Going to be interviewed

Next Wednesday I am going to be interviewed by someone from the State College Magazine. The article is going to be about Olli instructors. Last spring I taught a class on making an art quilt from a photo and will be doing that spring 2020 as well. So I will be included with lots of other interesting teachers. The person interviewing me will be taking photos of my quilts as well for the article.

"When the Dark Night Seems Endless"

Energy/Environmental Quilts

"Dawn on the Charles Bridge"

"Midwinter Visitor"

"Midwinter's Night"

Thanks for reading.
Chris

Looking back to see how far I've come

Over the Sea to Skye

When I started art quilting back in 2004 I had no idea where it would lead. It all started with a class that I took in 2004 at Quilt University with Susan Brittingham. That quilt took me until 2011 to finish. I was so stuck on the foreground. I think for years I went to quilt stores looking for the "perfect" fabrics for the foreground rocks and grass. I think eventually I figured out there was not a perfect fabric and just forced myself to finish it. As I look at it now I see so many things that are "wrong" with it. It was created from a photo and if it was in the photo I put it in the quilt. I did not think about editing for good design. I did not think about focal points. Also this was my first departure from traditional quilts so borders were an automatic addition. Now I rarely add borders to my art quilts.

Midwinter Visitor

By 2012 I had improved in my approach to art quilts with my cardinal quilt. This was the quilt I made in Ellen Lindner's class. Now I had a focal point and a much better composition. Also I did not add borders. I still love this quilt.

Gathering Storm

The real turning point came in 2014 when I took a year long master class with Elizabeth Barton. This class was a challenge in that I was still working and had to make one art quilt each month for 10 months. Granted none of these were very large, but each one proved to be a challenge. I did learn a lot about composition that year. This was a big jump forward. The other quilts made that year are here.










I took another master class with Elizabeth Barton in 2018. This time it was an independent study class. My goal was to make several quilts that I had on the back burner for years. With Elizabeth's feedback I finished 4 of them.

When the Dark Night Seems Endless

Evolution?

Taking its Toll

Light in Darkness

Even without Elizabeth Barton's guidance between 2014 and 2018 I did make some art quilts. These are a few of them.

Starry Scary Night

Visions Past

Sunlight in the Forest

Midwinter's Night

Dawn on Charles Bridge (in progress)

In the last year I have actually entered my art quilts into shows (art shows as well as quilt shows) and have been really successful at that. I have entered 4 things and gotten in all 4. Back in 2014 I had no idea where I would be in 2019. As my husband says, "You've come a long way, Chrissy." I'm sure we would all have a similar story to tell about our beginnings and our evolution as artists.

Linking to Nina-Marie.

Thanks for reading.
Chris

Quilts=Art=Quilts (Schweinfurth Art Center)

On a lark about a month ago I decided to enter my canal house quilt ("When the Dark Night Seems Endless") in this juried art quilt exhibit. I received my letter saying that it was accepted! There were 266 entries and 73 were accepted. Now I have to decide if I will actually participate. I have never sent a valuable quilt before and have all the typical anxieties about it. The art center is about 160 miles from where we live so it could be dropped off and picked up. What to do? What to do?

Just got back from Prague so my brain is a bit foggy....and I am overwhelmed! Have you sent a quilt to a show before?

Thanks for reading.

Linking to Nina-Marie. http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Chris

"When the Darknight Seems Endless" is hung!

"When the dark night seems endless"

The quilt was hung yesterday. I don't know why the wall looks to be that color since it is a dark blue-gray.

I belong to a needle crafters group in our development and I showed it yesterday to the group. Of course they loved the quilt. It made me feel good.  I got a nice email from someone in the group last night.

"I Just wanted to send you a quick note and tell you, I think your quilt you shared with us today, has to be the most gorgeous quilt I have ever seen. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!"


 I don't think I ever mentioned that I am taking an independent study class this year with Elizabeth Barton. I mainly took the class to get motivated to make some of the quilts  that I have had on the back burner for years. This canal house one goes back to about 2010.


This is what she said about the quilt:

EB:  wow!!!  -   That came out so well...perfect colors, great ambience...good design.

I agree totally about the railing not being necessary...often less is more and I think the little paler house end (top right) with the reverse diagonal - gives the counterpoint that a tree would have done...

I really like the darkness and mysteriousness about the piece...

and you have done a beautiful job of putting it together...

just enough light in the windows...the yellow ones are the star...but the medium green is a very good supporting actor!

Everything about it is interesting...and I want to keep looking and checking....

great job with the values - and they are the key!!  the values and the diagonals are what make it...well done!!!! I'm sure you will be glowing tonight!!  Elizabeth

These comments made my day.

Linking to Nina-Marie.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Done! Just added some more photos to show the quilting better.

"When the Dark Night Seems Endless"

Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

I finished the canal houses. It is 28 inches by 56 inches. It took quite a few days to quilt it since I can only quilt for short spurts due to neck and shoulder issues. I decided not to add the trees and the railing since both my daughter and I did not think they added anything to the design.  The title is from a line from a Loreena McKennit song called Dante's Prayer.


 Now I have to sew on the 2 sleeves and hang it up. I will be showing it at my fiber art group tonight along with the fracking quilt.  Onto the next project!

