Daly Mansion Holiday Art Fair Booth

I had my first booth show this weekend. I was a vendor at the Daly Mansion's juried holiday “craft” show in Hamilton, Montana. I had heard that his was a good venue because people usually came with money to spend and were interested in quality art. Unfortunately, either due to the economy or the nature of my work, there was very little spending going on in my booth! I heard a rumor that there was not much going on in other booths as well, but I did see people with bags walking around.

I had many, many positive and enthusiastic comments and accolades about my work. Most of the people who actually came into my room were interested and intrigued with it and spent a reasonable amount of time looking at. Very few looked at price tags, and those that did just moved on. Because my work is not cheap or even inexpensive, I'm guessing that most people need more time to make such a purchasing decision---especially if it is to be a gift. It is hard to buy art for other people.

I am glad that it is over and I have all these wonderful little works to sell at the local galleries where I show my work. I can take a breather and maybe clean up my house and particularly my work space! I did my duty in exposing many people to the world of art quilts. There were people who had never seen this type of art and obviously found it fascinating. There was one who asked, "So these are meant to hang on the wall?", which I thought was fairly obvious, but I answered her politely and let her look. Lots of people took business cards and if even one of those results in further contact and maybe even a purchase down the road it will have been worth it.

Here some images of a few small pieces I had at the show. The little owl piece was one of two small pieces that actually sold. I at least made my booth fee back and a little more, but not enough to make the whole effort worth doing again.

Six Little Owls (SOLD):

Little Pine ($60.00):

I've Got Rhythm ($180.00):

Upcoming November Activities

Two posts on one day---do you believe it? Don't miss the last post down below this one.



In November I have several things happening. I will have a booth at the juried Daly Mansion holiday craft show and have been working on lots of new small pieces for that. My booth will be on the second floor. This is my first experience with this kind of selling, so I'm a bit nervous about how it will go. Whether I sell much or not, I will definitely enjoy finding out how people react to my work and what they think of it. It is three days so I'm hoping I'll make a few sales and have fun talking with people about what I do.

I will also have some work in the "Many Faces of Fiber" show at The Artist's Shop in Missoula, Montana. There will be some quilted table runners by Judy Hartz, some weaving, wearables and I'm not sure what else, but I know it will be a very interesting show. This is a wonderful coop gallery that is worth visiting, particularly if you are looking for gifts for the holidays. I highly recommend it.

I will also have work at The River's Mist Gallery where the featured show in November is Master Woodworkers. I think my fiber art goes particularly well with wood, so I'm hoping there will be room for a few to hang with this show. I will likely have "Jewel of the Forest" there so if you want to see it in person please stop by. The gallery is on Main Street in Stevensville. In December River's Mist Gallery will have work by all of her featured artists, including me. Look for more of my small pieces perfect for holiday gift-giving if they don't all sell at the Mansion!

As always I will have some work at Art City and The Frame Shop which are both on Main Street in Hamilton, Montana.

This weekend my mother and I will be headed to Spokane, Washington for their quilt show. I have three pieces entered and I'm looking forward to seeing the show. I have heard this is a very nice show and I'm sure they will have a lot of vendors where I can spend some money!

It's a "NO" from Quilt National

Before I get to my rejected Quilt National quilt, I have some other news. My quilt, "Blackberries and Dandelions" will soon be shipped off to the Art Quilts XV: Needleplay exhibition in Chandler, Arizona (near Phoenix) for a show that will be up from November into January. This is my first gallery art quilt show and I'm very excited about it. Sure wish I could be there to see it. Also, I had one piece, "From Winter We Emerge" at the Innovations 2010 show in Tacoma, Washington and it won Judge's Choice and a Peer Award there. Then this past week I had a phone call telling me that my quilt, "Red Sky", won third place in the Fiber Art category at AQS Des Moines!! That is my biggest award yet and has a nice cash award attached to it. Maybe I'll finally get that digital camera I've been hoping for!

"Jewel Of The Forest"

Now on to the Quilt National story!

