Anxiety

My local quilt guild's show is this weekend. I am filled with anxiety. Why? Because my volunteer job is to plan and carry out the hanging of the quilts. This is the third time I've done this and don't ask why I keep re-volunteering. A perpetual problem for guild shows is the system used to hang the quilts. Years ago we made stands out of pvc pipes. They were a bit difficult to work with, they broke fairly easily so someone was always running out to Home Depot to buy new ones as we were hanging, and we had the problem of storing them for two years until the next show. As you can imagine, no one wants to store a truckload of pvc pipes in their attic or garage. We finally ended up paying someone to store them in her barn. Of course, when they were brought out for the show, they had to be washed. The hanging process would go on into the wee hours of the morning.

Then several years ago we decided to dump the pvc pipe system and rent poles and drapes from a professional pole and drape company. Except we still had to do the setup ourselves and those suckers were heavy! Too heavy for a bunch of middle aged and older women to be hauling around. And the hanging still went on into the wee hours.

Next we decided to rent a hanging system from another guild. They had wooden poles and stands and white sheets. They didn't deliver. So now the setup involved renting a truck, driving to the next county, loading up the truck, driving back, setting up the poles, then hanging the quilts. And we also had to wash all the sheets ahead of time. This was the first year I volunteered to chair this committee. I tapped into a skill from one of my former careers: working with databases. I was able to assign a location to every quilt and put that information into the database. Now I could manipulate it and print out reports. Every little hanging area got a printed page with information on what quilts were to be hung there, their exact position, and which type of hanging pole to use. Once the poles and stands were up, the hanging of the quilts went fairly quickly and we were out of there by 9pm. Of course, when the show was over, the poles, stands, and sheets had to be taken down, loaded back into the truck, and driven back to their storage locker. Costs involved the rental of the poles and the rental of the truck. We needed a fair number of husbands and sons to help with the heavy work.

The configuration of the poles and stands was confusing and weird things ended up happening:

People improvised when they couldn't figure out what to do. Some quilts had to be pinned to the sheets, which is not a very good presentation.

Something had to be done. So this year is going to be different. I contacted another pole and drape company, and it just happened to be one that has done the Mancuso shows in Philadelphia. They will bring in the system and set it up. Oh Joy! All we will have to do is hang the quilts. When the show is over, they will come back and take the poles and drapes away. More Joy! We will have hooks that go over the top poles and connect to the hanging pipes and nothing will need to be pinned to the drapes. Tomorrow is the big day. My anxiety level is pretty high mostly because this is the first time we've done this and I can easily think of a million things that can go wrong. I will be taking lots of pictures, not of quilts, but of the process. I think it will look very professional. Of course, it will cost more than the previous system, but when I think about all the labor involved and recruiting people, it's going to be worth it.

Snow dyeing

We haven't had an overwhelming amount of snow this winter, not like last winter, thank heavens. But there was enough to do some snow dyeing and my intention was to do t-shirts in order to sell them at my guild's show next month. Last winter I did snow dyeing on fabrics and while they are stunning I found them very difficult to use in my quilts. They demanded attention and did not play well with the other fabrics. However, the patterns make for stunning t-shirts. I thought I would put them up here for sale before the show. The shirts are $25 plus $6 shipping.

These are heavy weight cotton Gildan brand t-shirts.

These first three are size Medium.

T-shirt M-1

SOLD

T-shirt M-2

T-shirt M-3

Medium

T-shirt 2 T-shirt 3

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are size Large.

T-shirt L-1

T-shirt L-2

T-shirt L-3

T-shirt L-4

T-shirt L-5

T-shirt L-6

Large

T-shirt 1 T-shirt 2 T-shirt 3 T-shirt 4 T-shirt 5 T-shirt 6

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Extra Large here.

T-shirt XL-1

T-shirt XL-2

SOLD

T-shirt XL-3

T-shirt XL-4

T-shirt XL-5

Xtra Large

T-shirt 1 T-shirt 2 T-shirt 3 T-shirt 4 T-shirt 5

I also dyed a bunch of bamboo socks but I'm not putting them up here now, maybe after the show.

You are my Sunshine

This was her favorite song. My Mom's, that is. She passed away this past Monday. It wasn't unexpected as she had been in hospice care since before Christmas. We did everything we could to make her comfortable and to ease her journey but I think it was still a difficult road. I don't like to remember her like she was these past few weeks because it just wasn't the Mom I have known. I wrote about her on her 97th birthday in 2009. She was really thrilled to read it. This is a recent picture and you can see how much she enjoyed life.

Here she is as a young woman - spectacularly beautiful.

And a bit on the lighter side. Don't you think spoons are a wonderful accessory?

These pictures and others we have found are the way I want to remember her. We fly to Chicago tomorrow for the funeral Mass on Saturday. Only something as important as this would entice me to go to Chicago in February.

