Showing posts with label Gallery 2-6. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gallery 2-6. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Colour and Line



… and many stitches not in time.

This was a puzzling challenge to me, as I’m not a hand-stitcher,  nor a ‘mender and saver’ – so it felt a little ‘alien’.  Eventually I decided to make something I simply wanted to do – to play with lines and colour, without much of a design in mind, and see what came out.  It turned up to be more difficult and time-consuming that I expected.  Partly because I came to it after a long period of hard work for my gallery at the Festival of Quilts, the writing of a book/catalogue for it, curating an exhibition, and being a juror in another.  And after the exhibition, a complex quilt to finish for Carrefour du Patchwork in France, and some time-consuming family commitments.  All the while feeling I needed a holiday!



Finally, here it is.  It looks simple in design, but to get it right took longer than I expected.  I feel it is more in the style of “modern quilting” (which I’ve been getting very interested in), although I used black instead of the more commonly used white background.  It is also some sort of irregular ‘medallion quilt’.

It is all quilted in black thread on black fabric, so it is very difficult to photograph without proper studio side lights.  I take my photos with the light from a big window on one side, and white reflecting surfaces on the other side.




The quilting is more visible in the detail photo, but then the black does not look so black, it looks more like very dark navy.  There is no quilting at all in the colour sections.

18” by 27”, made with hand-dyed cottons and commercial black fabric background, machine pieced and quilted, applied bits of colour on the edges.




Thursday, August 28, 2014

Step by Step

by Misik Kim
Step by Step, 26" x 27"

Really hard…..
It is really hard to write my thoughts in English.

I think it is too difficult to write the idea in another language.
I have learned English for a long time since middle school.
But English is always difficult language to me.
It was because I was hesitant to participate in viewpoints9.
Before viewpoints 9, I didn’t have many opportunities to write in English.
So everything is so strange and difficult at first time
But now I enjoy reading the articles the members posted.

I think all works are started from one stitch.
I always think that should work step by step.

I think my English will be improved with my works.


Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Last Drop




Thinking about this challenge and adages from my youth, I made a serendipitous mistake: I misspelled sow. I was remembering “You reap what you sow” but I wrote “You reap what you sew”. Perfect for an art quilter! It got me thinking about the impact of our art, the love and the meaning we imbue, and what it might possibly produce after its creation and release.

“Just a drop in the bucket” was my negative self’s response. Thankfully I quickly remembered an analogy of leadership, used to encourage individuals to give their best: that one drop in the bucket may be the one that causes the water to overflow. Or, another analogy: the ripples that emanate from a single drop of water…you never know what might change as those ripples travel distance and time. There is always a reason to be “Just a drop in the bucket” and turn something derogatory into something powerful.

Settled upon a drop as my inspiration, I recalled a photo I had taken in Washington, DC shortly after the SAQA conference in May. A Hosta leaf with water drops hanging onto the veins. My husband encouraged me to represent nine drops – a tribute to Viewpoints 9. Stitching is a prominent element, in keeping with the initial challenge: a stitch in time saves nine. After finishing this quilt at an unusually late hour, I’m inclined to rewrite that adage to: A stitch of nine, takes time!

I painted a cotton/silk blend fabric with Dr. Ph Martin’s ink, Inktense pencils and glue as a resist. Cotton and polyester threads were used for quilting. The piece measures 45” W x 36” H. In full disclosure, I was disappointed with the fabric…the pigment didn’t seem to penetrate. I like to paint in a watercolor style with multiple layers and each time I rinsed the fabric, the color faded; even after heat setting. During quilting, the color still transferred to my gloves. I think I’ll try pure silk the next time I choose to do a whole cloth painting. If that doesn’t work, I’m back to muslin. 

Of course, I welcome any suggestions you may have.

Wild Life: Salmon

Wild Life: Salmon, 9" x 27"
I have been contemplating the tragic extinction of species and the curious arrival of new hybrid species as our climate changes and our world evolves.  Pacific salmon have had a rough ride in this story.  An incredible group of species, they are born and raised in freshwater, spend their adulthood in saltwater, and years later, return to their natal freshwater rivers and streams to start the next generation.

Historically, these salmon have thrived with annual runs in the millions.  However, in recent years many of the runs have exponentially declined.  The causes are many - destruction of habitat, overfishing, water diversion, climactic changes, to name a few.  Loss of these fish species would be devastating in and of itself. But, the environment is an incredibly complex mesh of interactions between species.  There is nothing that exists truly independently and most have an amazing number of connections to organisms.  Scientists in Washington state have identified over 130 species that have one or more relationships with Pacific salmon - from humans to bald eagles to macro invertebrates.  Loss of any species, will have reaching effects, some, farther than others.  So, this is my animal kingdom "Stitch in time…".  Saving one species, in turn, saves many.  Biodiversity is critical to everyone's future.

