Catching Up

It has been a busy few weeks. I am taking a photography certificate program and I have been spending quite a bit of time shooting in my community. In the Learning to See Creatively class, the idea is to look at things differently or enhance an everyday object in an artistic way. Each class, we present our assignment and discuss our work as a group.  There are some very talented people in the class and I feel I am holding my own. Tomorrow is our last class and I have to admit, I am having a very difficult time finding two 'killer shots'. I think I will use a portrait I of a young family member and who knows what else. Here are a few of my photos:

Playing with light and shadows

Playing with contrast and intensity.

Night Writing with Cam

I noticed I am drawn to bold geometric lines. I will show more work in future posts. 

The closing reception for the annual DAFA Members show was held Monday. Here is a link to a slideshow created of the exhibit. I was the scribe for our juror, Lesli Robertson and listening to her comments on the various pieces, I learned valuable information that I will be able to consider in future work.  

Speaking of future work. I created 'Messy Geometry' for the Spirit is Ageless: 2012 Art Contest, Exhibit and Event at The Point, Center for Art and Education. It is a combination of hand dyed cotton, screen printing, fused silk and free motion quilting. I like to use Adirondack Spray Wash as a quick dye. I think the colors are vivid and bright and they have warm colors I am drawn to. I also created the screens used for the grid and dot pattern. The dot pattern was created using a technique I learned in Quilting Arts Magazine. I used sheer fabric, heat set vinyl and two different hole punches.  Cam named this piece, the grid reminded her of geometry but nothing really lined up well.  It takes me forever to come up with a name that suits the piece. Names usually have to grow on me so a lot of my work is untitled.

Messy Geometry

Detail of Messy Geometry

 I  Main Street Art Festival in Fort Worth. WOW! This is a juried event and when I am able to attend, I look forward to seeing Jeff Zachman's kinetic sculptures. This year his son,Carl, also an artist, was accepted. You can see the family resemblance. Here are a couple of pictures of the 'side show' activities.  Here is a street performer who entertained the children jumping over hurdles and telling stories. There was also a musician playing an instrument from West Africa. I don't remember what he was talking about - however I do remember he played classical music on that thing - beautiful!

Crossing over a 3 inch hurdle

Street musician

 I have been dyeing fabric using IDye from Jacquard. I will post my results later.

DAFA Annual Show

The 2012 DAFA Annual Show -Legacy in Fiber- is up and open to the public!

Jules and Lisa planning the layout of the Alzheimer's

exhibit

Lu hanging the Alzheimer's quilts

The show will run through April 23 when we will have our closing reception.

In addition to the Annual Show, there are two special exhibits - Legends in Fiber Art, and, Pathways: DAFA's Alzheimer Quilt Project. The show is at the The Point, Center for Arts and Education, 4847 West Lawther Drive, Dallas. The Point is less than three minutes from White Rock Lake so you can see the show and then take a walk around the lake. This will be a great afternoon. The Point is open 7 days a week.

While we were diligently laying out the show, storms were brewing in North Texas. The warning sirens sounded while we were working and we ended up spending time in the garage of the building next door. We were very lucky the tornadoes did not come our way however there was terrible devastation in surrounding areas.

Wednesday, I had my second opportunity to quilt some projects using a longarm machine. I am still intimidated by the machine but at the same time I am getting more comfortable with it. I love that you can get so much done so quickly. I am not trying to quilt award winning patterns; I just want to finish some of the quilts I started years ago. I completed two large baby sized quilts today.

Okay, it has been a while since my last post. A lot has happened some good, some not so good. One happy event is the upcoming Dallas Area Fiber Artists Annual Show 'Legacy in Fiber' at The Point, Center for Arts and Education in Dallas. I have 2 pieces that made the cut, Lenten Peacock and an untitled mixed media piece Lenten Peacock was a challenge I setup for myself a couple of years ago, to create or finish a piece of art each day during Lent. I got this idea from my friend Deborah Boschert. It was a real challenge and I was happy to complete several pieces that were just laying around. The peacock feather piece was one of my favorites and I am very happy to share it during the show.

I used a stencil, copper metallic paint and added stitching with lime green thread. I love the way the stitching makes the feathers glow.

The second piece is a combination of rusted fabric, matte medium, acrylic paint, book and scrapbook paper, thread and stone beads.

We will hang the show tomorrow and it will run through April 23

.

