felt very nice to see it there. 



Monday, October 23, 2023

Houston 2023

International Quilt Festival - Houston, TX    Nov 2 - 5, 2023
International Quilt Market - Houston, TX     Oct 28 - 30, 2023

I am excited to have 3 quilts at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this year.  No awards this year, but I am delighted to have my quilts there! Ha, I just noticed that I already blogged about Houston earlier this summer.  That's okay, this post refreshes my memory!

I have one in the exhibit Celebration of Color, which premiered in Long Beach, California.  It will be in Houston too! It is Turn the Dial, and is a two-sided quilt, though I think only one side will be exhibited. I am okay with that because this quilt got to premier in my solo show, Both Sides Now, two years ago, and both sides were shown.

My second quilt is in the exhibit In Full Bloom.  It is starting in Houston and will then travel. This one is called Mother Nature's All Inclusive Flower Garden.

My third quilt is in the Judged Show.  It is called Complements. 

I am noticing a common element in these three.  LOTS of saturated color! Fantastic!

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

New England Quilt Museum


contacted me last spring to request one of my quilts for their exhibit, Animalia: the Animal Kingdom in Quilts and Textiles, this fall! I think that's a first for me, and I really like it! They wanted this one:

Plenty to Go Around / Scarcity

I just had one question, can you show both sides? And they said yes.  So, I said yes.  
I also wasn't sure of it's availability so I offered another of my deer quilts.  In the end they wanted both quilts. I'm delighted.  I love the Two Deer quilt so much, I rarely let it out to travel.  
Two Deer (or Too Dear)

The exhibit runs Sept 12 through Dec 30.  I was hoping to post some photos of the exhibit, but I am not going to be traveling there.  Hopefully, they will post some, or perhaps one of their visitors!

Thursday, September 28, 2023

SAQA Minimalism

Conversations - 52" x 33"

I was so happy to have my quilt Conversations juried into SAQA's new global exhibit, Minimalism. My quilt is going to amazing places! And this is just the first year of the three year tour! Outstanding!

Earlier this month (Sept 14-17), it premiered at the European Patchwork Meeting in Val D'Argent, Alsace France. Now it is moving on to an exhibit called Abilmente in Vicenza, Italy, opening Oct 12-15.  It is so nice to see that they are using an image of my quilt on their exhibits page! It would have been even better if they had attached my name to the image, but they didn't, and so I include it here.

And, if I were there, I would want to explore this beautiful place.  I mean, LOOK at those mountains! The architecture is so interesting, and it doesn't look at all like central Texas. 


Tuesday, August 08, 2023

Summer News

Some things have been happening, which is ever so lovely because the project I am currently working on is taking foreverrrrr!

I am honored to have won an Honorable Mention in the Lincoln Center new Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts exhibit for my quilt Ocean Blues/Oil and Water! Phil D. Jones, one of the awards judges noted that my quilt was a "conceptual beauty!"  High praise indeed and remarkably validating!! 


My quilt, Turn the Dial/Diverging Distractions had been on display at the International Quilt Festival show in Long Beach, July 6 - 8 in the exhibit Celebration of Color. I believe it is going to Houston next for the fall Festival Market and Quilt Show, Nov 2 - 5. This one was also a two-sided quilt, but they only showed the front side (left). I am okay with that, because the feeling you get standing in front of this giant burst of yellow is pure joy! That works for me!


And, I entered and got juried into a special exhibit at the International Quilt Festival, called in Full Bloom, with my quilt, Mother Nature's All-Inclusive Flower Garden. 

As a special surprise, I found out a few weeks ago that it was selected by Nancy O'Bryant as the signature quilt for Quilt Market/Houston this year. What an incredible honor!!! This means that the image will be included on Quilt Market marketing materials.  Very cool!

And, last, I got a quilt juried into the judged show at the International Quilt Festival/Houston this year.  It is called Complements and is a special favorite of mine!  I didn't get to enter last year because I was a judge.  And the year before, my entry was not juried in. So it's been a few years.



