Fibre Content Show, Art Gallery of Burlington

Today is the opening of the Fibre Content Show at the Art Gallery of Burlington in Burlington, Ontario. I am pleased that two of my works will be there: Cascade 1 and Cascade 2 below. The show will run until September 16.

  

The exhibition includes 90 art works by 60 artists from across Ontario, plus an interactive exhibit of samples for you to investigate and touch. Admission is free.

The official opening of the show is on Sunday, September 9 from 1 - 3 pm. at 1133 Lakeshore, Burlington, Ontario. The Art Gallery of Burlington is open from 9 am to 9 pm Monday through Friday and 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday. 

New this year are Artist talks. Here is the schedule>

Sept 8:

10:30  Tracey Lawko lecture:  One Stitch at a Time

2 pm   Gunnel Hag lecture: Her Enduring Love of Surface Design

2 pm   Al Cote workshop: Playful Abstract Creations

Sept 15:

10:30  Mita Giacomini lecture: How I Do What I Do - When I Don’t Know What I’m Doing

2 pm   Pat Hertzberg lecture: Her Unique Use of Water Soluble Film

2 pm   Chandra Rice workshop: Eco Printing on Paper and Rust/ Tanning

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/fibre-content-2018-lecture-series-workshops-tickets-43636799843

I wish I could be there, but this weekend I'm fully committed to being a workshop instructor and vendor at Fibrefest Almonte. See my last blog post for information.

Later this month (September 29/30), my friends at Quiltco will be having a show of their work at the Glebe Community Centre in Ottawa celebrating their 25 years in existence.

We've been having a heat wave here in my part of the world. It was so hot on Canada Day (July 1) that very few people showed up on Parliament Hill for Canada Day celebrations. I personally stayed in my air-conditioned house and was very productive. It cooled off for a bit on Friday, but now it is brutally hot and humid (it is the humidity that is the killer) again. I am dropping in with some news.

This week I am shipping Smoke & Mirrors 2 off to Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, England. It will be exhibited in the Art Quilt category. No I will not be at the show in August. I wish I could be though. 

Cascade 1 and 2 were both accepted to the Fibre Content show at the Art Gallery of Burlington. The show runs September 6-16, 2018. More info at More info: http://fibrations.org/. I probably will not make it to that show either. It is right during Fibrefest, and after a day of teaching and two days of vending I am not sure I will feel like making the six hour drive to Burlington. However, I am pleased to have my work there.

 

The rain we experienced after the heat wave provided a wonderful opportunity to shoot raindrops on the hosta leaves. I really am thrilled with the HDR setting on my Samsung Smart phone. I have been able to take better raindrop photos with it than my Canon Rebel with macro lens. Now that might have something to do with my own inexperience with the latter.

Dyeing continues in earnest. I am committed to working away at 30 or 40 meters each week to avoid a last-minute panic prior to Fibrefest. I dont handle panics so well anymore ;-)

Janet Kivisto sent me a photo of this wall of quilts at the Trent Valley Quilters Guild Show in Brighton, Ontario. In Spring 2017 I taught an In Full Bloom workshop to this group, and I think this group gets a medal for most pieces finished in shortest time (I understand there were a few more in the show). These were made using my Peony and Sunkissed Poppy patterns, and in many cases students purchased my kit of hand-dyed fabrics too. 

On Canada Day Weekend I spent a good amount of time on this. Two years ago I picked up a Mussel shell on the beach in New Brunswick. I did not keep the shell, nor did I even take a photo. I am using my memory of the shell as a jumping off point to produce this work. It will be called Mussel Memory.

Because I am working with two colourways (purple to blue and yellow-gold to orange) I am ending up with blocks in two colourways.

I am working with a variety of block sizes. Small rectangular blocks and small square blocks are completed. I still have to sew and add larger rectangular blocks and larger square blocks. Then it will be hard to get to bed at night while I play with these babies on the design wall!!

