Exhibit at Visions Art Museum 11-02-13

After spending the night at an HIE near Sea World (ate TWO cinnamon rolls for breakfast), I drove back to the museum for a few photos while things were quiet - as they usually are in the morning. 
I enjoyed giving a little tour to a few ladies who came in, but I was very disappointed that the Gallery Guides have not arrived from the printer.  What a let down when we worked so hard to make them exceptional.  Hope they arrive by the opening next Saturday. 
Here are three views of the gallery showing only nine of the 28 quilts on exhibit.

On the left is Terry Grant's "Judith's Garden:, in the background is "Lizard Lock" by Charlotte Patera, "Gravida" by Karen Rips and just the side of "Flowers Grow in Stony Places" by Karin Franzen.

 

Far left is Ruth B. McDowell's wonderfully expressive "Street Corner". then "Strip Tease #1" by Mary Leakey, and on the right "Structured Chaos #14" by Beth Carney.
 

Jenny Bowker made the quilt on the left "Hot Water, Dead Sea", "Red Wave" is by Dianne Firth, and Carol Ann Waugh made "Allegro" on the right.

These happen to all be somewhat subdued quilts, one of the comments I heard several times last night was how bright and cheerful the exhibit is.   But for some unknown reason I photographed mostly calm quilts today.  I rarely see so many TCQC quilts hanging together, I can only hang one large quilt in three of my rooms - too many windows and doors.  Arranged in the gallery I appreciate the interspersed "quiet" quilts, although I doubt many people would count "Red Wave" as calm.  But with the rhythmic repeat of the lines and the limited color palette, I find it is almost hypnotic..

Monday Browsing 05-28-12

Song from the 1950s http://www.flixxy.com/the-diamonds-little-darlin-1957-2004.htm
[Oh, be still my heart!! Del]   Note: the singer on the left is Tom Hanks’ father.

Carol Ann Waugh is a Denver, CO. artist who does amazing things with the fancy stitches on her sewing machine and makes her quilts even more wonderful by adding hand stitching. She has a new self published book, “Stupendous Stitching”, which is overflowing with ideas, hints, instructions and great pictures. http://www.carolannwaugh.com/   The Quilt Show posted a little video with some of her work: http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d7a45324e7a63334d7a413d0d0a&blogview=true&campaign=blog_playback_link

One of the Blogs I regularly enjoy is Sherrie Spangler’s “Sherrie Loves Color” http://sherriequilt.blogspot.com/   She does love BRIGHT color and is an excellent photographer. If you live in or are traveling to the Seattle area you should check back in her blog for some of her favorite destinations in the area. Recently she highlighted Bellingham - who knew?

Quilt National '13 is open for entries for the 2013 show with an entry deadline of September 14, 2012. The 2013 show will be accepting entries online only. The process is very simple. Just go to the Quilt National Web Page   http://www.dairybarn.org/quilt/    and use the link to access the Slideroom entry programming. You will need to give them only email and contact information to access the entry forms. You can fill out the entry information and upload your images in one easy session - or you can save a partial entry and come back and edit before you submit. We are looking forward to this new technology and hope that it will ease the entry process for everyone!

I’ve always enjoyed Melody Johnson’s quilts and have one in the Collection.

http://www.delquilts.blogspot.com/search/label/Melody%20Johnson
She has a fabulous sense of color and most of her quilts are very bright and ‘sunny’. She is only a sometime quiltmaker these days, instead working to create an extensive and gorgeous garden, waiting on their two dear little pug dogs, and creating great hand knitted garments. But the pendulum will surely swing back to quilting one of these days. Check out her quilt galleries: http://www.wowmelody.com/Pages/Galleries.html

I love this image now being circulated on the Internet.


"So, what are you looking at?"

Quilt Festival - Long Beach 08-04-11

From Tactile Architecture - 2010
Another of the regular exhibits that originate at the Houston show and travel to the other venues.

 

www.kristinlaflamme.com

I always enjoy Kristin's quilts - houses with roots appeal to me.

Lots of hand stitching that can only be seen in closeup.

www.carolannwaugh.com

How interesting to see this quilt from Carol Ann Waugh since I just purchased one of her quilts while I was in Denver.  This is so very different than the work she is currently doing.  I like this quilt, especially the great blue wall, but I'm not sure the suburbs need urban living.  At least in SCalifornia.

 Do they allow  people to lay on the floor and take  pictures?  I tried it at the Monterey Aquarium under the sardine dome and they told me to get up and go away!

A great image - the distortion makes it even more interesting.

Great ribbon done in the style of Libby Lehman. 

 
www.kristinlaflamme.com

Another wonderful "rooted" house from Kristin.   The severe contrast between the light and dark makes it difficult to take a good photograph.

Again, lots of hand stitching and embellishment.

Below is the way the quilt was shown at the Festival.

http://www.janesquilts.com/    http://www.kristinlaflamme.com/   http://sandralauterbach.com

 
             35"W x 25"L                                               24"W x 32"L              

Jane Hamilton,  Kristin La Flamme, Sandra Lauterbach

http://www.ruthpowersartquilts.com/

Another pieced wonder from Ruth Powers.  Yes, it is pieced, not appliqued.  39.5"W x 46"L

http://www.kvelisturan.com/

A whole cloth quilt with a lot of texture.  Original color combination. 

www.embellishmentcafe.com/NEWwallgallery.htm

 

I'm always intrigued by water towers when I am on a road trip.  Some of them are decorated with designs that reflect something about the town - milk bottles, pumpkins, tomatoes, etc.  I have never seen any towers like these, but I think they are glorious.  Actually, Placentia has a water tower, I'll have to take a picture sometime.

Quilt by Carol Ann Waugh 07-17-11

Adding a quilt to the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection is always a thrill for me, but I never know when that might happen.   While I was at the SAQA conference in Denver a self-driving tour of quilt exhibits took us to Golden and back to Denver where we saw the quilts of Carol Ann Waugh.  WOW!  Unfortunately, Carol mounts her work and I avoid framed and mounted pieces because of the extra storage requirements.  But Carol had not yet mounted this quilt and agree to finish it unmounted and sell it to me.  Hurrah! 

I'm am showing it sideways because it is long and skinny and a vertical picture doesn't work well.  The bottom of the quilt is darker and is on the right side of the image below. 

"Allegro"  Carol Ann Waugh - Denver, CO  2011  12"W x 48"L 

Hand dyed cotton fabric embellished with hand stitching, machine stitching and couching, machine quilting.   http://www.carolannwaugh.com/

There is such variety in the stitching on this quilt that I see something new every time I look at it.  There are five rows of tiny rick-rack, all but one stitched with a straight stitch down the middle.  That odd man out is a slightly larger rick-rack and it is stitched with zig-zag stitch. 

Machine couching was used for yarn, cords, braid, and, of course, rick-rack.  In the section above the blue curving line is rat-tail cord, the flat blue is a shiny ribbon, two rows below is a nubby yarn, and down another two rows Carol has couched a braided metallic gold cord.  

She has also done lots of hand stitching - French knots (large and small), running stitch, seed stitch and probably others I have yet to discover.

All those fancy stitches on our machines?  Carol has used some I've never seen before.  She has made excellent use of this usually neglected tool most of us have at hand.

I'm impressed that she has been able to create such smooth curves with the fancy stitches - hard to do.

The colors are so rich and warm, my pictures don't do them justice.

The label is hard, shiny plastic - very clever, but I haven't a clue how she made it.  It is special.

 

The back is solid black cotton with the red thread of the quilting showing well.  It doesn't show on the front unless I really focus to find it. 
http://www.carolannwaugh.com/