Fabric strips, standing in the yard, re-inking, etc

Radiation Quilt Progress

I can not believe how much time I've spent pondering the radiation quilt. Too much time really, but that's just how it's worked out. As you remember, I thought I'd settled on just using heat and light from the sun as my inspiration. Then my friend, Barbara, who is coordinating US submissions gently said something like, "Um.... we have a lot of submission about sunlight. But, we don't have anything about Carbon 14 dating like you wrote in your blog post. Just sayin'" Ug!

Then we had an amazing lightening storm on Thursday night. All my local friends were posting on Facebook about it and we stood out in the front yard for quite some time watching the flashes of electricity between the clouds. It was a great moment standing in the yard at the beginning of spring with my family. So, I convinced myself that lightening related to radiation and I could do a landscape quilt with lightening.

I even pulled out tons of fabrics, ripped strips and pinned this on my design wall. (A couple of hours of work here probably.)

Then I admitted that lightening really doesn't relate to radiation and I went back to the drawing board, and google images, and Pinterest, and even the library to check out kids picture books about radiation. (Yes, they exist.)

Finally I returned to Carbon 14, or radiocarbon dating. I thought I'd do a collage of things that have been dated using this method: old pottery, fossils, trees, bird eggs. I printed out several images for inspiration.

It felt like too much, so I chose the single image that was clearly connected to radiocarbon dating AND fit the kind of imagery that I like to use in my work. I settled on this one amazing tree.

This is the oldest living tree. It's 9550 years old. It has the ability to clone its trunk. The current trunk is only about 600 years old, but the root system is over 9000. It's in Sweden in a secret location to protect it.

Whew. I can finally move to fabric and design. The research and conception phase for this quilt was exhausting and sometimes frustrating, but I think I really stretched and I am sure good stuff comes from that.

Tactile Architecture Progress
This quilt is progressing smoothly. It's clear to me what steps need to happen and they are coming together well.

First, I had to darken several areas of graphic handwriting. They didn't match throughout the quilt. This is something that I would not have had to spend time on if I had taken the time to find the best pen when I first did the writing. Careless and lazy. Had to be fixed. Can you see the different here?

I also marked some flower shapes for stitching.

Five Projects Progress

Radiation

• see above

Tactile Architecture

• see above

Coming Up Roses

• looked through many of my pictures looking for something that would be fun to enhance with embroidery
• found none

Tall Tree

• felt lots of concern about my lack of progress on this one which is due only one week after Radiation
• also concerned that I pilfered the tall tree concept for the Radiation quilt and I won't want to do another tree for this quilt

Festival of Quilt Art

• none

Thinking, Research, Analysis

As you can imagine, I've been thinking a lot about radiation. I'm still in the thinking stage of creating this art quilt. But I need to move into the composition stage soon.

As I mentioned, I've considered some themes to pursue. Residential solar energy: That's mostly because it would allow me to make another house quilt. Many of my quilts include houses and it's a familiar and rich design element for me. But, I've never done a house with solar panels. Hmmm. I feel like I'd be just slapping on some fabric shapes that were pretending to be solar panels without much experience, knowledge or passion. Residential solar energy.

I also considered creating an art quilt like a Magnetic Field Sensor Circuit. (You can use it to measure stray radiation.) Like this.

Cool shapes and composition, right? I could do each area in a different fabric and embellish with various surface design patterns, embroidery and free motion quilting. Potential! But, then I wondered if I could create something that had any bit of accuracy, because I don't have any idea what all those numbers and squiggles mean.

You know how you feel when you watch a movie or tv show that is set in a place that you are completely familiar with? And they mispronounce something, or show an angle that isn't correct? You instantly are taken out of the viewing experience. I wouldn't want to create a quilt to be viewed by a bunch of radiation scientists and have them zero-in on some inaccuracies rather than just appreciate the design. Magnetic Field Sensor Circuit.

Then I moved on to Carbon 14 dating. When Claire was in fourth grade she explained to me how you can measure the age fossils or other super old stuff by measuring the remaining atoms of radiation in the item. Or something like that. Fourth grade! I thought this might be a good excuse to make an art quilt using the shape of an ancient jug or bottle. Like these from my body of work.