This year I finally had a piece that I felt might be worthy of Quilt National so I submitted an entry. Unfortunately it did not make the cut, so now I can share it with you. This was a truly inspired piece and it created itself as it was made. I didn't know what I was going to do with the tree trunk when I made it. The piece evolved around it.

The fabrics on the left and right sides of the piece are my rusted Osnaburg which was wrapped around a large rusty chain. I painted the fabric that the tree trunk is on with fabric paint. The remaining fabrics are commercially made, including a hand-made marbled fabric (not by me).

The tree is made of molding paste that has been colored with PearlEx powder and then put onto the fabric with a palette knife. It was then painted to give it some highlights and shading.

I knew that something needed to be added to make the trunk more interesting and I spotted some coated wires about the right gauge. They were each less than 8" long and I had maybe a dozen of them. I found a wonderful multi-colored rayon flat ribbon in my stash and started winding lengths of it around to cover the wire and then left about 4" dangling at the end. When I held these up to the quilt the dangling ends just hung limply and it appeared that I needed to do something more. Of course then I thought of using beads and collected some that went with the piece and started stringing them in random "pattern" between loops of the ribbon (see pics). It worked wonderfully and the weight of the beads was perfect for the strenth of the wire. I securely stitched the ends of each wire to the top of the trunk so they would extend out from the wall and curve gracefully, draping like willow branches. They bounce ever so slightly when you walk by or if there is air movement in the room.

Enjoy the pictures. The quilt is now for sale: $1400.00. Be sure to let me know if you are interested!! ;o)

SAQA Auction Has Begun and Anniversary Art

Please check out the http://www.saqa.com/ website to view and participate in the on-line auction that began on Monday, September 20. My piece is in the second round of bidding which begins at the $750 level on Monday, September 27. The purpose of this effort is to raise funds to support SAQA – Studio Art Quilt Associates, which promotes art quilts by sponsoring exhibitions, educating fiber artists, providing means of networking for fiber artists and art venues, and by many other means.

I also have a new gallery on my website, http://www.heidizielinski.com/, Gallery 3, so please check it out. These pieces were mostly created in the past six months (except for the Christmas ornament which I forgot to include in the last gallery!).

Several months ago I was asked by my mother-in-law to create a piece of fiber art for some friends of their family who were going to be having their 50th wedding anniversary. Initially she suggested a memory type quilt which related to their life experiences, children, etc. Unfortunately I wasn't comfortable doing a piece like that since it is so different from what I normally do, and I was finding it very hard to find inspiration for it. I knew that this couple and their family loved to go camping and had visited Yellowstone, Glacier and other western destinations on family vacations and such (they are from the Chicago area). So I suggested that I do a nature themed piece more similar to what I usually create, and since I had an idea from some recent experimenting I was ready to get started.

What I came up with was a piece that incorporates a large tree with a textured trunk created from molding paste. The paste comes as white and I added Pearl-Ex powder to it in a bronze color and painted the paste onto the fabric with a palette knife using a paper template to maintain the shape with a little more control. I let the molding paste dry, then I used some of my fabric paints to add highlight and shadow. I used Elmer's Blue Glue (gel) to draw out the mountains, let it dry, and then painted the mountains and the lines of glue acted as a resist. I painted the rest of the landscape of meadow, sun and blue sky using fabric paint. When it was dry, I rinsed out the washable glue in warm water. I appliqued a path that moves into the distance, then I free motion quilted the piece adding in some clouds in the sky and grass/flowers in the meadow. After quilting and binding the piece, I added a bit of beading in the foreground and along the path.

Now I was ready to work on the leaves for the tree. I layered fabric and batting and machine stitched around leaf shapes I drew onto the fabric, added vein details, and satin stitched the edges. Then I cut them out. In order to cover the batting which showed around the edges and secure the threads, I painted the edges with Lumiere fabric paint and pinned them to a piece of foam to dry. I stitched the leaves to the branches on beaded strands so they dangled and swayed. Then I added meaningful words to the backs of the leaves using fabric markers and paint so they were readable but not too bold. Words like: Love, Friendship, Family, Hope, etc. If I had known what I wanted to do with the words earlier, I could have written them BEFORE I attached them to the piece. As it was I had to lay paper under them and make sure not to mark on the quilt top as I did this---and making sure they did not flip over onto the quilt before they were dry!

