The Art in Fiber 2012

My artwork is featured on the poster for the upcoming The Art in Fiber 2012 at The Copper Shade Tree in Round Top, Texas.

The model for this piece was a black Angus bull calf at my parent's ranch in Oklahoma.

17 Quilts Completed!

New Year's Day might just be my favorite day of the year. I absolutely love the promise of a new year; a blank canvas just waiting for me to fill as I choose.

Resolutions help me focus on the future and while I am not one to dwell on the past, I do like to take stock of the previous year. Sometimes I am surprised how much gets accomplished while I am busy dealing with everyday life.

I won't share my whole list but here are a few highlights.

• I finished 17 quilts in 2011! Who knew?
• I sold 4 art quilts and displayed my work in 3 galleries.
• I worked on an art quilt with a group of artists that I respect.
• I had quilts, photographs, and a haiku displayed at the Houston International Quilt Festival.
• I homeschooled 2 teenage boys.
• I drove three 1000 mile round-trips to visit my parents.
• I attended vegetable gardening classes.
• I spent time with dear friends.

Even if you don't do New Year's Resolutions, I encourage you to pause at the beginning of 2012 and write down 50 or 100 of your accomplishments from 2011. You might also be pleasantly surprised with all that you have accomplished.

Quilt for MDAnderson Cherrywood Challenge

I was given the opportunity to make a quilt for the MDAnderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project. The quilt project and 2011 online quilt auction benefit the Blanton-Davis Ovarian Cancer Research Program and the Uterine Cancer Research Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Cherrywood Fabrics donated a pack of fat quarters in teal to be used in the challenge. Teal is the representative color for ovarian cancer just as pink is the representative color for breast cancer. Cherrywood fabrics have a beautiful sueded-quality and are a delight to work with. The guidelines are that the quilt should be at least 2/3 Cherrywood fabric but other fabrics can be used as well. I decided to stick with only Cherrywood and take a wholecloth approach with lots of quilting and thread work. Being that the fabric is not transparent, it was difficult to trace my quilting pattern with my homemade light table. So I ended up sketching it on.

I love using my technology but sometimes it is just simpler to improvise. Spools of thread helped determine the spacing for a border motif.

Kreinik Threads donated the metallic threads for my project - they are so jewel-like that I am tempted to put them on a chain and wear them around my neck!

The Art in Fiber 2011

The Art in Fiber 2011 at The Copper Shade Tree in Round Top Texas opened last week so I can finally show you a work created especially for this exhibit.

Twenty two Texas artists were each given either a poem, a work of art or a classical music piece to interpret into fiber art.

I received a CD of Johannes Brahms Clarinet Sonatas and Rhapsodies performed by Hakan Rosengren and James Dick. It is wonderful, layered, and flowing music that inspired this piece:

Hiding Amongst the Clarinet Reeds
© 2010 Suzan Engler
Textile Painting (digital collage on silk , paint, machine stitching, mounted on stretched canvas)
SOLD

 While working on this piece, I learned that having a wide assortment of threads on hand is a great thing! I would have never thought I needed a yellow/green/blue variegated or a silver holographic thread (Kreinik) but since they were on hand I gave them a try. The yellow/green/blue ended up adding dimension to some of the reeds and the silver holographic created a wonderful, but subtle, shimmer to the water.

If you are in the area, I highly recommend stopping at The Copper Shade Tree and seeing the interpretation pieces of the other 21 artists!

Can Quilt Festivals Give You Jet Lag?

When returning from overseas travel, I found that it takes me about 5 days to recover from jet lag and feel like I am fully functional. Going to the International Quilt Festival has the same impact on me! Five days of classes, shopping, photographing amazing works of art, lunching with dear friends takes some recover time. Not to mention the overload that one feels from the mass of creative energy and ideas.

I am working on a small art quilt for a gallery exhibit. Here is a detail of some of the quilting lines.

Quilts are defined as having a top layer, middle layer (batting) and a bottom layer; all joined by stitches. This art quilt will have four layers, an additional layer of organza (that is if my experiment works out)!

I have a layer of water soluble stabilizer on the top and bottom with the organza sandwiched in between. The plan is to stitch the outlines and then cut out some areas. I'm hoping the thread will keep the organza cut outs from fraying and the stabilizer will keep the organza nice and smooth. Since the stabilizer is kind of thick, flat head pins are going to substitute for basting.

I'll let you know how my experiment goes. Any suggestions are welcome!