home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for February, 2010

A Bird’s Eye View

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Title: Meander

A meander in general is a bend in a sinuous watercourse. A meander is formed when the moving water in a river erodes the outer banks and widens its valley. A stream of any volume may assume a meandering course, alternatively eroding sediments from the outside of a bend and depositing them on the inside. The result is a snaking pattern as the stream meanders back and forth across its down-valley axis.
The term derives from the river known to the ancient Greeks as (Μαίανδρος) Maiandros or Maeander, characterised by a very convoluted path along the lower reach. As such, even in Classical Greece the name of the river had become a common noun meaning anything convoluted and winding, such as decorative patterns or speech and ideas, as well as the geomorphological feature. Strabo said: “… its course is so exceedingly winding that everything winding is called meandering.

Source: Wikipedia

I love this piece. I loved making it. I would happily live with it.

Titled: Prairie Fields and Circles

Detail

Last night, members of High Fiber Diet brought their pieces for the Bird’s Eye View to our meeting. They all came home with me. On March 7th, two other members will join me in jurying the show.

I am currently working on two pieces that I can’t share — maybe glimpses. I didn’t get much done today. I sorted and folded my artist cloth and got some inspiration. I screened some images that may or may not go onto my next 12 X 12 quilt, which is due March 1st with the theme, blue, white and a touch of black. Not sure if I want to go literal or abstract.

Quilting Done

Monday, February 15th, 2010

After a false start and several hours of unquilting, I have finished the quilting on Meander. This photo is a little fuzzy, but you get the idea. My original plan was to quilt in curves, following the lines of the river, but it just looked terrible.

This is another in my construction series, and I have basically done linear quilting, sometimes with some waviness, and I realized, to fit my aesthetic, I needed to do that with this piece, even though it meant stopping the stitching at the river for each row. I found some variegated thread that worked perfectly. I used a different thread in the lower portion.

I had originally tried to do a zigzag stitch around the river, but with those deep curves, it did not look good. So I went in with the zigzag and free motion quilted it. I really like the organic look of it. Click on the photo to see a close-up.

I still have to finish the edges – probably a satin stitch with the variegated thread. Tomorrow night is our meeting when we turn in our quilts. I will be bringing them all home with me as we are doing the jurying of the show at my house next month.

Don’t forget to check out the Tote Tuesday 3 auction tomorrow. There is some great stuff to be had!!

ToteTuesday #3 is Tomorrow

Monday, February 15th, 2010

There will be many wonderful totes to bid on as well as art by Teri Stegmiller, Elin Waterson and myself. Here is the link to see all of the wonderful goodies. We have a goal of making at least $10,000.

My Artist Cloth is My Muse

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

It seems that whenever I am stuck I can always count on my fabric to lead me in an artistic direction. When I started this piece, I had totally different fabric in mind. As I started pawing around, the top two pieces jumped out at me. I love how they play off each other.

I fused the fabrics and then folded and played with layouts until I got this background.

I decided it would be best to do a reverse applique for the meandering river so I drew a meandering line and then took the rotary cutter to it. Here it is as I poked some turquoise silk under to see how it would look.

I am anxious to quilt this because I think the quilting will add a lot to the background.

The movie, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was quite good. To fit it into almost 3 hours, many layers of the story had to be discarded. The director was there. He is Danish. It was fun to hear him talk about making the movie,

I haven’t posted the pup lately. Here he is in all his laid back glory.

Meandering

Friday, February 12th, 2010

I was totally stressed last night, trying to decide if I could make another quilt before Tuesday and if so, what? I looked through all my plane photos. I googled birds eye view and views from planes to get some inspiration.

Ta da, I came up with a meandering stream/river. I have cut a rough version of how the river will meander with some fabrics I am considering for the topography. The turquoise has been disqualified for the river. Also, the river will not be that wide.

I dyed some silk charmeuse for the meandering river.

I was getting so distracted trying to work on this because I still had a mess from the last two quilts I made. So, after lunch, I took some time to put fabric away and clean up the studio.

Ahhh! Now, I can get to work. I got all of the fabric fused. I will get up in the morning and get to work.

I am feeling pretty good about this because it will be another piece in my abstract landscapes, using my art cloth.

Tonight, Mr C and I are going to the Northwest Film Festival to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a Swedish film of the book we just read. It is quite long. I hope I can stay awake.