The piece was done in plenty of time but unfortunately we didn't get it shipped in time for it to be presented to the couple at their anniversary party---images were shown to them instead. My mother-in-law, Diana, has the quilt now and will be presenting it to them shortly. I truly hope they enjoy it and that they are all happy with the results of my work. It was a fun piece to do, although different from my usual. Painting the entire piece instead of using commercial fabrics was somewhat out of my box, but I enjoyed the process and was satisfied with the results.

I learned through this process that I probably don't want to pursue commission work at this point in time because I find it difficult to be inspired to create something with someone else's vision. I am usually inspired by fabric, beads, a technique, or something else and I envision where it might take me and then have enthusiasm for moving towards that vision. Trying to work with another person's vision is very hard for me, but maybe if I continue to participate in challenges and learn to accept suggestions from others about what they find interesting (translate: sellable!), maybe I will get there at some point in my “career”. In case you aren't familiar with “challenges” they are usually initiated by some group and have parameters and rules about what you have to do (a theme, style, colorway, etc.) and sometimes what materials you can use. I have participated in several of them over the past few years and I think I have improved, but they are definitely still a CHALLENGE!

Gushing---so don't read if you can't take it!!

Tree of Life - SOLD

Quite often I read about artists who are depressed, lacking in self-esteem or self-confidence, have doubts about the quality/worth of their work, and generally have negative feelings about their art and what they are producing (or not producing).  I am always grateful to realize that I don't have these feelings.  I have been so fortunate to find success and happiness in what I am doing with my art and as a "glass half full" kind of person I just don't get those negative thoughts about it all.  I've had people make comments to me about how I can look at my show ribbons whenever I am feeling down about my art and feel better.   In the three years that I have been seriously pursuing my art quilts I have not had a time when I felt negative or down about what I'm doing!  It has been a fun, positive, rewarding and fulfilling journey.  I love what I'm doing and am proud of my work.   I have had more support from people in many different capacities than I could have ever hoped for.  It is usually accepted that friends and family will be kind, but I have had such an overwhelmingly positive response about my work from an incredible array of people that it is just plain wonderful.

It is all new and exciting to me now, so maybe sometime down the road I'll need to think back to these happy times of satisfaction with my art in order to boost my spirit.  Every time I enter a show and get accepted I am astounded, flattered, and proud.  When I win an award at one of those shows I am truly honored.  When I take my work to a gallery and they accept it and want to show it I am elated and encouraged.  I hear that many artists are still not selling much with the economy not recovered and people not spending on "luxury" or discretionary items like art.  I have sold more work this year than any other year.  I'm going to have to remove those lines of "sold" pieces on my inventory list so I can sort out what is still available without all those sold ones in the way! 

Now, that is not to say I don't have my problems, but they are what I would consider "good" problems.  I don't have time to crank out all the work I have inspiration for.  I am constantly in the process of getting an entry ready for a show, shipping a piece to a show, or trying to determine what pieces to commit to shows I want to enter down the road.  It is getting to be a major organizational effort to coordinate the commitment of pieces to shows and make sure they aren't sold in the meantime or committed to another show, or that I have them back in time to send to another commitment.   I have pieces in four galleries in my area and keeping them up-to-date and current is a coordination effort as well. 

I think I'm going to have to slow down and commit to a certain number of shows a year and choose those that will be the best exposure for me.  I have been in numerous Mancuso managed quilt shows and they have been a good experience for me but I think I will be giving those up.  I'd like to try for Houston and Paducah even though they emphasize the traditional quilt because they are prestigious and will get my name out there.  I'm trying to enter more of the art quilt shows at galleries across the country because they emphasize sales and many of them have become quite prestigious in the art quilt world.  That includes shows like Quilts=Art=Quilts, Art Quilts XV, Form Not Function, and many others.  I have yet to get into one of these shows, but I'm still trying!

