Quilt National and other stuff

The people at Quilt National have published an article explaining why they disqualified a work by Amy Orr from this year's QN. She violated the rule on prior publication by signing a release that allowed her work to be published, and it was. They are also investigating the publication of the piece of Nancy Erickson's that appears in the SAQA Portfolio, which was also prior to QN. The closing sentence on the article: "It undermines the integrity of the artists and the exhibition if the published rules are not applied equitably to each participant. "

I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. If you are going to have rules, then everybody must follow them. On the other hand, if you have rules that become increasingly impossible to enforce, and when the un-enforcement reflects poorly on the organization, and when the enforcement makes the organization look disorganized, perhaps it's time to eliminate the rule.

QN's goal is to have a 'premier exhibition of new work'. As part of this rule, there is a cutoff date of about 2 years for when the work must be made. I think this is sufficient enough to guarantee new work; in actuality I would bet that most work entered in QN is made in the few months prior to the entry deadline. Who is going to hold back a good piece of work for two years waiting to enter it in QN? Do other prestigious shows have the same kind of prohibition against prior publication? I'm not familiar enough with the general art world to know for sure, but I'll bet not.

It seems to be important in the quilt world because people who go to quilt shows don't want to see the same pieces exhibited again and again. My rebuttal is that Quilt National is supposed to be better than the 'weekend' quiltshows and also, how many people who enter QN would enter those same quilts in a weekend pole and drape show where everything hangs inches from its neighbor?

And other stuff: I'm off for a week of teaching at CraftSummer at Miami University. I sure hope I've got all my supplies and my lesson plans work out and all the equipment works. Makes me quite anxious and gives me sleepless nights.

More printing

Here is my design board with some of the fabric I've made these past few days. I have several more pieces batching, letting the dye set. I have screens already prepared for printing first thing tomorrow, which (I can't believe it) is our last day. Although I'm pretty wiped out and probably couldn't take too many more days of such intense work.

Yesterday afternoon we took time off and toured the various fabric shows. The QSDS Invitational is at the Cultural Arts Center. This is the show in which I have three pieces and I was delighted to see that one of my quilts greets the visitors as they come in through the front door.



After another show in Columbus and one in Lancaster, we went to Quilt National. As usual, I saw some pieces that I thought were quite impressive, some that were nice, and some that were head scratchers (and taking up space where my piece should have been). The first Quilt National I saw, back in 1993, I wasn't familiar with any of the artists. Now, I know quite a few of them personally. At least I'm hanging out in the right crowd.

One of the rules of entering a piece in Quilt National is that it cannot have been published or displayed in any show prior to QN. Several people have been disqualified even after being juried in for violating this rule. I heard that one work was pulled from this year's show because it was displayed on somebody else's web site, without the artist's knowledge. And yet Nancy Erickson's The Black Wolf, which is in QN, was published in the SAQA PAM Portfolio, published in the fall of 2006. Obviously, this has escaped the notice of the organizers of Quilt National. I feel it's grossly unfair for the rules to be applied so arbitrarily.

Deconstructed screenprinting

Day 1 of deconstructed screen printing with Kerr Grabowski. This is more fun than should be legal. We start with thickened dye and spread it onto a screen. The idea is to have something interesting underneath the screen and the thickened dye will retain an image of that. Then we let the thickened dye dry. Next we began screening over the dry thickened dye with more thickener. What happens is that the original dye transfers to the cloth and as we continued screening, the image breaks down. Got that?



This is one of the fabrics. It's much easier to understand the process when you see it demonstrated. My explanation is overly simplified. If you want to see and learn, buy Kerr's DVD.



These are two more screens that are ready for printing. They both have thickened dye and are ready to go first thing tomorrow.



It's really, really hot here and we're doing a lot of work outside under a tent. Actually it's more like a sauna. After bending over a table all day and sweating like pigs, a few of my classmates took a break.

Silk painting

Day 1 of Christine Zoller's silk painting class. This is tons of fun. First we built a frame to hold the silk scarf. After attaching the scarf we used gutta to draw a design on the silk. Then silk paint to fill in the shapes on the scarf. I chose a design that I have used in my quilts in the past, figuring I didn't want to spend a lot of time figuring out what to draw. Some of the shapes had salt sprinkled on and it makes a great design in the paint. For the border I dabbed on various colors of paint then dabbed water on which makes the paint migrate with interesting effects.





