Inspiring Quilting: Elly's blog to boost your creative IQ

Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

Volcano Season!

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

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The Slow Stitching Movement: So. Not. Me.

This is me: Scraps on the floor after another obligatory project is due and done. Restless rumblings. Silk, rayon, and frenetic free motion stitchery building, colliding, bursting, erupting—all in the course of one intense evening—just don’t ask me how I define “evening.” Ideas surge and flare, drowning out the inner mom trying to guilt me into cleaning up before starting something new, the urges to check the computer screen one more time, the calls from the hubby to come to bed. This is how I do my best work, imho. If only this brief season of volcanic creative activity would strike more often than once in a blue moon!

But opportunity may strike for you! Here’s how:

1 Day (Feb. 4) — 100 Artists (I’m one of ’em!) — 100 Patrons (You could be one!) — $10,000 for the American Cancer Society. My 8″ x 10″ art quilt, which I call, “Volcano Season,” is one of the amazing 100 art quilts that could be yours. Mark your calendar: Wednesday, February 4, 2015, at 10 a.m. Central. The first 100 people to contact Virginia Spiegel at her website, VirginiaSpiegel.com will be given a link to donate $100 by credit card directly to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause. Somebody gets my piece. But oh, you gotta check out the talented quilt artists–lots of big names–who are also among the 100 contributing artists. This site shows you a bunch: http://www.pinterest.com/…/the-100-fundraiser-to-fight-can…/ You’d contribute to the ACS anyway, right? Be on time, and the bonus is gonna be bodacious in your abode.

What about you? Do your brainstorms erupt suddenly? Or build quietly over time?

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Posted in Art + Quilt, Exhibitions, Inspiration, Personally Speaking | No Comments »

Quilt-scape Album

Friday, January 2nd, 2015

Sad but true: We never print those photos anymore. Whaaaa. We are captives of our electronic world. And a captive audience for anyone who shoves a smart phone in front of us to thumb, er, swipe through a batch of pics. Fight back, quilters! Just as folks enthusiastically welcome your quilted table runners, pillow covers, and tote bags, they’ll love looking at your vacation pics in a handcrafted format, and they’ll be overjoyed to receive their very own brag book with a cover handmade by you. Here’s the how-to lowdown:

1. Get a plastic photo album that holds about the number of 4 x 6 photos you want to include (12, 24, 36). Dollar stores have ’em. For a dollar.

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2. Open the photo book out flat and measure across the back cover, spine, and front cover, then measure the length of the spine. Make a little quilt (or quiltlet) 1/2″ larger all around than these dimensions. By my book, 11″ x 7 1/2″ were the final dimensions. OK, woooo, that sounds like a Star Wars commercial, the “final dimensions.” I was inspired to borrow from Karen Eckmeier’s techniques explained in her Accidental Landscapes book (which I was privileged to edit and which you can get from her website) and also in the masterpiece “By the Sea” which Karen contributed to my Skinny Quilts & Table Runners book). I started using her layered/topstitching method, pressing edges under and topstitching them to a background— you’ll see that below where the sea meets the sky, for a crisp horizon line, and in the sand of the foreground. Then I threw caution (and patience) to the wind. I abandoned pressing edges under and just tore fabric. The raggedy fringes suggest frothy waves, as do couched ribbons and lace (Karen’s ideas).

3. Pin a looped strand of elastic to the middle of the left side edge. From fabric, cut two rectangles the same size as the little quilt made for the cover. Set one aside for the backing. Cut the other crosswise in half (along the spine). Then fold each crosswise in half again, and place on top of quiltlet so raw edges are aligned at top, bottom, and sides. Pin to hold in place temporarily.

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4. Place the backing on top, with right sides facing. Stitch all around, 1/4″ from edges and leaving a 4″ opening at the center of the bottom.

5. Clip corners, and pull the quiltlet through the opening. Use a pin to pick out the corners. Turn the edges of the opening 1/4″ to the inside and stitch them closed. Insert the covers of the photo book into the side pockets.

6. Stitch a button to the front cover to correspond to the loop.

7. You might want to knot a length of ribbon to the elastic loop — for decoration, or to wrap around the photo album.

Eh voila! Nice, old-fashioned way to capture vacation memories, latest escapades of the grandchildren, or hilarious costumes you forced your pet to wear.

