Exhibit at Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center

Fibervision is having an exhibit at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center in Santa Barbara from May 28- June 22, 2014. The opening reception will be on Wednesday, June 4th from 5:30 - 7:30 pm. If you're in town, please stop in for a visit. See the flyer below for all the details.

Here's a couple of close up shots of the quilting on one of my new pieces. It showcases the same "skylight" fabric that is used in the piece on the flyer above. Photos were manipulated, then printed on fabric. I also have a third design in progress that uses the same fabric.

I used plastic circle templates to help me quilt five sets of gradated circles, then I stippled around the outside to flatten the background.

Once the CPAC exhibit opens, I'll show you the entire quilt.

Quilting on the Sweet Sixteen

Fibervision has a exhibit at Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center in Santa Barbara in June and I need to finish some new work for the show. Here are a couple of close-up photos of my second piece in the Looking Up series. It's pin basted and ready to be quilted on my Sweet Sixteen.

 The fabric on the left side was created using soy wax and paint. The purple fabric on the bottom is one of my Shibori dyed pieces.

The purplish fabric that is inside the orange stripes are photos of a skylight that I printed on cotton fabric. Hand-painted, hand-dyed, photos printed on fabric, batik and commercial fabric all combined in one piece. Quite the variety!

Here's a close-up showing the quilting in the area that has the hand-painted fabric.

Stay tuned . . . plenty more to come.

You're All Invited . . .

Over 60 pieces were submitted, many of them quite large. I only had three small pieces to submit, but they are all quite nice.
If you are within driving distance, I hope you find some time to see the exhibit. I would love to meet any of you, so let me know if you're coming!
Saturday, May 18th at 10:00 am will be the guided tour.

Hormones Revisited

Looking back through my blog posts, I realized that I never showed you the finished "Inside Out: Hormones" quilt. I wanted to wait until the special exhibit at PIQF opened. Unfortunately, many deadlines hit at the same time that required many hours of work. I made all the deadlines, but stopped blogging for a while. So now I'm going to backtrack and show you some of the work I finished during the time I was MIA.

Here they are, hormones in their hot flash mode! A fair amount of tulle was used throughout to force color changes. The whole section through the middle has a layer of tulle, and the circles are also cut from tulle. Some of the tulle is blue, some maroon. Some areas have very dense stitching and that created an uneven surface. It was a challenge to get it to lie flat, but I did it with careful stitching in strategic areas, and lots of steam! LOLHere's a detail shot where you can see the cheesecloth that I used to create the diagonal lines. I love the texture of cheesecloth, and it's so easy to mold into any shape you want. You should give it a try it next time you need a special texture.

I've made a lot of colorful work over the years, but this hormone piece may be the most intense colors I've ever used. I guess it was time for a change, time to work in calmer, cooler colors.

This piece is called Afterglow. The leaves and small circles are made from hand-painted silk. The large circle and the second leaf from the left is made entirely from salvaged thread clippings. I'm always pleased when I find some cool way to use materials that are generally thrown away.

The inspiration for this piece came from an aerial photo of Salt Lake City in the winter. The photo was very graphic, very black (roads) and white (snow). After 15 minutes of using the photo as a reference, I put it away and abstracted the design even more, then I added color. There was no plan, I let it evolve, and this is what happened.

These last two pieces (plus 60 others) are currently on exhibit at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center in Santa Barbara through the end of January. It's a great facility that is used for many weddings and conventions.

With a view like this, it's easy to see why this facility is so popular. Stop by if you get a chance, you won't be disappointed.

Smoked Out

A few posts ago, I offered a close up of my latest fire inspired quilt "Smoked Out". I didn't want to post the full image until the exhibit was hanging. The show at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center has been hung and is open to the public, so now I can share my quilt with you. Don't forget about the reception on October 7th, 5:30 - 7:30pm.The background is a hand-painted piece of fabric. The mountains, clouds and sun were formed using layers of tulle and the raw edged flames are made from organza and commercial cottons.

I'm really pleased with the results and have been getting some great feedback. I'm pretty sure that I have at least one more fire quilt left in me.

If you're a regular reader, I'm sure you will recall the Gap Fire and the trauma surrounding it. Well, the effects of the fire are still being felt; but now the problem is flooding. All five watersheds have been burned, which means the chance of major flooding is extremely high. Planes and helicopters are dropping 200 loads of hydromulch per day, 7 days a week, for the next two months. I feel confident that they are doing everything possible to prepare for winter. Let's hope it's enough!