Wild Life: Salmon was a total surprise.  I started the piece with just this beautiful piece of linen.  On a visit with Diane Wright, I added some Japanese fabrics from her collection. I was sure it was going to become some sort of hand-stitched, contemporary sampler, but, miraculously, Salmon evolved. It is raw-edge appliqué with machine quilting and machine and hand embroidery.


Mend

The last 2 months have seen many upheavals for my 91 year old Mum and we have been on the roller coaster ride with her as she transitioned from living independently at home, hospital and then to residential care. We are all happier that she is now getting the care she needs.
Even though my brother and I divided up the to-do tasks, there were many times I felt completely overwhelmed and swamped. It is not a feeling I like. I feel I have been metaphorically stitching our lives into an ordered whole again.
Mend 9 "x 27"
This one short word seems to describe the situation of the last 2 months. I have been 'mending' to make a better outcome. Mend- repair, patch, put right, improve, rectify.
 
Materials- Japanese woven cotton, linen, embroidery cotton, thread, fabric pen, wadding
Techniques-hand patched and stitched, machine quilted
 

 

Cosmos




Like many women my age, I was taught to stitch even before I could thread a needle.  I have clear recollections of stitching a bit of embroidery to my pant leg when I was five. 

Over the years, hand stitching more than satisfied a creative urge for me.  It also soothed.  Almost meditative.  “A stitch in time saves nine”….and my sanity, truth be told.

 “Cosmos” represents stitches in ‘time’, another dimension of reality that connects me with other stitchers.  In this case, I am connecting to hundreds of artists who are incorporating Australian artist Dijanne Cevaal’s lino-cut block print image, Sentinelle, into their work.

Dijanne sees this collaboration as artists connecting in peace, using their own unique styles to develop a host of guardian figures, standing watch over us all.

Imagine all the stitching…all the saving being created.

18" x 27"


How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?

Everyone faces adversity in their lives.
Sometimes issues come along individually, and can be coped with.
But when a whole series of events occurs, things become much harder to deal with- change is difficult in the best of times, and it's easy to become overwhelmed when faced with many life altering situations at the same time.
Family and friends can be saving graces, helping to mend that which is broken.

How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?  12x9.5"
Velvet, string, Lutradur.

Melancholy Era


by Lin Hsin-Chen

It’s a scattered flower. It’s fragmented, beyond borders, beyond imagination. It has been forced to change the reason for living in order to protect the innermost vitality. The flowers in this era will be out of our impression and bloom beautifully in another way. Learning about reverse thinking is an important lesson.

July and August in 2014 are sorrowful to me. It’s a very different summer, due to environmental issues, climate, natural disasters, man-made disasters, earthquakes, typhoons, plane crashes, war, disease, etc.; we no longer feel the happiness that summer brings to us. Dozens of major disasters occurred worldwide during this period. Living in Taiwan, the gas pipeline explosion which happened in the neighbor city makes me extremely anxious. I used to believe that if we think positively, unfortunate things will never come. However, that’s not the fact.


Does the comfortable and safe world no longer exist? Sketching before making a quilt used to be an easy thing for me, but this time I couldn’t make a decision after I drew several pictures. I couldn’t sweep the sorrow away so I had to give up. I followed my heart to cut the fabric freely and sew them by hand. I pray for healing the sorrows by the warmth of hand sewing. Sadness will pass and bring out opportunities for changes and miracles. I used the hand dyed fabrics that I got from Sue in this quilt. They strengthen and enrich my work.


Living in this generation, we need to have not only the courage of accepting diverse challenges due to global environmental changes, but also the ability of overcoming the fears. “A stitch in time saves nine” reminds me of a Chinese saying, "Be prepared for danger in times of peace". Thank you, Sue, this challenge topic gave me another chance for introspection. I hope everyone is safe and sound.

Materials: dyed fabric, commercial cottons, satin, beads, metallic threads, statuette, cross
Techniques: hand pieced, hand appliqué, hand quilted
Size: 18” x 27”

Partridge


For this challenge, I went "back in time" to my first handmade quilt (12 Days of Christmas) and thought about how I might approach the same project if I were making it today.  So I decided to do a portrait of a partridge, minus the pears.
Photo Aug 11, 2 43 57 PM
The background is made from shredded scraps of green fabric under a layer of green organza.  Finished size is 9"x9".  Pretty small for one of our challenges, but I am hoping to continue this into a series.
Photo Aug 11, 2 44 12 PM (1)