Past Halfway

I've logged over 50 hours on my art quilt and am developing issues with my back and suffering from headaches. With all this time to work in my studio, I fear I am not taking enough breaks and stretching cramped muscles. As much as I love to work on it, I am going to have to limit my time in front of the sewing machine.....and the computer. With the weather having turned colder again, I'm also not getting out to walk.

I am pleased with the progress and I have finished the lower boggy foreground with all it's greens and moved into the background and the sky sections. I love when I get to colour transitions because they bring a fresh sense of interest to the work.

The above is the bottom half of the art quilt, the boggy foreground. I plan to overlay this with some yarn to give it more texture and detail.

Here is the beginning of the sky and the trees in the background against the sky.

As you can see I have a small section a the top to complete which should go fairly quickly. Once the quilt top is done, I will sandwich it with quilt batting and a backing fabric and add stitching, quilting, yarn and other embellishments to enhance the design and add details.

Disappointments and Lemonade

Our "Colour With a U" Committee met via Zoom on Tuesday. This committee set up the Colour With a U Exhibit and Call for Entry and we thought by now we'd actually get to see the Exhibit in person but as it turns out, the Gallery closed its doors due to Covid-19 just after the show was hung and before its opening. The exhibit was supposed to open during SAQA's (Studio Art Quilts Associates) International Conference here in Toronto this year in March. It now looks like no one will get to see it at this venue. We have been contacting venues right across Canada so that this show could travel for the next few years. At this point we are not sure the show will be able to travel. That will be a huge disappointment.

In response to the Gallery closing, our committee also put together a virtual exhibition of Colour With a U with, yours truly, reading the the artist statements. The virtual exhibition is 1 hour long but the work is beautiful and thought provoking.  Here is the link for that show if you are interested.
 https://vimeo.com/401994763/228b98385e

If you only have a little time here is the link for a 3 minute video of the exhibit. It doesn't have all the work displayed in it but you will get a feel for it.
https://www.homerwatson.on.ca/exhibitions/virtual-exhibition/

The conference was cancelled but the conference committee quickly set to going virtual by organizing workshops, meetings and talks that could be done over social media. I wasn't able to engage in many of the live programs but since everything was recorded I can access them any time. The comments I heard were that the conference was a success. Our online fundraising Spotlight Auction had record sales.

As you can see, we were handed lemons and so we made lemonade. I think it was pretty good lemonade.

Art Quilt - Designing Details

I have been continuing work on my latest art quilt. As I work on it, I reflect on some decisions I made in the designing of it that might be of interest to you. When you look at my pattern, you see a lot of straight lines. Those lines represent seams that appear when I sew my small fabric pieces together. In a painting, you don't see those seam lines. I actually like the look of those seams in my work because it gives interest and shows how I use fabric to create a fabric painting. I also often use the seam lines to direct the viewer's eye to the focal point. However, those same seams can be detracting to the piece as well. To keep that from happening, I make sure when designing that I carry the same fabric or value across some of those seam lines so that the eye concentrates on the colours and values instead of the seam. If you get up close to the art quilt, you definitely see the seams but when you stand back, you see the image. That's my goal. 

This is why some of the fabric pieces are tiny. You might wonder why those tiny pieces are important. They may help to transition the values or colours into other values and colours or they may be needed to make the shape of something more believable. 

When designing, you will also note that I don't use a lot of plain fabric. That is also intentionally done. I always try to choose fabric with a small pattern or gradient colours or different but harmonized colours in them. This gives added texture to the work which makes it more interesting and believable as a landscape. I have had people ask me if I painted certain pieces of my art and when they look closer they are surprised it is fabric. 

                                                                                                       

I even use some patterned fabric in my skies since when you see my work from a distance you can't see the patterns but just subtle changes in the clouds.

I've finished the foreground area of the quilt and am excited to be working on the background and the sky sections. I always love it when I can begin to use other colours. The greens were getting tiring so now I am using darker colours for the background, some oranges for the colourful trees between the evergreens and blues, whites and greys for the sky.