For this piece I laid the scarf directly on the table, spread paint, then sprinkled with salt and let dry. It's going to be a background for more design.




On the border of the first scarf some pieces of salt accidentally fell onto the paint and made it spread and since I really liked what that looked like, decided to do an entire scarf that way. With two yellows, two browns, a bronzey gold, and a red I dabbed paint on, then dabbed water, then sprinkled salt. This is still in the process of drying but it looks pretty cool already.



More exciting stuff tomorrow.

All my bags are packed....

I am ready to go. I shipped 4 boxes on Monday and they arrived yesterday at Miami U, all ready for the end of the month. Then I did all the things necessary to close up the house for a week: stop the mail, stop the newspapers (including the stupid Examiner which comes free and the mail deliverer makes a point of aiming for my flower garden), book the cat sitter, do the laundry, water everything, fill out entry forms for two events, and pack for QSDS. This is what I'm taking:



Doesn't seem to be much in comparison to previous years. Since I'm not doing any sewing I don't need my machine nor all the accessories. One box of fabric plus supplies for dyeing, painting, and screenprinting. And since I shipped my only roll of masking tape I have to stop off and buy another one. You would think I would have more than one roll hanging around, but apparently not.

Martha and I are leaving this afternoon and driving halfway, staying outside Pittsburgh. Tomorrow we'll go into the city and see Fiberart International, then drive the rest of the way to Columbus. So we should arrive sometime in the mid afternoon - it's an easy 4 hours from Pittsburgh, although it's the more boring part of the drive. Once we cross over the Ohio River everything flattens out and the scenery is less interesting. At least to somebody who likes mountains. Or, sort of mountains, what we have on the East Coast can't compare to the Rockies, but they are still inspiring to me.

I will have my computer with me and there is wi-fi access at the hotel, so I plan to post what's happening. I'm doing silk painting with Christine Zoller and deconstructed screen printing with Kerr Grabowski, a class I've wanted to take for a long time. It will be tons of fun!

Packing

Time flies. I'm always amazed (and a little distressed) when I see how much time has passed since I previously posted. I've been packing for classes and it's been rather confusing. Next week I leave for QSDS where I'm taking a silk painting class and a deconstructive screen printing class. When I get back home from that I have 6 days and then I go to Miami University in Ohio for CraftSummer where I'm teaching 3 classes: thermofax screenprinting, dyeing, and machine quilting. What was I thinking? I need to ship my supplies to Ohio next week because waiting until I get back from QSDS is pushing it a little. So now I have boxes all over my studio and I'm going through supply lists and trying to keep my head straight, especially since there are alot of things that I will need in both places.

And then yesterday I decided that it would be fun to have some extra t-shirts to dye or print in those classes so I put in an order to Dharma Trading for t-shirts for me, onesies for new granddaughter, cute little dresses for the other 2 granddaughters, and camoflage t-shirts for my grandson. Dharma has already shipped and the box will be here on Monday.

And in addition to all the above, I need to prepare a design and order 43 t-shirts for our tri-ennial family reunion. My husband is the oldest of nine children and we have been going on family reunions once every three years since we moved out East from Chicago. The first time was in 1973, when my son was 3 months old, and there were only about 12 people. Now we're up to 43. And we've lost the original generation, but have added one at the other end. So we have the 9 children (with 8 spouses), 18 grandchildren (with 2 spouses and 1 significant other), and 5 great grandchildren. Although I guess that needs to be moved up a level to siblings, children, and grandchildren. One of the highlights of the week is a family picture where we all wear our t-shirts. One picture is a regular pose but then we do a "crazy picture" where everybody does something wacky. People spend the entire week thinking about their crazy selves. So here we are:

This is 1992.

1995. I couldn't find the crazy version.

1998. This is the last picture with my father-in-law. He died in 2000.

2001. My mother-in-law died within a month of this picture.

2004. Two more children have been born since this reunion.

I wonder what this year's picture will be like????

As to art....haven't had a chance to stitch for weeks. Arghh!

Dyeing

Thanks for all the congrats on my new granddaughter. I have all of the joy and none of the discomfort. And Nellie, you sure keep me on my toes! I've been busy dyeing fabric samples for my upcoming class at CraftSummer at Miami U in Ohio. I wanted to demonstrate to the class how doing the steps in different order can result in different markings on the final product.