When I do an entry for a show it can be rather complicated to figure out what I can enter.  For one thing it needs to be available (not at or committed to another show) and not in a gallery because it cannot sell in the meantime or it might not be available to show and they don't like that much.  There are size requirements (minimums and maximums), show themes, and image requirements.  I have to make sure I have good quality full quilt and detail images of my pieces so they are ready to submit.  There are fees to pay, shipping arrangements to make, packing quilts so they arrive ready to hang in decent condition, worrying about them getting lost in shipping, worrying about the condition they will be in when they are returned to you, anxiety about whether or not they might win a ribbon and be recognized in some way, and, for some shows, if they sell.  My mind races!

This summer has been particularly busy for me having been the featured art quilter at our local show and of course having my son here to occupy my mind and time.  He is a good boy and can entertain himself, but there are not nice blocks of time in the day when I can really become lost in my work.  Because of that I don't accomplish as much.  We have had a great summer and I enjoy having him around, but when school starts I have a whole list of things that I will be attempting to accomplish with all the uninterrupted time I will have during the week!  We'll see how that goes...!

I just finished a quilt for my mother-in-law who asked for something to give to friends of theirs that are having a 50th wedding anniversary in September.  I wasn't able to do what she originally proposed to me since it would have caused me much angst and frustration (not being my style and not being inspired by it), so I designed and created something I think they will like and will ship it off soon.  Hopefully they will all find it suitable to the occasion.   I will post in progress and finished quilt pictures soon...

Now I am moving on to some small pieces that are pieced and layered and ready to quilt.  I'm hoping to accumulate some things to sell for the holidays, in particular a holiday show at the Daly Mansion in Hamilton, Montana which seems to be a very strong and successful venue for artists.  I have applied to have a booth space and it will be my first foray into that sort of display of my work.  I think it will be fun, but I really need to get a good inventory of work to sell so I don't have a naked booth! 

I previously blogged about a piece that I worked on for about a year called "Red Sky" which went to the Lowell Quilt Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts recently and is now headed to AQS Des Moines.  It has tentatively been sold and I'm hoping that becomes a permanent thing, but I need to get it back safely first.  It is a wonderful piece and I know that the new owner will enjoy it. 

Red Sky - SOLD

I will be getting some new images posted on my website soon and will put a notice here when that happens.  I need to get to formatting the images and writing up the descriptions so I can have my husband put them out there.  It all just takes time..................................!!

Just for fun, this is a piece created a while back to try to get into a show entitled "Art Meets Science", but it did not get in.  The moon in its phases is created with shiny/sparkly angelina fiber.  There are carved beads of bone and metallic glass beads which are to symbolize the primitive and yet space-age aspects of the moon.  One of the few things in science that I can think of that is both primitive and modern at once.

Thanks for visiting!

I finally figured out how to get some photos downloaded here so I'm getting back to posting! I have had some fun this summer getting my work out there and even selling!

At the beginning of July we had the Stevensville Sapphire Quilters' Show and I was the Featured Quilt Artist. That meant I got some floor space to myself to set up a display of my work and I filled it up with fiber art! I was able to borrow some free-standing panels for displaying some of the work and they were black so they set off the quilts nicely. I had some of my older pieces as well as new work. It was very fun to be there for two days and talk with people about my work and answer questions. I sold three pieces and received some ribbons for various pieces I had entered in the show. Here is a picture of one of the pieces I sold which I will miss!  It is called "Run Free".

My Sapphire Challenge piece won numerous ribbons including Best Overall Challenge piece. The challenge involved using two fabrics that they gave us and up to four other fabrics to create a fiber item (didn't have to be a wall hanging, but mine was).   Here is a picture of it:

The quilt show went very well and the two ladies who were brave enough to volunteer to organize and run the show did a wonderful job with it. All of the committee chairs seem to have things well under control and I thought the show looked wonderful and things ran smoothly. The vendors seemed to be happy and the visitors seemed to enjoy it. I know that I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend!

