13th Steet Studio

Spring Flowers

There is a new show at the 1109 Gallery in Lawrence, and the theme is "Sweethearts". It runs through Feb. 17. This may be the last show at the gallery since it is having difficulty paying the rent. Artists seem to be abandoning the ship as there was a struggle to fill this show. I decided this would be a good show to enter the maximum number of pieces and all of them are good sized. The newest of the three is an appliqued quilt I call "Spring Flowers":

My quilt "Wake Up Call" is part of the window display:

Go see the show, but call first...just in case they haven't been able to find anyone to staff the place that day.

 

Festival of Trees (and quilts)

Each year at the Festival of Trees about 50 decorated Christmas trees are auctioned off to raise funds for The Shelter. Individuals, families, groups and organizations put together themed trees for this event and the creativity is always amazing. I have marginally helped with a couple of trees that my sewing group did in the past. This year we had a bit of trouble coming up with a theme so I offered a Christmas-y quilt as a stand in for our tree. I think it will be auctioned off with the trees, not sold with the wreaths and other decorations that are available at the festival. Either way, this is a fun set of trees to see every year and the money goes to a very deserving organization. Here is the quilt that we will be donating:

Umbrella Installation

Oh, if only it would rain! We are drying up and blowing away here in Kansas. Lets look at something pretty. Every town seems to want to be the "City of the Arts" and my town is no exception. I think we should steal Agueda, Portugal's idea of installing dozens of colorful umbrellas over our main street:

We could walk down the street, look up and have fond memories of rain, while we are protected from the relentless sunshine. These umbrellas were hung as a part of an art festival called Agitagueda.

Beautiful!

Unitarian Exhibit

There is a lovely little church on the south edge of my town that lets artists show work in their fellowship hall. I have an assortment of quilts there now:

Moving Show

My exhibit at the Lawrence Community Theater comes down this Sunday, but most of the work will then move to the exhibit space at the Unitarian Fellowship of Lawrence. Here are two more pieces in the group:

Blue Flower Sketch

Red Flower Sketch

Quilt Show Time

This weekend is my guild's annual quilt show. It is held at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Lawrence, KS. Hours are 10-5 on Saturday and 12-5 on Sunday. I'm helping with the "boutique" this year, where we sell handmade items, gently used sewing notions, and donated books and fabric. Several guild members were down-sizing this year so we have a LOT of stuff to sell. Please come buy something! There are also over a 100 miniquilts being silent auctioned to raise money for six local charities.

Here is a quick photo of the one new quilt I will have in the show. (I also entered a couple of older quilts.)

I call this quilt "Nickles and Dimes". It was made from the scraps leftover from factory pre-cuts of Barbara Brackman's Civil War fabrics. I added in a green hand-dyed fabric.

Button Button

Check out this piano by Augusto Esquivel made from buttons strung on filament:

Go to his website here to see his other creations including a harp, a fire hydrant and a string bass.

First Friday Feature

One of my favorite quilt artists will have work in the exhibit that opens this Friday at the Sherry Leedy Gallery (2004 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO). Annie Helmericks-Louder is a painter who also works in fabric to great effect. Annie had an exhibit in our local arts center a couple of years ago that I enjoyed very much, so I am looking forward to seeing more of her work. Here is a photo of her piece called "Blue Herons" and a detail shot of the chair.

Big Apple Whirled

We are back from NYC, blistered feet and all. We had a super great time! Months ago I bought tickets to "The Book of Mormon", before it had even opened. It was tempting to sell those tickets now that the show is a big hit, but we didn't. It was funny and offensive and funny and surprisingly sweet. See it if you can.

We also got to stop by the Textile Arts Center to see the "Play" exhibit that my quilt "Why Always War?" is a part of. Here is the fabric banner that I think show curator Joetta Maue did to welcome folks to the exhibit:

Check out Joetta's blog here. Unfortunately, I didn't get this artist's name, but here is part of another piece that makes great use of vintage appliques:

There is a catalog for the exhibit available from Blurb here.

Happiness

The current exhibit at the Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio is called "Happiness: Quilted Expressions". It runs until July 10th or 14th, depending on whether all of the participating artists agree to the extension. Now is a good time to head to Ohio... Quilt National is on display at the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio and Quilt Surface Design Symposium is gearing up in Columbus. I was rejected yet again from Quilt National and did not get my act together to be able to attend QSDS. (Actually, I am going to NYC instead. So that worked out just fine.) Anyway, my quilt "Geode Slices" is in the "Happiness" exhibit. Here is a picture:

The rest of the exhibit can be seen here.

Next Up

Gosh, it has been such a rainy Spring here. Not disastrously flooded as in many areas, but wetter than usual. If there is a usual here. A friend of mine who moved here from England says that every year, every season, someone tells her that it is never like this in Kansas. Never this cold. Never this hot. Never this rainy. Anyway, the yard has needed tending and I am not getting much sewing done. (That is my story, and I am sticking with it.)

