Take a look at the gorgeous work done by beaders participating in the 2008 Bead Journal Project.
Bead Journal Project - Home Page
Enjoy!
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Archive for the 'Artist Dates' Category
Thumbnail Sketch by Maria Peagler
If I’ve peaked your interest in sketching, check out Katherine Tyrrell’s blog Making a Mark. Katherine is a pastel and colored pencil artist who has developed a wealth of lessons on sketching and keeping a sketchbook. She doesn’t include quilters or fiber artists in her blog, only drawings and paintings, but don’t let that stop you. Her lessons apply well to our medium, and I know I could happily get lost in everything her site offers.
Pastels and Pencils - How to Sketch - advice and information by Katherine Tyrrell ASGFA
A family day at a Braves game
At some point in my sketchbooks, I stopped using them as a place for only my ideas and inspiration, but also as a place to capture the daily moments of my life by drawing them. My husband had given me the book How to Make a Journal of Your Life 
, and it really enhanced my journaling style. Dan Price has been detailing the minutiae of his life for decades, drawing things as simple as the interior of the car as he rides with friends. His drawing style is simplistic and far from perfect, but that’s what makes it beautiful. He’s not attempting to create a masterpiece; rather, he’s making art of his everyday life in his own hand, his own style.
I still drew only sporadically until last year, when again my sweet husband gave me another book for Christmas: Danny Gregory’s Creative License, The: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are
. Danny begins drawing his days after his wife is hit by a subway train and becomes a paraplegic. Like Dan, he draws the little details that make up our lives: what he has for dinner, his dog, the interior of his medicine cabinet. And he is insistent that you make drawing a daily habit: do bad drawings, sketch things wrongly, but just do it and learn as you go.
I don’t sketch daily, but weekly, yes. Sometimes more than once a week. I draw more often when I’m on vacation, as I have more time and I want to remember the places I’ve been and what we were doing.
Eating out in St. Simon's Island
This journal I made by hand, after reading on WhipUp about a great book called How to Make Books (see the link in my sidebar). I made this little journal from old blue jeans, drawing paper and watercolor papers. It is always with me in my purse, and holds my sketches, summaries of books I’ve read, and even my grocery list. It’s a little journal of my life.
And now I draw things I would never have imagined as important or even beautiful.
Items on a side table next to a plan for a medallion quilt
But they are beautiful, because they are my life.
Mind mapping my future
I’ve always thought Disney had it right in calling their employees Imagineers. What a cool job title - getting paid to bring imagination to life. I do my own imagineering in my journals, using two techniques I talked about in my podcast: mind-mapping and 100 Questions.
Mindmeister is a great online resource for mind-mapping, but I must confess I enjoy the old colored pencil and paper method best. A wonderful book on both techniques is How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day 
.
This book really transformed how I approached ideas, and I must say I now delightfully imagineer far more ideas than I’ll ever be able to do. But a girl can dream, can’t she?
As I continued to keep journals, I started adding my own ideas, designs, and dreams to them. I would still sometimes cut and paste from magazines and newspapers, referring to color schemes or styles of art I liked.
Here I liked the African women repeated across the page. Simple design, yet effective.
Images as inspiration
I also like to cut swatches and selvedges from fabrics I buy when I travel:
Who needs travel photos?
Abstract drawing from my journal
Keeping a journal has transformed my art. It’s hard to believe initially I resisted keeping a journal of any kind, as writing is my profession and I didn’t want to do more of it at home. Surely I keep visual journals and sketchbooks as well, but I started by keeping a simple journal of things I was grateful for every day.
I tried to list 100 things to be grateful for in my life - went well over!
I got this idea from Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy 
by Sarah Ban Breathnach, and also the idea of a Discovery Journal. From these humble beginnings came my sketchbooks and quilting journals I’ll be sharing with you later.
It’s here! My podcast is here! I’m excited to share with you the first Quilts and Creativity Podcast: Episode 1: Keeping a Journal. I’m new to podcasting, so it’s just me, no background music or other fancy additions. Just great content. The Keeping a Journal podcast talks about how to keep a journal, different types, and the progression I’ve seen in my art since dedicating myself to journal keeping. I’ll be posting photos and links that I discuss in the podcast, so tune it and enjoy!