I am madly prepping for my class on Flowers, Foliage and Trees at the Haliburton School of Art + Design, the week of July 23. It is not too late to join us. There are still three spaces left. However, I am heading up to Haliburton on July 14 to take a class on Travelling with a Sketchbook. Lots to prepare and think of for staying in a cottage for two weeks, while also taking and teaching classes.

Last, but certainly not least, the couple who are commissioning work for their home have agreed to a design and I am just waiting for the signed contract. I will be blogging about the making of this triptych as it comes together. What an honour to make a piece that will have impact when visitors step into their home, and that they will hopefully enjoy each day themselves. It is kinda cool to be doing some new things and some things I havent done in a while. 

A Couple of Shows and All Things Dyed

This past weekend was our annual National Juried Show and conference put on by the Canadian Quilters' Association. My hosta bud quilt, "Rise" was in the show this year, after several years of not entering due to not having any new show-worthy work. I have managed to enter a few shows this year because I made new work early in the year, in preparation for my show in Spain, and also because I'm carrying a bit lighter load of teaching these days. The show this year was held in Vancouver. Next year's will be here in Ottawa, where I live. If you click on the high-lighted links in the above text you can see all the award winners and more information about the show. Thank you to Tracy Brittain Loyek of Purple Katz Quilts, and many others who shared photos.

The quilt to my right is by Leslie Forbes of Osoyoos, BC. I think she has very successfully captured an Okanagan Valley feel with her vineyard quilt.

The quilt immediately to my left is by Millie Cumming of Fergus, Ontario.

While that show was happening, I was in Montreal teaching at Courtepoint Quebec's Salon 2018. This is Quebec's provincial show. Not all of my classes filled, but my Intro Dyeing class did. Montreal was in the midst of a heatwave when I arrived on Friday night, and everyone at the show looked wilted and HOT! Fortunately things cooled down a bit for my Saturday class.

Last week I decided to dye myself some new garments. I found a few dress blanks and scarf blanks in my basement that I had  purchased from Dharma Trading Company some time back. I'm pretty pleased with these two dresses. The one on left is short enough that it looks really nice with white leggings. I used elastic bands to bind various round objects in different sizes. I miscalculated a bit on the amount of dye powder and ended up with grey instead of black, but I am really starting to love grey in my wardrobe so I am happy with it. The dress on the right is in that currently popular colour that I would describe as gold? It was first dyed gold using a low water immersion method, and then wrapped on a pole and immersion dyed.

I tried the same circle idea on a velvet scarf. The dress to the right and the two scarves below were my first attempts this time around. While I love the indigo blue colour, I am not that thrilled with the way the circles fall on the dress to the right.

And while I was looking for simplicity for these scarves, one single circular motif on each end doesn't seem enough for me. Maybe because the contrast is so strong. I do love the colours though.

 The last couple of weeks I also got immersed in dyeing the palette for my garlic quilt. See my May 11, 2018 blog post for photos of the garlic that I find so inspiring. I am really happy with the palette I've produced in the left photo. In the photo to the right, the reddish colours near the back of the photo were also dyed for this project. The 3 fabrics furthest right are too pink, so they will go to my store. In the middle of this photo, and the one below, are the fabrics that I've pulled from my stash that may work in this quilt.

 

This month will be a quieter month for me. I am spending some days planning a commission proposal, and writing an article (more information on that later). I'm also having a bit of dental surgery and wanted that in a quiet month when I wouldn't need to talk too much ;-)

Heading to Spain

It's been a busy time preparing for my exhibition and workshops in Spain. Finally the day has come when we are all packed and ready to go. I've packed 20 kits and patterns for my Hosta Leaves class.

and 20 kits and patterns for my Collage Tree class.

It took a while to plan and undertake the dyeing, ironing, cutting and bundling. In between I was working on new work. I am taking a total of 15 quilts for my exhibition. The newest ones are quilted, and photos appear below. I would have liked to make two more new quilts, but I simply ran out of time. I hope to keep the momentum going when I arrive back home so I can apply for a solo show here in my own city. I spent a day photographing and labelling all these works.