But, ultimately that just seemed too contrived. Carbon 14 Dating

Radiation is an enormous subject. It's not just cancer treatment and nuclear power plants, which are the two things I first thought of. I'm not interested in making a quilt on either of those subjects.

Did you know radiation is used to measure how much air is whipped into ice cream? It can also be used to sterilize food. Your smoke detector, toaster and microwave all use radiation.

I went to my sketch book. 

I need to return to the most simple, yet complex and most obvious form of radiation: the sun. I want to explore heat and light in a landscape composition. At least that's where I am at the moment.

Other Progress

Tactile Architecture

• stitched more tiny houses and some green flowers

Radiation

• see above

Tall Tree

• none

Coming Up Roses

• thought about doing some hand embroidery over a photograph printed on fabric

Festival of Quilt Art: Home

• none

Status Report: mostly stitching and thinking

I made some progress yesterday on my "five projects."

Tactile Architecture

Before I began blogging about these upcoming deadlines, I decided to renovate a quilt I started several months ago. I had already ripped off those navy blue squiggles shown in the post yesterday. Then I sliced it in half and spent a bunch of time removing the stray fusible webbing from the squiggles.

I needed to balance the brown circle grid surface design, so I added more of those.

Then I designed and stitched a jagged, skinny branch shape with a tulle overlay. Here you can see the stitching before I cut the tulle away.

So that left me with this.

Good changes, don't you think? Here's the "before."

Next I created a stitch map for the embroidery. And found a perfect skein of pearl cotton to match the colors in the quilt.

Oh... did you notice it doesn't really relate to architecture? Me too. That's ok, all of my work is about house and home in one way or another, but I will be stitching several tiny house shapes which should make it more obvious to those who are choosing quilts for the exhibit and (hopefully) the viewers who see it.

By the way, this is a regular struggle for me -- does my work fit the theme? Am I cheating the artistic spirit by manipulating myself, the art or the theme? Lately, I have just been telling myself that I want to make art quilts that fit into my body of work. That's the priority. Stitching tiny houses certainly fits my style -- and makes this quilt a more appropriate entry in Tactile Architecture.

Other progress.

Tactile Architecture

• stitched lots of tiny houses

Radiation

• settled on two possible themes: residential solar energy or an abstract interpretation of a magnetic field sensor circuit.
• agonized over feeling like a fraud
• reconsidered my themes
• studied carbon 14 dating
• cut a piece of batting in the required size

Coming up Roses

• noticed a dude at the gym with a cool rose tattoo

Five Projects

I don't usually work on more than one project/art quilt at a time. I am almost exclusively driven by deadlines and I simply work on the next deadline until it's done then move on to the next. (I sometimes wonder if this devalues the idea that I'm creating "art," but I don't think that's a concept I'm going to get into at the moment.)

I thought it would be interesting to try working on multiple projects and to commit to making progress on all of them. How do you think it will go? I'm going to blog about it and share my thoughts along the way.

So... five projects! Here's the info and brief thoughts on each.

1. Tactile Architecture, minimum size 25x25, deadline April 11: I love this special exhibit which premiers at the International Quilt Festival in Houston every year. I've been in Tactile Architecture three times and I'm eager to enter again.

Here's my quilt, Haze and Hope, at the 2013 Tactile Architecture exhibit.

2. Radiation, 24x48, April 23: This is an exciting exhibit that Barbara Lange invited a bunch of local Dallas-area art quilters to enter. It will premier at the International Radiation Protection Association conference in Geneva this summer and travel to several other venues throughout Europe. At first, I didn't plan to enter. The size is a bit intimidating and the theme is a bit difficult to wrap my brain around. But several of my friends encouraged me and I'm eager to support Barbara.

3. Tall Tree, 24x60, May 1: This is a juried invitational exhibit and I am not allowed to show process photos, but I'll let you know how it's fitting into my studio time. I can't tell you much about it, but I think it will include a tall tree.

4. Coming up Roses, embroidery -- no size requirement, May 2: This is a special exhibit which will premier at Quilt, Knit, Stitch in Portland. It's hosted by the International Quilt Association. This exhibit will include knit and crochet, needlework and quilts. I'm going to enter the "needlework" category and create a piece that is mostly hand embroidery. Embroidery is such a integral part of my art quilts, that I thought it would be fun to make something where it is even more of a focus.