Making Lemonade

You know that old saying - when you have lemons, make lemonade. I was working on a quilt that had lots of yellow with some inset bands of dark blue, all hand dyed by me. Following the procedure that I have been doing lately, after quilting the piece, I sprayed it with water to soak through to the batt, then threw it into the dryer. This makes a really cool puckery effect that takes on a whole new dimension when it's painted since the paint only hits the high points. Anyhow, I was dismayed to discover that the blue dye ran. Somebody didn't rinse the dyes out well enough, probably ought to fire her. I put the entire piece into cold water with Synthrapol and ran it through another cycle. This removed most of the blue dye except for right up close to the blue fabric. Not good.

The yellow parts looked pretty good so I decided to cut the piece up. There will be a SAQA Auction piece (12" x 12"), 4 small 8"x8" pieces, 7 4"x5" pieces, and a few ACEOs, those 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch pieces. Some of these are going to be mounted on stretcher bars just to make sure nobody thinks they're potholders or drink coasters.

A while back there was a discussion on the SAQA list about the "skinny envelope", the reply from the juried show that comes in the mail in an envelope that's only thick enough to contain the rejection letter. I've been waiting for the response from the National Fiber Directions show in Wichita and it arrived yesterday. The envelope was so skinny that there wasn't even a full size sheet of paper in it. I didn't want to open it, but you never know. The envelope contained the juror notification card, the part of the entry form that gets torn off and returned with the results on it. And hooray! one of my pieces was accepted.

Choices

©2010

Good year so far

I finished up 2010 with entries to 3 shows: the QSDS Happiness:Quilted Expressions, SAQA's Volusia Wrapped in Fiber, and National Fiber Directions in Wichita. I've heard back from the first two with acceptances in both, one piece for QSDS and two pieces for Volusia. This, plus a sale through the ArtFul Home (fingers crossed that the buyer doesn't return the piece), is making for a good start to 2011.

I'm particularly pleased that my very large piece Graffiti will get another chance to be displayed. The prospectus for Volusia stated that the galleries have high ceilings and wide wall spans. Graffiti, aka "Too wide for Quilt National" is 130" wide. You can read about that little episode here and see a picture. This other piece that was selected is titled Looking Out

Looking Out

©2009

These two pieces will be on display at The Gateway Center for the Arts in DeBary, Florida from February 15 through April 2.

The QSDS show will be from May 5 through July 10 at the Riffe Gallery in downtown Columbus. At least I will have something in Ohio during Quilt National time.

Life Lines

©2009

I hope to hear about the Wichita show next week as they said the notification date would be January 31.

It's snowing here now, great big fat flakes and it's a wet snow so I expect to see tree branches coming down soon.

Good Grief

No wonder my blog readership statistics have tanked lately. It's been more than 2 months since my last post. I won't give excuses because that just sounds whiney, so I'll just say I feel guilty for ignoring my fans (if there are any left.....)

I do have something to share. SAQA is putting together another trunk show of mini-quilts that will travel around the country. It can be requested by any group at minimal cost and maximum enjoyment. The quilts are small and will be matted so that only 8" x 8" will show. The due date for these quilts is January 21, and mine is ready to send off as soon as I complete the accompanying paperwork.

Last year I requested one of the trunks from the previous trunk show and showed it to various groups in the area. One of these groups, Metrothreads, decided to mount a similar type show and take it around the Baltimore Washington metropolitan area in hopes of getting a venue. Since I planned to participate in both of these events, I needed to make 2 pieces.

Only an 8"x8" window of each piece will show, but in order to allow for insertion into the mat, the quilt had to be at least 9"x9" and no more than 11"x11". Going for the mean, I chose to make my pieces 10"x10", and used the technique that I've been working with lately. The background is comprised of many pieces of fabric stitched into a grid, overpainted with red, and then overpainted with a scribble. This is what I got:

I neglected to block out the 8"x8" for the center and as you can see, the scribble is a bit too big. So I did 2 more:

These two fit the bill. The scribble will fit into the matted area. (Did you notice the center purple circle?) So I had these four pieces spread out on my work table and suddenly this arrangement jumped out at me:

This is total serendipity. I did not plan this at all, but because I always entered the piece from the left edge and exited from the right edge, the pieces can be arranged so that the scribble moves smoothly through all four. I really liked this and so decided to make a larger version, and made 4 pieces, all about 24"x24", but not exactly. I completed the grid quilting and then the project came to a screeching halt because I got taken up in other events, including several trips to Chicago, Thanksgiving, Christmas, family events, etc., etc. Today I pulled the pieces out and have put the first layer of paint over the grid. The project is back on!