Color Studies in My Journal
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We’ve returned from a week-long vacation in Jekyll Island, GA - a sleepy, pristine barrier island that hasn’t been overdeveloped - yet. I took a lot of photos and tried to sketch everyday in my journal. Not necessarily to document every phase of the trip, as a source for my art, or any otherwise lofty goal.
Ultimately, I sketched to capture my impression of the moment. My memory, my recollection, which no camera can ever offer. That’s the beauty of a sketch or even a quilt that doesn’t have perfect perspective, or color, or shape. It really doesn’t matter. What is more important is what you remember, what was important enough to you to want to capture that moment in time.
I’ll be posting this week about journaling, how I use it, the different types of journals I keep, and offer some ideas for you. I’ll also be offering a podcast - yes a podcast!! - for an even greater discussion of the topic. Stay tuned!
Whipup has a link to a great tutorial for anyone who does a lot of sewing - quilter or not. Here’s the link:
Thread Catcher Tutorial « mellebugandme
I intend to try this out whenever I’m in a quilting/binding frenzy. I went to the chiropractor yesterday about the soreness in my hands. He did some rather noisy and startling adjustments to my hands and neck, but you know what: they feel better!
Thanks to Alyson over at ArtBizBlog for the heads up on this great NPR story on Aging Artists. I was intrigued enough to read the more detailed summary of the study, and was delighted at the attitude of these artists, who struggled financially but were elated with life and their art.
“Art is what makes me live.”
—93-year-old visual artist
I have always been involved with the aging in some way. In college, I was involved in the now-famous study of centenarians when I worked in the Gerontology office. I transcribed interviews with people ages 100 years and over, and found them to be persistent when life threw them curveballs. They simply didn’t let obstacles stop them. One woman had lived to see Halley’s Comet twice, outlived three husbands and all of her children, and was still vibrant.
When I homeschooled my boys, we volunteered with Meals on Wheels in our community. And I live in a community where we are by far the younger generation. I’m often referred to as a “young mom.” Yahoo - I’ll take it.
How do you see yourself and your art as you age?
Art in the garden is such a poetic idea. One of my favorite events used to be Barnsley Garden’s Quilts in the Garden, but since they renovated and become large I don’t think they hold the event anymore. I’ve longed to go to Sisters out in Oregon someday, but I decided to hold my little event.
Painting on the screened porch. Georgia’s summer has been unseasonably mild so far, and we have taken full advantage and practically lived on our screened porches. I spent two days creating a painting with Fredrix Watercolor Canvas and Neocolor II Water Soluble Crayons. So much fun!
Beth at Sew Mama Sew! has an interesting interview with Westminster Fabrics about their decision to offer home decorator-weight cotton fabric. Their response is pure marketing spin, and while not necessarily untrue, here’s the real reason they’re offering home dec fabric:
They make more money.
Which requires more yardage: a quilt, or window treatments? A quilt, or a skirt? Quilters buy small amounts of fabric (surely in a greater variety), making it difficult for fabric manufacturers and quilt shops to stay in business. You could easily lose money on fat quarters when you figure in the labor it takes to cut and package them all.
But window treatments? Slipcovers? We’re talking oceans of fabric: 5, 10, or even 20 yards at a time.
Westminster Fabrics is a wise company: they have designers who appeal to home sewers, and now they’re offering fabrics that yield them a bigger profit and offer sewers more options.
What do you think?
So what does an artist do to her generic VBS t-shirt? She adds her personal touch, of course. I painted the flowers and surfboard during a family painting session on Sunday. My older son painted a sample surfboard craft for Arts & Crafts while my younger painted his own shirt.
This is VBS week at our chapel, and I’m always involved in some way. I used to be a Director of a VBS program at our previous church that enrolled over 300 children and 80+ volunteers. Now I enjoy just getting to be a regular person and enjoy volunteering. I chaired Arts & Crafts for a couple of years, and now I’m just helping. I’m a big believer in letting talented individuals take their time at the helm.
