Roberta Ranney

The Richest Chord

2011-12-10T15:56:00.001-06:00

I belong to an art quilt group that has been making 12" x 12" challenge quilts for the past year. Our most recent challenge was to base a quilt on the theme of music. I had a number of thoughts but decided to try to depict my favorite chord in fabric. As you can see, my piece grew substantially beyond 12 x 12! It is 18" by 45" before adding the border/frame. So I hung it in my living room and kept it for us.

My favorite piece of music is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I've been playing it on the piano for fifty-five years! There is a chord in the last movement that is so full and rich that I've been known to play it over and over when no one else is around.

So there is the chord or chord series that has given me chills for all these years. Now to get my piano tuned and start playing more than once or twice a year.

Return to Eden

2011-11-23T10:34:00.000-06:00

Return to Eden - 30" square

This piece was juried into the "Journeys" show at Waverly House Gallery. I was delighted to learn that it was judged "Best of Show". The show continues through the end of November.

The quilt was a joy to make since the fabrics told me what they wanted to be and where they wanted to be and I simply listened. I usually buy very little fabric but went wild this fall buying lots of different fabrics and not just the batiks that usually want to come home with me. The new fabric really helped give me a burst of creativity.

Wallflowers

2011-08-25T17:02:00.000-05:00

Wallflowers II - 31" x 40"

This quilt was a joy to make. I started by making several flowers with no idea what I was going to do with them. Then it seemed they needed a stone wall to lean against. I sewed everything down, including the leaves and flower that project into the sky. After seeing some great pieced skies at a quilt guild meeting, I came home and did some major unsewing and changed the sky. It was a great improvement.

This piece will be exhibited at Waverly House Gallery during the annual "Meet the Artists" weekend September 9th and 10th. If you are around Springfield, come see it and me.

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

2011-07-06T11:27:00.000-05:00

COON - 9" x 12"

FANTASY FLOWER - 9" x 12"

I made these two small quilts for the AAQI monthly auction. If you are not familiar with AAQI, please visit the website at http://www.alzquilts.org. The organization has raised a substantial amount of money for research on Alzheimer's disease primarily through the sale of small quilts. The founder, Ami Simms, saw first-hand the devastating effects of this disease with her mother. Although her mother has passed on, Ami has remained faithful to this cause.

My sister has this disease and I have watched it destroy her day by day. I hope you will take a moment to look at the little quilts and consider making a bid or participating by making one of the auction quilts yourself.

Thanks for looking!

THE BRUBECK EFFECT

2011-05-13T11:52:00.002-05:00

This quilt was my entry in the Voices of Inspiration juried show at Waverly House. It was accepted and sold the first evening at the artists' reception. I didn't get a good picture of it so I need to head to Waverly and get a better one.

My introduction to jazz was a Dave Brubeck concert at Drury University in 1964. I can still remember the unexpected joy of listening to him play. I bought a book of his work and attempted to play some of his songs on the piano off and on for many years. When I saw him play the second time I was up close where I could see the size of his hands. They were huge. After that I realized I could never hit those chords with my wee hands but I still had a good time trying.

Blue Sonata

2011-02-01T11:37:00.002-06:00

I recently finished this quilt as a commission. It had to fit a specific space so its dimensions (25" x 58") are unusual. I love to make these "slice and dice" quilts with the curved piecing - something very satisfying about getting all the horizontal tedious work done and then rapidly finishing the piece. I believe its new owner is pleased. Now I'm tempted to make one for myself since the unusual width looks good in several places in my house. But that's sort of like the cobbler's barefoot children.

Villa Teresa

2010-09-20T09:43:00.001-05:00

This small quilt (16" x 21") was inspired by a photo taken by Teresa Rhyne in the south of France. Teresa is an attorney in her "day job" but among her true loves are books and fine wines. She and her SO Chris lead "Words and Wine" tours to France once or twice a year. And she takes wonderful pictures. Teresa was kind enough to give me permission to use her pix as quilt inspiration.