So here was the plan: Use the exact same dye solution, same size pieces of fabric, same size container, same amount of liquid (except that some fabrics were pre-wetted), same overall batch time. What varied: Wet or dry, and timing.
Fabric A was presoaked in soda ash and used wet.
Fabric B was presoaked in soda ash and allowed to dry.
Fabric C was dampened, the dye solution added, and the soda ash added immediately.
Fabric D was the same as C but I waited 10 minutes after adding the dye solution before adding the soda ash.
Fabric E used dry fabric, added the dye solution, added soda ash immediately.
Fabric F same as E except I waited 10 minutes before adding the soda ash.

Here is the result:

I was somewhat dismayed to realize that there was not very much difference in the fabrics. I think there were two contributing factors. First, I manipulated the fabric when I added the dye solutions and I manipulated it again after adding the soda ash. This resulted in a more even distribution. Second problem, I used blue and yellow for the dye solution and they strike nearly at the same rate. Back to the drawing board.

For the second trial, I used fuchsia and yellow to make orange. Nothing strikes faster than fuchsia. And I resisted the temptation to manipulate the fabric. I poured on the color and I poured on the soda ash and I kept my hands to myself. So using the same procedure as in A through F above, this is the result:

A very noticeable difference. The fuchsia practically sits in place where it first hits the fabric which gives the yellow a change to migrate and be noticeable. I don't like those large areas on E and F where the color is sort of flat. Those were the dry fabrics to begin with. The pieces presoaked in soda ash resulted in the most distinct separation of color. Where the dye had time to migrate the markings are less distinct.

I've been tagged by Lisa for a 7 meme (I have to tell 7 things about myself and then tag 7 others). I have to think about this for a little bit before posting.

One more thing - since HGTV's Simply Quilts bit the dust it seems they've made the the videos available online from their website but also from the Yahoo.com website. I had 5 minutes and 37 seconds of fame several years ago and now that segment is available at Yahoo

I really hate watching myself because it sounds so stupid to me but there it is for all the world to see.

Happy Day!

I made a little change to my profile. As of yesterday I have 4 grandchildren. My daughter delivered her second child and second girl yesterday afternoon. Mom, Dad, Big Sister and New Baby are all doing well and Grandma and Grandpa are bursting their buttons with pride. Hooray!

Threads Anonymous?

After rearranging my thread drawers to accommodate my extravagant purchase of 30wt rayons in March, I realized that my cotton thread drawers were underfilled. I already have a bunch of the King Tut from Superior Threads and the heavyweight cotton from Valdani Threads, but I was lacking in light weight threads. I used to order the Tanne thread from Madiera but they don't make it anymore. I wanted 2 ply 50 wt thread. Both Valdani and Superior carry 50 wt thread, but I wasn't certain that Valdani's was thin enough. Since I already had some of the Superior MasterPiece and knew what it's like, I went with that.




And I also ordered a few more King Tut to round out my collection. I hope this fills my thread lust because even at wholesale prices I've spent an obscene amount of money on thread. It makes for a very strange line item on my tax return.

I've posted five new pieces that I've done so far this year on my website. They all use an abundance of thread. Even so, it will be quite a while before I run out.

Fun time

Yesterday Martha and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and so did Martha so the I don't have any fun pictures. It's always interesting to visit another subculture and realize that they are just as immersed in theirs as we are in ours. And it's also interesting to note where we intersect. Dyeing wool and dyeing cotton aren't very far apart, just variations on a process. Anyhow, everywhere we walked there was wool in all its stages: walking around on the sheep, being shorn, piled up all matted with stuff, cleaned, wool roving, spun wool, dyed wool, and sweaters, shawls, and scarves. I might have missed a few stages because I'm not familiar with all that goes into processing wool.

I liked watching the people spinning yarn. The spinning wheels varied from beautifully designed and crafted floor models to what looked like spinning tops. There were groups of women arranged in a circle with their spinning wheels whirring away while they chatted. Just like other groups of women sitting in a circle keeping their hands busy with some other craft.