5. Festival of Quilt Art, min 48x48, June 6 (received on CD) This is an annual special exhibit at Quilt Festival in Houston and is always one of the very best collections of art quilts on the floor -- I think. I've never entered, but since the theme this year is "home," I'm eager to challenge myself to prepare something that could be juried in. The size requirement is huge. It would be the largest art quilt I'd ever made if I finish it. Ahem... when I finish it.

So, that's an overview. Too ambitious? You may remember several years ago when I created a small art quilt every day in Lent. One of the things I learned from that project is that it is possible to find time in the day to create.

But I also know that sometimes things don't go as planned and I have to be open to redirection. I'll keep you posted.

Just a teaser. Remember this quilt? It's going to be renovated to become my Tactile Architecture entry.

More Pictures from the Dallas Quilt Show

A few more pictures and thoughts from the Dallas Quilt Show. My pictures aren't great. I apologize. 

I love this fabric and paper small quilt by Linda Creagh.

Her best friend died with delivering newspapers. So tragic. But such a lovely artistic memorial.

Here is the Best of Show by Cheri Meineke-Johnson and Linda Taylor. It's quite masterful. Cheri made it while her husband was going through cancer treatment.

The back is embellished with 22,000 heat set crystals which she said represent "the light at the end of the tunnel." This is a close up of the back... the shimmery reflecting crystals don't really show up as well as they did in real life.

I just loved this asparagus block which was part of a larger quilt with several vegetable blocks by Laura McClure.

Every year the chair of the Dallas Quilt Show (a gigantic volunteer job), choses a show theme. This year it was Modern Quilts. There is a separate judged category with prizes specifically for the show theme.

Here is one of the modern quilts I really liked.

I especially liked the artist statement by Amy Terrell. Can you read it? It says "The inspiration for this quilt was three glasses of wine, a blank piece of paper and a new fountain pen."

This quilt was made by Marie Zackowski who actually was the show chair this year. Hooray Marie! Great show. And a great quilt. Love the setting, color palette and simplicity of this beauty.

This quilt was interesting and shows the direction and possibilities with machine embroidery. It's called A Pocket Full of Paisley and was made by Lorilynn King. Each of those paisleys are designed by the artist, stitched on her machine, then composed and attached to the quilt.

You may get a sense of the dimension of the quilt with this close up. It won first place in the "other techniques" category.

I really loved this medallion style quilt. It's called Ring Around the Mole and was made and designed by Shannon Conley. She says it features one or more mammals from each order native to Oklahoma.

Here you can see the bat, possum, bison, armadillo, rabbit, prairie dog?, mouse and mole. The mole was appliquéd in velvet.

Here's another from the modern category that I really liked. It's by Shannon Page.

Another great modern by Rachel Bryan.

Here is the first place winner in the modern category. It's called Hex Checks by Wilma Moss. The quilting is exquisite. In fact, it feels like a sampler of beautiful free motion motifs -- plus the fun hex shapes and fabrics.

As I looked at the winners in the modern category, it seemed to me that the judges were recognizing quilts with particularly notable quilting. When I think of Modern Quilts, I don't think of the quilting as one of the most important features. If I had been a judge, I might have leaned more toward recognizing quilts with great "modern" design, rather than stand-out quilting.

I think this was my favorite quilt in the whole show. Can you believe it? There were several Baltimore album style quilts and this one had the most character, I thought.

It's called Civil War Bride by Timi Ann Welch and it's based on The Bird of Paradise Quilt in the American Folk Museum in New York City. I think that's the groom there, wrangling his elephant. (???)

I love the owls in the border above and the robin with her nest here.

And here is the smiling bride!

A few more thoughts on judging. Inevitably, when I go to a show, I think about how I would have judged it, to which quilts I would have given blue ribbons. I'm not a judge and I don't think it's productive to criticize or question the judging. That's for the show administrators to manage. But, I did enjoy perusing the "Pictorial" category and thinking about which quilts I liked and why.

