Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) Auction

Earlier this year I sent in my 12" x 12" SAQA on-line auction donation and last week the auction began.  My piece was in the first week of bidding and I am honored to say that it sold to a fellow art quilter at the $250 level.  It was the first time one of my pieces has sold for more than the final level of $75 so I have finally been able to contribute a nice amount to the efforts of this organization.

My piece was called "Tweeting About The Setting Sun" and includes a number of pieces of fabric that I created using various surface design techniques.  I hope the purchaser enjoys the piece as much as I did while I was making it!

Here are some pics:

Gift for a Friend

I have a friend who is going through a crisis in her life (and handling it rather well I might add).  Her circle of friends that share with her the passion for fiber art in her life decided to make momentos/gifts/fiber lucky charms and each of us was assigned dates for doing that.

When we were first asked about doing this the proposal was for "angels" but when I started to think about what I was going to do I knew that I didn't want to do a doll as it isn't my thing.  I chose to do a small wallhanging and to deviate from the angel theme a bit by going with fairies.  But these are fairies that give out Pixie Dust--that all powerful sprinkling that gives you the power of flight with a little faith and hope to boost it along.  What could be better for healing and lifting spirits?

So here are some pictures of my gift to her.  The little pouch at the top right-hand corner is organza and holds some sparkly sequins.  The piece is, of course, called "Pixie Dust".  On the back is a quote from the Peter Pan story, "All the World is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust".

Painting the edges of the leaves gold.

Little bag of "pixie dust" (actually sequins)

Now I am working on a second gift for my friend although I have missed my deadline.  I know she will forgive me for being so late, and hopefully she will enjoy the gift and it will lift her spirits whenever she does get it.  That is the purpose after all.

"Strata Art Quilts" Article

"A Slice of Clear Water"

 Please look for my first magazine article in The Quilt Life magazine which is in stores now (October issue).  The article is called "Strata Art Quilts" and is a how-to for an easy-to-piece art quilt.  The article is 5 pages long and has lots of images of my work. 

Let me know what you think!

I have another article in the works for American Quilter magazine which is supposed to be out early in 2014.  It is about a "stamp and stitch" technique, another easy way to create lovely art quilts.

I'm thinking about organizing a class on this "strata" quilt technique.  Would love some feedback as to whether you think this would be a good class. 

Look for more from me in the future as I'm rather encouraged by getting both of these articles accepted on the first try!

Paintings In Cloth

"Ferns"

 

For my solo gallery exhibition at River's Mist Gallery in Stevensville, Montana, I have a number of new pieces that began with fabric that I created. Some are soy wax batik, one is “decolorant” or color removal, others are painted or stamped. The show is called “Paintings in Cloth” because there are a number of these pieces in the show, but also because I feel that all of my pieces are like paintings in their use of color, line, design, and texture to make something that hangs on the wall.

I took some pictures of some of the fabric before I made them in to the art quilts, so I thought it might be interesting for you to see how I transformed them with stitch and sometimes beading.

"Memory of a Woodland Walk"

"Time Passages"

"Sweet Field of Honey"

The show, entitled "Paintings in Cloth", opened on Friday, September 6, with an artist's reception. The gallery is located on Main Street in Stevensville just south of Valley Drug. The work will be up through the month, probably until Monday, September 30. I've been creating new pieces (approx. 28!) all summer and am looking forward to seeing how people like what I've been doing.   There are about 35 pieces in the gallery so it is a nice exhibition of my work and the gallery owner, Gretchen Spiess has a wonderful knack for hanging art to compliment other art/each other.  There are some beautiful wood vessels and fused glass in the gallery with my show.  Come visit!