Quilt was featured in the local newspaper

My rusted toxic barrel quilt was featured in our local newspaper on Friday. How cool is that?  We went to the opening of the show on Friday night. It's a very small gallery and not many people were there. 2 artists were going to talk about the artwork, but we had to leave to go to a wrestling match so I did not hear their comments. A lot of the artwork was very cool and interesting. There were a lot of political and environmental statements being made by the artists.

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

Thanks for reading.

Chris

The quilts are all home.....

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

My one month show at the Bellefonte Art Musem is over and the quilts are home again. I did put prices on some of the quilts, but surprise, surprise I did not sell anything. It's the usual thing that I experienced. People tell you you should sell things and that you will easily sell your work. And then when you try to sell them nothing sells. So at least I am now surrounded by all my quilts again. The walls are happy again.  Have you had much luck selling your art quilts? I figure the only way to sell them is to sell them at really low prices. Maybe I'm wrong on that....

My toxic barrel quilt is now at another gallery in State College for a show called Artists Take a Stand during February.

http://www.artalliancegallerydowntown.org/event/artists-take-stand-2-show-runs-feb-1-24/

If you are in the area you should stop by. I did have an online friend (Eileen) drive from Philly to State College to see my show at the Bellefonte Art Museum. Here we are in front of one of my quilts called Midwinters Night.

Thanks for reading. Here are pics of the barrel quilt. 

Chris

The show was a big success!

Yesterday was the opening reception for my art show at the Bellefonte Art Museum. (Current exhibits). The museum is an old house in an historic Victorian town. The person that hung my show (Lori) did a great job. I was really pleased with how it looked.

It was an ego boosting experience. There were a lot of people that came through and they really, really liked my work. Of course plenty of people said I should sell my quilts. I suppose I should have put some prices on things, but am still skeptical that things would have sold. Or maybe I'm not ready to part with them yet....

Here are some photos. The first one is my friend Ellie and I in front of my most recent circle quilt.  I am the grinning fool on the left. My energy quilts got a lot of attention. I don't think people had seen anything like them before. What was also amazing is how many people got that they looked beautiful from a distance, but then when you look at them up close you see they reveal an ugly problem. A lot of people really liked the toxic barrel one....go figure!

I never took a photo of this quilt that was also in the show. This one got a lot of attention.  It is based on a Frank Lloyd Wright window.  I almost wish I had put a price on it. That price would have been $600 ($450 plus some added for the 30% commission the museum takes). Not sure people would have payed that much!

Visions Past 19 in by 26 in

Thank for reading.
Chris

Space for 3 more energy/environmental quilts

We hung the toxic barrels yesterday. You can see I have room for 3 more in the series. Acid rain? Plastics? Solar? Flooded coastlines? Any ideas?

Sorry about the angle the photo had to be taken from, but it's at the top of the stairs and I can't get a straight on photo.

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

Thanks for reading

Chris

A finish and moving on

I finished the toxic barrels. There are now French knots where I had some ratty fabrics from ripping out quilting stitches.  

Now I have to think about the next project. I am going to do one of the designs from the pixel series. It will either be gray scale or at least monochromatic. The 3 possibilities are below. I was leaning toward the floating circles. Sheila from Idaho Beauty

https://idahobeautyquilts.blogspot.com likes that one as well.  My daughter likes the one that looks like lighted windows. What do you think? Eventually I will make both if not all three of them.

Linking to Nina-Marie.

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Also we leave for Prague today. I expect to get lots of quilt inspiration there.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

“Taking its Toll” nearing completion

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

The blocking and trimming are done. Now to move onto facings, sleeves, and a label. The size is approximately 36 inches by 13 inches.

I am going to add some French knots to the teal barrel in the right front. The fabric got a little ratty after tearing out some quilting stitches here. I was going to do some hand stitching anyways so the knots will cover a bit of the rattyness and add that hand stitching. The thread for the stitching is brown to match the rust on the barrel in these spots. It will not be noticeable from a distance, but will become a detail up close. Rust dyed fabric is not very forgiving and I'm thinking that the fabric will deteriorate with time. But then I'll be gone and I won't care! I might add some French knots in some other spots as well.

Here are some close ups that show the fabrics and also a summary of the techniques used in the quilt.

The quilt is totally fused and the pieces were stitched in place with invisible thread. The fabric was rust dyed fabric that I painted over with setacolor fabric paints in teals,blues, purples, oranges, and yellows. The browns are all from the rust. I rust dyed a lot of fabric back in 2015. The labels were created in Photoshop and then printed with my ink jet printer onto some yellow and orange rust dyed fabrics.  The numbers were stenciled. I wanted the numbers and the labels to look worn. Most of the quilting threads were King Tut superior threads. Maybe this will be next years entry into the juried art show here!

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Blocking in progress

Well I finished quilting the toxic barrels and it is now blocking. With our rainy humid weather who knows how many days it will take to to dry!  Then of course I get to trim it and sew on facings and sleeves....yuck.  I can't believe how many times I changed thread color while quilting this....certainly much more than a normal quilt.  At any rate we are now on the home stretch!

Thanks for reading.....

Chris

“Taking its Toll” is ready to quilt

Linking to Nina-Marie.  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/  Check out the quilt artists on her blog.