This is another of the pieces in my architecture inspired series. It was inspired by a picture of a courtyard in Sicily. It is on display at the Pool Art Gallery at Drury University in Springfield, MO as part of the Threads of Memory show presented by Uncommon Threads.

What to do with those indigo dyes

2010-08-11T11:07:00.000-05:00

REFLECTIONS

After I did all the indigo dyeing in June it seemed like I needed to make something using the fabrics. This piece, approximately 30" square, was inspired by a photo my brother took in Monte Carlo just before he put on a tuxedo and checked out the casinos. His picture showed the yachts moored there as well as a building I thought was a church. Wrong again, it was a casino. The houses with all their windows overlooking the sea were what appealed to me. The name of the quilt is inspired by the sky reflecting into the sea and both reflecting off the windows. The sky and the sea were made from a beautiful silk scarf I dyed with the indigo. It was just right for what I needed so I cut it up. Now I've ordered another indigo dyeing kit because I want to give some indigo dyed silk scarves as gifts.

For those of you interested in indigo dyeing, the kit I used is a Jacquard product I ordered from Dharma Trading Co. The original mix lasted almost a month before it gave up its ability to dye. It also got smellier as time went by!

Textile Improvisation Team Challenge

2010-07-19T11:03:00.002-05:00

A small group of women get together once a month to try new techniques, laugh and sample ice cream and cake. Okay, occasionally we have pie. We decided to make an art quilt sampler for the Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild's biennial quilt show. The only rules were that each quilt had to be 14" square and each had to include a piece of a blue-green batik to give us a bit of continuity. Other than those restrictions, we each could do whatever we wanted. We are quite good at "whatever".

JoAnne Simonson made an abstract dragon.

Karen Carroll has just gotten into inchies and featured them in her quilt.

Vicki Strohm has two dragons - in the lower right corner you will find an observer.

Vivian Terbeek is making some large ocean-inspired pieces but scaled down for this one.

Norma Roberts made this jolly wonky log cabin inspired quiltlet.

And I made a little cabin in the fall woods.

I made a black quilt to tack the little quilts to for display at the quilt show.

If you are in the Springfield, MO area September, 23, 24, or 25, please

come visit our quilt along with several hundred other fine quilts.

INDIGO DYEING

2010-06-20T19:27:00.002-05:00

Fabric knotted, tied

Fabric twisted and wound on pvc pipe

Fabric hand stitched and gathered

Dyeing in the yard

Cottons

Silk

An article in Quilting Arts mentioned the availability of an Indigo Dyeing Kit through Dharma Trading Company. I got together with my five partners in textile insanity and we decided to give it a try.

The kit was inexpensive, around $11.00, and contained everything needed to make the dye vat plus good instructions both on mixing the dye and shibori dyeing possibilities. There were blocks of wood and rubber bands and even one vinyl glove. Mmmm, not sure what one would do with one glove since part of the dyeing process is to sink your fabric packet under the surface of the dye and squish the dye through it. Two gloved hands are pretty important! Of course, you can also wrap fabric on poles and dip in the dye.
The interesting part is when you pull your fabric out of the vat it is various shades of green. Within seconds it starts turning blue - has to have oxygen to produce the blue color.

The last picture shows some silk I dyed while the previous one was cotton. The silk took the dye beautifully and has a lovely sheen. Another picture shows a green scarf - this was the result of overdyeing a bright yellow silk scarf. All of us dyed some silk scarves with the indigo - they are gorgeous.

I don't know how long the vat will last, i.e., turn the fabric blue. In southwest Missouri we are experiencing lots of heat. The instructions mention keeping the vat in temperatures less than 86 degrees. Mine is in the garage and has to be way over that limit. But today, on the fifth day after preparing the dye, it is working fine.

