Quilting Arts Magazine,April/May

I have been reading the April/May Quilting Arts Magazine which arrived yesterday. Some issues have little to say to me but this one has a couple of very interesting articles. One is an article by Inge Mardol and Steen Hougs, the Dutch couple who have been making art quilts together for 30 years. Steen paints the pictures which he has photographed in many cases, and Inge then adds depth and great detail with very prescie quilting, often to the point of threat painting. I've seen, I think, three in reality which is the only way to appreciate their real complexity, art and skill. Go to
their website and see a wonderful, lengthy slide slow of their work, just click "quilts" on the home page. Unfortunately there are no close ups so you can see the stitching.

There is also an article by Malka Dubrowsky, "Turn Down the Volume" which is about using quiet, light colored fabrics, albeit with strong graphics. It is time for a reaction against the very busy, very bright, very saturated, very in-you-face quilts that have been increasingly popular the last five years. At the Empire Guild show most were in that bold, bright category. It made for a very exciting visual experience -- and there were enough more traditional quilts mixed in for a sense of relief. But I have been thinking how relaxing it was to make the shirting quilt [posted in February] which is light colors and depends on graphics of simple lines.

Dubrowsky mentions being influenced by Alice Martin which resonated with me. The two or three times I've seen Alice Martin's work I have found a wonderful serenity even though it also contains rigidity in the relentless graph straight pencil lines on canvas. The bright fabrics are appealing and they're not going to go away but art has it's fads and cycles and they change, sometimes slowly. But as historians can tell at a glance, certain colors and combinations define a period and right now there is a strong draw of nostalgia toward "vintage" which may mean the avacados of the 60s or the pastels and small prints of the 30s. When these quiet colors return they will have morphed into something new, appealing and appropriate for a new sensibility. It's fascinating to watch trends come and go.

Working on a UFO

I can't leave well enough alone. Instead of carrying on with my sorting and starting to pack up things, I thought I'd get a UFO finished. Well, I might get the top finished, it's very unlikely to be quilted. However this is it. Frankly I had no idea this was what I was going to do to those paper pieced standing-on-point squares. But I'm okay with this choice and have decided it'll be called "Christmas Cactus" since it's red and green and spiky and there are lighter bits like some of the flowers on Christmas cactus.

The main part of the top is together, although it still has the paper which needs to be torn off and then it needs to be more carefully ironed. It is lying on a sofa in the picture so the colors are picked up differently depending on the angle of the fabric to the camera. -- In the not too distant future I will have a design wall and can take photos of hanging quilts. I will also have much better light. So there should be a noticeable improvement. I sure hope so; I really think I could be a better photographer than I appear to be in many of these photos.

Sorting and Playing with Fabric

A story book I read as a child had a picture of King Midas in a room with piles of gold coins which he was stacking on a table. The look on his face was one of gleeful cupidity [words I didn't know at the time] and he seemed to be chuckling "heh-heh-heh-heh." This is how I felt a couple of hours this morning as I pulled out plastic bags and boxes of fabric scraps -- not my bags of fat quarter and larger pieces. These were scraps that needed to be sorted into strips for string quilts, and usable pieces. I also have baggies full of squares of different sizes, also triangles although the sizes were mixed somewhat carelessly.

So I sorted and arranged by shape and size and color. So many squares -- I need to make several quilts somewhat like the vender's show quilt in the picture above [those are African fabrics, most of mine are not]. Anyway, seeing, touching, arranging, packing up, all those quilt possibilities, all those lovely colors and patterns made me feel like King Midas. What a treasure I feel I've amassed. What dreams of simple and complex quilts danced through my head. Goodness! I love fabric and patterns and colors and I loved being immersed in it.

Those are bagged and boxed. I have many, many other sorting chores to do -- books in particular. I love books, perhaps more than fabric, but in a different way. I have saved books because their contents have delighted me and I've thought I might find someone to whom to give the book. Others I've kept because I can't help feeling a home should have Shakespeare's plays, Joyce's Ulysses ... Oh, I could go on and on and on. I will keep many of the classics but I want to at least decimate these book shelves. I will never reread Sontag's The Volcano Lover or Lessing's Children of Violence books, and so others. In fact there are so many books I want yet to read, that I am unlikely ever to reread the ones I've read once -- I have a good memory for the books I've read. But they seem to be loved friends. It's very hard to pack up a friend and leave it at a thrift shop.

Blessings on Inventor of Seam Rippers

I'm always thinking of simplifying moving. I dig into a box or drawer and life gets complicated. I found a UFO a couple of days ago that I realized I could finish quickly [ha! hope springs eternal]. It needed only a few paper pieced bits and then some plain squares and strips. How long could that take? Well ... I decided on a fabric for the squares and strips and cut it up. The next day I began sewing. Disaster! When I lay several pieced bits together I realized that fabric was very, very wrong. Out with the seam ripper. A long irritating hour or more undoing what I did, casting about in my mind for how to right the situation. What fabric to use? Not one, now but two, changing the concept drastically from the original plan.