I love the complexity of the tiny piecing of the print fabrics contrasted with the giant bold solid color swaths in complementary colors. It appeals to me on many levels. And, it is so bright, it will probably glow and light up the quilts around it! Ha ha ha ha ha! Fun!

Seems like a good year to get back to Houston.  I am truly hoping that I can make it! Cheers!

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

New Legacies exhibit

The Lincoln Center New Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts
Jun 10 - Aug 5, 2023




I am so happy to share that my quilt, Ocean Blues/Oil and Water has been juried into the New Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts exhibit at The Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, CO! 

And, I asked before entering it if there was a possibility of showing both sides. And they said YES! I am really hoping that they are able to do that.  I guess we will see!


Sunday, May 21, 2023

Forest Floor

Forest Floor
85: x 85"
This quilt was made for my youngest. I was inspired by our fantastic experience when we went hiking in the sequoias near Yosemite National Park a few years ago and being around such old souls.  That peace and joy is what I hope is conveyed with this quilt. 

Selecting the color palette: 
Next, cutting all the fabrics into squares. They are sitting on the fabric we selected for the backing of the quilt.

Looking at the stacks of cut fabric, the project feels a bit daunting.

Next up, stitching the squares together, two at a time to make two sets of half square triangles (HST).  Then trimming them to the correct size.

Then sewing the stacks of HST into strips.  

It started getting real the more of these that I made.  When the top was finished, I popped it off my design wall to see how it looks in situ!
I think it looks PERFECT with the forest mural! Apparently the cat likes it too!

Last step was the quilting.  I quilted all the vertical lines and horizontal lines with dark brown thread along the long sides of the brown triangles.  Then I finished it up with different colors of greens along the diagonals. 


And last, outside to get some natural lighting on all those greens.  Most of the photos of this quilt distort the green colors, but the outside photos were the absolute best!
I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out.  I hope it brings many years of joy to my now adult kid! :)

Sunday, May 14, 2023

AQS Paducah

AQS Paducah
2023

I decided to try to expand my horizons by entering a new quilt show.  I didn't know much about this show except that it was a juried show, and that it was highly regarded.  

I remember the entry fee was a bit expensive, $40, and I don't remember if that was for multiple entries, or per quilt, and it didn't matter because I only had one quilt to enter. It was less expensive for members, but then the members also have to pay a membership fee. And for me, the $40 was cheaper. They do have amazing cash awards for the prize winners, but I already knew that my quilt was not going to be one of those.  They show previous winners on their website, and my quilt was a different kind of quilt.  Which is why I was surprised and elated that it got in!

They also state that they will NOT show both sides if you have a two-sided quilt.  That is apparently not true for the prize winning quilts (which I already knew mine would not be, and it did not win a prize, so I called that one!). However, I assumed or hoped that there would be volunteers with white gloves showing the backs of quilts. I don't know if that was true or not, as I did not go to the show. 

What I didn't know, and turned out to be a deal breaker for me is that they do not print your artist statement on the signage.  This led me to question why they asked for it on the entry form?  It turns out that during the awards ceremony, the artist statement is read aloud for the winning quilts. For all the other quilts, including mine, it simply does not matter why I made the quilt, or what story it tells. And, since only half of my quilt was being shown, the white privilege side, none or few of the viewers got to see what the quilt was really about.  And that kind of broke my spirit. It was the exact opposite of the goal of this quilt, to shine a light on the relationship between white privilege and racial inequities. See previous post here

My artist statement, (this is the expanded form because AQS limits the number of words you can include on the entry form):
This two sided quilt tells the story of the gaiety of abundance and bleakness of scarcity. On the front side the fawns have plenty to eat and are surrounded by whimsical birds and flowers. On the back side the fawns are in a barren land, separated from the flowers they need for survival by a giant barrier. A symbol of our own border, the work hints at a metaphor for success built from a racist system that rewards the lighter skinned fawns and deprives the darker skinned fawns. The story is not complete without both sides. An additional layer of transparency to the issue is shown when the quilt is backlit and elements of the other side can be seen regardless of which side you are standing on

Also, during the awards' ceremony, the announcer seemed to be the most impressed with the number of pieces a winning quilt had.  That was mentioned at least 3 or 4 times. That is not the thing which I value most about quilts. And certainly has no relevancy in what I choose to make. My favorite things about great quilts are the design and color. If the quilt is meaningful on another level, it takes the quilt to another level for me. Craftsmanship is also key, but not a deal breaker. It can't be so bad that it distracts from the design, but it doesn't need to be hyper dense layers of stitching that look like it was programmed by a computer. Those are certainly amazing, but just not really my cup of tea. 