Chris

I absolutely hate, hate, hate, hate squaring up a large quilt

Linking to Nina-Marie.  https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

It is especially difficult when you have long verticals as in the tall canal houses that you need to keep vertical. I have measured and measured and measured again. I think at this point it is pretty good. There are places that are off by 1/8 inch, but I am not going to worry about that. Do you find squaring up a quilt easy or hard? I am always worried that I am going to mess it up. You can only trim so many times.....

Now to do my next least favorite things....face the quilt and then sew on sleeves.  

Do you have a great way to share on how to square up a large quilt? I have long rulers and a large 15 inch square, but still find it hard. This canal house quilt is about 29 in by 54 in before adding the facing. Of course adding on the facing will also introduce small errors since it is nearly impossible to sew perfectly straight!

Thanks for reading.

Chris

When the dark night seems endless!

When the quilting seems endless

I did not realize how appropriate this title was for my canal houses until I started quilting it. The quilting seems endless. I am finally nearing the end of the quilting after 5 days of going at it. I am using a walking foot since I want straight lines and the quilt is large and has to be wrestled through the machine sometimes. And as usual the whole time I am quilting it I am second guessing what I have chosen to do in terms of quilting as well as the thread colors. We all know you see each and every one of your little imperfections as you get up close and personal during the quilting process. My husband mentioned something about the Amish making a mistake on purpose and asked if I did that. I told him I did not have to make mistakes on purpose since they happen without me knowing I am making them!

I am looking into teaching an Olli class on making an art quilt from a photo. Olli classes are big up here. Lots of things are offered from history to science to art and music. Any ideas for a title for the class? I will be chatting with someone from Olli about it. They set up classes pretty far ahead so we are looking at winter session 2019.....plenty of time to prepare. Sometimes I get a little nervous about doing it and wonder if I am artistic enough to teach an art class.

I am starting to think about my next quilt after I finish the canal houses. I think it will be my rusted toxic barrels. I've decided to widen the field of view to show more barrels....a wide and narrow quilt. The canal houses were skinny and tall. This will be the opposite. 

Originally I had edited out a lot of the barrels in the photo. I am also thinking of using my rust dyed fabrics and using fabric paint to color them since now they are white with rust. I guess I could over dye the fabrics, but am concerned about controlling the colors plus my dyes are getting pretty old. I thought maybe with paint that would work better and be less messy. 

I like that the barrels are so colorful which of course hides what is inside. Many of the barrels have numbers stamped on them and I plan on doing that as well. Also the skull and crossbones seen in the photo will be good to add. I want them to look pretty from a distance and then alarming when getting up close.

Toxic Barrels

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Progress on canal houses....nearing the end.

I need to get a good photo of this quilt. Light comes into my room from the left and that distorts the color. Also I could not get it up on the design wall straight nor get a straight non distorted photo. So the colors are off and the buildings look crooked. It looks a lot better in person. I still need to decide about the railing and the trees.

I added the sidewalk and stairs and it looks good. I did not add a lot of details because these areas would be in shadow. I took it apart and am starting to sew the buildings down from the right to the left. I am checking one last time that they are straight up and down. I know that canal houses are crooked, but in my original photo they do not look that crooked. From that perspective they did not look that crooked. Plus having them a little crooked will just make it look a little off like it was a mistake on my part. Other views of canal houses really show their crookedness so maybe that will be for a future quilt. It will be great to get the houses sewn down. The parts have be flapping around and sometimes fall off when it gets moved from the table to the wall. I spent 10 minutes yesterday looking for a piece that fell off. That was a big hint to clean up the room. 

Of course now I have to come up with a title. So far I am thinking about "When the dark night seems endless."

I have nixed the title my husband came up with for my red and white house quilt. He wanted "Houses of the Holy."  I am thinking about "Ain't that America." 

Linking to Nina-Marie.

https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Rethinking the canal houses

I've decided to add the stairs and sidewalk to the bottom of the canal house quilt. Here is the new "cartoon" with the additions. I think this is better at giving the perspective of looking down the street. What do you think?

So I am not done yet!

Tomorrow we head to NJ to march in the NYC parade for St Patrick's day on Saturday. Many of you that have followed my blog for years know that my husband is a bagpiper. I just hope that it's not too cold on Saturday. At least there's no snow in the forecast.







Linking to Nina-Marie a day early.....

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Whew that was a lot of work

Still some tweaking to do, but it is nearly done. I see some pieces that have slipped out of place. Also I am rethinking about the railing since I don't think I need it. Plus the original sketch had bare tree branches in it. I think I want to include them. See sketch below.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Slow progress

You can tell that I have been making progress on the Amsterdam canal house quilt by what a disaster my sewing room is. My husband asked if a tornado went through yesterday when he saw the room. The small bits with fusible on them have a tendency to stick to my socks so I am carrying fabric everywhere in the house. There are so many times I can't find my scissors, pencil, marker that I have lost count. Plus I have misplaced pieces and end up cutting them out again. Then I find the missing piece.

Here's the quilt on my design wall. You can see that I am using an unwanted wave fabric as the base of the lower part of the quilt instead of using the dark blue all the way down.  My husband asked what that stuff in the sky was. Of course they are just currently unwanted pieces that might be useful at some point!

Linking to Nina-Marie. http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading. Are you neat or messy when you create?

Chris