"Nature's Apothecary"

Mountain Art Quilters is a parlor group of the national organization - SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association). Linda Sexton-Patrick started the group a few years back with just a few people. It has grown into a nice size and every meeting shows new faces.

 We had our first show and it runs through June 1 so if you're in the area, hopefully you can drop by.

 Here are some of the lovely pieces you'll see...Susan Lee stands next to 2 of her pieces.

 I love this piece by Lynne Harrill who made this in honor of her dad when he passed away. It's called "Show Some Emotion". Her dad taught her how to sew and bought her her first sewing machine at the age of 10.

 And another piece by Lynne.

 Kathy Briggs is known for her intricate piecing which serve as backgrounds for some beautiful applique.

 This one is by Kathy also - "Fire"

 "Sentinel" by Julie Bagamary with her wonderful handstitching (top)

 and "Green Leaf" by Julie.

 "Ferns and Vines" by Lisa Heller

 and a close-up which shows some deconstructive screen printed fabric used very effectively.

 Linda Sexton-Patrick with her piece

 and another one of Linda's colorful pieces - "Summer Sizzle"

 "Winter Trees" by Paula B. Entin

 and "Glimpse at the Borderlands also by Paula

 "Pines in the Woods" by Lynn Della Posta

 and Jenny Perry with her "Autumn in the Mountains. Jenny does beautiful machine work.

 "Ode to Joy" by Mary Jane Lappin....

 and "Underwater Escapades" by Shirley Parkin

 The next 2..are my quilts...which I forgot to take a picture of at the show...above is "Happy Blues"

and this one is "Winter Tides". Growing up on Long Island and walking along Jones Beach in the off season had a lovely, calming affect...This piece was made with that in mind.
Our SAQA group meets @ 3 X a year so I'm still getting to know these gals and their beautiful work.

Fiber Art - The Colors of Nature

Last Wednesday, Kate, Mary and I hung our show at the arboretum. It opened the next day - April 21 and will run through July 12. We have worked with the arboretum before and it's always a great experience.

 First things first, all the quilts were removed from their bags and laid down. Between the 3 of us, we had 83 pieces - many small but we were still so pleased to have them all fit. We were given the entire second floor - lots of space.

 We tried to group them according to color ways which seemed to work out well.

 We all create very differently and our styles are noticeably different but they seem to work so well together.

 Many of the smaller pieces were hung "double decker" giving us more room.

 The arboretum uses a wire system for hanging - very efficient but not always attractive to see all the wires. We were also given the go-ahead to use command strips for smaller pieces, making it much more attractive.

 These were our entry pieces and the first pieces you see when you come up the stairs. Think I mentioned before that we all created the same quilt at retreat last year using different fabrics. Above, Marys is the cranberry with Japanese prints, Kates is the blue and green.

 Mine is the Indigo with splashes of red. We did have extra room and hung another quilt on each end. We felt it important to take advantage of any space we had.

 This has always been one of my favorite quilts of Kates. I call it her Happy quilt.

 Another 2 of Kates, she uses a lot of blues and greens and often a tropical theme which she is very drawn to. Having a house on Folly beach provides great inspiration.

 This is my "I Spy a Rose Garden" a children's pattern for an I Spy quilt made with Moda fabrics.

 This is Mary's and it's a stunner. A friend of hers gave her tons of Japanese fabric she wasn't going to use; Mary has made wonderful use of it. I love this very dramatic piece.

 So here is what you'll see if you stop by the arboretum.

 Our blue section.....

 and purples....

 A mix of all 3 of us....

 Mary's lovely beaded work.

You've just had a preview and there are many more to see. The arboretum is located in Asheville, right off the Blue Ridge Parkway and very easy to find. There is no charge to get into the arboretum, but there is a charge to park for a carload, so hop in your car with 4 of your nearest and dearest friends and head on over. PS....you'll also get to spend the day at the arboretum which is quite beautiful right now.

We can't wait to meet ya!

Painted Irises

I've been working on pieces for the upcoming exhibit at the NC Arboretum. Some of the work originated as samples for various workshops I've taught. One such workshop was silk painting which I taught for years at the Spruill Center for the Arts in Atlanta, GA. It was a basic, entry level of silk painting where students learned both the watercolor wash technique as well as using a resist.