Things to note: this is much simpler than using Procion MX dyes. You dip the damp fabric in the vat for a moment or two, set it on some plastic, and when it turns blue you can rinse it out and launder it or give it a quick wash in the sink with a little dishwashing liquid. Another note to those of you who hate icky smells - when you mix the chemical pack with warm water it stinks to high heavens! I haven't had a perm in several years but the stink factor was similar to that but way more intense. When I do this again, I will mix the chemicals outside. There was no warning about wearing a mask so it apparently isn't toxic but I don't want to be exposed to that intense smell again. One more thought - while you are working with the fabric you have dyed, keep those gloves on. Even when you are rinsing and have most of the loose dye out, it will still turn your fingernails blue.

This was a fun experience. Now I just have to decide what to do with all my blue fabric.

2010-04-08T17:09:00.000-05:00

Round Bobbin Quilting and Sewing Expos put on a show and classes in Springfield starting today. The two art quilt groups from Ozarks Piecemakers Quilt Guild were invited to display some of the members' work. Carol Bormann and Vivian Terbeek hung the show and it turned out beautifully. I had two older quilts displayed. I took pictures but one of my quilts turned out to be a big blur. The other is one in my Hidden Treasures of the Ozarks series and features morel mushrooms. I guess I was having a bad day as a photographer because the colors are off in this photo, too.

Snow Dyeing

2010-01-31T11:06:00.008-06:00

Over the last couple of days we've gotten nearly a foot of snow here in the Missouri Ozarks. I've seen several posts on QuiltArt about art quilters using the snow as part of a fabric dyeing process. So I decided to give it a try. My main resource for how to do this came from http://quiltersstitchtogether.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-version-of-snow-dye-process.html. Rhoda Forbes at http://artbyrhodaforbes.blogspot.com/ has tried snow dyeing a couple of times this winter and her work inspired me to give it a shot.

My favorite hand-dyes have what Ellen Anne Eddy calls a light-source. This method of dyeing does a great job of producing that type of fabric. All five of my fabrics came out with an inner glow that I find very attractive and useful. This dyeing seemed much easier than the fabric dyeing I've done in the past. So if you've been thinking about trying it - go for it!

FIRELINE

2010-01-10T12:24:00.000-06:00

FIRELINE

This small piece (10" x 11") has been hanging around for a while waiting on me to finish it. I had a 12" x 16" mounted canvas and decided to cover it in black fabric and attach the little quilt. I'm rather pleased with the finished piece since the canvas gives it enough presence to stand on its own. I also got to play with the electric staple gun which I haven't used for years. I'm a sucker for any kind of tool! Now perhaps I will hit the garage and make some frames using the chop saw - another of my favorites. But, since its hovering around 0, perhaps I should go back up to my warm studio and find some other bits and pieces to finish.

Mya

2010-01-07T10:23:00.000-06:00

My brother, Jim (Jimmy the Shoe) Hoover, asked me to do a portrait of his sweet Sheltie, Mya. She was a beloved pet and our whole family enjoyed her. A few years ago, she fell over in Jim's yard and died in an instant. She had the prettiest little face and a beautiful coat. When Jim took her to the groomer she would come home with a little red bandana and I was tempted to add one to her picture. This is my tribute to a sweet little dog.

Wine Time

2010-01-02T11:23:00.005-06:00

27" x 35"

I have finally finished some new work. I started Grapes in early December and painted the grapes and tacked them together then added the leaves. Then I couldn't find any background that pleased me. Along came this month's Fast Friday Fabric Challenge: use a color scheme from a label or box to inspire a still life. Rhoda Forbes was the challenge host and listed excellent references to check out on the web about the use of color in advertising and the meaning(s) of various colors. As I searched around, I came to a Froot Loops box which used some colors similar to my grapes. I used the red and black from the box as inspiration for the background for the grapes. So thanks to FFFC and Rhoda I've actually made something other than a pet for the first time in ages!

