Category Archives: Journey

Art Journey {Part 1}

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This year, I set a goal to move more into the art world and seen as a textile artist. I don’t know why but I was not expecting much of a difference. I was so wrong. There is a lot to navigate in the art community that is not the same as in a quilting community (for me a modern quilting community). I thought I would start sharing my experiences now that I am finding my feet. Over the last 12-18 months, I have been learning a lot and have been successful by:

  • included in two exhibitions
  • sold a couple of pieces
  • selected in an art auction event for NC Museum of Arts
  • accepted to a 2 week winter residency program at Penland School of Arts and Crafts
  • and invited for a solo exhibition July 2023.

One of the hardest things I found, was where to start. The best things I found were:

  • Find local art community spaces that aligns with your interests. It is a great way to meet people. I found Artspace North Carolina who offers studio’s for artists, exhibitions and classes (both adult and children). They have a monthly fiber meet-up, First Friday events which is an open house to walk through studio’s and see the current exhibitions, volunteer opportunities to help out. They have an artist membership which you get local community information and calls for exhibitions, studios and artist jobs.
  • Diversify my Instagram (or social media accounts) to include artists in different medium (painters, printers, knitters, and sculptors as examples), local and regional art groups (SAQA (Regional), Durham Art Guild (NC), Artstigators (NC)) , art schools (John C Campbell Folk School (NC), Penland School of Arts and Crafts (NC), Madeline Island School of Arts), galleries/museums (CAM Raleigh, NC Museum of Arts, McColl Center) , art magazines (Create Magazine, Fiber Art Now, Where +What Woman Create), and web-based art curators (Artrepreneur). These resources helped with getting to know other artists and also when calls were for exhibitions, residencies, studio space and teaching opportunities.
  • There are several places you can join for calls for entry. These calls are how to find out of there are shows/exhibitions or publishing opportunities. My favorite due to the variety is Cafe (Call for Entry).

I still struggled with how and where to sell work and pricing; what do I need to submit to an exhibition and how to apply for residencies. Next post, I will share how I have applied for an exhibition (both a group/themed exhibition and a solo exhibition) and what you need. I’ll share the content I submitted. Stay tuned for part 2.

If you have any questions, let me know below and I will do my best to answer them based on my experiences.

30 Days of Quilting: Week 4 – 5

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I have thoroughly enjoyed quilting these smaller projects, having finishes each week and a chance to experiment – Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3. This project was no different. “One of these things” is a 4 part piece, with each piece measuring 20 x 30 in.

These pieces are minimalistic and geometric in nature. They only have two colors, both being primary colors, blue and yellow. As I thought through the quilting I knew it needed to be simple and complement the elements in the design.

I decided on using 1/2″ straight line on the background aspects of each piece, both horizontal lines and vertical lines. Then in the foreground (the geometric shape) I used a 1 in by 2 in grid lines.

As this is an art piece, I did choose to bury threads to give it a nicer finish. In the picture above you can see all the yellow threads ready to be buried. The blue had already been buried before starting to quilt the yellow. Thread burying for me is a 4 part process: tie the knot as close to the quilt top as possible, trim to have even threads, thread the needle and bury thread, and then cut the excess thread off. I now do each of these steps one at a time to all the threads, so that it is more efficient so I am not switching between needle and scissors etc all the time.

Note, I use multiple methods to check my lines.

  • For the 1/2″ lines, I use the edge of my walking foot as a guide. I also, every 5-7 lines, use masking tape to make sure they are staying straight and are the right distance from the first line
  • For the grid lines, I marked both lines with a fabric marker pen.

I am really liking how the panels look with the quilting. The quilting and the binding are tying them together. Over the last 3 weeks I completed all the panels, so later this week you will get to see the completed piece.

I really enjoyed the 30 days of quilting, and enjoyed not stressing about making the 30 days consecutive. I am definitely doing it again, maybe in June and July. For those who have done 30 days of something what benefits have you received from the practice?

Now, I have 6 quilts to bind, so I will be getting those done over the next couple of weeks. I am excited to show you those finishes. I am thinking about getting my machine serviced, so that will give me a chance to play with piecing a couple of new quilt tops (using my smaller travel machine for piecing).

Home {a finish}

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What do you do when some of your favorite clothes are no longer useable due to wear? This quilt started as my favorite New Zealand t-shirt (red with map of NZ and the word “Home” on it), two striped t-shirts that I associated with my mum, and my favorite work trousers (a pair of woolen plaid trousers) had holes and had worn thin in places that could not be mended.

I really did not want to part with these four items, in particular. I don’t know why but I had an emotional attachment to these pieces of clothing but I did. I had been following Sherri Lynn Wood and her artist in residence program at Recology in San Fransisco, where she focused on reusing fabric that had been thrown out. Watching her work develop, made me realize I could reuse these clothes in a quilt, and hang onto them forever.

Close-up of fabric selections + my Home t-shirt

I added corduroy’s and a rugby shirt as well into the mix. As I was cutting my clothes up and looking at placement, I really wanted to have the a balanced composition. I found as I placed and auditioned fabric on my design wall, I needed to include more negative space. I really enjoyed the final placement and happy with the mix of solid fabrics (or ones that read as solid), stripes, prints and text fabrics and then the light, medium and dark tones of the fabric. I think the word home is placed well too, towards the bottom and really happy its offset than in the middle. It helps you move from top to bottom and then back up again as you look at the details.

Note: most of the t-shirt’s I used Pellon 911F interfacing to stabilize the shirts before cutting and piecing, making that process much easier.

Once I felt the top complete, I was so excited about the quilting (which is not normal for me as this is my least favorite part of quilting). I decided to do some of my usual straight line work but also experiment with some of Jacquie Gering’s Walk & Walk 2.0 designs.

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Example of straight line and grid quilting work.
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Experimenting with Crosshatch mash-up (pg. 46 Walk)
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Experimenting with Four Corner Radiating (pg. 52 Walk)

Finally to finish up the quilt, I auditioned several bindings and this Cotton + Steel dot print landed up being the best red and framed the quilt well.

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Details

Name : Home
Design: Original Design
Fabric: Variety of up-cycled clothing and scraps of Kona Cotton
Binding: Cotton + Steel, Kicks, Cleats Red
Backing: Moda, Zen Chic, Modern Backgrounds Paper
Dimensions: 30″ x 35″
Quilted: With 50wt Aurifil #2021, using domestic machine walking foot, straight lines.