Time to Create More Art

For the past five years I have been attending monthly creative sessions at a small business in Hamilton, Montana called In Good Company. This business is comprised of four women fiber artists who began their business making and selling hand-dyed fabric and silk ribbon. Then they began offering monthly "TARTS" classes---short for textile arts. Each month we get a small packet of supplies and materials for completing a surface design project of some sort. We take it home, play with it, make something, and bring it the next month to "show and tell" and talk about what we liked and didn't like about the products, process, results, etc.

Not only are these classes educational and the packets creatively stimulating, the gathering of like minded individuals has been an invaluable experience. The shop also sells many of the products, supplies, and literature related to the techniques we experiment with.

Today we were told that these women are planning to end this creative union as of this coming June. Although not totally surprised, I was disappointed. I have used these classes as way to jump start my creativity, expand my knowledge, and try out products and techniques that I might not have attempted on my own without some sort of guidance and having sometimes unique products provided to me in small "trial" size quantities.

I totally understand the decision In Good Company has made and wish them all the best in whatever they do with their creative lives, but we will miss them as an entity and a driving force for art quilting in the Bitterroot/Missoula area.

It is their hope, and mine, that some sort of art quilting activities, interaction, and mutual support will continue to happen in this area whether it be formal (as in a guild or some such thing) or informal. They have nurtured enough fiber artists that there is a strong contingency of us in the area and most are enthusiastic about the medium enough to support something---we just aren't quite sure what yet!

I'd like to see us be able to bring in some national and regional level teachers, have local workshops and "play days", maybe retreats, and possibly continue having a show as In Good Company has done for the past five years.

I'm not sure how this will effect my productivity or my creative energy. I do have my art discussion group which I love, but I have enjoyed the varied levels, styles, and energy of the members of Tarts over the years. Hopefully I will continue to experiment with surface design and play with new and different techniques and products on my own using them to expand my knowledge and continue to have new ideas and work that is fresh and creative.

I will enjoy the next few months and savor the good things I get from Tarts and In Good Company. In July I will find out how well I can do on my own and see if I can keep motivated creatively every month without a new technique or design idea from Tarts to spur me on.

Thank you Jamie, Sue Anne, Susan and Sue for everything you have shared with us. You are inspiring, motivating, supportive, and set an example we are all proud to try to live up to. I hope you are all able to enjoy your freedom from the business end of things and create more art.

Create more art.

New Year's News

Well, I have survived through the holidays and I sold a few ornaments for some spare change (but not much else)! Now I am hoping for some success in this new year in selling a few pieces and maybe getting something published. I am planning to submit some articles to see if there is any interest in publishing my writing but first I need to get images to go with them. Most of the magazines seem to want images illustrating your discussion up front so that is what is currently holding me up. Hopefully I can work on that in between upcoming deadlines.

Our yearly TART's show of fiber art will be February 11-13 at the Hamilton City Hall (old Bedford Building) at Bedford and South 2nd streets in Hamilton, Montana. I will have some pieces in the show and am currently working on a piece for their challenge. Hopefully I will have some new work that no one has seen yet. This has always been a pretty good venue and I usually sell a piece or two so I'm hopeful!

There has not been much success in getting people to sign up for the classes at Patchwork Quilts and I think I will try to come up with a condensed class that will be more inexpensive for people. Maybe just a one day class on a Saturday. I'm planning to work on that this week . Since I have all the plans outlined for the three session class I'm sure I can work up a shorter class fairly easily. I certainly understand why people don't want to spend the money I'm asking for, so I'll just have to adjust my plans and see if I can't offer what they want. That is really the goal, isn't it?

I have mentioned that my piece, "Blackberries and Dandelions" is in the Art Quilts XV show in Chandler, Arizona. I was interviewed by a reporter from the Phoenix newspaper (Arizona Republic) about my piece. The article was about the new space that the Vision Gallery is occupying and they mentioned several other artists in the show who are from Arizona and the names and prices of their work. She went into a little more detail about my work and my background. The reporter incorrectly stated that I created the batik fabrics in the piece, but they are commercial fabrics. I did dye one of the fabrics in the piece and she misunderstood what I said about that. Unfortunately they did not publish a picture of the quilt as she had hoped and they didn't give my website address, but it was nice publicity to be mentioned prominently in the article. The reporter told me that my piece was her favorite in the show which was very flattering since there are almost 100 pieces and many much more seasoned artists than I. Hopefully the article will send some more people to the show--and someone will buy something. I heard that only one piece has sold so far. I believe the exhibit is supposed to be taken down on January 18.

I am currently working on a small piece to send to Studio Art Quilt Associates for their Traveling Trunk Show. The pieces are supposed to give people an idea of the great variety of techniques and styles being used in art quilts and hopefully my piece portrays what I am doing. I have finished the piece and need to write up a description of the work and techniques used so I can send it off. The pieces are sent out to lots of places all over the country for interested people/groups to look at and be inspired by. We had some of them come here locally last year and enjoyed the variety and quality of the work very much. I regretted that I hadn't submitted anything for that grouping, so I'm making to sure to get one in this year! I'll put a picture up soon...

Friday evening I attended the opening of the Missoula Art Museum's auction exhibition at which one of my pieces, "In A Heartbeat" is displayed. It is in the silent auction which will take place the same evening as the live auction in February. It was a wonderful exhibition of art from many local artists (and others) and I enjoyed the great variety and quality of the work. I do hope that there is interest in my piece as I would be somewhat embarrassed for them to have to give it back to me! There was only one other fiber art piece and it was quite different from mine (by Nancy Erickson) and I don't believe it was a recent work. This was a juried submission process so we had to send images of some pieces to be considered and I was honored to be included.