Do leave a comment: what images and techniques would YOU showcase on a photo album cover?

Posted in Art + Quilt, Gift-Making, Inspiration, Memory, Quilted Accessories | 2 Comments »

Ode to 2015

Friday, January 2nd, 2015

PuertoRicoAlbum

It’s here: the year MMXV
Ushered in with jubilee
Ball drops and fireworks on our screens
To welcome in two-oh-fifteen.

The hub and I had a vaca Caribbean
Enjoyed adventures near-amphibian
Took warmth from sun and sand and sea
Unapologetically.

Spending, tipping, napping, touring
Eating, drinking, smorgasbording
You’re on vacation, just indulge!
Never mind the tummy bulge!

Never mind expense and guilt!
The unsent cards, the un-made quilt.
Now back to productivity
To Mac/PC captivity.

Back on the wheel, one of the cogs.
New lesson plans, new posts for blogs.
News and views, make ’em halfway clever!
Offers to guilds for gigs wherever!

Back to eating healthily,
Chemical pesticide- and hormone-free.
Neither vegan, heathen nor yokel be!
(Though nothing’s fresh now locally.)

Back to winter chill and freeze
Nowhere outside reached with ease.
Forced marches grimly to the gym,
Feign that claim to vigor and vim!

Oh woe is me, my vaca’s over.
There’s bills to pay and I’m cold stone sober.
I’ve muscles that ache, and rashes that itch.
…Can you believe I’m such a bitch?

I’m fortunate as all get-out!
Got NO excuse to rant or shout!
My life ain’t perfect, but my deal’s hardly raw,
One can’t avoid hassles or prevent Murphy’s law.

Any Crazy Quilters still following this thread?
Then I wish you a bright patchwork year ahead.
No Spider’s Den, no Rocky Road,
No need to have stitches ripped out or re-sewed.

May you grow the techniques in your repertoires.
No whine, all Roses, all Pinwheels and Stars,
May your Shadows be brightened by lots of Sunshine,
And may your aggravations be as minor as mine.

All the best for 2015!

Posted in Gift-Making, Inspiration, Memory, Personally Speaking, Quilt blocks | 2 Comments »

Walking the Boards

Tuesday, November 25th, 2014

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November 24, 2014, and temperatures in the 70s. With cold–and even snow expected in a couple of days, the hub and I wisely decided this was NOT a good day to stay in and work…or go to the gym. He had a destination in mind: the newly-built “Boardwalk” on the Schuykill (River, that is). Here’s the professional shot:

Boardwalk on the Schuylkill

My pics, while not so panoramic, showcase far prettier sunshine and shadows, if I say so myself…and I just did. The light mid afternoon was spectacular. I felt as if any one of my photos could inspire an art quilt. Which one do you think makes the best composition? Which one would translate best to fabric?

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“Wood-grain” cement floorboards, with shadows…and I can picture this one with black lines of quilting, can’t you?

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Some photo editing took this scene into a more fantastical, if not Peter-Max-imum realm:

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Writing this blog post certainly inspired me to learn to spell Schuylkill correctly. Going Dutch, like the 17th century Europeans from the Netherlands as well as Sweden and England, gives us the translations of schuylen and kill to mean “hidden creek.” Perhaps since the mouth of the river was “discovered” by these explorers hidden behind dense vegetation at Delaware River’s League Island.

Along the boardwalk, runners, bikers, strollers (like us, but the kind with babies on board, too) all make tracks.

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To one side of us, the glorious Schuylkill River, the dreaded Schuylkill Parkway (where traffic is almost always at a crawl), and beyond that, West Philadelphia. On the other side, the scenery was equally EPIC. Train tracks, trains, construction sites, scrub brush, texture and movement.

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Yup, today’s walk was such a good idea…which is invariably the case when following this guy’s train of thought:

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OK, we’ve reached the end of the line!

Posted in Art + Quilt, Inspiration, Personally Speaking | 3 Comments »

Iceland Rocks!

