The Hits Just Keep on Comin'

First, the postman brought a wonderful surprise with this most recent issue of Quilting Arts' Gifts.  Wow!  Four of our Sisters' had projects featured:  Barb Adams, Deb Bento, Vivika DeNegre, and Carol Ludington.  They all had been quiet about their participation and surprised us all.  Each offered a project that  we all consider their 'own' to be sure.  In our group, Barb has always described her many trip in terms of her gorgeous journals.  Deb's notepad holders have been one of her most sought-after items in the Guilford Art Center's Gift Shop.  Carol Ludington has been a dyer of note...and local instructor...for ages.  Her trademark (IMHO) is her crystal clear ice dyed fabrics.  And, Vivika...gosh, where would I begin?!

  THEN, Gifts was followed shortly by the Oct/Nov 2012 Quilting Arts issue.  Lynn Krawczyk interviewed four quilt groups from across the county...Sisters in Cloth among them...on how to start your own fiber art group.  A subject near and dear to my heart.

The opening photograph shows seven of the twelve members at one of our regular meetings...a critical mass, per usual, but hardly ever a full complement.  Carol Ludington (see above), Liz Shore, Robin Wolek, Debbie Bento (see above), me, Janine Anderson-Bays and Marie Shepherd.  One of the cool parts of this is that the photo represents the total twelve years that we have been in existence.  Liz, Robin, Deb, Janine and I were there in the beginning when we were first formed from the Guilford Newcomers' Club.  (interestingly, Liz had dropped out a few years ago to return to employment and has just recently re-joined the group).  Carol and Marie joined later as the group morphed from Newcomers' to wider membership.

This photo was taken at one of the installations of Double Take, our exhibit that traveled to several venues around the area.  It was a collaborative effort, joining our work with that of photographer Rosemary Delucco Alpert.  This page features Yvette Howard (another one of the Newcomers) and Deb, along with a childhood friend of hers, Debbie Kouzoukian, enjoying the opening reception.

The last photo in the article is that of Linda Zimmerman's wonderful interpretation of one of Alpert's photographs, Pink Hydrangea.

I am so proud of my friends' successes in their journeys as artists.  It has been such a wonderful meandering, joyful trip!

Seasons

I hosted my first Sisters meeting last week, on a gorgeous sparkling late summer morning. Color was a main topic (nothing unusual there, I'm sure).

We were treated with an array of fabrics that Carol iced dyed in the past week:

A sample of Carol's ice dyeing

 And also some beautiful silk scarfs from Carol:

Lovely texture as well

 As the seasons change, the colors that I am most attracted to change, too. It's no wonder that in August I was drawn to the warm spectrum and in the last gasps of a heat wave I took a stack of 5" designer fabric squares that I had been looking at for weeks and sewed them together into a small value quilt for the kitchen table.

Summery

My summer garden was very seasonal in its color, too. There were bright yellow peppers, orange tomatoes, a long row of zinnias. As the days are getting shorter and the temperatures have come down a bit, the morning glories are now the stars in the garden. Every year this blue amazes me:

Morning Glory

Time to finish my blue and white quilt : )

She's a bit territorial

Couldn't resist

My Show and Tell

Town Green

Today we met at my house and (duh) I forgot to take pics of show and tell!  I certainly can't say I forgot my camera.  I can say that the gray cells were not firing properly.  Sorry.  Next time.  Not to be too self promoting, I do have a pic of my most recent piece.

Our group is very busy, with several projects on the calendar:  First, the next SAQA/CT meeting is in Guilford on Oct 6.  Then, our 'drop dead' deadline for two (!) challenges is Oct 17 when both our "Indigo" and "Postage Stamp" pieces are to be revealed.  Both of the challenges will be exhibited at the Guilford Free Library in December...when we host the SAQA/CT group again!

If this isn't enough pressure, we are exhibiting in New Haven in February and in Newington next September.

We decided today that everyone would take turns posting on this blog.  Ergo, you will be able to hear from more of us more often...what inspires us, tickles us, provokes us, colors our work and informs our journey as a group and individually.  With any luck at all we will have weekly posts instead of the more recent sporadic ones.

