Shipping Artwork With Fewer Creases

My SAQA region (LA/MS/AR/AL) had an exhibit called Southern Voices in Little Rock, AR, this spring, and we have another venue for the exhibit--the Gadsden Museum of Art in Gadsden, AL, September 1 thru October 4, 2014. I am packing my piece to send, using a casual-looking folding method which actually eliminates crease lines.

I fold any corner, then another corner, then a side and another corner--in other words, anywhere but middle fold lines. I also insert crumpled plastic bags into folds to give a little ease.

 

The folded quilt goes into a large white bag to protect from rain. I also include a copy of the show information and a return address label and postage. I managed this in spite of a wrist brace after carpal tunnel surgery. I read and saw a picture in theJuly 2014 American Quilter magazine where Ted Storm didn't let a broken wrist keep her from finishing her Best of Show quilt "ElaTED." So I decided I'd better stop being such a wimp.

Body Maintenance and Baby Lemons

Parts wear out and have to be replaced or maintained, and it is necessary though not always convenient to take time out to get work done. I'm going to have carpal tunnel surgery in a couple of days and will be in a splint for a week, so I'm trying to get all my two-handed activities done. Hmmm...nearly everything is a two-handed activity--computer work, sewing, quilting, organizing fabric shelves, driving, taking care of the kitties.
I am trying to finish the quilting on one of my show entries, and doing it with a cat on my lap or, worse yet, on the quilt, really slows the progress.

Tarbaby insists on being in my lap when I'm at the computer. His body is longer than my thighs, and he likes to hang his head off between my knees, knowing that I won't let him fall. Of course, this takes at least one hand off the keyboard.

My new Meyer lemon tree has 13 baby lemons on it! Last winter's freeze killed my other tree and this one has only been planted a couple of months--I'm thrilled.

As if this were not enough excitement, I finally lost my one remaining baby tooth today. Not surprising, since other original parts are wearing out!

Last Day of July

During a usually miserably hot summer, we enjoyed a morning temp of 64 and had cloud cover all day. I've got art quilting projects under control and decided to capture a few of my favorite plants in the flowerbed. I've been enjoying Basil in a little giraffe ceramic vase (pictured in an earlier post), as well as cutting for cooking.

The Lemon Thyme is growing and spreading. Behind it is Parsley. I never cut Parsley, hoping the caterpillar that becomes a black swallowtail butterfly will devour it and then build its chrysalis nearby.

Then there are pots of Croton and some green/pink/red long-leafed plants whose names I don't know. It doesn't matter--they're beautiful and colorful.

I cut some coleus for a vase, and it rooted so quickly that it is now back outside growing healthily.



In the house, the kittens are now 8 months old and a constant delight. They play and chase and sleep and eat together with rarely a spat.


 

Elizabeth and Rah-Rah watching Tarbaby

Tarbaby--so black!

Elizabeth sleeping



Two minutes later

Quick Draw a Fun Event!

To complete a piece in an hour, yes, it is most important to have a plan. First you need to locate a frame the size you want to use and be sure the art can just be set into it without any tools required. For the previous Quick Draws, I have usually done something with thread-painting, but this year I thought I'd create a background by some strip piecing in the sew and flip method, using a variety of black and white prints in 1" to 2" widths. Of course, these strips were precut and ready, as well as a backing and batting, with several 45-degree lines to keep the angles true.

I started near the middle on one of the longest rows and sewed to the bottom right edge, then turned the piece upside down to add strips toward the top left edge. Next I heated my tiny Clover iron and fused the precut sunflower to the corner and added several shades of yellow and green stitches to enhance the large flower. I also added a rust-colored butterfly and stitched it. (Looking at the picture makes me realize I must wash those Machingers!)

 

I taped the piece to the mat and called it finished. Since there were a few minutes left before the bell for the 15-minute "framing" period, I decided to try fusing some of the green leaves onto the mat. The Steam-a-Seam had a good sticky back and I could position the leaves, then apply the iron. I love extending the picture off into the border, so this helped carry out this idea.

 

The afternoon was full of excitement and fun, visiting with guests who walked around asking questions and commenting. I didn't have time to circulate but enjoyed seeing all the finished pieces during the live auction. Proceeds benefitted the South Mississippi Children's Center.

Getting Ready for the Quick Draw

Every year our local South Mississippi Art Association participates in a Quick Draw for Charity, and it's coming up next weekend. I've enjoyed doing this for the last four years. I bring my sewing machine and fabric and threads to work among the others using brushes and paints and easels. But when my name appeared on the poster as one of the featured artists, I thought, "Oh, dear, how about a little pressure!"

It's lots of fun and quite well attended. Guests pay $35 to get in and enjoy heavy hors d'oeuvres while they circulate around the large building listening to a steel drum band and watching the artists work. We have one hour to create our piece and 15 minutes to finish or frame it. Then a live auction is conducted with proceeds going to the South Mississippi Children's Center. A frame with mat will take the place of borders and binding, so I just have to concentrate on making the center and popping it into a frame. I have a plan--will post a picture of the piece before it is auctioned.

Blueberries in Watercolor and Fabric

My one scrawny blueberry bush in my yard always excites me when it blooms and then puts on beautiful green to pink to blue/purple berries. I take pictures every year, and this time I got up my nerve to try my hand at capturing the image in watercolor and in fabric.

 

8" x 8" watercolor

9" x 12" threadpainted piece
mounted on gallery wrapped canvas

It was fun to try these two methods, but I think I'll stick to fabric and threads.

It's Been Three Years

It doesn't seem possible, but Roy has been gone three years today, July 4, 2014. As I celebrate Independence Day in our country, I also celebrate our  57 years together and our precious daughter and son and his family. I remember Roy standing in the doorway of my studio saying,"I'm so glad you have this room!" So I enjoy thinking of the pleasure it brought him as it still does me.