Wednesday, October 8th, 2014

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In a trip to Iceland this past August, the husband and I took mini-bus tours out to the rocky coasts, where cliffs, hillsides, and beaches bore the vestiges of volcanic and glacial upheaval.

I’m so lichen this interplay of ground and sky.

Landscape or still life?

Like a man-made mesa, with a walking path high up just on the other side of this wall.

If I were a rock climber with all the right equipment, if I were not so scared of heights, if I never had to descend, and if I never looked down, then maybe…

Green green, grows the grass on the far side of the hill. Which is why the names for Iceland and Greenland should be switched.

Rocks + water = Gorgeousness, no?

Arc-i-texture! (with a tip of the cap to Carol Taylor for the caption title word-play)

Gully, but this cliff is terrif.

Natural stadium seating.

Don’t mind taking a seat myself.

Patch of colorful life.

Wildlife sighting: a colony of puffins.

Don’t mind saying that while life has its ups and downs, our marriage has never been what I would call rocky. The husband is my rock, and a rolling stone who propels us on these adventures.

A favorite quilt artist who really rocks the heck out of color, shade, and perspective. “Out of the Dark,” by Esterita Austin.

“Into the Light,” by Esterita Austin. Check out her workshops! http://esteritaaustin.com

I confess, these days I’ve hit rock bottom in terms of time, energy and motivation for creative fabric play that’s just for fun and personal enrichment. However, as far as seeking inspiration and dreaming about quilt projects to come, I’m leaving no stone unturned! How do you rock your quilts…or your quiltmaking regimen?

Posted in Art + Quilt, Inspiration, Travel | 1 Comment »

What if?

Tuesday, September 16th, 2014

Yeah, what if?

What if I crowdsourced an arrangement of elements on my blog (see my last two posts!)?

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What if I took all the suggestions to heart, and kept going?

What if I continued the graphic lines in the fabrics into the quilting?

What if I curved the side edges?

It’s my modus operandi, the “what if” way of working. Try this, take a look or take a picture, then try something different. With digital image reminders, I can easily go back to a previous rendition. Anyone else use this “making it up as you go along” method?

The result, called “What If?,” natch, is about 28″ at its widest x 36″ — if memory serves.

Furthermore, much as I enjoyed the process, I see all that could have been—a simpler, stronger, less belabored piece of work. Out of my sight for a while, I’ll return to look at it with fresh eyes and a more accepting attitude…I can only hope. But here’s another thing about the way I work with fabric art: I am never totally pleased with an oeuf…er, oeuvre. But even working in a series, it’s almost impossible to make something that’s just slightly different, with just minor readjustments. And the next word play art might just be Just/Readjust!!

As the adage goes, “Done is better than perfect,” and I won’t be redoing this puppy. OK, maybe minor revisions. But what if I were to apply your points of view to my next piece? I’d get to be a better fabric artist, wouldn’t I?

In the meantime, what if any of you are going to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza in Oakes, PA, this Thursday thru Sunday? If so, look for it in the Spirit! exhibition group.

Whether you go by these images of the full piece above and detail below, or whether you get a glimpse of it in the cloth, let me know what you think in the comment box below. Remember, no hoops to jump through, no weird characters to copy to prove you’re not a robot. Your constructive criticism, easily keyed in, is always appreciated.

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Posted in Art + Quilt, Inspiration, Personally Speaking | 3 Comments »

Art = Play

Tuesday, June 24th, 2014

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The Contemporary Arts Center –a highlight of a long weekend in Cincinnati, was as fun for my almost 4-year old great nephew as it was for his mom, my DH, and me. An ultra-colorful and creative current exhibit is titled, “Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? Painting, Parody & Disguise.” Defining the Parody part, curator Michael Stillion mentions, “Taking serious art not so serious and making it hilariously serious.” With that insanely in mind, Zachary Herrmann describes his installation, with its special appeal for us young and old viewers, using other opposing concepts, so that “cultural cues, symbols, and sensual stimulation…project into a more loosely structured space where fictions about beauty and repulsion, violence and humor, mortality, transparency, and psychology are at play.”