Then, I got the quilt back with the judges' comments.  It is not the first time I have received irrelevant and less than helpful comments.  To be fair, the judges have a lot of quilts to judge and usually in a short amount of time.  I doubt they were writing the comments themselves, they likely had a scribe.  Additionally the scoring cards do not show the criteria that your quilt is being judged for.  It simply lists a nice comment and a "to help your quilt better compete" comment.  And the later for mine was "straight lines should be straight".  Okay, that is probably true, but my quilt doesn't have straight lines. It is a curvy organically drawn with hot gloopy wax quilt. It really left me questioning....?

Last, my goal in showing my quilts is to pass the inspiration on.  The inspiration to make something flows to me, and I want to let that inspiration continue to flow by letting the quilt travel and get to be seen. It is not about winning awards.  

However, it is really expensive to make quilts and show them.  This one cost $40 to enter, and $95 in shipping fees. I also paid $75 to get an appraisal.  Also, in case you didn't know, AQS keeps $25 of that appraisal fee, and gives only $50 to the actual appraiser.  That's a 50% markup in the price of the appraisal.  It doesn't sit well with me. Next time I will get an appraisal from someone local and not during a quilt show (certainly not an AQS quilt show). Which leads to the question, why even get an appraisal? That appraisal is key if the quilt gets lost in shipping (and mine has on 3 different occasions). 

And, all of this does not include the costs to make the quilt. I appreciate so much the sponsors who pay the cash awards for prizes. And, I really like winning awards because it helps immensely with some of these costs. It also feels really nice to win an award, especially for something that you have worked so hard to make. Quilts are best seen in person, and quilt shows help further that goal.  I am grateful that AQS is continuing to host these shows, but I will not be entering here again. 

Many thanks to Andrea Brokenshire, who went to the show and sent me these photos! And, many congrats to her gorgeous and winning quilts!

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Austin Area Quilt Guild Biennial QuiltFest

Austin Area Quilt Guild Biennial QuiltFest
Sept 23 - 25, 2022

I meant to post about this last year, but I have gotten a bit lost in home repair projects that were not supposed to take so long. I am hoping to start posting more regularly again this year, as most of the projects and the related stress are now behind me. 
My entries, folded and stacked, waiting to be delivered in person to the show!

I submitted 3 quilts. The show is not juried, so if they have room, then all 3 will be shown.  I requested to have both sides shown of my two-sided quilts, hoping that they would have the space, but not expecting it.  I was incredibly pleased that they were able to honor my request! I mean over-the-moon happy about seeing both sides of my two-sided quilts displayed! Fantastic!!!

I was delighted to be able to attend the awards ceremony.  I did not help hang the quilts this year, as I was having some problems with my back, so I was anxious to see all the quilts. And after the awards ceremony, the show is open to members to get to see all the quilts before the crowds come in during normal show hours. Irresistable! 

I saw a lot of great quilts, very inspiring. And, I was planning to share them here, but I cannot for the life of me find them on my camera. Nuts!

seeing the show with friends: Andrea Brokenshire, Sherri McCauley, me, Pat Romohr

Even more surprising, I won a LOT of awards.  I never know what to expect of my quilts in this regard. Sometimes I look at them for so long, I get tired of them, and then I am surprised when someone else enjoys them. So, I am usually authentically surprised when a judge likes my quilts enough to select it for an award.

The following photos of the show were taken by Pat Romohr, and I am so grateful that she shared them with me. 

Plenty to Go Around/Scarcity won a 3rd place and the Quilt Show Chair's Award! Here I am with my super squinty smile, and in the second one, mouth open surprise, perhaps about the color of the ribbon both matching my quilt, and looking good with my outfit! Almost as if, it was made for me!