A Break from COVID-19 and the Art Quilt

Things are getting worse instead of better. There are still new cases of the virus springing up and more deaths while we stubborn people figure out what it means to social distance and stay home. We now have a State of Emergency in the City of Toronto and that means all non-essential businesses must close. I still have hope that cases will wane and we will get back to normal at some point.

In the meantime, I have so much I want to do art-wise that I am secretly reveling in the fact that I have to stay home. I continue to work on my art quilt but I wanted to blog about something different. I've been missing the grand kids. This year for the grand kids, I made them portrait birthday cards. I thought it would be cool for them to keep a portrait of what they looked like on their birthdays this past year.

Staying Positive

Since my blog last week, Ontario, Canada has declared a state of emergency. Borders are closed between us and the United States as well as restaurants, bars, theatres, and sports venues. Grocery stores and banks remain open for now. Many people are working from home.

I have been spending lovely time in my studio and since I work from home, I continue to do that, only going out to visit the bank and go for walks.

I'm 18 hours into my art quilt and it is starting slowly.

Finished pattern

First section sewn together

Using lots of calming greens

From a distance all these funny shaped bits of fabric will blend together to bring out a beautiful landscape......hopefully.

Virtuality Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

We are now experiencing a pandemic called COVID-19. This thing is spreading crazy fast and cancellations are happening all over the world in a bid to slow it down. Our SAQA MoSAiQA Toronto Conference which was supposed to happen this upcoming week has been cancelled, however, the show "Colour With a U" at Homer Watson House and Gallery and "Colour With a U Too" at RiverBrink are up and running and so far the museums are still open for viewing. We have postponed the official opening of Colour With a U to April 25, 2020. SAQA is working feverishly to give us a virtual conference.

We have seen sporting events, schools, local fundraisers, March Break Programs all cancelled and several museums are closed. People are being advised to stay out of large social gatherings. We are also being advised to self-quarantine if we have traveled or come in contact with an infected person.

If you are stuck at home during this thing, here are some links to virtual art galleries and museums to help keep you positive and panic-free. We will get through this thing, but do what you can. Follow instructions about quarantines and hand washing, and maybe share your toilet paper with your neighbour. What is that toilet paper hoarding all about anyway!?

Stay safe and healthy, friends and be patient.

https://collections.textilemuseum.ca/  Textile Museum - Toronto


https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours?fbclid=IwAR0hh3giBbIuMFcctqUCxhKSfPgAIiiITYHBG0g_fFZlZE6xSp0yXTorUqc


I have spent 8.5 hours working out my design and pattern for this latest art quilt so I am actually looking forward to having more home time to get some serious work done on this piece.

See my progress below.

this is the 4 X 6 inch fabric card of the scene

This will be approximately 24 x 36 inches

Art Quilt Beginnings - Again

So after blogging about my block last week, I continued to look for something that spoke to me as far as an art quilt project.

In the fall last year my brother sent me a photos from his moose hunting trip which was waaaay up north somewhere. I used one of his photos to make him a fabric card for his birthday to commemorate this trip in which he bagged a moose! Apparently, he really liked the card and wondered if I could do this in a larger format. So my brain wheels started turning. Since it was taken in the fall there are many different colours in the photo which I could enhance in an art quilt. It also has a lot of different texture because it is rocky, boggy, brushy type of country. I could enhance the texture with yarn and other things. I was hooked. I got out the photo of the card and the original photo and started working.

I enlarged a line drawing of my design to about 24" X 36". The foreground is brushy, rocky, textured shrubs of various colours which fades into middle ground. the background is a line of  evergreen trees with some colourful deciduous trees behind them peaking through. I especially liked the tallest trees as they cut into the blue sky filled with white puffy clouds.

Covering the design with freezer paper on which I will plot my pattern of various fabrics and sewing sequence instructions.

Dividing the design for sewing.

Choosing fabric, keeping in mind colour and value. As I plot the pattern, I am sure I will add more fabric.

My swatch and symbol guide which helps me know which fabric goes where.