A few weeks ago a most wonderful thing happened, Lisa Chipetine (active and an asset to SAQA, the Studio Art Quilt Association) invited me to be part of a quilt critique session with Sandra Sider.  I had heard of these before, but had never even listened to one of the on-line critiques, let alone thought of participating.  But when opportunity knocks on your door, it pays to answer!   Lisa’s website is www.threadplay.com, and through the quilt critique page (click here) you can sign up to participate, be a silent observer, or access the archives.   I wasn’t sure which quilt to offer… Lisa had seen both The Wall and Naiads at the SAQA site on my Professional Artists Member’s page.

This one is the wall…. about the size of a poster.  Below is Naiads, which is 18 wide by 45 long (49 including the longest branch):

I also suggested Koi, because I wasn’t sure which to pick:

In an exchange of e-mails, Lisa suggested one of the first two, as there was more to them.  I chose Naiads, because there is more in the way of technique and composition.  I will say that I was quite happy with this piece, and wondered what she would say.

I was, fortunately, second on the list of the five quilts being reviewed–that gave me a chance to sit through one before my turn.  You need to have a live phone line (as in, not tied up with dial-up) and internet while the one-hour critique session takes place.  After you sign up, Lisa sends each participant an e-mail with a special code which allows them in to the restricted online page where you can view the quilts being discussed.

When the session begins, you also dial in to a special number and are conferenced in to a multi-way call with Sandra, Lisa, and the five other quilters, and perhaps a few others.  Our session began with a work in progress… an unfinished top.  Sandra begins by asking the quilter (who is identified as Quilter (or was it artist?) 1) what is his/her intent, goals, and a bit about the quilt.  Sandra continues with good points, suggests changes, and other participants may also offer comments.

For Naiads, Sandra was very kind, commenting that I had managed to capture the feel of moving water, which is hard to do in textiles.  A photo of Naiads appeared on the left of the screen.  Then a slightly photoshopped version showed Sandra’s suggestions.  A moving cursor identified specific areas under discussion so that other participants (silent and otherwise) can easily see the area being discussed.

Sandra’s first comment was that the seated Naiad’s leg was too long, so she moved blue over the bottom of it.  In fact, tho I will check to make sure, I am pretty certain the proportions are accurate, but because she was viewing on a screen, she couldn’t see that it is also her foot..in the picture the heel is hidden under some sheer fabric, but that may be something I need to modify or accentuate so that it reads better.

Sandra’s other two comments were fantastic…so much so that I wished I could dash upstairs and make the changes NOW!  Instead, Christmas will have to happen first, an article get written, THEN fix before sending in an entry to Paducah.  Anyway, Sandra suggested shortening the branches on the right side, where the river flows into the quilt.  By lifting these branches out of the way, you get even more of a sense of moving water….way cool!  (and an easy fix too!)

The final suggestion was to somehow cover up the lower portion of the swimming naiad’s body.  In the photo, the shape appeared distorted, but I explained that the problem is actually a technical one:  I didn’t quilt the water (sheer fabric) over her body (when you quilt part of a body and not the rest weird stuff happens and it looks worse), so the sheer kinda bubbles.  It is the one technical issue for this quilt which I really don’t like.

Sandra used the cloning tool (or something like that) and covered her left hand and the body from about the waist down with blue…. as a result, the focal point shifts up to the other two naiads, the swimming naiad’s right hand points up and leads the eye to the one walking into the background… it just totally works!   I don’t know that I will completely cover the lower half… when one is swimming in the river, you can see parts of the body underwater; however, I think if I cover parts of her with cotton and more with a dark blue/green sheer, I can keep the realism and still get the effect in Sandra’s suggestion.  I promise I’ll share pics!

The next three quilts, including some that were finished, was at least as educational as  the critique of my quilt.  Because I was looking at new (to me) work, with fresh eyes, I could see where Sandra was going.  It was fun to participate in the conversation, too.

Would I do this again?  ABSOLUTELY!   I don’t know that I can afford to sign up for the regular monthly access (which is a bargain if  you listen in or go to the archives for all the sessions), but I will definitely be back as both a silent participant and, when I need it, in the critique session.  Lisa and Sandra are taking a short break, but the sessions resume January 26th.  I’ve got it marked on my calendar…and hopefully by then my changes will be made and my quilt will be better.

And yet another piece!  Amazing what happens when you finally dig out from under the mountain of accumulated work…all the stuff that piles up while life is happening!  One of my favorites in the new crop of small art quilt pieces is  Birch Pond:

I’ve always loved etchings and woodblock prints (even bought a couple books on woodblock print making, tho I’ll likely never make such a thing…but of course the design ideas and visual techniques can always be applied to different media…like quilts!).  Mary Azarian is one of my favorites, and I got the Shepherd Seed Catalog for years just to see her illustrations.  Alas, I can’t find the latter online….the link for Sheperd’s Seeds automatically switches over to White Flower Farm where there are NO seeds listed…Sob!  Anyway, check out her website…the Farm and Field prints are fancier than what was in the catalog, but in the same vein.

So, looking for something fun and easy to do this summer at Maine Quilts, I was thrilled to see that Laura Wasilowski was teaching her Woodcut Quilts class!   Laura’s website is www.artfabrik.com (with a K…sigh).  As part of the class kit fee, we received some of Laura’s lovely hand dyed fabrics and threads, but of course I had to be me and took my pre-fused stash of batiks (well, a selection). This piece varies somewhat from “true” woodcut quilts because the individual leaves are not edged in black, but I can live with that <grin!>.