Here is Chihuly's Gondola by Melissa Sobotka. This quilt won the $10,000 Best of Show Prize at the International Quilt Festival in Houston last fall.

At the Dallas Show, it won third place in Pictorial. (It also won Pride of Dallas which is a separate award chosen by a local notable figure. This year it was chosen by Donald Slater a local gallery owner.)

Here is the first place winner in Pictorial: I Dream of Wild Horses by Kristin Vierra.

Carol Morrisey's Spider Lillies won an Honorable Mention in the same category.

The second place winner was Chloe by Theresa Fetch. Sorry I cut off the side of the quilt.

To me, the spider lilies and the Chihuly quilt were the stand outs in this category, when I think about art created from fabric. You can see a full list of all the winners here.

One thing I love about the Dallas show is that there are tons of categories. There are also some categories for artisans -- people who don't teach/sell patterns/etc and other categories for masters -- people who generate some income from their quilts or have won at least two first place ribbons in the show in the past. Fabulous! More quilts and good, equitable competition. Some categories are open to everyone.

I leave you with a couple of shots from the Master Art Category.

On the far left is a piece by Barbara Oliver Hartman in her classic color palette. The first place winner is the pink dahlia by Andrea Brokenshire, then you'll see my Grow Abundant which won third place. The orange/red piece is another by Barbara Oliver Hartman and the abstract next to it is by Heather Pregger. All outstanding work and I am thrilled to be hanging alongside them.

Further down the row in the same category, you find my Blue Chair Mantra and Heather's String Theory.

Frankly, (again if I were the judge) I am surprised that the judges liked my Grow Abundant blue/purple/layered/house/flowers quilt more than Blue Chair mantra.

Like I said, yesterday... mostly I'm just thankful for such talented, inspiring friends and I'm eager to get back in the studio!

Me and My Friends at the Dallas Quilt Show

I had a great time at the Dallas Quilt Show today. I've slapped a bunch of snapshots here into the blog post -- mostly of quilts made by me and my friends. Later I'll share some other quilts that caught my eye.

Here's my quilt Plentiful that I created as a sample for my Quilting Arts workshop dvd. I really love this small quilt... I entered it because it was one of the only pieces I had that fit the size requirements for the small quilt category.

Here's Blue Chair Mantra which has been seen hanging several places of late. It got an Honorable Mention in the Art Quilt catagory.

Here's Grow Abundant which has been rejected from several shows, but won a third place ribbon in Art Quilts. Hooray!

My friend Heather Pregger's Tuning Fork 12 won second place in Art Quilts.

My friend Lu Peters, who makes stunning garments, won first in the Garment category for her piece titled "Hiding in Plain Sight: The Cloak of Invisibility."

She calls it "couture camouflage." It's both brilliant conceptually and technically.

My friend Tonya was the featured quilter at the show and gave an excellent lecture.

Carol Morrisey's Spider Lillies are amazing! They won a Judges Choice ribbon (but nothing in the Pictorial category, which I may discuss more later. Or maybe not.)

Robin Williamson created this fabulous pieced quilt she titled Voldemort, because it originally refused to be named.

At the Dallas Show they hang the quilt info and artist statement from a ribbon pinned to the quilt. Above you see how the quilt looks at the show. And below I've tucked the sign behind the quilt so you can see the black and white section of Robin's quilt.

It really looks entirely different when you don't hide the black and white section, right? I really dislike how those signs hang over the quilt. I mentioned to someone when I was helping hang the show on Wednesday and I got my head bit off. I should have asked someone to take a picture of me without my head.

Sherrie Tootle won third in Art Quilts! Our small art quilt group, The Twisted Stitchers, issued a challenge for everyone to create a quilt with red in it. This is Sherrie's red contribution.

Here is Barbara Oliver Hartman's red quilt.

And here's Tonya Littman's red quilt.

With a sheer overlay of a horse for the Year of the Horse.

Another small art quilt group I belong too created a multi-piece collaborative work see in the background here. I was taking a tour of the show led by Marian Ann Montgomery. She highlighted this piece as a unique entry in the group quilt category.

Here's a wide shot of Tonya's special exhibit as the featured quilter at the show.

There were so many more quilts and more friends. It was a super fun day.

I came home eager to get to work on some new art quilts!