I ran into some difficulty yesterday as I started to quilt “The Progression of an Artist”. My needle was pulling up the tiny pieces that I appliqued, leaving me to glue them down again and again. After asking other quilt artists on QuiltArt.com and my SAQA members, I was told first to use a small needle, an 80/12 instead of a 90/14. The next suggestion was to clean the needle with rubbing alcohol as all of the fusing from appliqueing and my fusible batting were adhering to the needle. After making these changes I’m  back to smooth quilting.

From my last post I had to make a change to represent my first stage as an artist correctly. I always start with an inspiration and then a line drawing. In this piece the inspiration came from a photo of me on our honey moon  taken by my husband. This was machine stitched and is frame #1:

Moving on, I take from the drawing what I want to express in fabric. Seen here in frame #2
As I become more comfortable as an artist and with the technique that I’m using, I see more detail that I want to express. Seen here#3

Now let’s put them all together to form my piece, “Progression of an Artist”.

Each frame on its own is technically correct and maybe you have a preference as to which one is more visually pleasing. Sometimes extra details is not neccessary or does not add to the compostion. It’s just up to the artist and her expression.
Now because this is a fabric challenge, I have to include the fabric somewhere in my piece. Hopefully it will still work with the design. Otherwise it’s not worth it to just place the fabric in for the challenge. I’ll just keep the quilt for a different show.

I am presently working on a quilt called, “Progression of an Artist”. It started with a photo of myself on my honeymoon. At the time, I was an early stage of my career, working as an airbrush artist. So the first frame of this quilt is a simple view of the photo, (manipulated in a photo program).
Seen here:

The next frame will have more detail and the final frame, I’m thinking about printing the photo onto fabric and embellishing it. Not sure yet how it will exactly finish. This was suppose to be my “Hoffman” fabric challenge, but I haven’t used the fabric yet in my design.

I am looking forward to going to the Chicago International Quiltfest. I have 2 quilts in the Celebrate Spring Show. It’s also a great place for shopping.
I have been working on two new quilts. One is for Quilt National in which I can’t post because of the rules. Today, I’m putting all of the printed tiles together. This will take some manuevering, since not all of the tiles have printed straight. In hopes to rectify this, I’m going to fuse to interfacing and leave a half inch extra on all sides so that when I sew the tiles together, I will have enough material for a quarter inch seam. Some of the printed tiles barely have a quarter inch around.
My other quilt is for the Hoffman challenge. I love the fabric. I’m doing a self portrait of sorts, but the whole piece is really about progression as an artist. I’m doing alot of fusible applique with tiny bits and pieces. Although there’s no place for the challenge fabric within the main body of the quilt, I hope to use it as either the sashing, border, or binding.

I have been inspired by a photo that I took while vacationing on Dauphine Island, AL of the pattern and texture left in the sand after a high tide. I wish I could post a picture, but the rules forbid publication before the show and I don’t want to take the chance of being disqualified. So, I will explain my process and the problem that I ran into.
First, I opened the digital and manipulated it using a filter in a photgraphic program. Then I enhanced the blues and sand colors in the picture. After, being settled with the way it looked, I started to print it onto fabric. It took 25 tiles of 8.5″ x 11″ of fabric.
Next, I began to enhance even further by using color pencils and sharpie markers and brought the waves, almost like marbilizatiion pattern in the sand and water. I loved the way it looked, and thought that this might be a Quilt National Candididate, a very prestigious show for quilters to be accepted into.
Well, after I was finished, I thought I should seal my work so the pencils don’t smear. I heat set the markers and thought they would be fine with the sealer. Well I was wrong. I had used a gloss gel medium mixed with water and started to brush on each tile. The blue and purple markers started to run. EKES! Some of it looks wlcomed, but there are some areas that I will have to try to cover using white paint. If that doesn’t work then I will have to reprint some of the tiles. Lesson learned: Sharpie markers and water don’t mix! I think I would have been better of using a spray sealer with a bit stiffer fabric.

I received two acceptance letters from IQA that my quilts, “Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory” and “Floral Soiree” were of the 44 finalists. The show will be at the Celebrate Spring show at the Rosemont Convention Center April 16-18.

On Monday evening I had the pleasure to be one of the artists for http://www.quiltcritique.com. My quilt study for doing abstract was the one I had submitted.

One major point that was suggested was that I rotate this quilt like this. It was said that it was too heavy on the left side otherwise. I have to agree with this suggestion.

It was also mentioned that I sould work larger as this was only a 5″ x 5″ approx. study. If it was larger I could also play more with thread in my quilting. But all in all, I was told to explore more with this study as I have a good thing going.

I would recommend having your quilts critiqued by Lisa and Sandra. I never felt intimidated as I was back in college. All comments were of positive feedback to help, not hinder creativity. Here are the links to contact Lisa. http://www.quiltcritique.com. Face book, Lisa Gosnell Chipetine, or twitter@lisachipetine.

I originally finished the quilt, “Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory” in December 2008 ,but some how always felt that something was missing. I wanted the turtles to stand out as they were an important factor in the “Friends”. Here is my first original:

So after some thought and the pressure of upcoming shows, I decided to tackle the tension problems first, and think about what I could do to make the turtles more prominent, but not to take away the original design too much.People thought they were rocks. So I thought I’d add some gold fish. At least then if people didn’t see the turtles, they at least could think that maybe I was talking about the fish. Then I worked on the water and added some more detail. Before in the dark areas of the water, the detail was just in using paint-stick and you really had to get up close and personal with the quilt. Now, I think there is more flow in the water that leads the eye to the turtles. Next, my problem became that the foliage was almost all the same value. there needed to be some more detail and contrast. I added black stitching to help in this.
I feel more satisfied now. I’d like any opinions.

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Wish all viewers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Also, Happy Hannakah and Happy Kwanza, too!

Well, I can’t believe a year has gone by. Time really went quickly. Anyways, to share where I’m exhibitng this Holiday, I thought I’d post about it here on my “Blog”  than on my “About” page.

First, I still have my trunk show at Pamela Penney’s Textiles, located 130 Harrison Street in the Oak Park Artists district. Thank you Pam for the extra long exposure.

Next, I have Artwear and small items such as bookmarks, winebags, and notecards at The Oak Park Art League, 720 Chicago Ave. Located on chicago Ave. just east of Oak Park Ave. Gallery hours are M-F 1-5 pm. I’m not sure what the hours are on Sat. I think the same, but here’s the phone number. 708-386-9853.

Finally, I am participating once again at “Out of the Box” located at 743 west Madison street, Forest Park, Nov. 27 to Dec. 23. Hours are Tues. – Sat. 11 – 5pm and Sun. noon – 5 pm. I’ll be exhibiting new work and new small quilted items. My times to work there are Dec. 4, 4 – 8pm and Dec. 19, noon til 3pm. If you stop in do say “Hello”. There are over 30 artists this year, with a lot more Fine Art. Also, new this year, is the wall space is available to other artists than just management. Hopefully, that will boost my sales as I enjoy quilting, than trying to compete with crafters. but, with the economy as it is, and unemployment still down, I’m not sure.