One woman was spinning yarn from her angora rabbit. She had this pile of fur in her lap from which she would pluck a handful and add it to her spinning. Except that the pile of fur was actually the rabbit. He was perfectly happy to just sit in her lap and have her pull out his fur. She told us that angora rabbits molt four times a year and this plucking process must be done or else they will lick and swallow the fur and it will sit in their stomachs and they will die. Anyhow, she said that when she was finished with this rabbit, all its fur would be gone and ready for the next coat to grow in. Sounds a little bit like indentured servitude to me, being so attached to a non-postponeable process.

There were tons of fairgrounds-type food booths with all kinds of enticing smells, but since I'm just coming off of a very nasty GI virus, I had to avoid all that stuff and stick to my plain old PBJ sandwich. I bought a mouse pad with the Sheep and Wool logo, a set of directions for knitting a purse and then felting it, and a book on some simple shibori dyeing techniques. No yarn. It was beautiful, but I was able to resist.

Mice

I went into my studio storage closet to pull out a batt for the piece I'm working on. Imagine my disgust when I saw mouse droppings in the bag. And chewed out areas. I guess the mouse mommies like their nests lined with nice, soft, white cotton. They very daintily pulled the cotton off and left the scrim. And left their very undainty calling cards all over the rest of the batt.


This is Warm and Natural (I'm sure they would be delighted to know that theirs is the preferred batt for mouse nests). Looking at the label, which says it doesn't need to be prewashed (but in this case it does), I found directions for washing the batt. Has to be done by hand; I imagine that the washing machine does an even better job of removing the cotton from the scrim. It has to be wrung out by hand but at least I could put it in the dryer. So the majority of the batt was saved and I have repositioned my other batts in what I hope is a more inaccessible space. And set a trap, baited with cat food kibble. Why use kibble? Because I've seen the little mice run out from under the cupboard, straight to the cat food bowl, steal a piece of kibble, then run back. Obviously, my cat is not viewed as much of a threat.

Slide film

Some time ago I posted about ordering some slide film and thinking it might be the last time I did that. (At least I think I did; I can't find that post.) Well, it wasn't the last time because I just ordered more yesterday. Some places, but not very many anymore, still want slides, and it's nice to have a hard copy record, instead of 1s and 0s on a hard drive. I know that lots of people are getting slides made from their digital images but it's far more cost effective to just shoot the slide film. For about $13 I get 36 slides, full frame and details. Getting them made from digital, I would only have a couple of each for that amount, figuring $2.50 for the 1st slide of an image, $1 each after that, and $5 shipping.

I am proficient enough at shooting slides that they come out well. For only a few extra minutes of effort, I get alot more. This appeals to my miserly side.


I posted a short while back about a piece that was having problems. I wasn't sure I could save it. Here it is after some additions of paint splatterings and markings. I think it's improved. The question is, how much? What do you all think?

1-It still sucks; maybe you ought to cut it up or something.
2-Somewhat improved; maybe this could be a donation to some worthy cause.
3-It's fabulous and I want to buy it.

Wha' happend?

On Monday I posted results of my fabric painting weekend. This was one of the pieces. On Monday I ironed everything to set the paint. Yesterday I decided to wash the fabrics because some of them were very stiff.


Below is the piece after washing. Quite a difference. It's not just a bad picture, it really lost that much color. The rest of the fabrics retained their color. All I can think is that there was a lot of gelatin transferred to the fabric because we were in the hot sun and it was getting soft and the color was mostly in the gelatin. Which all washed out. Hmph. Well, at least the fabric is soft.


And I'm sure I will find a use for it.

Fabric Weekend

Yesterday was a wonderful spring weekend. We had a play day with painting fabric and it was so hot we had to move the tables into the shade. Not used to that hot sun and we had to protect our tender skin. I made up a gelatin plate to print with and also did some sun printing. Results:


Gelatin plate printing. I really like the overlap look and how the edges move into each other.



Another gelatin plate print. I used a storm drain cover from the hardware store to make the impression in the gelatin.


And another gelatin plate print. Some storm drain covers, but mostly this is the texture from the paint roller and the texture on the gelatin, put there when I tried to wipe off the top and roughed up some of the gelatin.


This is a sun print. Wet fabric painted green with more green dribbled on and with lots of grass strewn about on top of that.




Back to a gelatin plate. The texture here is from paint brush strokes.