Plenty to Go Around

Scarcity (the other side)
A note about this quilt. It got extremely high marks on my judging sheet. I got one negative comment: "dark shadows show through light fabric".  It was intentional.  It needed to be that way to illustrate the contrast of the story of the two sides.  The quilt NEEDED some transparency, as it is about the relationship to white privilege and racism. Because the quilt is hanging at a quilt show, and has back lighting, you can see hints of the other side regardless of the side you are standing on. It was a conceptual choice that did not go over well with the judges, or perhaps was misunderstood? 

Another note: this quilt is currently on display at AQS Paducah.  It did not win any awards there and it will not be displayed with both sides showing. I was very content to have it juried into the show and have an opportunity for it to be seen. And though I have not been to that show, I suspect the competition is fierce. I had also planned to enter it into the Houston Quilt Show this year, but sadly it is now too old.  I missed my chance to enter it last year because I was a judge.  And so it goes...
 
Next up my quilt Caterpillars/Butterflies. It also won two awards! It got a 1st Place and a Design Award. The Design Award is extra special to me.  It is one of the things that I value most about a great quilt.

Caterpillars

The two awards, and a close up of my super dense matchstick quilting with every line sewn with a different color of thread.

Last up, my quilt Seeds/Bloom.  It did not win an award. Although, I have to laugh at myself because of my three entries, this one is perhaps my favorite.

Seeds


Bloom

Monday, November 14, 2022

Mother Nature's All-Inclusive Rainbow Flower Garden

Mother Nature's All-Inclusive Rainbow Flower Garden
80" x 79"

because nature loves ALL the colors...
and, in nature, diversity is a plus, it makes the entire system stronger.
Something to think about.

This one started when my Juki broke last year.  I had taken it to a shop to be repaired, (where they kept it but did not fix it), and wandered around their shop.  I fell hard for some beautiful florals.  I had an idea that I could stitch them up, mostly as fat quarters, and make a back for one of my quilts.  You can see that post here.

And, though the fabrics were so beautiful, they did NOT look beautiful from my first idea. It was quite a surprise when I tossed them up on my design wall and kept moving them around and nothing worked.  I slept on it, for several nights.  It is hard to give up an idea that has failed.  The thing I kept seeing was circles.  Circles are harder than squares, and I still wanted it to be squares/rectangles.  Fortunately, I did not have time to work on it, so it sat on a shelf waiting it's turn.  

Then I paired those lovely florals with some solids, and I got excited! That's when I realized I wanted this to be a rainbow gradient of sorts. I wanted to drop everything to start this quilt! Surprising how a pile of fabrics can give that adrenaline rush! But my studio was filled with other projects.  It was hard to wait.
Finally, I got plugging away.  I made some quick templates for my big circles out of freezer paper, and started cutting the pieces.
I started digging through my stash to find more colors of the floral fabrics to go into the centers.  There were some, but not enough, so I shopped for even more.  This quilt turned out to be the opposite of what I like to do, which is to make use of what I already have. But, my heart was telling me to go for it, and I am glad I did.  
I also took the time to trim the seams so that the colors did not show through on the front. You can see the dark line where the pencil is pointing.  This is what it looks like right after pressing the seam.

 
Trimming the seam helps this little issue!

Here are a few closeups of the circles and their floral prints:


I rushed to finish piecing the top, hoping that I could get it in my photo shoot with Quiltfolk, and I did! They were fine with it being just a quilt top! Good things all around.

photo by Trevor Holloway

I hand basted it. And then set about quilting it.

That black masking tape came in handy again when trying to mark the lines for quilting!
The quilt in person is just so lovely. It has a lovely texture and a lovely emotional quality that is warm and inviting.  I just love it. Here's a detail of the quilting:
I can say that the choice of quilting concentric circles around the solid rings was a difficult maneuver.  It was tough to turn the entire quilt around inside my sewing machine.  It was one of those just barely manageable endeavors, but I love the way it looks!
 Photo shoot on the front of my house, a little bit of wind makes the quilt look alive!