Along with the juried DAFA show, we have a special display Pathways: DAFA's Alzheimer Quilt Project. These 9 X 12 in quilts were a special exhibit at the Dallas Quilt Celebration. The quilts will be donated to the Alzheimer Quilt Initiative for sale.

Pieces of a Life

Full Circle

Houston!

We have arrived! This is the first road trip my daughter and I have taken together in years. She agreed to come with me to the International Quilt Festival in Houston.
We had an uneventful drive and spent most of the time counting the 'Buck-ee' reststop billboard sightings. There must be something like 50 billboards along the route and we plan to stop to visit Buck-ee on the way home. We had fun catching up on politics from the perspective of a 20 something vs. a middle aged something.
I terribly underestimated the location of our hotel so we are somewhere off of highway 10, roughly 30 minutes from the convention center. Anyway, we are here.
To our delight, the hotel has a happy hour each evening with 'drink specials' and 'free appetizers'. We decided to partake of the merriment and the entire experience made for great comic relief. We headed to the bar, making our way past what we thought was a closed lunch buffet. In the distance we spotted a buffet table filled with delicious looking finger sandwiches, chicken wings, fresh fruits and vegetables and other tidbits that had us salivating. We decided to start at one end and make our way to the fully stocked bar where we would order a nice blush and enjoy our food. -- That was until a really, really nice waitress quietly came up to us as we picking up our plates and asked if we were 'with the group'. Group? My first thought was - 'we could be' but I decided to keep my mouth shut. Apparently, we walked into a corporate happy hour and the 'closed lunch buffet' we passed when we walked in was for us. These 'free appetizers consisted of left over cheese cubes, a sleeve of crackers, a jar of salted peanuts and a steam tray we were afraid to open. All we could think to do to hide our embarrassment was to quickly hide at the bar and order a drink. Gulp! Slurp! We were done and out of there.
Somewhere in this story is a moral but I will post it later, after I figure out what it is.

ATC Swap

Tonight, the Dallas Area Fiber Artists will have an ATC swap as the mini workshop. Aside from meeting the size requirement of 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches, the only other criteria is 50% fabric. I decided to try a technique that is new to me - Discharge Paste mixed with fabric paint. I used a hand dyed piece that I wasn't in love with and added images with a stencil of a butterfly and texture with a couple of text stamps. I then ironed the fabric using lots of steam and the result is a very interesting piece.
I fused it to Peltex, added some thread sketching and cut it to ATC size. A little foil and a backing and I was done. I am very happy with the results. I have an extra piece of discharged fabric that I cannot wait to use. Here are a few pictures - the first one is a shot of the ATCs pinned to my 'design wall'. The 'design wall' in this case was the back of my desk chair - what can I say, it is padded and fabric and the correct height for the fan to reach it to dry the glue.

cut to ATC size and pinned to 'design wall'

after foiling and before treating the edges with black paint

here is the extra piece and what the fabric looked like before stitching and foiling

One of the Employee Resource Groups at my place of employment is sponsoring its second annual art show. The show is for any and all employees who wants to show their creative side. There are not real rules just different categories and an opportunity to donate your work to raise funds for the Special Olympics. I decided to enter this year and submitted the following pieces.

'Marsh Grass' is one of my favorites

'En Pointe' displayed with the Twisted Stitchers special exhibit at the Dallas Quilt Show 2010

'City Lights' displayed with the DAFA special exhibit at the Dallas Quilt Show 2010

When I dropped my piece off, it was wonderful to see how many boxes were lined up with submissions from employees and/or family from around the country including Alaska and Mexico. They will hang the works October 3rd and I cannot wait to see the show. I did get a glimpse of a piece from an associate in Mexico that was painted tile - it was wonderful! I will post pictures ...

We Will Never Forget

Deborah Boschert Inspires the Dallas Quilt Guild

Today was a good day. My friend Deborah Boschertwho used to reside in Texas and who is a member of the Twisted Stitchers friendship art quilt group, presented the September program for the Dallas Quilters' Guild. She gave a wonder talk on the 12 X 12 Quilt Collaboration project, sharing her inspiration for interpreting the various themes the 'Twelves' were presented with. Here is Deborah with her set of Color Play quilts. Today was the last reveal for the Color Play series. The lower right hand corner is Deborah's interpretation of the color orange - Hibiscus. I like her use of 3 dimensional embellishments and the abstract nature of her work. I always enjoy visiting the 12 X 12 blog on reveal day. To see Deborah's work and the works of the other 'Twelves', you will have to visit the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall. There is a link to the 12 X 12 blog on the left.