Quilt Artist of the Week

Linda Matthews has started a new project - Quilt Artist of the Week. There is no charge to subscribe and no fee to be a participating artist. Who can beat that? I love to share my work so I jumped on the bandwagon and am participating in the project. If you want to receive Linda's weekly email sign up at her Inspire site: http://inspire.creative-textile-and-quilting-arts.com/. The project starts at the beginning of May.

Good Girl

The "GOOD GIRL" quilt is a product of the workshop with Rayna Gillman. There was a thread on Quiltart about taking classes and then having your work look like that of the last teacher who influenced you. I wish I could produce work like Rayna's but, as you can see, that is not my style at all. I made the blue squares and the willow tree in Rayna's workshop. I decided to cut the squares apart and attach them to a black background in an effort to simulate a page from an old photo album.

Using a technique from Lesley Riley's "Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur" I printed a picture of myself at age six or so on some Lutradur and painted it to make it look aged. The circle was a left over from another project and I stamped some additional shapes. I enjoyed making this and may create a series. But since my favorite part of making quilted art is doing the quilting this style won't go too far with me. This work is not one where I wanted any emphasis on the quilting.

Think Green at Waverly House

Waverly House Gifts and Gallery's spring juried show is on the theme "Think Green". I was happy to learn that my two entries were accepted. And I was really happy to learn that several of our local fiber artists also entered and had work accepted. There were more than a hundred entries with only half of that number accepted. Five of the artists with work juried in are fiber artists. Fiber arts are truly considered art in our small city - primarily thanks to Uncommon Threads, a spin-off from our quilt guild. This group paved the way over the past few years for recognition of quilts and fiber as art in our community.
This small piece (12" x 16.5") is BOB'S RAIN GARDEN. My husband has begun work on a rain garden in our back yard. The idea is to plant water-loving plants in a place in the yard that gets a lot of water and then to divert more water from your roof to sustain these plants. The water then doesn't run off but maintains plants that help improve the environment. I like the idea of root systems invading the layers of earth so that was part of my inspiration for this work.

LUNCH AT THE SUNSHINE CAFE (22" x 18") resulted after I spent an hour working on a more serious piece about global warming. I decided it was super boring so pitched it and decided I want to make a big green salad. I think this piece is funny but I believe I'm the only one! There's something humorous to me about that big fabric fork and the egg. Oh, well, you can't explain your own sense of the ridiculous to someone else.