I have been somewhat disappointed in the lack of comments on my blog and wanted to ask if there are any problems people are having doing that, or if you just don't have anything to say. Please e-mail me at heidi@heidizielinski.com if you experience any problems with commenting. I'm curious as to how other bloggers get people to make comments and get feedback for what they are sharing. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Small Art Quilt Classes at Patchwork Quilts

For those who are in my neck of the woods, I am pleased to announce that I am offering a 3-session class in making a small art quilt at Patchwork Quilts in Hamilton, Montana this coming February. The classes are on the first three Thursdays in February (2/3, 2/10, and 2/17). The first session is on making an art quilt top, the second is on layering and quilting the top, and third session is on embellishing and finishing the quilt.

Patchwork Quilts is at 1720 N. First St. in Hamilton which is the main road through town (Hwy 93). You can call them at 363-5754 for details, or stop in and see the samples for each of the sessions that I just dropped off at the shop.

By the way, you can take one or two or all three sessions as you like. If you only want the quilting one, just sign up for that one. I will be attempting to make them independent of each other, but if you take all three they will definitely be a nice progression towards a finished piece.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about the classes. I would really like to share what I know with you and hope that you will let me know what you'd like to learn. I've had many people tell me they would like to do what I do but don't think they can. I think I can teach you some things that will help you move in the right direction. I will hopefully even share some things with you that you can use no matter what kind of quilting you like to do.

Also, if you sign up and need help with the supply list please don't hesitate to contact me. I'll be bringing some fabric, thread, and embellishment stuff for each relevant session that will help to supplement whatever you bring, so there is no need to stress out about it!

Hope to see you there! Thanks!

Belated Quilt Show Pictures

Earlier this summer I had promised some pictures from our quilt show at the end of June and I finally remembered and got some of them formatted to show here. These are all from the Art Quilt and Landscape/Pictorial Quilt categories at the Bitterroot Quilter's Guild show. We had a wonderful display of art quilts in both categories and I was impressed with the quality and variety of these pieces. I was honored to received the first place ribbon in the Art Quilts and 3rd in the Landscape/Pictorial category. I apologize for the quality of the pictures as my digital camera isn't the best, but you can get an idea of the wonderful display we had. Enjoy!



Great Blue Heron piece is done by Mickey Frissell, my mom.



Geisha is hand appliqued onto the background by Jaime Grant. Color in my picture does not do it justice---it is a beautiful background and wonderful workmanship as is the norm for Jaime!

Quilt Show in Progress...

We are in the midst of the Bitterroot Quilter's Guild's show and what a wonderful display of quilts it is.  I was really pleased to see how many people entered art quilts in the show this year.  They are having a silent auction and I donated two wall hangings for that:

Hopefully the guild will make some money with the auction since everything is donated. The bidding quite often gets interesting at the end of the show so I'll be keeping an eye on it tomorrow afternoon!

I worked at the show all day today and will be working tomorrow for most of the show and then meeting a friend to walk around and view it a bit. Ribbons for Viewer's Choice and the Challenge quilt winners will be posted so I look forward to seeing who the winners are. There are some wonderful vendors to visit and I already bought some fabric and, of course, some beads! This is always one of the best shows in the area (this year is no exception!) and I'm proud to be part of it.

I have to get the picture of my challenge quilt from my dad so I can post it here for you. Will try to get that up in the next couple of days. They indicated that it one a ribbon but I don't know quite what yet. I don't know exactly how they judged them but I think there are several ribbons being awarded. It was a very fun challenge to participate in. Some of the other pieces are really wonderful and I'll try to get some pictures of them tomorrow to post here with permission!

Have to get some rest now so I'm ready to go for a long shift at the show tomorrow. Come back soon for more pics!

Recent Works

This is my first post and I'm new to blogging, so bear with me!  I want you to see what I'm doing in the fiber art world so keep reading!



I've been stymied by one piece I'm working on (see above) and now I have some prior commitments to attend to outside the studio, so I guess it will remain undone on my design wall until I can be inspired to return to it.  It is a bold and colorful quilt that is much different than my usual---although I'm not sure I have a "usual" style!  It is also larger than most of my recent pieces and it seems to be a difficult size for me.   It is hard sometimes for me to show people my works in progress as they are quite rough compared to what they will eventually become.  Unfortunately I don't have a clear vision of this one and how it will look, but you can get an idea of the lines and bold color.  I definitely have some work in front of me to tie this together and balance it out.  It will come, it will come....!

I have just finished a piece (picture of it below before it was completely done) that is based on the log cabin pattern but has modern twist to the piecing and color.  I love how the colors (purple and lime) play in this one and I'm really happy with how the embellishments worked out.  It was a stubborn quilt when it came to actually quilting it and I had to put it aside for several weeks.  My machine kept skipping stitches and breaking the thread constantly.  I finally picked it up again last week and zipped right along with the quilting with very few problems, even using metallic threads.  I had planned to enter it in a show but that deadline passed and I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  It just did not want to be done for that one! I'm sure something else will come along for it.  I will be showing it at a trunk show on November 5 along with many of my other art pieces.  



My goal these days is to sell my quilts so I'm trying to get them out there for everyone to see and let people know about what I am doing.  I'll try to get some more pictures onto my blog so you can see the work I've been doing.  Right now I need to get ready for my quilt guild meeting tomorrow night so come back again later to see what I'm up to!