This started with a furnace filter placed under the fabric and red paint rolled over top. You can see the furnace filter circle shapes in the upper right hand corner. Then gold paint smudged over top of that, and finally red paint from a syringe scribbled over all.



I've had this cabbage hanging around in the refrigerator for a while, never really intending to eat it but saving it for the cool design the ribs make. The leaf is underneath the fabric and the paint rolled gently over top.



My bottle of copper metallic paint split open, I guess the heat from the sun caused it to expand, and there was paint all over the bottom of the bin. I used a piece of fabric to wipe it up, then doused the whole piece in a very wet yellow paint. Very cool.

One more thing

My donation to the SAQA One Foot Square auction has been posted on their web site.

Work in Progress

It's not true that I have deserted the blogging world even though my lack of posts recently would indicate that. Here's proof:



Granted, this is an incredibly bad picture, but it is pretty close to reality. This is the piece that had the paint that was chipping off. I washed it (because I had nothing to lose) and that loose paint all went away. Along with all the interest. This piece lacks something, or several somethings. I'm going to throw some more paint at it in an attempt to revive it, but I fear that it's not going to be enough. An additional possibility is to use more paint to soften up that hard line between the pink and yellow area. And/or I can cut the whole thing up into sections and make some small pieces.

I've already nearly completed the next piece in this series using the same fabrics that I did for the above piece. They are all painted, not dyed, and I used various surface design techniques such as salt spatter, shibori around a pvc pipe, and crumpling. This second piece looks far better, partly because the accent paint is still there to accent. And the pinks and yellows are overall somewhat brighter.

The weather here sucks. It's cold and raining. Things are turning green, trees and flowers and blooming and it's too cold to be outside to really enjoy it. I'm still waiting for hummingbirds to show up in my yard. They've been sighted as far north as Massachusetts and I'm feeling left out.

My favorite season

Spring is my favorite season. It's so interesting to watch the changes that happen almost in front on your eyes. Yesterday the trees were bare and today they are budding.

I took this picture on Friday before I left for the weekend. It's the first daffodil to bloom in this garden. Last year the first bloom appeared on March 16 but on that date this year we had a few inches of snow on the ground and no blooms in sight. Today there are lots more blooms, the result of a mostly warm, sunny weekend.

Something else I watch for is the first appearance of hummingbirds. You can see the pole that holds the feeder on the right but I haven't put out any food yet. This map and database shows that hummingbirds have progressed as far north as northern North Carolina and it will probably be another several weeks before they get as far north as Maryland. But I'm going to be putting out my feeder before that and maybe I will see one soon.

New stuff and an announcement

I spent the past weekend at a retreat where I spent many wonderful hours with good friends and also stitched up a storm. I made a 12" square for the SAQA auction and once I sew a sleeve onto it will be sending it off.

And I quilted for many hours on a piece that I had put together and painted just last week. Unfortunately, I'm having a problem with some of the paint I used, well, rather I'm having a problem with some of the textile medium. It's flaking off. Some of it I can actually just scrape off with my fingernail and it doesn't even leave the slightest impression that it was ever there. This might not be such a problem if the colors were supposed to be subdued and in the background, but this paint was supposed to be the accent. If it all flakes off, there will be no accents.
Here you can see in the center how the paint is coming off. It looks interesting but I can't stop the process so eventually it will be mostly gone.

I mixed some more up last night and let it dry and will test it today and if turns out that it's that particular medium, it's going into the trash.

Since I was going to spend my time quilting, I brought all my thread. As you might recall, I just purchased 179 new spools of thread and expanded my storage bins. What I discovered is that thread is heavy and that the tall set of drawers is not only too heavy to carry, it doesn't fit into my car very well. This is a problem I'm going to have to solve before I go on the next retreat and I think the easiest solution is to just get small sets of drawers and have several of them. Without wheels I could probably stack one on top of another.

I thought I had packed for the weekend very thoughtfully but I had forgotten something important: the little box that contains all the feet for my machine. If the free motion quilting foot had been on my machine it wouldn't have been a problem because I could have borrowed a regular foot from one of the 2 other Janome users. But it wasn't, and since everybody else would be using their free motion foot, I was going to be twiddling my thumbs. Luckily I was able to arrange to meet my husband halfway between and he brought me the little box. So I only lost about 90 minutes of sewing time.