Way last summer I signed up for the Sketchbook Project and that had been hanging over my head, contributing to my general anxiety. My theme was Outside/Inside and I agonized over how to represent that theme as the sketchbook lay near my work table, taunting me no end. I finally came up with an idea. I would make gelatin plate prints of small objects, and then sew the object into a little fabric sac with the print of the object showing on the outside. I used cotton duck to make the book pages (after removing all the paper pages that came in the book), and then sewed the little sacs to the cotton duck. On the inside front cover is a list of all the objects that are included in the book, but not in the same order. The reader will have to figure out what each thing is by touch. I was so glad to get this thing finished and off my list that I didn't take any photos, and just packed it up and shipped it off yesterday. I paid to have my Sketchbook scanned, and so I wonder what it's going to look like. Especially since you really have to touch the pieces to get the full effect.

What didn't get in

In my previous post I promised images of my Quilt National entries. Since none was selected, I can share all three with everybody. A brief description of the process: dye and paint fabric, cut fabric apart, sew it back together, cut fabric apart, sew it back together, quilt it, monoprint it, throw paint at it, stencil it. In a nutshell.

Forest Concerto

60" W x 62" L

©2010

Forest Concerto detail

©2010

Amber Waves

54" L x 55" W

©2010

Amber Waves detail

©2010

Choices

60" L x 70" W

©2010

Choices detail

©2010

I'm working on getting these and a bunch more onto my web page, which is sorely in need of updating. I bought a new computer last spring with Windows 7 on it and now I can't get the ISS thingy to work anymore with my web page database. I can't explain it any better than that because if I could, I could probably fix it.

It's been a while

I have been on the road for most of the past two weeks. The last weekend in September I went to my art quilt group retreat in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. We arrived on Thursday and unloaded our gear into a wonderful space where we each had 2 work tables and plenty of space to spread out. We all had plenty of projects and spent many, many hours working diligently. Of course, we also had lots of time to chat and share stories and, of course, to eat the goodies that everybody insists on bringing. I'm sure we would be better off without all the chocolate, cookies, and cashews that were consumed. To be sure, there were some healthy food choices on the table but I think a lot of them went home with whoever brought them. At least I didn't eat any.

We went our separate ways on Sunday, home to do laundry, unpack, and get back into the normal routine. Except that I had to pack up again on Tuesday to travel to Chicago and then on to Missouri. This was a family visit and it was really terrific to be at the wedding of my great niece (omg how did I get to be this old?). The ceremony was held on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River with the light of the setting sun. It could not have been more beautiful.

Home again on Monday, unpack, then repack for a trip to Syracuse, New York. A year ago I posted an entry about my sister and her role as the Chairman of the Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital Capital Campaign. When they asked her what she wanted to commemorate this accomplishment, she said she wanted me to do a quilt in her honor. I was thrilled and excited and of course said that I would be pleased to do it. I visited the hospital last spring and we toured the area looking for possible places to hang the quilt. We decided that the Resource Library was the spot and chose a space above the fireplace. I returned home and began work on the quilt and it was mostly finished by August. That's when I received an email from the hospital saying that the fire marshal had an objection to our chosen location. Apparently all things must be hung at least 18" below the ceiling so that the sprinkler system spray is not blocked, and the size of this quilt did not allow that. Luckily, there were other walls that would be suitable, also in the Resource Library. But...the quilt had to be made fire retardant. No problem, I found a fire retardant spray made especially for fabrics and it is sold by Dharma Trading Company.

I wanted to test this stuff before spraying the quilt and I had a piece of quilt scrap that I could use. First I tested the untreated scrap. Whoosh, it caught fire immediately and burned quite merrily. Then I tested the treated scrap. The flame scorched and charred the quilt, but it did not catch fire. I was quite impressed. And it didn't change the hand of the quilt. So I sprayed the entire quilt, front and back. It will not burst into flames, not even when everything else in the library is burning.

And then they decided it should be framed. I don't know who they chose to do the framing, but they did a superior job. They placed the quilt against a dark blue mat and recessed it slightly. The frame is green, and these colors pick up the colors in the quilt.

This is the quilt. It measures 35" L x 55" W.


A detail shot to show the various fabrics and quilting lines. The quilting echoes the rays.





Here we are at the presentation ceremony. The Board members of the hospital were present and there were some little speaches talking about how much they enjoyed working with my sister and what a wonderful job she did in raising the money for the hospital.



This is a picture of the hospital. It's actually built onto an existing hospital, but it extends out like a treehouse. The shapes of the windows of the hospital are echoed in the background of the quilt. It is a marvel of planning and thoughtfulness that really caters to the needs of both children and their parents during a hospital stay.