The next day I cut new squares and strips -- using two colors, reds and dark blues. That looked better. Today I began sewing things together again. Much, much better than before although this is not going to be a quilt of distinction. It will be in the "all right" category and usable. Of course, the sewing is taking longer than imagined -- it always does, doesn't it. AND I'm left with the other fabric all cut in squares and strips so that eventually -- well down the road, it will become yet another quilt and in the mean time it is a new UFO, wouldn't you knnow?

There's some law, isn't there, about such things? For instance I took a bag of stuff to thrift shop today, some jackets and some books -- I'm truly trying to decimate the books on my shelves. BUT today's special at the thrift shop was all hardbacks for $1 -- well, I got away with only ONE book ... largely because a lot of people were clustered around the book shelves and I took that as a sign that I must not shove closer to look at every single title as is my habit. And so it goes.

A couple more quilts

This stunning color study and wonderfully pieced quilt is one I failed to get the name of the maker -- I thought I wrote it down but it was someone else with a quilt I meant to photograph but didn't when the crowd got too thick. This one is an eye-popper. Certainly in this show, many, many people were really into color. The combinations were stunning and gutsy. Many times I thought: I'd never have the nerve to do that. Possibly I couldn't live with them very long either. But they were wonderful and exciting to see on display.

A much quieter one held my attention a long time. Below is A Tree's Nature by Nancy Chan. It hand appliqued and hand quilted and contemplative and serene. This is the kind of art work I would chose to live with. Maybe it's a matter of age, or stage of life or simply that my nature is more contemplative and not very jazzy.

This detail shows the stitching, especially if it is clicked and enlarged. This is a wonderful example of quilt making that I feel was underappreciated by viewers because the venue really wasn't large enough for the number of quilts. Too many were shown too close to one another. But the space was the size it was and every bit of it was used maximally. Quilts were hung sensitively so far as possible. Finally I suppose it was too much of a muchness as some British writer said in a different context.

Certainly it was exciting to listen to viewers truly gushing in excitement And it was lovely to see some quilters basking -- in fact, one could be said to have been radiating -- in satisfaction and happiness as their quilts were admired by others.

More from the quilt show

There were five or six quilts using this particular kind of circular main pattern with interesting fabric around the wheel and often interesting applique on the border. I assume all took classes from the same teacher but each was individual and all were both fun to look at and fascinating studies in color. This one is by Laurinda Liang and was named Prismatic Field. I find myself mildly drawn to possibly finding the pattern and making one of these. Something to add to the "maybe someday" list that runs through my brain every so often.

This string quilt by Karen Griska -- the quilter who wrote the book on selvage quilting -- totally inspired me the minute I saw it to want to make one. And I will, I don't know quite when but definitely will. I have a bag of scraps of which a great, great many are strings -- long strips cut of the too long edge of something. I always feel that scrap quilts are what quilts are all about, even though intellectually, I make room for many, many other kinds of quilting. Using up scraps gives me such a virtuous feeling and when it turns out eye popping and satisfying as Karen's quilt is -- well! What more could anyone want? Karen told me how she gets the kaliidoscope-ish impression, it's not difficult. I'll remember.

Oh my, oh my, I have so many want-to-dos going through my brain. I don't think I'll ever become bored. Of course there are books to read and many, many things to write and walks to take and all kinds of things to see, natural and artistic. 'tis exciting to be alive!

Emprie Guild show, Urban Inspirations 2009

For the next three posts I will show pictures from Urban Inspirations 2009, the quilt show of the Empire Quilters' Guild. I thought I had made a note of who made this brilliant red quilt but I find I did not. I'm sorry not to give people credit where due. I loved the energy and sheer exuberance of this quilt. I found it very exciting. In fact the show was exciting -- so much color used so fearlessly in quilt after quilt -- and interspersed with quilts in quiet or toned down colors to give balance. The show was truly a visual treat and inspiration.

I'm sorry I decapitated these wonderful ladies but I was so drawn to their sneakers and the soccer ball, as well as the traditional African dresses. This quilt is called "Bling it On" by Pauline Meyers. I loved it!

And this quilt by Mary Butler had a quiet feeling and was unlike any other design in the show [several reflected classes taught by a particularly inspiring teacher -- though each was different the basic design was the same -- a great design but its repetition was distressing. Mary calls this "Notes Ascending". Something about it was very refreshing.

Over 200 quilts were shown, hung as intelligently a space permitted but the space simply wasn't large enough, too many were crowded together, especially the small and middle sized quilts. Some of them would have been stunning seen alone but crowded with another couple their punch was lost. Mine was one that suffered from that problem -- which was unavoidable given the space available.

I'm told a great web site will be put up, in due time, of all the quilts so that each will be presented in it's full glory -- but such a project takes time. I'll be happy when it happens but, as I told the web masters [husband and wife] I wish there could be a book as there was after the last show. I realize a book is a terribly expensive undertaking. But it is books I relate to and I still have the book from the previous show on my coffee table where I browse through it rather often.