And for the announcement: my artist page on Guild.com has gone live and here is the link. They have selected five pieces to offer and here's hoping there is someone out there who is just the perfect person to give one or more of them a home.

Almost Spring

Although you couldn't tell by looking outside. The nasty storm that hit the Northeast last Friday left us without about 2 inches of sleety snow on top of ice and lots of rain. Thank heavens it wasn't cold enough for it to be totally snow because we had more than 2 inches of rain. Right now it's sunny but cold (28 degrees) and there is still snow on the ground. Later in the week it's supposed to be in the 60's and maybe I will get the first daffodil bloom.

The International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska has an interesting web site. Last month they held their biennial symposium where people from all over the world gather to hear lectures and panel presentations about quilts and also visit exhibitions. The goal of the symposium is to "celebrate quilts and quiltmaking." Michael James, who is the Ardis James Professor of Texiles, Clothing and Design at UNL and also the Chair of the department, delivered this lecture at the opening of the exhibition "Give and Take". This exhibition featured quilts created by artists who have been instructors, students or both at the Quilt Surface Design Symposium (QSDS). You can listen (and watch) the lecture, along with images taken at QSDS over the years. And if you're very patient and get all the way to the end, you will hear him quote from an email I sent him about my experience at my first QSDS in 1993. I sound very wise and profound. The gist of my statement was that 'you are where you are' and everybody is working together to become better artists.

I have finished the fifth (and last) in the series I'm preparing for the QSDI Invitational and now have to photograph it. This time I will be taking the slides to the local processing shop because I don't want to risk not having them back in time to send them off by April 1.

I've enjoyed doing this color series with its heavily stitched surface and want to continue with it. I'm thinking the next two will be black and white. That is, a black one and a white one, both of which will be challenges to me. The only white fabric I have is PFD, still in its raw state. I'm going to color them very slightly, something I have extreme difficulty in doing. The black will be black and grey, maybe with some discharge. Or not.

And I put in another order for more thread. I haven't ordered from Madeira in a long time, but I really like their 30wt rayon and wanted to order from them. I always start to hyperventilate when confronted with making decisions on which colors to order, so this time I just avoided that and ordered all of them. 180 spools of thread. One was out of stock, so I only got 179. Then I needed another set of drawers for storing thread, and a new algorithm for sorting. I used to store the cottons and rayons of the same color together, but that wasn't going to work any more. So now each each its own drawer, and I'm embarrassed by the amount of thread I have.

Quilting gloves

I have used these gloves for quilting for many years, and don't they look it? They're golf gloves with the fingertips cut off. I've never tried the gloves made specifically for quilting but it seems to me that knit gloves have too much stretch. These are lightweight leather and with the finger tips cut off I can manipulate thread and most things without having to take them off.

But I was forced to admit that I needed a new pair as I have worn a hole in the thumb. Off to the local sporting goods store to get golf gloves, size Ladies Small. Now, if you know anything about golf, you know that they only sell gloves as singles. Right handed people wear a glove on their left hand, and vice versa. Never having played golf, I don't know the reason for this. Never knew the reason for that little non-functional snap either until somebody told me it's for marking the position of the ball - you unsnap it and leave the one part on the green. Anyhow, it's pretty easy to find a Ladies Small for the left hand. But the glove for the right hand is non-existent. At least in the store where I was. Not many short left-handed female golfers. And they didn't have any gloves for kids either.

But other sports have gloves. I've seen people with gloves for weight lifting at the gym, and the finger tips are already cut out. Tried those but decided that too much of the finger is gone. Wouldn't provide enough traction. Next, batting gloves. They come in all sizes and I could find a Ladies Small. So I bought 2 pairs (they were on special, and because they come packaged as pairs I didn't have to suffer through the clerk telling me that you only need one golf glove), brought them home and proceeded to alter them to my specs. First removed the leather label on the back. And cut off the velcro band that snugs them around your wrists - don't need them that secure and it's a pain to have to fasten and unfasten it. Then cut off the tips. And then tried to stitch on the severed seam lines so they don't unravel. Suffice it to say it's not an easy task. There must be some kind of special sewing machine for making gloves.

My new gloves won't get as grungy looking as the old ones because the palms are black leather instead of white. And now back to quilting.