New Venture

This week, I joined our local Art Cooperative: The Village Gallery of Arts. 

Here is a quick link to their website:  http://villagegalleryarts.org 

I have been thinking about making this commitment for quite some time. 

Membership will provide several different venues to exhibit and sell my work. Participation in gallery responsibilities will bring an opportunity to create in a supportive environment, meet new people and make new friends.

How great is that? 

. . . Something we all need and cherish. 

You can see more of my new work at the gallery beginning in August.

Color Play

Last week, here in Portland, we actually had a string of days when our temperatures climbed to the upper 80's in the afternoons. They were glorious.

I spent a few of the cooler mornings at my sewing machine,

playing with a different color combination than what I had previously worked with.

This bright blue had been calling to me, so I made a few blocks and pieced units to see what would happen.

A predictable combination of the colors blue and yellow was not what I was after.

Half empty? or Half full?

 A few years ago, I fashioned this 6 1/2" bowl 

from a cluster of old telephone wire that my husband gave me.

The wire itself is coated with a thin plastic, in some fun colors:

Orange, light blue, green and white.

The coating made the wire easy to manipulate. I got to use some of my rough basket making skills.

 

Half empty? or Half full?

What do you see?

Reconstruction

While on retreat with the girls in my sewing group, I had casually pieced together another quilt top to continue a series of art quilts I was attempting. It all began this Spring, when it was time to plant a vegetable garden.
This is the first year that we finished the framework for the garden space. As the plants began to emerge, oh! what lovely colors they reflected back - especially after a little rain.

The series is titled, 'Grown Wild ' capturing the notion of what happens as time passes, and there is more than enough food, water and other nourishment for plants to grow. Unattended for a few days can result in a beautiful chaos of form and color!

When I got home from the retreat, I still wasn't completely satisfied with the piece I ended up with.

Some deconstruction - of what looked like 'panels' was in order.

I don't know about you, but I can piece randomly for hours while chatting it up with others, yet when it comes down to the actual construction of the final project, I have found that I need to do that alone, by myself and in silence. This is so I can 'listen' to the quilt and let it tell me what it wants to do.

After a bit of rearranging, I stitched things back up and flipped it over to get ready for quilting.

For these type of pieces, I like to use what my friend Jere calls; the pillowcase method.

You begin by layering the batting, bottom or backing, and then the quilt top.

Jere's simple reminder, "They face each other". . .has kept me focused when I'm trying to remember what 

order will produce the result I am after.

I trim it up and turn it outside in. Then, I complete the quilting.

I tried to create a bit of a jog at the bottom and I had left the area open. This required some creative binding in a direction that I wasn't really comfortable with. I'm still reviewing the final result. Yesterday, by the end of the day, I was ready to cut it all off, level the bottom and start over with the finishing.

I thought I would just sleep on it and give it a fresh look in the morning.