The watercolor technique uses a wash of paint applied to the surface. Silk paint is very watery and knows no boundaries. Sprinkling salt on the surface while it is still wet creates a beautiful effect. The salt will pull the paint towards itself creating "traveling" lines. Using different size salt grains also affects the results. Table salt which has a fine granule, creates a more narrow line; kosher or sea salt which has larger granules will create the effect you see above.

The darker dots indicate where the salt was and the paint accumulated in that area. I love this technique as it creates such an interesting but not overwhelming background.

Several colors were used to create the background making it more interesting. The silk paint was watered down to make it more subtle.

Next came the painting of the design. Since the paint is so loose, you have to use a "resist" which creates a barrier and keeps the paint within the lines of the design. The design was lightly traced onto the silk. A water soluble silk paint resist was applied to all the lines. I used a little squirt bottle to create a thin line. After it dried, it was time to apply the paint. Silk paint can be a strange animal and tricky to use. You have to work with it quickly as it dries fast creating hard edges. This makes it difficult to blend with another color .

The piece was layered and quilted with a rayon decorative thread in a fairly simple design. The piece was mounted onto stretcher bars which is a favorite method for me as it looks very polished.

The back was also finished to cover all the staples etc. used to pull the piece to the back. I used picture frame wire and eye hooks for hanging.

And the finished piece  - "Painted Irises" which will work well for the arboretum as they really like nature themed pieces. 

Welcome Home....

I've always thought of my quilts as friends, I certainly spend enough time with them, embrace them and put lots of time and love into making them. It usually takes me a while to part with them, especially the bigger ones. At some point though, like a baby bird leaving the nest, I'm ready to let go.

This piece was created for an exhibit featuring black and white in any medium - pottery, jewelry, fiber etc. The inspiration for this piece came from a drawing my son did. For my fabric interpretation, I used pointellist fabric, pigma pens and sharpies to create the dotted and shaded areas. The piece is framed which I thought it needed. Some have asked if this is the real piece or a drawing. It is a photo of the real piece. All pieces were made by the members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. This piece - The Flute Player had the opportunity to be part of an exhibit in Washington, D.C. -The Appalachian Regional Commission Headquarters. It was available for purchase and I was honored to have it included; the only downside -  it was away for a long time - over a year. It just returned home.
So welcome home - so good to see you again.

6" Art

The Southern Highland Craft Guild is sponsoring a show this Sept which runs through January, 2015. The show -  "It IS a small world afterall" is in the main gallery at the Folk Art Center in Asheville, NC. This years theme is 6"art. It can be a 6" cube or smaller or 2 dimensional 6" or smaller - not a "hair" beyond that amount. It should be fun and interesting to see what people can do in the space of 6". I've thought of several things and was going to start yesterday when another idea hit me in the head, .Just like that!

Several years ago, I read an article in a quilt publication written by Wen Redmond - a favorite artist of mine. It was about a technique she does with layering and sheers, right up my alley so I thought I would give it a try. I had a 6" pre-stretched canvas ready to go. With this technique you cut an opening, place an image in back and a sheer one in front. Since the width of this canvas is 3/4", the images will be separated by that amount.  The first thing I did was to remove the staples on the wood part as I would be using a jigsaw to cut the wood away.

I marked  on the front how wide an opening I would need and using a exacto knife, I cut away the excess canvas.

I still had wood to deal with but now it's easier to get to.

Using a jigsaw, I cut out the back (with help from sweet hubby who is a woodworker and has lots of tools).

Wen uses the same image when she does this technique, one image is printed on opaque fabric and the second image on sheers. I like using 2 different images that might work together. I photographed this image and transferred it to fabric using an acrylic medium; this is "paper fabric" and very strong. The image is around 8 1/2' x 11" so I had to find a smaller area that would work.

I covered the frame with batting but it also served as an opening to slide around the background image to see which part to use. I wanted enough of the sky so I would have some blue color in the piece.

I had to find an overlay that would work with the background image. I printed out several on paper first to get a feel for size and then took my favorites and printed them on silk organza.  I couldn't decide whether to use the positive or negative but I had my family vote on their favorite - as luck would have it, we didn't come up with 3 different favorites, we all liked the same one - Hooray!

This image was more simple and didn't compete with the background image. We also like the "positive" image....

as opposed to the negative.

So now to assemble it which was trial and error for me. I did paint the inside edge black to cover the raw wood. The part of the image I chose to use, was attached to the back. I chose a blue print batik to attach to the organza layer and frame it out.

and the finished piece. I came up with the name "Intertwined". You can find out more about the show by going to the Southern Highland Craft Guilds website.