A few weeks ago I made a piece that I thought might be worthy of submission to the “MATERIAL VOICES : An Exhibition of Small Art Quilts,” at the Gray Cat Studio.  The show is curated by Sylvia Einstein and managed by Karen Betancourt, who I always enjoy chatting with when I see her in Lowell.  So, I am very happy to report that my newest work, FLARE, will be in Lowell from August 4 through August 26, and I’ll be in Lowell for two days in August to enjoy the festival and attend the opening of “MATERIAL VOICES” from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 11.

Here is FLARE, it measures 16″ x 16″ and features artist cotton discharge-dyed cloth, the artist being me….

Thanks for looking!

I’ve been having a phenomenally dry DRY spell the last few months, creatively speaking.  My muse is just not inclined to work on the several large pieces that I’ve designed for some pretty important deadlines coming up (I’ll bet you can guess which ones….).  So to keep myself busy in the studio, I have been playing around.  The recent ‘thread’ on the SAQA chat list about iPad covers/carriers enticed me to make one for my iPad2.  

I had fun making it and I like the design and it is SNUG and hopefully protective of my iPad (which won’t fit in with the cover on the front/top, perhaps it will loosen up a bit to allow that eventually…).  I love the print fabric that I didn’t realize I had in my stash, and I’ve been working with solids lately, making Rosalie Dace’s ‘skinny lines’ (I find they are addictive and great ZEN therapy combined with another ZEN meditation, free-motion quilting).  The bag slings over the shoulder in either direction.  Thanks for looking!  

I’ve had some exceptionally good news as of late, so it is time to update my blog….NEWS as of JUNE 6, 2012.

Three (yes, three….again, see Fantastic Fibers 2012 below) of my works have been accepted at the NEW LEGACIES show at the Lincoln Art Center in Fort Collins, Colorado: GENERATION GAP, BROKEN PROMISES, and ALMOST AS ECHO.  I’m particularly happy to have  ‘…ECHO…’ accepted as this will be its debut in a show other than my local guild quilt show.  It is a mixed media work with two front panels permanently attached to a background panel.  It measures 41″ wide X 25″ high.

    and a detail view         

I very much enjoy working in this intuitive style, piecing fabrics, slicing, dicing, re-piecing and then embellishing with paint and thread painting.  I plan to do more more works in this style, and in fact am working on one presently, stay tuned…

My ‘HALLOWED GROUND,’ a memorial to ‘ground zero’ in New York City on 9/11, has been accepted into IQF HOUSTON’s Tactile Architecture exhibit.  Exhibiting in Houston other than through a SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibit is a first for me, I’ve never entered any of my work there before.   I am particularly partial to this work as I actually worked on it for several years (even though it is a small quilt, 27″ w X 25″ h, it was on my design wall for years in various phases), hoping it would find a venue for the ten year anniversary of that infamous day in our history, but there were very few calls for entry to commemorate 9/11 in 2011, so it went nowhere.

  and a detail view  

BREAKING BREAKING NEWS!  I was awarded SECOND PLACE in TEXTILES IN A TUBE 2 show…which includes a MONETARY AWARD!  Another milestone in my artistic journey…..read on, please….

‘IN LIGHT OF…’ is hanging at TEXTILES IN A TUBE at the Riverworks Gallery at Greenville (SC) Technical Collage.  This show was curated by one of my favorite artists in the art quilt loop, Kathleen Loomis.  This is a work originally entitled ‘FLEETING MOMENT’ that was juried into the SAQA A Sense of Time exhibit in 2007.  I always loved how the back of this piece came out and have been trying to find a venue for it as a two-sided piece.  It makes me happy that it found this quirky little exhibit in its second year in South Carolina.

IN LIGHT OF…shown front and back, side by side here:

and a detail  

The guiding theme of TEXTILES IN A TUBE was to require the entire piece including hanging hardware to fit inside a 36″ long X 3″ mailing tube.  This work measures 27″ w X 25″ high and is light as a feather due to its construction – artist discharged cotton lawn on the front, cotton scrim (similar to cheesecloth) on the back and a wool batt in between.  It rolled up perfectly to fit in the mailing tube and will be hung so both sides can be viewed.

And finally, I just received word today that the Lowell Quilt Festival (in Lowell, Massachusetts in early August) is having a special exhibit of ‘BEST OF SHOW’ Guild quilts this year,  so my ‘OH SAY CAN YOU CELL’ may be there this August.  I received five ribbons at my quilt guild, Northern Star Quilter’s Guild in Somers in May, ‘…CELL’ received a blue ribbon in its category and BEST OF SHOW, SMALL (we have two Best of Show awards, for a ‘large’ quilt and a ‘small’ quilt….at 7 feet wide, ‘…CELL’ is not really “small” but I’m not arguing with the judges.  ‘…CELL…’ also received a ribbon for ‘BEST DESIGN’ which pleased me no end.   Please scroll down and visit ‘older posts’ to find photos of  ‘OH SAY CAN YOU CELL’  in my blog.