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detail,fools-house Mark Fox, A Fool’s House Fulfilled–A broomstick — among lots of debris–is a clue as to the scale. P1012102

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Upstairs at CAC is the UnMuseum. There, Casey Millard’s character, Shark Girl, is not having a good day. She hides behind a shark head, because that is the animal she feels like. What animal do you feel like? I am a clingy Labrador retriever, Marcie is a kangaroo mother, and Norman is a curious little monkey.

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Ryan Mulligan created the most beautiful, free-play putt-putt course–no clubs; you use your feet to guide balls into holes…or send them down the clever chutes…or maybe you simply roll around in the balls like a little Ikea ballroom. It’s called The Dinosaur Says Moo.

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I think I’m ready to be more playful with my quilting…how about you?

Posted in Color, Exhibitions, Family, Flowers, Inspiration | No Comments »

Not for Mother’s Day Only

Tuesday, May 13th, 2014

Listen To Your Mother---detail

Two days late for Mother’s Day–but two weeks early for the deadline of the annual Quilt Alliance contest, exhibit, and auction. Not too shabby. I especially grooved on the theme this year: “Inspired By…”

The organizers originally presented a few classics from the pantheon of patchwork and applique masterpieces, and one of my faves was there. So even after the contest was opened up to “Inspired By…” ANY of the quilts on the Quilt Alliance’s Index and S.O.S. (Save Our Stories) sites, I couldn’t get this one out of my mind:

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The maker of this silk screened quilt, made in 1997, was Jean Ray Laury. For almost 50 years, Jean was a pioneering, rule-breaking heroine to quilters. The gentle humor behind her folk art gave special resonance to her messages. Who doesn’t hear her own mother echoing from the nine patches of Jean’s silk-screened Listen to Your Mother? Or recognize the love behind such neurotic exclamations?

I offer a Not for Mother’s Day Only lecture–and am often invited to present such fare at an April or May quilt guild meeting. I invariably show an image of this quilt, and read the panels out loud to the audience:

What will the neighbors say?
If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
I’m telling you this for your own good.
Change that underwear! you might get hit by a car.
Get out of that tree! you’re going to fall down and break your head!
Watch out! You’re going to poke somebody’s eye out with that.
Put that down! You don’t know where it’s been.
Uh…is that what you’re going to wear?
Stand up straight! Keep those knees together! Pull your tummy in! And can’t we do something with your hair?

Forced to choose only one universal mother, I borrowed Whistler’s:

WhistlersMother-image

I directed her admonitions just to quilters. Typed and photo-transferred onto white cotton, these are the rules our quilting fore-mothers passed down to us. Equally well-meaning as the teachings of Jean Ray Laury’s universal mothers, these statements tell of how one is supposed to quilt.

And out of laziness or rebellion or time constraints, these are the quilting rules I frequently break!

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It takes how much guilt ‘til you finish that quilt?
What about the label?
The baby is due any day! How are you going to get that thing done in time?
Pull up that bobbin thread! You’ve got little nests all over the backing.
Better needle-turn; you don’t know what fusible web will do after 50 years.
What?! You didn’t preshrink before lumping that new fabric in with the others?
Get those new rotary blades while your coupon is still good.
If you’re not going to quilt, then you should be cleaning your house.
You’re going to use that for the binding?
Move that needle position back to center! You’re going to break that needle!
Check your tension! Loosen up! Go faster! Keep to an even pace! Relax! No pressure!

What “rules and regulations” do you ignore in your quilting? Please leave a comment to let me know what to put on the next quilt! Whatever it is, you know that wonderful, inspirational rabble-rouser, Jean Ray Laury, will be smiling down from heaven!

PS–The deadline for the Quilt Alliance’s challenge in June 1, the size of your “Inspired By” must be 16″ square, and your piece should have 3 layers stitched together. Some rules you gotta follow–it’s for a good cause!

Posted in Inspiration, Personally Speaking | 6 Comments »

Whoop-TEA-doo! It’s Earth Day!

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014

In honor of Mother Earth, I just added a new piece to my ReUSE series.

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I don’t know how long I’ve been stalking the idea of a Tea Roses piece, that is, roses made out of tea bag envelopes. Last year, I took lots and lots of pictures at a rose garden in Florida. Then, meaning to get rid of one horrid picture of me, I mistakenly deleted all my shots. That’ll teach me to put on my glasses when reviewing my shots!