My husband was just promoted to permanent Scoutmaster of our son’s boy scout troop last night. I’m proud of him, but wary of the time it takes to really serve that role well. Only halfway jokingly, I told him I would refuse to sew on his Scoutmaster patch in protest.
I feel like I’ve arrived. Mary Lou Weidman has added me to her blogroll. Wow. I’m so honored. Mary Lou is one of my all-time favorite quilters, not only for her courageous use of bold colors, but also for her gracious and optimistic attitude.
I have all of Mary Lou’s books, and I’ll be adding her newest to my library as soon as it comes out. Mary Lou has a fabulous website with all kinds of eye candy, and her blog is as inspirational and cheery as she is.
Mary Lou is visiting my guild, the East Cobb Quilter’s Guild, in August, and you can be sure I’ll be in her class. Who would want to miss just being around someone so fun who creates such original and whimsical quilts?
My kids missed me while I was gone, and one of their favorite ways to spend time together is drawing. I was exhausted and dragged myself into this, but as always with anything creative, I had a blast doing it.
This is a teapot pincushion in the Mary Engrelbreit Home magazine, spring issue. How cute is that?
I’ll be teaching Machine Quilting at the Piecemaker’s Guild in Cumming, GA on Tuesday, May 27. I think they have a couple spaces still available, so if you’re in the area, come join us from 10:00 to 4:00 at Christ the King Lutheran Church.
Meg Cox, author of The Quilter’s Catalog, writes an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal profiling how Paducah, KY has been transformed from a poor, rural, nowhere town into a booming economic powerhouse, all due to the quilting industry. It’s a great read and an amazing profile of how far quilters have come. Click on the link below to read it.
Wall Street Journal article: Stitching Up the Future, by Meg Cox
Here’s how I selected the color palette and fabrics for the Miranda bag. I find many quilters who are either intimidated by the color wheel or who understand the theory behind it but not how to apply it to their quilts. A real-life example should help.
I knew I wanted to use the yellow French provencal fabric, and I also knew I needed some contrast between the bag cover, bottom, and lining. But I didn’t want the contrast to be so overwhelming that it was the focus. The focus of the color scheme needed to be the French fabric, and I wanted nothing to detract from it.
So I chose yellow, blue, and red, a Triad color harmony which includes three colors evenly spaced around the color wheel. It’s a medium contrast palette, so I knew it would fit perfectly for Miranda.
While yellow, red, and blue are the hues, I needed to test fabrics for their values and intensities as well. The French fabric was a dull hue, so I wanted the other two fabrics to be dull as well so as not to overwhelm the cover.
Here are the candidates:
Red’s intensity is too bright. Blue’s value is right but the flowers are distracting.
Red’s value is good, but the intensity of an all red fabric may be too overwhelming. I need to try fabrics that have red in them but aren’t solid red. Blue fabric is perfect: value is medium, intensity is dull, and the style is in keeping with the provencal feel of the yellow fabric.
Same red fabric, but the blue fabric’s value is entirely too light. Next!
This is it! The red fabric is a print with the same style as the yellow and blue, the value is medium, and the intensity is dull. This is the final palette I chose and it turned out beautifully. I’m pleased with how the bag looks and how functional it is.
Remember this example next time you are ready to select a color palette for your next quilt. I knew my focus (the cover fabric), selected my color harmony (triad) to fit the purpose, and they worked together to create a successful color scheme.
We’ve decided to stay put in this house rather than move to the new one, so I wanted to rearrange the office area of my studio. I have a lovely writing table my husband made I use as a desk, but little space for papers or office supplies.
So, in the vein of making something from nothing, we went to Home Depot and Wal-Mart and bought some inexpensive shelving and office supplies, and here’s the result:
You can see what it looked like before here. Very little office space, just a table and a white board.
My favorite part of this new alcove is the collaged backgrounds I have on the wall. These were the result of an exercise I did in The Artist’s Way, and I remember thinking how juvenile and ridiculous cutting and pasting magazine photos was and how was this going to make me a better artist, yada, yada, yada. Well, I came to treasure these collages so much they lived in my bedroom closet when I didn’t have a studio. and they were prominently displayed on the walls when I finally got one.
Making something beautiful from nothing. An office, some art, a beautiful life.
One of my Christmas gifts to myself is the memoir Eat. Pray. Love. by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m finding it more entertaining than spiritually uplifting, but one of Elizabeth’s experiences resonated with me and I haven’t been able to forget it. During her stay in Italy, she experiences the Italian notion of l’arte d’arrangiarsi - the art of making something out of nothing. She says,
“The art of turning a few simple ingredients into a feast or a few gathered friends into a festival. Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this, not only the rich.”
Then Robert Glenn’s weekly newsletter appeared in my email inbox this morning talking of making and selling art in tough economic times. I think it’s even more important to make art when times are tough, as it uplifts both the artist and the public. Some of Norman Rockwell’s most beloved art came was inspired by a speech by Franklin Roosevelt during hard times in World War II. People remember the paintings much more than they remember the speech.
I’m inspired to create beautiful works of art during tough economic times, making something from nothing. From humble beginnings of old ripped jeans, sketch paper, and fabric scraps, I made prayer journals:
A tiny expression of beauty, not necessarily for materials that went into the journals, but for what will grace their pages.
We had such a great time at Jean’s shop in Dawsonville. Sew Memorable hosted the Pine Needle Quilter’s Guild challenge and had it hung front and center in the shop. Don’t the quilts look much brighter in daylight? They look so much more vibrant.
The Dawsonville quilt guild, Heart & Hand was there also, along with a delicious assortment of handmade goodies. Kathy Humphrie’s chocolate toffee bars were addictive and when she told us the recipe I found out why! I didn’t get the whole thing but it involved two sticks of butter, graham crackers, one cup of brown sugar, Ghirardelli chocolate chips and nuts. What’s not to love?
Kathy was out sick when we had our Guild Challege showing a couple of weeks ago, but her quilt was finished and it’s now at Sew Memorable.
I think Kathy did a great job including hues that weren’t in the original challenge fabrics’ palette, AND she hand-quilted her piece.
I’ve recently started attending the Pine Needle Quilters’ Guild as part of cultivating the Top Ten habits I outlined here. A lovely group of about twenty ladies who meet monthly and share what they’ve been doing that’s quilt-related.
They held their first challenge this month and the show was Tuesday night. Most of the ladies make traditional quilts, so what you’re about to see demonstrates how much they flexed their creative muscles for this challenge. Click on the photo below to go to a slide show of the entries, noting those winning Viewer’s Choice and Best Use of Focus Fabric. Can you guess which one is mine? (Hint: it wasn’t an award winner.)
In my last installment of the “Learning from the Masters” series, I’m profiling Faith Ringgold. One of the first decorating steps I did in my studio when we moved to our current home was to put prints of Faith’s work on the wall above my sewing machine. Faith’s color-infused work speaks to me in a way few others do. Her painted and pieced quilts are well-known and in galleries across the globe.
I attended a lecture Faith held at the High Museum of Art years ago, and I was intrigued and surprised by what she had to say. The two most memorable ideas were:
- aging is good for an artist because it allows you to persist in your work
- after seeing the works of the Gee’s Bend quilters, she wished she had ignored her mother’s advice of “matching seams are a must”
Faith also talked of her struggle to be recognized in her community, saying no local museum had bought her work, so she donated a piece. It seems that biblical adage, “a prophet is not recognized in her own hometown” applies to many walks of life.
Things I’ve learned from Faith Ringgold:
- originality is recognized over technical precision. Faith was painting and writing on quilts before anyone else, and she was recognized for it early on
- all artists struggle with being recognized and accepted
- working in a series gives importance and context to your work. Faith’s series range from her personal struggles with weight, to race relations, and works of the great masters in the Louvre, just to name a few
- work big. Large pieces of art demand your attention
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series and learned some great tips from the masters of the quilting world, as I have. I’d appreciate hearing from you if you’ve found these posts useful and interesting. Again, here’s the schedule in case you missed any:
Monday: Sunday at the High
Tuesday: Gwen Marston
Wednesday: Ruth McDowell
Thursday: Deidre Scherer
Friday: Faith Ringgold
The third artist in my “Learning from the Masters” series is Deidre Scherer. Deidre is not a quilter, but an artist who works in fabric and thread. She creates beautifully expressive portraits of our aging seniors, but uses no batting or bindings. In fact, she celebrates the raw edge, both in her stitching and the outside edges of her work.
