FAN show in Duncan, BC

If you are going to Vancouver Island (or already live there), I will have a piece in a show put together by the FibreArt Network. in Duncan. August 12 through September 5. at the CVAC Centre of Arts, James St.

see the poster for the exact address.











And here is the piece I have in the show. Of course, there's a canoe. It's called (and the text says) "C'est l'aviron qui nous mene en haut" (It is the canoe which leads us higher.) I don't say what exactly I mean by "higher". The text is the title of an old paddling song the voyageurs sang.

Photo image printed on cotton, arashi dying on cotton. Paint. Machine quilting.

Canadian Quilters Association National Juried Show

So here is the piece I have entered into the National Juried Show...
Monoprinted cotton, hand dyed cotton, machine pieced, and machine quilted, and a bit of hand quilting too. a bit of paint too

The Road not Taken

and some details of the quilting.

More possibilities....

I've been playing around with tree ideas in the last while...
First this simple silhouette on a batik background... but it needed more, so I floated some leaves on it. This one, Falling Leaves, became a wedding present...
 

Falling Leaves

Earth's Poem

I wanted to use some hand printed fabric for the background on this one. Then added the vertical stripe, with writing:"Trees are poems that the Earth writes upon the Sky." by Kahlil Gibran

          ...and some details of the quilting

For the new one

My niece is expecting a child, so a quilt for the newborn is in order. She's very close to her dog Abby. So I wanted to put Abby on the quilt for the new guy.

That way, he will remember Abby long after Abby is gone. This is my first attempt at drawing with stitching. I started with an enlarged outline from the photo (I traced it from the TV screen), then cut it out from fleece, added batting, and started stitching...

and the result:

Close up of Abby

Learning composition

I'm playing with composition studies these days. This is the first--using all the 12 colours of the colour wheel, plus the tints and shades, surrounded by their complementary colours, show them off!

Here's what I came up with.

Black Hole

I like the way it takes my eye around that vortex.

and of course the pun in the title.

On Creating

I'm in the "new quilt" phase. That is, I'm composing a new piece. No. there are no photos. Creation is too close to my bones for that.

The Creation Story I am most familiar with is the Genesis one, the first one. You know, "God created the earth, and it was good." No struggle. No effort. Perfect the first time. Step by step by step, knowing exactly how to proceed. No undoing something and trying again.

Well, my creating process is not so easy. I take a step, then get distracted. Facebook, housework, fixing supper. Anything but work on the the work. Then another couple of steps. and so forth. My design wall changes rather slowly most days. When I was writing, it was all too similar, so this struggle is not new to me. Just still painful.

Then I have to take it apart, and put it together again, differently. And the slogging continues.

What I really enjoy is when I get into a zone, and get much accomplished. It does happen occasionally. I still have to work at getting there.

Here's a photo of a piece I hated so much I cut it up, scrambled it, and put it back together with more added. I quite like "Kiji Abstracted" now.

Showing is fun

Having pieces up on someone else's wall is very gratifying. Obviously, someone thought they were worth showing off, and, there they are! So, here are both "Spring Peeking" at the Silk Purse Gallery in West Vancouver, and "Colours of Cherry Blossoms" at the Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver.

Both will be up until April 21. You'll have to see all the others too. They are so various, and some quite spectacular.