He always loved to raise a garden and kept beautiful flowerbeds. He had a bumper crop of tomatoes in 2010 but had so many falls into the tomato vines and cages that I wouldn't let him plant again in 2011.

 

His last spring he could still walk all over the yard and pick flowers to bring to me in the house.

Now my three kittens keep me company--not the same, but I am thankful for the companionship and entertainment they provide. They remind me that I am still needed.

 

Bumper Basil Crop

A friend shared one of her basil plants with me and it seemed quite happy to be transplanted into my flowerbed. I have made a delicious pesto sauce from some leaves and have enjoyed little vases of cuttings in the house. The cuttings root and I have moved some to other pots for sharing.

 

Basil

Basil and Catnip

 

Meanwhile, the kitties are growing and exploring. There have been a couple of accidents when their chasing resulted in tangling with a lamp cord.

 

 

They are very curious of the outdoors and have found one window screen needing replacement. Tarbaby pushed his way out on the ledge while Elizabeth and Rah-Rah complained.



206 Front Concert by Melinda Pope DeRocker

As part of Festival South, a two-week music extravaganza in Hattiesburg, Melinda Pope DeRocker, who grew up in Hattiesburg and now lives in New York City, entertained 108 diners at 206 Front last week. She and her jazz band (who flew in from NY) performed Big Band era tunes from her CD "I'll Be Seeing You."

 

 

 My artwork is displayed in the restaurant during June, July, and August.

 

Landscape and Crazy Quilt Pieces hanging in booths

"Pieces of the Past" rescued from an antique crazy quilt

 

Grapes, upstairs by elevator



Air, Earth, Water from The Elements Series, upstairs

Color My World, upstairs

SMAA's 50th Anniversary Celebration

I'm a proud member of South Mississippi Art Association, and we're celebrating our 50th anniversary with an exhibit at Hattiesburg Cultural Center. The exhibit opens June 5 and runs through June 21.

About 40 artists have a piece representing their art in the show. It is interesting to try to decide what piece best represents my work, but I decided on one of my favorites--Galaxy.

 

Galaxy, 37" x 24"

R T Thomas cutting the cake

 

Art Displayed at 206 Front

South Mississippi Art Association participates in displaying art in various businesses and galleries in downtown Hattiesburg. I hung 20 pieces in 206 Front, a popular restaurant, along with another artist, Bernadette Birzer. Her works are large mixed media canvases, and mine are all fiber art, giving a wide variety of techniques and styles. These works will hang for the months of June, July, and August. Bernadette and I were present at Art Walk on Saturday, May 31.

Quoting from their website: "Located in historic downtown Hattiesburg, 206 Front offers gourmet dining in a vibrant, urban setting. The menu is equally eclectic, fusing classic Italian with creole, cajun, and new American cooking."

Ruching at MQG Gathering; Artwalk in Hattiesburg

Our state quilt association--Mississippi Quilt Association (MQA) has a workshop meeting called the June Gathering every year. This year, it occurred on May 30-31. I taught a Friday night class on making Ruched Flower Pins and took Joan Alliston's Migrating Geese class on Saturday. Quite a full weekend!

Trunk Show in Brookhaven

Seven members of my guild, Pine Belt Quilters, traveled from Hattiesburg about 90 miles to Brookhaven this week to share our quilting with the Brookhaven Piecemakers Guild. Some of their members had visited us last fall with their beautiful quilts, and we were returning the favor.
It's always difficult to decide "what represents me?" and "what will they most enjoy seeing?" Since I had visited the group a couple of months ago to show my art quilts, I took some that represent my journey from traditional to art quilter.
This seldom seen quilt is a sampler of quilt patterns executed in 14-count Aida using 6 strands of floss, with each X crossing two squares in each direction. Daughter Linda and I started the blocks in the early 80s and I quickly saw that they were too pretty for a "non-quilter" to attempt, so I became a quilter and never looked back. She and I hand-quilted it and it won blue ribbons in two shows. Neither of us can display it as long as we have cats. One of the ladies quickly volunteered, "I don't have cats."

Cross-stitch Sampler, 1991,

When I won our guild's 12" friendship blocks in a basket pattern, I put them in a box. Later when another member won the variously sized tree blocks and was not happy about sewing them together, I worked out a trade with her. It was so much fun to design a huge tree containing these 26 blocks, adding one large block I had left from another project. The sky and grass background sections were made of Log Cabin blocks. I added small green frames around each block and found a perfect print for the leafy areas between the blocks. Figuring out the size and shape of these leafy areas was a delightful challenge.

 

Friendshp Tree, 2005, 80" x 91"

A friend let me quilt it on her longarm machine after I had tried a few of our guild's children's quilts. I quilted swirly clouds in the sky, changing thread colors as necessary, all the while with a friend directing me "up here, now over here, go left, come this way" as I drove the machine. Looking back, all the help I received gives a whole new meaning to "friendship tree."

I really love thread-painting, and this piece contains that and some other  techniques. It started out as thickened dyes on white fabric. After dyeing the leaf design, I wanted stronger colors and thread-painting was the perfect solution to enhance the design.  A curvy inner border helped disguise the pulling caused by the heavy stitching; the edge was finished with a curved binding, also fused.

 

Sycamore Leaf, 2009, 19" x 20"

Sycamore Leaf, back

I also showed Migration and Galaxy, which use Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry's "appli-piecing" technique.

 

Migration, 2011, 36.5" x 35"

 

Galaxy, 2010, 37" x 24"

I have posted pictures and more news about the trip on our guild's blog. In all, we showed 50 quilts by 13 quilters. It was a fun trip, and the group treated us with a delicious spread of food.