Smoke & Mirrors 1

Smoke and Mirrors 2. Now it was a huge challenge for me to get all three parts of this triptych the same length!!

Cascade 1

Cascade 2

I was working on Prairie Sun right up to the last minute. I finished putting the facing and label on last night, only to discover that it wasn't hanging straight. Went back at it this morning and I am happy with it now.

Our bags are packed, and I mean PACKED, and we fly out tomorrow. I spent the day getting the house ready for the house and petsitter who will be living here while we are away. 

I'm also happy to report that "Rise", my hosta bud quilt (photo shared two posts ago) was juried into the National Juried Show of the Canadian Quilters' Association,. to be held end of May in Vancouver. I haven't entered in a couple of years, but since I had new work available I figured why not? You'll find information here. I won't be able to attend the show as I am teaching at Salon 2018, the provincial quilt show in Quebec.

Preparations for Spain

I've been a bit quiet on my blog in 2018. I've spent the last weeks with my nose to the grindstone. The days until my show in Sitges, Spain are passing quickly. I just received photos from the International Patchwork Festival, hosted by the Spanish Patchwork Association, of the space where my work will be exhibited. It has been a while since I had my own solo show and I'm excited to see it all come together. It will be held as the Espai Cultural Pere Stampfli, photos below.

There will be exhibitions all around the town during the four-day Festival. This is what the inside of the space looks like. The works in these photos of a past exhibit look like that of Libby Lehman.

I have measurements of the space now and am happy that my calculations confirm I have more than enough work to fill the space.

In addition to making new work (some photos later in this post), I'm teaching the pattern below for the first time. It is difficult work trying to make the pattern understandable to others. This is always a challenge for someone like me who tends to fly by the seat of her pants and "fudges" a lot. I am also providing kits, so right now I'm dyeing and ironing. When I'm happy with the value steps I will cut all the fabrics. Any fabrics that don't work will go in my travelling "store".

These are the Collage Tree kits soaking in the washing machine after dyeing.

I'm told the registration numbers are very healthy, and that the Collage Tree class is full. One thing I've learned is that the further a quilt instructor is from home, the better her classes fill. 

I've been working this week on machine quilting my pieces inspired by Antelope Canyon. I'm sending a list of works to be exhibited to the organization this weekend, so that is my deadline to come up with a name for the series. Yesterday I discovered that I had left my feed dogs up while machine quilting for the last few days. I wondered why it was such a struggle? Some folks like to quilt with the feed dogs up, and that is fine if it works for them. I like to quilt with them down, and am happy the struggle has become easier now that they are down.

I finished building the yellow flower. I took liberties with the colour. You can see the photo below the quilt. I recently found out that this flower is a member of the Rudbekia family, known as either "Gloriosa Daisy" or "Prairie Sun". I really love the name Prairie Sun and would like to use it, but I met the flower on Vancouver Island in the gardens at Royal Roads University. I've set up a production schedule so I can focus on all the tasks I need to complete before we leave for Spain. It is very helpful in letting me focus on one task at a time and not jump around from one to another. This quilt is scheduled to be quilted in the coming week.

There are a lot of variations of this flower. You will see that at this link: https://garden.org/plants/photo/408953/

Last weekend I finished quilting Smoke & Mirrors 2. Now it is hanging on my design wall until it tells me how it wants the edges finished. I hope it makes up its mind soon :-)

I shared my hosta bud quilt in my last blog post. A couple of people wrote to me asking if I had turned my attentions to vegetables. LOL  One of the reasons you might not recognize this as a hosta bud is because it is a very small bud and plant. I macro photographed it, and brought it up close and personal. Photo of the bud below, looking more bud-like and less vegetable-like.

  

And here's the quilt.

Heading back to the studio now. I will report back again as things progress. Enjoy your weekend!