All in all it was a wonderful two, marred by only two events. First, I received my rejection email from Quilt National, boo. Second, on the drive up to Syracuse (5 hours) I left my purse in a sandwich shop in Pennsylvania and did not realize it until we had driven for 3 hours. Talk about frantic! We called the shop and they had found it and were trying to get in touch with us. Phew! They stored it in the safe and we picked it up on our drive home on Friday, everything was just as I left it. So that turned out okay. So I guess there was only one bad event. Since I didn't get into QN, I can post the pictures of the rejects. That will be my next post.

Starting today

is the SAQA Benefit Auction. This is a reverse auction, with prices starting at $750 at 2:00 PM today. The prices drop every day to $550, then $350, then $250, $150, and $75. My piece will be in the auction that starts October 3. If I did it correctly, there is a slide show of the pieces above this post. I have my eye on a few pieces, so I hope nobody else bids on them until they come to my price range!

Waiting

My entries to Quilt National were completed, photographed, and documented. Filled out the entry form, burned the CD, and sent it off on September 3, a full 7 days before the deadline. Of course, they still need sleeves, labels, storage bags, but the pressure is off. At least until early October, when the notifications go out. It used to be you could tell the results of the jurying by the thickness of the envelope - a thin envelope only contained a rejection letter and your returned slides. A thick envelope contained a whole raft of paperwork that meant your work was accepted. Now most notifications come via e-mail. A "thick" email has an attachment, and a thin email only a few consoling words. The major difference is that the snail mail is only delivered once a day but I can check email every 5 minutes, or more, and drive myself up the wall with anticipation and dread. Better to get distracted with something else.

The good news is that the District of Columbia Commission on Arts and Humanities has purchased this quilt, titled "Hidden Agendas". The DCCAH purchases art every year for the Art Bank which places artwork into government offices. This year the call asked for work with a them that related to D.C. urban life. I submitted several works and they chose three for further review, and then chose this one for purchase. I think that "Hidden Agendas" is a very apt description for the workings of our federal government.

Hidden Agendas ©2008

Several posts ago I showed some sunflowers that I've been growing in my yard. They're ready to be harvested now so I'm cutting them down to let the heads dry, and then will let the birds and squirrels feast. But I'm not the only one around here growing sunflowers. This is a field of 300 acres of sunflowers growing on a farm about 20 miles from me. This variety is smaller than what I grew, but what they might lack in quality, they certainly make up in quantity! What an impact that sea of yellow makes.

And lastly, today is Primary Election day in Maryland. We have been bombarded with electioneering signs (which are only one step above trash imho) and robo calls (three steps below telephone solicitations). In case you are lucky enough to not be subjected to robo calls, these are automated telephone calls from candidates telling you how wonderful they are. Yesterday I received 10 calls, even one from "Governor" Sarah Palin. I think being endorsed by Ms. Palin, the EX-governor, is a point in the opposition candidate's favor. Anyhow, their dollars are wasted on me because I hang up as soon as I can tell what the phone call is about. If I'm near the phone that displays the caller ID, I don't even pick up. I wish I could say that I would cross off my list every candidate that called me, but then I wouldn't even need to go vote. I'm sure this will calm down a bit, but come November, the calls will ramp up again. Don't you just love that politicians exempt themselves from every law they pass?

Sunflowers

I love growing sunflowers. Last year I had 2 and I promised myself I would grow more this year. Trying to get a head start, I planted a dozen seeds in little pots and put them in a sunny window. They sprouted almost immediately, but then didn't do much else for several weeks, except get stringy. I planted them outside and visited them every day. Much to my chagrin, the seedlings were eaten and nothing was left but a little stalk. So I planted a dozen more seeds directly in the ground. They also sprouted immediately, and also were eaten by the birds and/or squirrels. Argh! Next I bought a bunch of plastic cups to use as collars and planted a dozen more seeds. Success! The cups could stay protecting the cups until the true leaves came in, which must not be as tasty as the first set.

Sunflowers are amazing. In just a short time span they grow to 10 feet tall and then produce a magnificent bloom.


Here is the long view and you can see how tall they are. The blooms are in various stages - some have not yet opened, some are in the process, and one (nearly hidden) is bent over with the weight of the developing seeds.

It is fascinating to watch the process. The little blossoms open first on the outside rim, then work their way towards the center. The bees and the butterflies love them!

You can see here the outside blossoms have been fertilized and are growing seeds. The next band is the pistils that have just been fertilized. The next band is waiting for the bees to do their job, and the very center has not yet begun the process.

As the blossoms get fertilized and the seeds begin to develop, the head of the flower goes from flat to bowl shaped, and gets heavier and heavier.

This head has been entirely fertilized and is so heavy that the stalk has bent over and the flower is facing the ground. It will take several weeks for the seeds to develop. Once that is done, I can leave the head on the plant and let the birds eat the seeds from there. Or I can cut the head and hang it to dry, and then harvest the seeds. Last year I cut the heads off but I think that this year I will leave them out and watch the birds go after them.