Our New Website

Thanks for following Viewpoints 9!

As of September 1, 2016 we have relocated to our new home:

Viewpoints9.com

Look forward to seeing you there!

Our previous cycles of work are still available at the following links:

Viewpoints 9

Viewpoints 9: Challenges of Nine

Viewpoints 9: Constants & Variables

Carrefour European Patchwork Meeting, 2015

More information and the full program here.

We are very pleased to announce the European premier of Viewpoints 9's second body of work, "Challenges of 9" at the Carrefour European Patchwork Meeting in the Val d' Argent, France, September 16-19, 2015!

click on image to enlarge

Drawing

by Misik Kim

This is the last work of Veiwpoints9- 2.

I like to play with the sewing machine, just as young children play with toys.

The pieces of this work were free stitched by machine a few years ago.

Sometimes I thought the line of machine stitch is like drawing

I was cutting and piecing those pieces now.

Thanks,  Martha……..

Inner Glow

Cathi Bodine Water Lily

My husband has told me more than once that “we’re not models”. Usually this is proffered in response to some disappointment with my appearance or an ill-fitting outfit. He reminds me that beauty emanates from the inside: how we think, how we act, what we say. Sure something can be beautiful on the outside, but lasting beauty is from within.

I was reminded of this when I decided to create “Inner Glow”. At first I couldn’t explain my fascination with my friend Cathi Bodine’s photo of a water lily. I have never wanted to make a flower. Even though this flower is beautiful, flowers just aren’t my thing. But the image was so compelling! Eventually, I realized it was the glow emanating from the center of the lily. I really wanted to capture the essence of the flower more than the structure.

Inner Glow

For months I stared at the photo, certain it was beyond my capability. When Diane issued the challenge to swing for the fences, I knew my time had come to attempt this piece. In addition to the subject matter, I stretched myself with the quilting. 

I typically use a single color thread in the bobbin when I quilt. It’s also not unusual for me to create an envelope binding where the quilting is not visible from the back. On this quilt I decided to reflect the front on the back by using the same color thread. I guess it could be considered a variation of the inner glow, but my true motivation was to swing for the fences by going beyond my norm.

Inner Glow - Back

To create “Inner Glow” I painted a piece of white cotton muslin with Dr Ph Martin’s india inks. I used a variety of polyester and cotton threads for the quilting. I got carried away in the process and went beyond challenge dimensions (divisible by 9). My apologies. The piece measures 41” W by 24 ¼” H.

Out of Left Field

"New Zealand: Pukeko" ©2015, 9" x 27"

Confession, Diane, my piece has nothing to do with baseball, beyond the fact that it was something that took place in a field on a sunny day.  I did totally embrace the play idea, though, and had a wonderful time with it, and thank you very much for that…….not that it started out that way.

I had the great good fortune to be invited to accompany Betty on a teaching trip to the Quilt Symposium Manawatu in New Zealand last month.  Planning to be away, I thought to bring some things with me to work on the Play Ball Challenge.  As it happened, I didn't use any of them, but instead, participated in Lisa Walton's "Permission to Play" class.  A real "freeing" class - we painted and dyed and sun printed, and stamped and stenciled, and did various and sundry other things to lots of squares of cotton and bits of velvet.  At the end of the second day, there was a stack of a dozen pieces of unrelated fabrics that I had no idea what I might do with.

Ta-da!  I actually used every single piece I made!  First, the pieces of fabric were divided by value (the color kind :), then sewed them together in randomly cut strips creating 4 different strip-pieced fabrics to work play with. In the interest of trying more new things, I attempted freeform curves.  It came out really cool - a kaleidoscopic, colorful world!  This was layered it with spatter-painted organza and quilted.

And, of course, there had to be birds!  The birds were from photos taken on the trip to New Zealand.  Pukeko is the Maori name for the purple swamphen. Our very patient host in Golden Bay, Liza Eastman, stopped the car here and there (and everywhere) so I might take pictures of them - but they were never very close.  Still, their shape and posture was so distinct and the chase was a memorable part of the trip.

"New Zealand: Pukeko", detail

The pukeko were made with collaged crumpled tissue paper and matte medium on crinoline.  I trimmed them and fused them to the quilted background and then stitched them.  It was all great fun, the whole process - - and I know I am better at this than baseball!

In closing Viewpoints 9's second cycle, I have to say this is the best team I have ever played with!  Thanks, everyone, for a winning season!  I'm looking forward to the next cycle and the prospect of getting to see each of you in person at some point over the next year!

Pick-up Game

A pick-up game in baseball, and in other sports as well, is an impromptu game of players that are there at the moment of play.  There can be some fairly random participants.  It is not a serious endeavor, rather, something played and enjoyed at that moment.  Really, just play.

Even though I posed this challenge, I had no idea of how I would approach it.  After weeks of mulling, going to my studio and tidying, which is my practice when I'm looking for inspiration.  As my husband tells me "Go play in your fabric".  It worked!

It occurred to me that I should approach this as I were to invent a game.  Taking only fabric from my scrap bin, I challenged myself to create a playful piece.

It was great fun.  A bit like a archeological dig, truth be told.  I uncovered bits large and small that I hardly recognized...old friends.  Some of my hand-dyed, some discharged, vintage, African, Australian Aboriginal designs, and Japanese.   All right there in the bin.  No wonder my granddaughter has such fun playing in it.

Playing with Scraps 18" x 27"

Trilobite Trackway

Had a boatload of fun with this one.  Trilobites from every era, using a range of non woven materials, fabrics and techniques.

 This detail has a photo of an actual fossil owned by Vic and Liza Eastman that we saw in New Zealand.  I printed it out and repainted it- black is so boring.

 here's a detail showing the tip of a discharged image.

Trilobite Trackways, 33x40"