Here is my entry in the next exhibit at 1109 Gallery. It is a copy of Paul Klee's painting of the Florentine Villa District. I call it "Florentine".

Here is Klee's painting:

I did not get the watercolor effect right, but the lines are pretty close.

Big Apple Adjacent

Tonight is the opening of the exhibit "Play" at the Textile Arts Center, 505 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, New York. My piece "Why Always War" will be included in the show:

This quilt includes some shibori hand dyed fabric that I did years ago and ink jet printed fabric images used with permission from the fabulous book "Rayguns". I love the styling of those mid-century toys, but I am always a bit sad that we can't imagine a future that is not as full of conflict as our present. Bullets make a great quilt border, yes?

Successful Uncoverings

Our performance art piece "Uncoverings" at Final Fridays went great! I cannot take any credit for setup, that is for sure, but we ended up with a very beautiful bed piled high with quilts. Every ten minutes we took the top quilt off so the next one could be displayed. It was a mix of antique quilts and new quilts. Pieced, appliqued and crazy. Here is a paper pieced treasure:

And here is a quilt that I did quite a few years ago. Most of my efforts are nowhere near bed sizes these days.

Here is a detail from a very old and lovely crazy quilt.

Hope Ethel enjoyed her outing.

The Space Between

I am happy to be included in Dinner at Eight Artists' latest traveling exhibit called "The Space Between". Here is a detail shot of my quilt, which I call "Black and White".

How does it relate to the theme? Well, The Space Between black and white is not always grey.

You can see my interview, along with interviews of the other "The Space Between" artists here: www.dinnerateightartists.blogspot.com

I'll be featured on Cinco de Mayo, no less! So do a shot of tequila and check out the artists of The Space Between.

 

Uncovering

This Friday is the final Friday of April (insert cry of dismay about time flying here). Lawrence has been trying to get a downtown arts event rolling on the last Friday called, oddly enough, Final Fridays. There are exhibits and performances all over downtown. Check here for some of the venues (scroll down past the KC info). I will be participating in a textile art event at Hobbs-Taylor. One at a time, on a bed piled high, about 30 quilts will be shown. Each quilt will get about 8 minutes of fame and exposure. There is a bit more information about what will be going on at Hobbs-Taylor here.

My quilt "Face the Seasons" will be one of the quilts shown:

So here's looking at you, kid. Be there or be square. I will also have a piece up in the 1109 Gallery, but more about that later.

Quilt Show Time Again

Next weekend is my quilt guild's annual show. I will be speaking at the show and trying to sell my book at 11am on Saturday and 1pm on Sunday. The show will be in Building 21 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds (Lawrence, KS). Each year the guild sells small quilts in a silent auction to raise funds for good causes. Here is the quilt I have donated. I call it Flowers in Black and White.

Topeka Competition 30 Opening

The opening reception for the Topeka Competition 30 was very nice, as usual. The folks at the Sabitini Gallery are a pleasure to work with and to party with too. There are great photos of the exhibit here. Be sure to check out all three pages. Scroll down down down to the bottom of the page to click to the other two pages. Here is a photo of gallery director Sherry Best announcing the awards. I am over to the far left... life of the party as always.

Topeka Competition 30

The opening reception for the Topeka Competition 30 is April 1,from 5:30 to 8:30 at the Sabitini Art Gallery. No fooling. For more information on this exhibit, click here. My two "tar ball" quilts will be part of the show. I blogged a bit about them here. I'm glad they found a place to be exhibited together!

Wetlands Exhibit

This weekend is the last weekend to see the "Discovering the Wetlands" exhibit at the Lawrence Percolator. There is a wide assortment of artwork in this exhibit, from photographs to 3D recycled representations of wetland plants. I entered this piece, which I call Shuttered View of the Wetlands:

And here is a detail shot:

America Celebrates!

Quite a while back, I was invited to be part of a quilt exhibit that has one quilt for each holiday celebrated in the USA. I was assigned Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah translates literally as "head of the year". Sources claim that Rosh Hashanah as the day the world was created, others say it is the day that man was created. Unlike the wild celebration that the secular New Year's Day brings, it is a day of repentance and introspection. The ram's horn, or Shofar, is blown to alert followers that they are being judged and that their fate for the upcoming year is being inscribed in the book of life. Traditional foods eated on Rosh Hashanah are apples dipped in honey to symbolize a sweet new year.

This exhibit will start in Longmont Colorado early next year and then hopefully travel around for a bit. An additional exciting thing for this exhibit is that C&T publishing is planning on doing a book about it! So, pretty cool...

Here is my textile representation of Rosh Hashanah: