PAQA-South Call For Entry

The Professional Art Quilters Alliance-South (PAQA-South) announces its ninth Annual Juried Exhibition of Innovative Quilts: Movement evokes moods as varied as the individuals contemplating it. Rhythmic strains of music, the flow of language, lithe dancers, or public change and social advocacy; all are examples that encompass the meaning of movement. Are you startled by a sudden movement, drawn in to the quickly moving plot of a good book, or feel the pulse of your heart as bloods flows through your veins? Military maneuvers, the inner workings of a watch, and a well-oiled machine all portray this basic necessity of life: movement. We invite you to share your interpretation of Movement in quiltart form.

Exhibit Opens: May 20, 2011
Deadline for entry receipt: March 19, 2011
Show dates: May 20 – July 24, 2011:
Durham Arts Council, Durham, NC http://www.durhamarts.org/facility.html
Entry Fee: $15 for PAQA-South members, $25 for non-members for up to three works submitted.
Size Limitations: No larger than 40 inches wide and 60 inches high.

Download Movement Prospectus & Entry Form

Contact: AQmovements@gmail.com with questions.
Note: ARTQUILTSmovement will be judged via unenhanced digital jpg image, only.
The PAQA-South International Juried Exhibition: ARTQUILTSmovement will open in the Allenton and Siemens galleries of the Durham Arts Council of Durham, NC. The opening reception will be Friday, May 20, 2011, 5-7:00 p.m.

*It is possible that the show will travel, so please be sure to check the entry form as to whether or not you give permission for your piece to travel with the show, should it be chosen.

Shibori Sunday

Worked on some Spiderweb Shibori today. For this piece, I started with a white piece of fabric, then tied it off. First I dipped the tied tips into some blue, then dyed the whole piece black.

This piece was one I dyed a few months ago (mixed soda ash with dry dye powder--purple & green, then sprinkled it onto the fabric). I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out, so today I tied a bunch of circles into it, then dyed in a cobalt blue dye bath:

And here's a composite of my dyeing day--

Color Palette Challenge

Three creative studios is having a color palette challenge that I'm going to sign up for. They're going to post a new palette on the 16th of each month, then we post the finished quilts on flick:

Free quilting magazine

Found this link to a free on-line quilting magazine: http://www.quiltposium.com/

There's lots of downloadable patterns, some crafty stuff, some recipes, and of course a few articles. Lots of quilting travel packages, too--the magazine looks like something a travel agent put together, but you can overlook all that, if you're so inclined! I don't think I'd like to take a cruise or trip to a foreign country and worry about toting my sewing machine and all my quilting "stuff" with me.

Is the grass always greener?

A remark by Karen of Sewkaren-ly created inspired this round of dyeing for me -- she remarked in a comment that the grass is always greener...so I dyed and dyed and dyed a bunch of different greens and created this quilt top that I'm going to quilt this coming weekend.

Thanks, Karen, for the inspiration!

Pole-wrapped shibori

Some pictures of the shibori process pictures--shibori was the technique chosen for January's topic in "...and then we set it on fire":

Supplies all ready to go.

Two pieces of fabric fabric wrapped around a piece of PVC pipe (around 8" in diameter, I think), with dye mixture squirted onto them. I think this was navy blue dye, and one piece of fabric started out white, the other was a light grey.

A close-up:

And here are the finished products--

light grey piece with navy blue dye

And navy blue on white fabric:

Not moving to a new blog

--Christmas 2010 Snow--

Well, since both of my blogs (this one and "...and then we set it on fire") are tied to my yahoo email account, I have to keep this blog operational and deal with receiving emails on my yahoo email account.

Snowman Wallhanging

The snowman wallhanging is done, and on the way to Monroe, New York to my daughter's house.

Cold December

Some Christmas things that have been in the works:

Some "spiderweb" shibori:

These circles are actually pretty small, about 2" across or less.

And a piece I've been working on, doing some pretty heavy quilting. I belong to a PAQA-South organization and there's a show coming up in March. I'm trying to get the nerve up to enter it, possibly with this piece, so I can't show it all now.

It's been really cold here (by NC standards, anyway)--morning lows of 15-16 degrees, then it doesn't even get above freezing during the day. Normal highs are around 50-55 degrees! So, it's really cut into my dyeing/painting/surface design, and I've been inside quilting almost all day the past few weekends instead of in the garage. Hope it warms up for my Christmas-New Year break.

30 years ago today...

Focus

An excellent post from Jane Dunnewold that has me thinking hard: Focusing.

This is the part of her post that really speaks to me:

I think focusing loses its appeal because we make the mistake of believing that if we decide to focus our efforts, we’ll leave something else wonderful behind. That somehow we’re choosing forever.Not true!

Focusing doesn’t mean you can’t do everything you find appealing. It just means that for some pre-determined period of time you are going to choose INTENTIONALLY to work with some limits.
Picture the old mother in the shoe, who had so many children she didn’t know what to do. Every mother knows that each child requires at least a few minutes of individual attention every day in order to blossom into a human being with healthy self-esteem.

So this is your approach – and the first assignment (of which the next blog entries will suggest several…)Don’t be the old woman in the shoe – with so many projects you don’t know what to do. Think about each project, technique or how-to book that interests you. DO make some notes about what appeals and then do a little mental ranking. What do you want to do MOST right now – in this space of time? Think about concentrating your efforts on one interest – either for a specific period of time, or until you complete a certain number of works employing the technique, OR until you feel you have mastered it.

When you feel really good about the project or process from one of those angles, you’ll feel equally good about moving on to something new. OR perhaps, about sticking with it even longer – because you have discovered how much more there is to explore.