RAIN GARDEN sold at International Quilt Festival

2009-10-31T12:07:00.003-05:00

I received a notice yesterday that my quilt RAIN GARDEN had been purchased at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I feel honored that someone loved it enough to take it home! The idea for the piece came from my husband's plans to create a rain garden in our backyard. Since this quilt was finished our rain garden has made great progress. It is full of native plants that like lots of water and promises to be a thing of beauty next summer.

CALAMITY JANE

2009-10-12T11:56:00.002-05:00

I've just completed another pet portrait. Calamity Jane is the beloved pet of a friend's daughter and she commissioned this portrait as a gift for her. This was a challenging piece since the dog is primarily one color but some highlights and shadows in the original picture helped.

My quilt label includes the original picture of the dog. She had been swimming and was wet and happy.

I've received a couple of excellent books recently that are of great assistance as I work to improve my skills using Photoshop Elements. The first is "Next Steps in Altered Photo Artistry" by Beth Wheeler. The book is well-written and well-organized and is a real asset if you like to manipulate photos. The other is "Artistic Photo Quilts" by Charlotte Ziebarth. This book gets into some more technical operations to alter photos and is very useful. Both books are focused on printing photos on fabric which is not my aim. But they are wonderful in helping to develop a picture into an inspiration for a quilt.

My First Portrait of a Person

2009-09-13T17:47:00.003-05:00

BOB SINGS ( 17" x 18") This was my first experiment in trying to create a portrait of a person. I used a picture of my husband as he was singing that is one of my favorites. My fabric choices didn't turn out so well - he really doesn't have any odd skin conditions - but the picture actually does look like him a lot. So I'll call it a success and prepare to try another one.

NELLIE (10" X 12") Nellie lives next door to me with the Hatch family. She is getting very old so I thought a portrait of her might be welcome. I did a lot of thread-painting on this but it doesn't seem to show up very well. She is a mostly white cat so trying to add some dimension and texture was challenging.

Casey the Firecracker Dog

2009-08-08T15:26:00.002-05:00

My neighbors have a Jack Russell who is crazy for fireworks. His "Dad" sets off bottle rockets for him every evening and Casey runs around the yard like a mad dog then leaps into the air like he's on a spring until Brad shoots off another one. Trying to get a picture of this little maniac was very challenging. As you can tell, I'm still enjoying creating the pet portraits. If you want your pet pictured in fabric, I will take commissions through Waverly House at 417.882.3445.

Clio the Beautiful

2009-07-17T19:33:00.002-05:00

I thought creating the dog portraits was fun - but a calico cat is even better. This is Clio and she is a beauty and made a great subject for a pet portrait. You would think I'd be getting tired of this by now but I am seeing more and more possibilities for this technique. Stay tuned.

Still going to the dogs

2009-07-14T19:46:00.003-05:00

This little quilt is based on my friend Vivian's dog, Barbee. Barbee is not a pup but somehow I've brought out her inner child. I found it much more difficult to work with a more limited color range. Next I am going to try a cat portrait - Merrilee's Clio. I'll post when it is finished.

Another dog quilt

2009-07-06T09:35:00.003-05:00

The last dog portrait I did was so much fun that I had to do another. Now I'm taking pictures of the cat that lives to the south of me and the dog to the north. Their owners are looking forward to having their personalized pet portraits. And I'm looking forward to having more fun.

Seamus the Wonder Dog

2009-06-29T16:52:00.006-05:00

This wee quilt (11" x 14") is a gift for Vivian's daughter. She is bonkers over her beagle. And she's coming to visit in August so I pirated a picture of Seamus from her blog and interpreted him in cloth. I think it is funny and it was certainly fun to put it together. I recently received Leni Levinson Weiner's "Photo-Inspired Art Quilts" and combined some of her techniques with those in Marilyn Belford's book "Portraits for Fabric Lovers".

This was a great exercise to get me back to work (play) with my quilts. Now I think I'm going to roam the neighborhood taking pictures of the neighbors' cats and dogs because I have to do more of these fun little pieces.

