Ice dyeing Again

Last day of a lovely week off. Have been somewhat under the weather with a cold and sore throat, but it's still been very relaxing.

Had some time today to do a little ice dyeing.  Here's my containers out in the sun. I did some folding and banding together of the shirts in the first two pictures, then applied ice and dye.  I left them outside in the sun for about an hour then drained off the excess melted dye and water. Next, I flipped them over like cloth pancakes and covered them with more ice and dye powder. Then I put them outside again. The bottom photo is of a container which has a fat quarter and a silk scarf being dyed ala parfait style.

Stay tuned for the big unveiling Monday or Tuesday.

Cutting Edge "Off Kilter" Exhibit

Above, is Helianthus, my entry for our Cutting Edge Exhibit, "Off Kilter"  in San Luis Obispo opening on December 4th. at the San Luis Obispo Art Museum at 1010 Broad Street.  On December 5th, from 2 to 3 pm I will be giving  a 30 minute presentation about art quilts followed by a walk-through of the 19 quilts in our exhibit, explaining artist intent, materials used, etc. The reception will be from 3 to 5 pm.

I've been putting a lot of thought into the power point and presentation for my 'art talk.'  It's difficult enough for any talented artist to make their living from art sales alone, let alone a female artist, and add to that one who is a 'quilt' artist, whatever that might be.  There has been a distinction made between 'fine art' and craft or decorative art since medieval times, with craft art viewed as being inferior to fine art.  Women also have not received a fair shake in the art world, or for that matter, in any other world.  In the 60's and 70's as part of the second wave of feminism, female artists like ceramics artist, Judy Chicago, and Miriam Schapiro began the Feminist Art Program in Valencia California at the California Institute of Arts. Faith Wilding, one of the students created a room-size crocheted 'womb' environment.  She used crocheting, traditionally a woman's art/hobby to create a non-utilitarian art installation. The show drew a lot of attention to fiber art and women's art.

In 1971 there was a major show of  quilts entitled, "Abstract Design in America Quilts,' curated by Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof, for the Whitney Modern Art Museum in New York City.  It was the first time quilts received international recognition as art.  Although there was some  controversy over the quilts they chose for the exhibit, women's fiber art finally received national exposure.

As of 2012, only 13 of 169 artists on display in New York's Museum of Modern Art are female.  Something to think about.  Remember the Virginia Slims commercials of the sixties and early seventies,  stating, "You've  come a long way baby?"  Have we?

New Shibori Quilt Layered and Ready to be Embroidered

I made this stitched shibori piece back in 2009 or 2010 when I was beginning to explore shibori. It took about an hour to carefully remove all the stitching after dyeing it. Finally, last weekend,  I figured out a border that worked for it.  I did some strip pieceing of commercial fabrics that played well with the central piece.  It's pinned and ready for some embroidery.

Strip Piecing

I started cutting some contrasting fabrics, two comercial, two hand dyed,  into strips of different widths, in a very intuitive way with no rulers, and then sewed them together.  Once again, am figuring out where to go from here in a direction of my own.  There's so many random strip pieced quilts, some of which look great, and others not so great. As usual teaching is keeping me too busy this year, and it's hard to find time to work on it, or maybe I'm avoiding trying to figure it out.

Beautiful California

My husband and I often talk about how lucky we are to live in beautiful California and love to explore it as often as we can, which turns out to be not as often as we would like.  We finally found a little time to get away to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  We took a short trip to Santa Cruz.  I love the Redwoods in Henry Cowell State Park.  Awesome is a word that is totally overused, but these trees truly fit the definition of awesome.

Here's a photo from Natural Bridges State Park near Santa Cruz.

Now back to lesson planning for the week ahead.

Designing New Quilt

Time to take some of my precious hand dyed fabrics and do something with them instead of keeping them in stacks in my overcrowded studio.  But, it's just so hard for me to cut some of these fabrics up.  However it is clearly what needs to be done.  Here's some pictures from my design wall of fabrics I'm considering for a quilt. Five of the fabrics are hand-dyed, the other six are commercial ones.

The fabric in the top right is a stitched shibori piece I made a couple of years ago. 

 That's the one that will be hardest to cup up.  

Pacific International Quilt Show - Santa Clara (PIQF)

Had a great time at PIQF yesteray. Saw wonderful quilts and artistry as usual.  There were more 'modern' quilts which I enjoyed. I find their construction techniques very interesting and especially like the ones inspired by artists of the modern period.

Here are some of my favorites.

Gazania by Evelyn Wickman.  Closeup  of center below.

Redwood Cathedral by Lyra Bobo

 Geometric Transparency by Cheryl Isbell

Love in the Digital Age by Kristin Shields

Closeup

Song of the Sea by Kathy McNeil

Closeup of needlework

Brush Fire by Christine Seeger

Griffonage by Susan Hotchkis

Closeup

From a special exhibit entitled "Wicked" based on the book, sponsored by Cherrywood Fabrics, this is a quilt by Kathy Durochik featuring deconstructed text.  Very interesting, as were many in this exhibit.