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.

“Out of the Box” is a one month once a year Holiday sale where about 30 artists get together and share expenses to sell their work. Today, I’ll be dropping off several of my quilts and new ones to hang on the stores walls. I will also be having scarves, eyeglass cases, bookmarks, and other little quilted items for sale. Here are the hours and information:
“Out of The Box”
November 27 to December 23
7423 West Madison Street,
Forest Park, IL
hours: Tues. – Sat. 11-5pm, Sun. noon – 5,
closed Mon. There will be a Forest Park Holiday Walk on Dec. 4, “with live Holiday Windows, sleigh rides, marshmellow roastin, music, merchants open house and more.”

Well, after much talk on SAQA about finding your voice, I looked at my work and I feel like Cybil with many voices. My latest voice is to go abstract. I have a solo show coming up in June 2011, still aways away, but I want to have a cohesive show. My thoughts are “Then and Now” showing my best of what I have from before now, and working on a new direction. As much as I’m not fond of paper piecing, it works quite well with the way I want to do abstracts. In college, way back when, I did hard edge paintings inspried by my professor. I want to explore this in quilting, but adding maybe crayon, colored pencil, paint, beads, or whatever for sbutleties to move the eye. Here are a couple that I did for “Out of the Box”, a Holiday sale coming up the day after Thanksgiving. There’ll be more information on my website.The first one is a quilt using silk screen, but the next two are the style I want to focus on. These are quite small, maybe 4″ x 6″ and 5″ x 5″. I’d love to know what you think.

This weekend I will be having 3 pieces in the Oak Park Art League Artist Members’ Fall Show with opening reception from 7-9 pm. On Sat. I’ll be having a trunk show at Pamela Penney’s Textiles from noon til 5pm.

I received two rejection notices from the show Q=A=Q. It must be a difficult job for the jurors to put together a cohesive show without having a particular theme involved for the entries. I think not having a theme makes it also hard on the entrants, because their work maybe excellent but didn’t fit the theme that the jurors chose. JMHO.

Last night I attended the Allman Brothers Band concert in Chicago with my husband and his cousins. The concert was great and while listening to the music, I was watching the background screen with psychedellic visuals. I think there might be quilt material in my experience. My favorite song was “Sweet Melissa”.