Something New from Something Old

2009-06-24T11:45:00.002-05:00

SPIRAL LONE STAR (52" x 52")
I have been very uninspired over the past few weeks. So I dug out my one UFO - I think I started it five years ago. I had the star diamonds and the appliqued squares finished so I sewed them together and added another fabric to make it square. Then I had something to quilt and keep myself entertained. It actually took almost two weeks to finish - certainly not all that time to quilt but a lot of time nevertheless. This was a nice opportunity to try out lots of Karen McTavish's quilting motifs. I usually don't like stippling but even used my own loopy brand of that technique in the outside setting fabric. Now I have nothing left to quilt so I'm going to have to do something to get the creativity going again.

LATE BLOOMER Finds a New Home

2009-06-09T17:10:00.003-05:00

I had the good fortune of reconnecting with an old friend by way of Facebook recently. Last week, she was in Springfield and we got to catch up with one another. Wow, it is so great to spend time with someone who "knew you when" and who you enjoy just as much now.

I told my friend about my late life passion for art quilting and showed her some of my work. Today I learned she had contacted Waverly House Gallery and is now the owner of my favorite (and largest!) work - Late Bloomer. So congratulations to Cheryl for giving my quilt a new home and congratulations to me for letting go of it.

Something different

2009-05-04T11:24:00.003-05:00

I enjoy painting on fabric and wanted to experiment with a simple landscape. I painted this with Koh-i-noor watercolour dyes. Then I quilted lines to show the contour of the land, the movement of the river, the height of the mountains. I wish I'd left out the mountains - they just look like a purply mess. But it is good to try something out of one's particular style every now and again.

Quilt Artist of the Week

2009-04-14T09:42:00.000-05:00

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

2009-04-11T10:15:00.004-05:00

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

2009-04-09T11:08:00.010-05:00

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.

More Pictures from the Rayna Gillman Workshop

2009-03-31T15:56:00.011-05:00

Here is a picture of Rayna in her classroom attire. Lest you think she is a messy sort I will say she brought this shirt with her looking like this. This actually wasn't a particularly messy process.

The following are some additional examples of our first attempts at carving and stamping. I know the first is mine but can't credit the others since I don't have names attached to them.

Thanks to Vivian and Maureen for sharing these additional photos.

Rayna Gillman Workshop

2009-03-27T11:32:00.025-05:00

Rayna Gillman presented a two-day workshop for members of the Ozarks Piecemakers Quilt Guild in Springfield, Mo this week. The first day was spent carving stamps and creating our own fabric or improving fabric that needed help. We carved, we brayered, we talked, we made messes big and small and had a grand time.

The second day Rayna focused on a variety of methods for transferring images to fabric besides printing them directly from printers or copiers. We used transparencies, thermofax and silk screening, transferring with gel medium, clear tape and even using a cleaning product to transfer carbon-based prints. We also tried writing directly on fabric using fabric inks - most of us found that this is one of those skills that is perfected with lots of practice. We also learned that perfection is not what we needed to aim for. Rayna does a wonderful job of helping her students relax and enjoy the process of creating and to see the beauty in the imperfect organic result.

These are samples of our work over the two days. We were asked to show our favorite and least favorite of what we had produced.

I took these pictures after we were well into our first day of carving stamps and printing fabric:

Vivian started out with green and red-orange and kept going until she made another piece that reflected her recent experience with shingles. She's determined to get some art out of a difficult experience.

Sharon shows off the variety of stamping she did. I don't know how she produced the areas that look like writing but I'm going to find out!

Merrilee wears her stamped piece over her shoulder. She was too busy preparing her next piece to hold it up! She created a stamp that turned into a flower burst when stamped in different directions. Cool.

Maureen is holding a couple of the stamps she made. She had a happy accident when she spilled some gold paint on an edge of fabric and then proceeded to stamp bits of the paint all over the work - the bit of glitz livened it up nicely.