Starting again, I found a photo of a yellow rose that I cannot now find–I think it is one of Sammie Moshenberg’s lovely images. I traced the picture, numbered the pieces, and prepared to do a cut and glue sort of applique with tea bag envelopes.

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tracing

The “kit” of materials I assembled sat by the TV for months. Turned out this method that was waaaay too complicated for me. I’m more of a slap-dash kind of quilter.

Last week, an online quilt class taught by the extraordinary Pamela Allen of Canada featured an assignment for a fantasy fabric garden. That was the impetus to go back to my Tea Rose project once again, and substitute my trash stash for fabric prints to dash off some flowers. Following the lead of my sister students, I cut petals freehand, and worked in rounds. In this series, I simply adhere shapes with glue-stick over patchwork. White bags that once held ground coffee gave me bigger pieces and a quiet background, too. I cultivated plots of assorted tea bag and coffee packaging to sort of fence in my garden.

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Due to the foil-lined packaging that holds a crease, I was able to fold back some of the petals like a real flower. But even with the silver backing peeking up, the flower heads looked too dense, and the petals weren’t readable as separate shapes.

Back to the drawing board, I tried out an open design, like an arts & crafts style stencil or stained glass design.

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Better! Then on to layering over woolfelt (wool and rayon blend), preshrunk for a thick, sherpa-like quality. Quick quilting and trimming with passementerie and ball fringe gets everything sown so I can reap the rewards before Earth Day ends!

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My garden is a bit messy, and even though the bottom edge is angled, the whole thing should still hang straight and true. Not the case, not even close. But as they say, DONE is better than perfect.

Hope everything’s coming up roses for you! And that you ReUSE, RECYCLE, and REPURPOSE trash or found objects to REDUCE your carbon footprint. Oh, and RECONSIDER the many ways of creating quilted art!

Posted in Art + Quilt, Flowers, Inspiration, Recycled Art, Uncategorized, Unusual Materials | 4 Comments »

Painting with Flowers

Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

Be still my heart, when one art form or expression is interpreted in a different form, and the 1cassat-duo results bring honor to both:

*A religious prayer as expressed in classic east Indian dance

*The myth of Pygmalion, where a sculptor falls for his creation, as expressed in the musical, My Fair Lady

*American blues, gospel, and work songs translated into the opera, Porgy and Bess

So you can imagine my rapture when the husband and I went to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for PAFA in Bloom. Floral designers were challenged to do an homage to a work of art, and the result was exhibited beside it.

Baby on Mother’s Arm, Mary Cassatt, 1891

Linda Lord, Gloucester, NJ

The Skaters, Gari Melchers, ca. 1892
Kristie Lynn Borchick, Allentown, PA

Girl in a Plaid Scarf, Susan Macdowell Eakins, ca. 1880-1885
Michael Haschak, Philadelphia, PA

Warning, Jimmy Ernst, 1960
Dierdre Gross, Medford NJ

Jefferson Market, John Sloan, 1917
Carol English, Cranford, NJ

North Shore, Charles Prendergast, 1939
Cathy Hozack, Philadelphia, PA

Promenade, Maurice Prendergast, ca. 1915-1918
Darcie Garcia, Allentown, PA

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Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos, John Vanderlyn, 1809-1814

Peicha Chang and Rachel Berkowitz, Philadelphia, PA

I could go on and on!

There were more than 40 such pairings, with wide ranges of interpretation, from the literal–like the ship of orchids paired with a tall ships scene, to the metaphorical, like a Peaceable Kingdom interpreted with a variety of flowers, from the very raggy and wild to the tight and symmetrical.

Is this not exciting stuff?!!

Similarly exciting is the wonderful online class I’m taking with the extraordinary quilt/folk artist Pamela Allen of Canada. The first lesson asked us to translate a celebrated painting. No, not in flowers, but as a fabric “sketch.” Like many of my classmates, I chose a piece from that exuberant colorist, Henri Matisse. This one is called Anemones in a Chinese Vase, and it’s from the Cone Collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art:

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