Here’s a detail:

The 14×14 inch quilt is mounted on 21×21 stretcher bars covered with dark blue batik cloth, clean finished and ready to hang.  It is available for sale at Ducktrap Bay Trading Company (gallery here in Camden, Me. — click on the New Work link under the Galleries column for more info).

I had fun in the class… it was low key and easy paced (a bit slow for a kind Type-A sort like me who is quite experienced, but that happens to me a bit too often….I’m to ready and raring to go!), I learned new stuff, Laura is a well-prepared and entertaining teacher and best of all, I now know some of her tricks so I can let what I learned percolate and come out in a quilt in the future.  Yeah!  My own woodblock prints without having to carve the wood (not that I’d mind learning that, either, but there aren’t enough hours in a lifetime already!).  Cheers!

Amazing… I actually got something done!  The quilted portions of these two pieces, Buoys 1 (Blue) and Buoys 2 (Pink-purple) were made for my local quilt chapter’s 10×10″ challenge.  The challenge was to make a piece based on guild-member Jan P’s husband’s photo.  Dwight’s photo is called Ropes and Buoys, and it was a delight to see the wide range of pieces.  (To see the challenge pieces as displayed at Maine Quilts this past July, click here then scroll nearly halfway down.)  I recently mounted my pieces on batik stretched over stretcher bars (with a base support and batting to make it look good).  They are for sale… directly from me until Wednesday morning then via Ducktrap Bay Trading Company, the local gallery that carries my work.

Here is the Blue Buoys:

and a detail shot which shows the intense quilting and shading with thread:

I wanted to try doing the buoys in totally-not-realistic colors…the ones in the photo were mostly yellow and orange.  While blue and light blue might be a real combination, I can’t imagine I’d ever see any real buoys that are pink and purple (tho there are women lobstermen (???   that sounds weird, but I am pretty sure that they don’t call themselves lobsterers, maybe lobster fishermen, but that has the guy thing too… ???), but decided to try a really wild color combination to play with value and hue.  Here is Buoys #2 (pink – purple):

And the detail of the pink one:

Each piece is 10×10 inches mounted on a 16×16 inch frame (one inch deep); the background fabric  wraps around to the back which is clean finished and ready to hang.  The price for each is $250 plus shipping (if you order from me before Weds., shipping is included, otherwise it will be whatever the gallery charges).

So am I the only one, or are other folks trying to get their holiday shopping done EARLY!?   I have two new pieces that I’ve just (finally!) uploaded onto my website, but wanted to share them here, also.  The first is a modestly priced art quilt postcard mounted on a mixed media canvas, Bird in the Woods:

The price is $60 (includes shipping by US Mail, within the US, write for other shipping options).  This began as just a canvas…at one of our Frayed Edges meetings.   Rather than simply create a silhouette of something and paint over a plain piece of cloth (Hannah was jazzed by a project on Martha Stewart), I decided to get clever and stretch strips of multicolored cloth over the canvas frame before slathering with Mod Podge (or was it Gel Medium?  same result….), letting it dry, then using torn masking tape to make the trees.  Well… I wasn’t so thrilled with the result:

It’s OK, but no great shakes.  So I thought I’d just cover it all up with batting, fabric, and mount a postcard.  I tossed a lovely card Deborah Boschert had sent to me a few years back–yellow with a red bird, and Presto…. I  decided I’d make my OWN (very different) bird in fabrics because it looked great (except for the fact that her bird was red and the fabric is magenta…shudder!  color change necessary, but the idea worked).  SO, I rooted through my stash, made up a quick bird postcard (inspired by my Batiki bird, which you can read about here), and got to work.  I hope you like it!

I’ll share the next piece in a few days… I also want to blog about Houston before it is ancient memories.  AND, I need to dash out, walk the dog, and meet Mom for lunch…. toodles, and back soon, Sarah

Thanks to Lark Books for letting me share this picture with you!   They are publishing another quilting book in Spring (May ish) 2009 geared to beginning and intermediate projects. I submitted several proposals, and they accepted this one, for a 26 1/2 square quilt or Euro Square pillow top.  Obviously, I’ll let you know more (like the title of the book) when it is out!

In the meantime, the piecing in this quilt is dead easy…NOTHING needs to match! It is four different white on white prints and a soft green-gray (used the wrong side to make the color even more muted) for the background.  The “birch” tree is improvisationally pieced also in  blue, aqua and green batiks, while the bird is fussy cut from a piece of batik. (Detail photos are clickable for larger views.)

Oddly enough for me, after quilting the background to death (which IS typical), I hand embroidered the bird using some variegated DMC floss (one of the requirements was that all materials had to be pretty easily found, not like hand-dyed this or that or imported or whatever).  And here’s a close up of the quilting (can you tell I had fun?)

And I MUST give credit where credit is due…. a whole bunch of years ago, when I lived on San Juan Island, we did a sort-of round robin with the Wednesday evening quilters (aka the Wild Rose Quilters):  each person (one a month until all of us got through) picked a block, then we all made blocks and gave it to the person.  Lunnette H-H. picked a block of birds, and we could make a sorta realistic bird or go wild.  Christy H.  made (or saw a block someone else made?) one of batik; when asked its name she said it was the rare batik-y bird.  I have always remembered and loved that name, so I adapted it to title this quilt… sure hope that’s OK!