Karen is holding a piece that she chose as her "least liked" work over the two days. She was the only one who didn't like it. In person it sort of looks like a burst watermelon with seeds scattered. Other than this piece, Karen tried all the techniques on one piece of fabric using the same paints. That piece turned out exceptionally well.

If you have a chance to take any class with Rayna Gillman, do it! Rayna presented a program for our guild that was a delight - she is funny, does beautiful work, and doesn't take herself too seriously. That's an unbeatable combination. She is an excellent teacher and generously shared her extensive knowlege of surface design with her students.

New Work

2009-02-27T09:18:00.010-06:00

PRICKLY PODS (26" x 36") I belong to an art quilt group through our local quilt guild. Last month we studied the work of ten fiber artists featured in The Masters. One of them is Caryl Bryer Fallert whose work I've admired for a long time. I enjoy the lovely curves she uses as well as the vibrant colors that appeal greatly to me. So this is my homage to her. I used some of my hand-dyed fabrics as well as some commercial batiks. When the top was done I had a wonderful time thread-painting on the "pods" and free-motion quilting the background. Note: Prickly Pods has been juried into In Full Bloom VI.

I hope this detail shot shows some of the quilting - it is very intense. I also added some golden spirals using 100 dernier silk thread.

DWELLINGS (16" x 20") This work was done for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge a few months ago. The challenge was to use a monochromatic scheme. This was fun because I layered the front, batting and backing and quilted plain black fabric. Then I used Jacquard Discharge Paste to remove the color from selected areas and painted them various yellow tones. I've enjoyed Jean Auel's Earth Children's series and this piece makes me think of pre-historic peoples and the challenges they faced in finding shelter. Note: A second larger work, "Dwellings: Another Time, Another Place" was juried into the IQF special exhibit Tactile Architecture.

More Fast Friday Fabric Challenge Quilts

2009-02-23T11:43:00.015-06:00

CROW TAKES A VACATION (14" x 21"). I posted earlier about the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge internet group. We have a monthly challenge to use a specific technique or color combination and create a quilt within a week. For this month, we were challenged to use complementary colors and begin working in a series.YOUR RHYTHM, MY BLUES (17" x 21"). This challenge was to use analogous colors and to show movement. This piece, along with BROKEN CONNECTIONS was made in an effort to express my feelings in helping a family member deal with the onset of Alzheimer's.

WIND (11.5" x 14"). This challenge was to show motion. I used a piece of "failed" hand-dyed fabric - meaning it didn't retain the vivid colors I prefer. But it created a nice background for this windy day piece.

ROANOKE COTTAGE (9" x 12"). Our challenge was to depict architecture in some fashion as well as to show depth. This was based on a picture of a home I used to own in Springfield, MO. It has a lot of thread-painting for the yard and flower beds.

BROKEN CONNECTIONS (14" x 18"). Our challenge was to use a zinger color and to express emotion.

FLOWERBURST (14" x 18"). We were challenged to make a monochromatic quilt . Mine turned into analogous colors. It had a bright yellow background and I had a suggestion to think about using purple if I made another similar quilt. I pulled out my fabric paints and painted the background with purple paint and it greatly improved the work.

BEACH FIRE (12" square). This month's goal was to use a surface design technique. My piece is painted with water colors, quilted and then I added some beading.

It is not Fast Friday - It is Christmas at the TITs. I am a member of a small art quilt group, the Textile Improvisation Team, aka TITs. We met at Christmas and played dirty Santa and Vivian ended up with my little ferns. This piece was quilted, then discharged with Jacquard Discharge Paste and painted.

Gallery Show Was a Success

2008-12-04T16:49:00.013-06:00

My show went off without a hitch in October. Except for the part where I forgot to take any pictures until we were ready to leave. I took two quick photos and didn't even get a panorama of all my work. I was so pleased at the number of people who took the time to come see my work. My old friend George Remenar and his wife Cathy (3rd from right) made the trip from Eureka Springs and Lyle and Marilyn Adcock came in from Ft. Scott, Kansas. Good friends Denny and Carolyn Detert are the other two in the picture above. They came over from Joplin. And many dear friends who live in Springfield came to show their support. Lots of other perfect strangers came too. I know they are perfect since they admired my artwork. And even bought some.