“Taking it’s Toll” 13 inches by 35 inches

I fused and stitched all the pieces down. I have picked my backing fabric and will be able to quilt this next week. We are going to New Jersey for the weekend so quilting will have to wait until then. 

Here are some close up photos that show the colors and the fabric better.

I took all the ideas for titles for the quilt from a few weeks ago and created a poem titled "Profitable pollution"

Profitable pollution

Human arrogance

The road that leads to nowhere

Time to wake up

We say we care

Do we really care?

Progress came and took it's toll

How much is enough?

Mercy, mercy me

Song for a dying planet 

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Not sure how I feel about entering art shows

"Starry Scary Night"

Well last night was the awards reception for the juried show I entered called Images 2018. The artwork was amazing. Here's a link to the art that was in the show.

https://arts-festival.com/images-exhibition-gallery

I really felt out of place with my quilt like it was not on the same level as the other art. The thing I noticed is that people did not really spend much time looking at it. Plus I heard some girl say to someone...."it's just sewing."  At first that made me angry like I'd like to see you do that sewing. Then I realized that to a lot of people it is just sewing. They look at what I do as something too easy and not creative. Or sewing is just a craft. Hey I could say that about someone's photo. All you do is take a photo and edit it and print and frame it. Not sure I would enter anything like this again. Or maybe I just have to up my game.....I sometimes feel that art quilts are in some never land....not accepted as art and not accepted by traditional quilters. Am I just over reacting? I so wish I could have entered my canal houses. It was beyond the 36 inch height requirement. Or my cardinal quilt. That one was not made in the last 3 years and also was taller than 36 inches.

Well I need to get my walk done early today and then finally stencil the numbers on my toxic barrels. I have put that off long enough. I have chosen the title "Taking its Toll" for this quilt. I thank Sheila for her thoughts on that from my last blog. I need to move on from my experience last night. 

"Taking Its Toll"

Linking to Nina-Marie.  

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading and putting up with today's rant...

Chris

Labels done!

Well I think I have the labels done. Now to move onto stenciling the numbers. I have some tweaking to do with the placement of the lids, but we are nearing the end of this! Some of the lid angles need adjusting.

Toxic barrels

Now I have to come up with a title....

I have been pondering this. I have also been thinking about how to quilt it.

The road that leads to nowhere 

Profitable pollution

Human arrogance

Song for a dying planet

Time to wake up

How's this working?

We say we care

Do we really care?
Evolution's end
Progress came and took it's toll
How much is enough?
Mercy, mercy me

Any thoughts?

Linking to Nina-Marie.

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!

Chris

Over analysis ahead

Well I'm still working out the labels for the toxic rusted barrels. I tied cutting a stencil from freezer paper, but that was nearly impossible due to the small size. When I stenciled with what I cut out it looked horrible. So plan B was to move onto printing the labels on the fabric. So I printed the skull and crossbones and thought it looked pretty good.

But then I figured that I could print the words underneath the skull and crossbones since I did not have to be restricted by the size.

Now I look at it and think the angle of the words and the skull and crossbones is off and should rethink how I'm printing this. What do you think? Should I use the words and should I change the angle? I am running out of fabric so I cannot do much more thinking!

Linking to Nina-Marie.

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Toxic still/spill life progressing

I think I have all the rims done and now need to make the labels and stencil the numbers. The label you see with the fire is just a trial at making a stencil. I just put it up there to get an idea on how a label would look. It is not what it will finally look like. I am thinking of using the flammable label, the nuclear label and the skull and crossbones. Although I'm not sure if the skull and crossbones is too obvious. 

Toxic still/spill life

I need to make a label for the back of my piece for the juried show at the arts festival. I guess I will do that first thing today since I have to drop it off on Tuesday. I am one of those people that are guilty of not putting labels on things!

Linking to Nina-Marie.

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Not much progress

But at least some progress....

Painting more fabric this morning since I am running out. There are a few fabrics hanging onto the quilt since I am trying out what I want to use for various rims. Four have been pretty much decided. Once the fabrics dry I will try to get more done this afternoon. Linking to Nina-Marie.

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading. Well now for a walk while the paint dries.

Chris

Some progress

I am finding it really hard to get motivated to do anything after finishing the canal houses. I did make some progress on the toxic barrels, but realize I have a long way to go. Here are the fabrics pinned in place.

I am trying to decide on a fabric or fabrics for the rusted rims. Here are some that I have tried. I also have a heavily rusted piece that I might over paint. I guess I should just do it.

I am also working out how to do the numbers on the barrels. I have a number stamp, but the numbers are too small and you can't see where you are stamping. Not happy with it. I also thought about doing the numbers free hand. Both of these you can see. 

I added the free handed numbers to a barrel to see how it would look. It's upside down.  I know!

Maybe I need to buy a number stencil. I guess I need to figure this out. What do you think about then numbers or the rims?

Linking to Nina-Marie.

https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Painted rust dyed fabrics

I have now painted several pieces of the rust dyed fabrics. I think at this point I will print out the pattern for the toxic barrels and get started. I suppose I might need to paint some more fabrics if I don't have the right values, but I will hold off until I determine that. The painted fabrics that you see in the photo have several values in them depending on where I cut the barrels. Plus the backside is lighter than the frontside.

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

Thanks for reading.

Chris