Showing Off

         
Evelyn with "vintage" piece, including 2500+ buttons!

      Today's meeting was especially fun...We had visitors!  

Okay, Vivika is a "regular" member, however, since she's taken a full time position we don't see her very often.  So we are counting her too...it's alway a treat when she can squeeze time in for  brief visit...this time she showed us her work with "Ink Effects"...immortalizing her Jack Russell.

The real visitors were former member Evelyn Judson and her daughter Catharine from the Raleigh NC area.  They brought a treasure trove of work, which included one of Evelyn's with 2500 hand sewn buttons, weighing a good seven pounds.

Catharine's fine embroidery

More of Catharine's work

 Evelyn's show and tell from her art group's challenge

Close-up

Vivika's Ink Effects example

 Carol brought some of her luscious ice dyeing to share with Evelyn...Ruth Anne looks on.

We were all so glad to see our 'old' friend, her work and to catch up with her daughter who is sharing her mother's love of stitching.  Great meeting!

Impromptu Fibers

DOT interior

Thanks to the quick action and hard work of Diane Cadrain, Impromptu Fibers, an exhibit of art quilters across the state is hanging at the CT Department of Transportation in Newington CT.  Sixteen artists answered her call, with nine appearing with the collected pieces to hang the exhibit yesterday. 

Several Sisters were represented in the 16 participants:  Barb Adams, Debbie Bento, Yvette Howard, Diane Wright and Linda Zimmerman.

Impromptu Fibers will hang in the atrium at 2800 Berlin Turnpike, Newington CT until Friday, Aug 31.  For a full list of artists and their work and/or to view the exhibit, contact DOT employee Delois Barnes at  delois.barnes@ct.gov or ring her at (860) 594-3307.

Check out Diane Cadrain and Diane Wright's blogs for more pics.

Barb Adams with Carol Vivick hanging EdJonetta Miller's piece

Barb Adams "Summertime"

Delois Barnes, DOT coordinator with Carol Vinick, Diane Wright and "Instigator" Diane Cadrain

Deb Bento's "Swish (yes, swish) Chard" ;^)

Diane Wright's "Salon:After Matisse"

Yvette Howard's "Hidden Wells"

Linda Zimmerman's "Good Morning Sunshine"

Linda Zimmerman's "Crisp Fall Day in the Adirondaks"

Parfait Dyeing in the Yard

Barb Adams, following Parfait Dyer Impresario Carol Ludington's guidance, is layering her ice cubes with dye.  Yvette Howard works in the background.

L-R  Linda Zimmerman borrows dye from Impresario Carol whilst Gail Kotowski gets a call from the office and Marie Shepherd looks on.

The layering:  squished (that's a technical term) or scrunched (another) or folded fabric that has been soda ash soaked is topped with ice cubes.  Then scant amounts of dry dye is sprinkled over the top.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat until the container is filled.

Notice how neat Yvette's table, layers and dyes are...we expect nothing less :^)

You may not be able to guess whose work station this is....MINE!....that was a surprise, right?

Yvette...again

Next week we will reveal the results....

Little Brown Bag Challenge

Barb Adams work of Gail's stuff

Debbie Bento challenged us all to fill small brown bags with  "stuff".  Those bags were drawn randomly by other members who were tasked to create something.  There were really no rules.  It was to be spontaneous and fun....inspired by our talk at Extravaganza by Jane Davila.

Today was reveal day.  Eight were in attendance.  The completed pieces were returned in anonymous brown paper bags so that no one knew whose work was whose.  Spread out on a table, it was a real challenge to identify the maker of each piece.  Heck, some of us had a hard time identifying what we had contributed initially!  No names mentioned.

We were, indeed, challenged AND, more importantly, we all had fun in the meanwhile.

Thank you, Debbie!  Great idea.

Carol Ludington's work made from Yvette's stuff

Deb Bento's remaking of Barb's stuff

Diane's working of Ruth Anne's stuff

Janine's work from Diane's stuff

Yvette Howard's efforts with Carol's stuff

Ruth Anne Olson's work from Janine's stuff

Gail Kotowski's work from Debbie's stuff