I first became familiar with Ms. Scherer’s work after seeing her on Simply Quilts, when Alex Anderson introduced her as the cover artist of When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple. I had seen the book many times in bookstores, but I never realized the cover illustration was done in fabric and thread. I was floored that such a realistic and expressive portrait could be done in fiber.
Things I’ve learned from Deidre Scherer:
- you can create impressive results with simple materials. Deidre uses everyday calicoes and common cotton threads
- the difference between craft and art is in the artist. Deidre cuts directly into the fabric for the portrait pieces. No tracing, no patterns, just practice, practice, practice
- you can learn much from working in a series. Deidre had worked on a variety of subject matters early in her career, but really dedicated her work later to the subject of the elderly. Not only did her art improve, she received much acclaim after doing so
- don’t be afraid to be unique in your art. Deidre doesn’t use batting, fusible web, or bindings. She celebrates the unfinished look of her raw edge pieces
Will I be copying Ms. Scherer’s work? No. What I will do is take the lessons I’ve learned in studying her art and apply them to my own work. I create my own artistic style based on the influences of artists I admire.
Here is the “Learning from the Masters” series schedule for this week, in case you missed a post:
Monday: Sunday at the High
Tuesday: Gwen Marston
Wednesday: Ruth McDowell
Thursday: Deidre Scherer
Friday: Faith Ringgold
I’m archiving these in a category all their own so you can return to them. Who are your influences and what have you learned from them?
Ruth McDowell is the second quilt master I’m profiling this week in my “Learning from the Masters” series. She is the only quilter whose work I see and consistently say to myself, “I wish I had made that quilt.”
Ruth is well-known for her complex and rich piecing in her art quilts. I admire her vibrant color using commercial fabrics. Many art quilters use only their own hand-dyed fabrics, but Ruth uses the same commercial fabrics you and I can buy in fabric stores.
I’ve learned from Ruth:
- I can create lush color effects in my quilts using commonly-available fabrics
- I don’t have to hand-dye my fabrics to be an art quilter
- Look at unusual sources for fabrics. Cotton quilting fabrics are predictable; you’ll find unusual fabrics that make your quilts stand out by using fabrics from all types of sources
- It takes a deep commitment to your art to be successful. Ruth has dedicated her life to her pursuit of art quilting
Have you identified the quilting masters you can learn from? Share your inspirations in the comments. Here’s the schedule for the “Learning from the Masters” series in case you’ve missed a post:
Monday: Sunday at the High
Tuesday: Gwen Marston
Wednesday: Ruth McDowell
Thursday: Deidre Scherer
Friday: Faith Ringgold
In my first “Learning from the Master” post, the quilter from whom I’ve learned a great deal is Gwen Marston. First, I admire her attitude, which is perfectionism in quilting is overrated, and you don’t have to suffer to make a beautiful quilt. Gwen learned by copying the masters, Mennonite quilters and Mary Schafer, and she is passing on those lessons in her books and teaching.
Gwen also makes a variety of different quilts, from string quilts, to traditional four-block quilts, to star quilts. She refuses to be “branded” by publishers or anyone else. She makes the eclectic grouping of quilts she enjoys.
From Gwen I’ve learned:
- How to hand quilt
- I can make my own quilt my way
- How to think independently about the quilts I make, to please myself and no one else
- How to look at antique quilts to get inspiration for current quilts, whether traditional or contemporary
- How to make easy machine-appliqued bias stems
- How to make stuffed yo-yos
This is just a sampling of the lessons I’ve learned from Gwen. Check out her website, or even better, her books or classes to see for yourself.
Upcoming master quilters I’ll be posting about:
Wednesday: Ruth McDowell
Thursday: Deidre Scherer
Friday: Faith Ringgold
I’ll be posting photos from my most recent Easy Art Quilt class tomorrow. My little one is sick today so computer time is limited.
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