Pieces that were sold are:

SUNBURST: This was my 2007 Journal Quilt. Before the show I cropped off the black and white checks and refaced the quilt. It is now in the collection of the Adcocks.

COON: This is currently my favorite quilt I've made - but it went to a very good home.

SAW WHET OWL: This is a detail picture of the quilt - I can't seem to locate the full shot but I know it is pictured in an earlier post.

ORNAMENTAL CABBAGE: My sweet friend Merrilee Tieche was the covert purchaser of this piece. I didn't know she had bought it for a month. She can keep a secret.

FRACTURED FIRE: This smaller piece was made in response to one of the Fast Friday Challenges.

I am delighted that I had the opportunity to have a show but I am also glad it is over. You will note that it has taken me two months to make this blog entry. I have just lazed around and done very little art work. But I have done some real labor - Bob and I decided to put new flooring in the kitchen, dining and laundry rooms and put a tile-like laminate down. My role was to act as a shim. Not too challenging. Then we put hardwood in the living room and hall. This time I got to be the cut-man and run the chop saw and install some of the flooring. I was feeling pretty cool running the saw except for the part where I had to close my eyes when I got to the actual cut. But at least I can act like I had an important role - much improved from being a human shim.

The Heron

2008-09-20T09:46:00.004-05:00

I forgot to add my HERON in my last post about my up-coming gallery show. I don't know how he got left out since it is one of my favorites. I used one of my hand-dyed fabrics for its background. This quilt (approximately 22" x 28") is currently being shown at the Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild show in Springfield, Missouri. It was awarded a second place ribbon in the art quilt category. LATE BLOOMER, shown in the previous post, also received a second place ribbon in the wall quilt category.

Upcoming Gallery Show

2008-09-15T16:18:00.020-05:00

The opening of my first ever gallery show is coming up October 3rd at Waverly House in Springfield, Missouri. The following works are a preview of what I will be showing.

COON (18.5" x 28.5") pictures a raccoon foraging in a dry creek bed. The beautiful background fabric in the upper half is a hand-dye I ordered from Dijanne Cevaal in Australia. It added just the right touch to this autumnal scene. The coon is thread-painted.

SAW WHET OWL (21" x 31") evolved after I did some research on owls and learned about this small bird. I thread-painted the owl. After placing the owl and the branches, I decided he should be in a fir tree and spent days free-motion stitching all those needles. I'm in no hurry to repeat this stitching adventure.

MATING SEASON (approx. 18" X 27") is a jolly quilt with lots of color. It was one of those pieces that come together rather quickly because of the joy of working with all the color and shapes. All the frogs are thread-painted.

GUSTAV'S GARDEN II (18" X 22") was inspired by a painting by Gustav Klimt. It was originally intended to be entered as my 2007 Journal Quilt but after I finished it I entered it into the juried section of the International Quilt Festival and it was accepted as a finalist.

STUDS TURTLE (approx. 18" x 26") is another jolly quilt with its turtle, lizard, dragonflies, leaves and flowers. Its background is a piece of my hand-dyed fabric.

SCENTUOUS (33" X 42.5") was inspired by a beautiful hand-dyed cotton sateen from Jeanettes Fabric To Dye For. I couldn't cut it up so used the whole piece as the background for some vines, irises, an out-size marigold and then a thread-painted skunk worked its way into the grass at the bottom.

RAIN FOREST FROLIC (34" X 39") is a piece I made a couple of years ago. I love its colorful dart frogs and the giant beetle. The border fabric is a hand-dye from Ellen Anne Eddy who is one of my quilt heroes.

SOLITUDE (approx. 18" x 24") was also made a couple of years ago using another of Ellen's hand-dyes as a background. It has a peaceful feeling I've enjoyed seeing on my wall.