I took some of my work to a co-op gallery in Missoula, Montana, The Artist's Shop, to get juried in for consignment there and was accepted so some of my pieces are hanging there now. I don't think anything has sold yet, but it is good to have some of my work in Missoula. I will be having a solo exhibition at the gallery in September of 2011.

My son, Michael, is going to be the featured Emerging Artist at River's Mist Gallery in Stevensville for the month of August. His opening will be on First Friday (August 6) from 6-9pm. I can't wait to see him interacting with people at the reception. Some of his work will be for sale, but he is rather attached to it and most of them he doesn't want to sell. His work is mostly watercolor paintings which he has created during lessons with my dad which he has been doing most every week for a couple of years now. He has done some very nice pieces and I think people will really enjoy them.

I just sent two pieces off to Images 2010 – Lowell Quilt Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts. Here are images of the two pieces I sent:  "Blackberries and Dandelions" and "Red Sky".

I also sent “Twist of Lime, Pinch of Purple” to the World Quilt Festival which is a Mancuso managed show. I am currently waiting to hear from a show in Ohio and to see if any of my pieces will be featured in the fall SAQA Journal which will be featuring nature themed quilts in the gallery pages. I sent in several images hoping one might get in. We'll see...

Don't forget to go to the SAQA Auction site to view the 288 donated auction pieces. There are approximately 12”x12” and made by SAQA members. They will be auctioned off in September and they will start at $750 and go down to $75. The site outlines the process for bidding if you are interested. Here is a picture of the piece I donated:

Gallery Talk

On Friday I had my "gallery talk" where I shared some info about my history, the way I work, and the inspiration for my work. There were about 15 people there and most, but not all, were people I knew who work in fiber (quilters or art quilters). I think it lasted about 45 minutes and towards the end of the time I started to feel like I was just babbling on and they were probably getting bored! Based on what they told me afterwards, that wasn't the case, and I think most of them really enjoyed what I shared with them. I tried to be organized with notes, visual aids, and some additional fiber art that wasn't in the show (mostly older pieces to show them what I did before I started the heavily quilted and beaded art work that I do now). I felt the talk was a worthwhile opportunity for me, and I learned a lot from it. An added bonus was that there was a play going on at the theater next door and several people stopped in to look at my work before the show and during intermission.

I have sold three small works since taking my pieces to the gallery. I am happy with that, but do wish that one of the larger pieces would sell. There are some interested parties but they haven't made a commitment, and might never do so! If the interested parties want me to bring pieces to their homes so they can see how they look I will be glad to do that after my gallery show is over and I would share the commission with the gallery since she has done a wonderful job promoting me and my work. It is wonderful to have a gallery that is supportive of your work and wants to continue a relationship with you. I hope to continue having a few pieces of my work at the gallery on a permanent basis, and in a year or so I will have another show. I just hope my run of creativity and productivity can continue so I can have enough new work to show!

I have had very good feedback from my gallery exhibition and the owner has said that pretty much everyone who has seen it has enjoyed it. The comments are very positive and many viewers seem to spend a good deal of time looking at the pieces and discovering their details. It is fun to be there and be able to answer questions or just talk about my work with interested people. I am really looking forward to our quilt show in July (July 9-10) when I will able to sit with my work as the Featured Quilt Artist. For two days I will be able to share my work and see how people react to it and tell them about it. What fun that is! I love answering questions and explaining things about my work. It is very satisfying to find out that people really want to know about it.

Right now I am in a holding pattern on creating new pieces, and trying to catch up on some things I need to get done around the house and yard. I also need to straighten up my workroom since after the whirlwind of getting pieces ready for this show and then preparing the lecture I have left it quite a mess. I need to try to organize my room a little better and get rid of lots of clutter. Some of these magazines have just GOT to GO!! I am quite a saver and just find it hard to part with any quilting or cooking magazines and yet they are in such disorder that I'd have a hard time finding anything in them anyway. I have some older ones that I never look at so I'm going to toss those and make room for the ones I do use like Quilting Arts and Machine Quilting Unlimited.

Blogger has changed something with how pictures are downloaded here and I have been having some trouble trying to get it to work.  I'll definitely will keep working on it so I can get something posted here for you to look at!!