LATE BLOOMER (49" x 64") has just returned from its journeys as part of the In Full Bloom IV Exhibit of the International Quilt Association. The blooms on the quilt are hand-painted and then thread-painted. I spent a long time working on this piece and had a wonderful critique from Cynthia Morgan that helped me improve the work.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge

2008-09-08T09:00:00.002-05:00

I belong to an art quilt group inspired by Project Runway. Someone got the notion two years ago on the Quiltart list to have a group with a monthly challenge. The resulting art quilt is, ideally, finished within one week and published on our Yahoo group and/or on our blog for critique. This group has been a wonderful learning tool for many of us. Since the group is getting ready to start its third year and has 25 new members I want to show some of my work during the past two years.

The very first challenge in September 2006 was to use fall colors and to attempt to show depth. My husband and I had just traveled to Alton, IL and one of our stops was a beautiful old cemetery. My first quilt was inspired by a picture I took and is called Final Fall. Those odd little beads are supposed to be headstones. This quilt is 9" x 12" since we originally had a goal of making journal size works.

The second challenge was to use the poem "Jabberwocky" for inspiration and to add texture. My little work is called "Jabberwocky and the Lost Green Pigs". Those odd little beads showed up again in this piece and are representing the lost green pigs. Anyway, that was the plan....

The next challenge was to make a quilt with a non-traditional or odd shape. I had just figured out a technique I call fractured quilts so I made one and added a thread-painted lizard that hadn't found a home. I'm happy to say I didn't add any of the green beads.

This November challenge was to be inspired by the first line of a book and to use value and contrast. I am a Dickens fan and pulled out Little Dorrit and used its first line: "Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun one day." I was in the middle of taking a Quilt University course on painting on fabric so decided to attempt to do this challenge in fabric paints. My piece was inspired by a painting of the Bay of Marseilles by Cezanne. For some reason, his work looks better than mine.

The next challenge was to create a still life, crop it and add form using the illusion of dimension. My Breakfast Table Still Life was inspired by this picture of what was sitting on my dining table.

After cropping the photo I made this:

I thought it would be fun to take the same elements and put them together in an abstract way so this is what the back of the quilt looks like:

Art Quilts, Fiber Arts, Textile Arts - who knows?

2008-09-03T11:11:00.015-05:00

Whatever the name is (and there is a lot of debate about it) I make quilts that are for the wall and are considered art. I had a blog that I kept somewhat up to date with pictures of my art quilts until several months ago. The format changed and I could no longer figure out how to include the pictures with text. Go figure... Since my blog is more concerned with pictures than with words I decided to start all over.

I am currently preparing for my first ever gallery show at Waverly House Gallery in Springfield, Missouri. The artist's reception will be held October 3rd from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. My work is being shown along with that of two enamel artists, Sarah Perkins and Tammy Kirks and will be featured through the month of October.

I started exhibiting my work at Waverly House in February and have sold several pieces. Here are some pictures of those quilts that have gone to live with someone else:

This work is HIDDEN TREASURES II and represents the Ozarks where I live. It is approximately 20" x 26".

This small abstract is called BLUE CORN CANYON. It is approximately 14" x 18".

This work is GUSTAV'S GARDEN . It was inspired by a painting by Gustav Klimt. It is 23" x 27".
OUTBACK BOOGIE is one of my favorite quilts. It features a frilled lizard on keyboard that reminds me of Jerry Lee Lewis rockin' on out. It started with the koala and my idea that he should be playing a stand-up bass. This is one I sort of regret selling because it was a great deal of work and is fun. It is approximately 40" square.
GAILLARDIA was inspired by a photo I took in my backyard. It was the result of an assignment in one of Susan Brittingham's Quilt University classes. It is approximately 20" x 26".
IRIS II also resulted from Susan's class. I made another quilt, Big Blue Iris, for her class and liked it so much I used the pattern I had made to make this one. It is approximately 22" x 26".