International Quilt Festival Long Beach - Come and Gone

The 2013 and the last International Quilt Festival Long Beach has come and gone in a flash and I am just now getting down to getting photos out of my camera.

I spent two days - one day on Thursday in two half day classes and one day on the floor of the show doing the vendors seeing the quilts,  meeting friends and fellow artists while manning the Quilts on the Wall Fiber Artists exhibit. . I actually bought very little in the show - one yard of great striped watercolorish fabric, a new Super Slider and some Superior thread. I thought the vendors were fewer and less interesting than in previous years, though I did ooh and ah over an Handiquilter Sweet 16 (again).

However, the quilts were great - some fabulous shows including the Dinner at Eight Artists "An Exquisite Moment" and SAQA's Seasonal Palette .  I was honored to be included int Quilts on The Wall Fiber Artist's show "Maps" with my quilt "A La Carte". There are some photos of that show below .

 

I also enjoyed seeing Tactile Architecture 2013 which included my quilt "Rainy Day San Francisco". It debuted in Houston last October and has been traveling around the country. I was glad to be able to say goodby to my quilt which has been sold and will now be going home with its new owner. An unexpectedly emotional leave taking...

 

 My two classes were with Diane Ricks from the San Diego area. In the morning she gave us 3 yards of silk chiffon, a whole table of acid dyes and shibori folding, tying and manipulating instructions. I split mine into three pieces and was pleasantly surprised at what I came up with. I've taken two pieces and rolled the hems for scarves, the other piece I've layered and am currently free motion quilting. Stay tuned if it comes out.... Some of the other participants' large pieces were extraordinary! 

 

Some of Diane's own work as examples for class.  

The dye table. The Acid dyes are brilliantly colored and don't need soda ash. 

You use white vinegar to set them

 

Above piece may turn into a quilt... 

Another piece I've edged as a scarf.

 

One of the wonderful large pieces done by a classmate.

We are all so sorry that IQF Long Beach will not be returning. It's been a great five years giving local quilters opportunities to show their work, take fabulous classes from big name instructors and meet and share with other artists. I'll miss it.....

California Dreaming: Down in the Grove

When my Pennsylvanian Dad came out of the Navy after serving in the Pacific in World War II his dream was to settle in Southern California with his Californian bride (who, legend says, he met at the Officers Club at the Coconut Grove, buy some property, raise and show 5 Gaited Saddlebred horses and watch things grow. In the early 50s my parents bought Mulberry Farm, an orange ranch in Chatsworth at the north end of the San Fernando Valley. My earliest memories are from that grove - the smell of the orange blossoms wafting in the evening, the dappled sunshine filtered through the leaves and the contrast of the bright yellow and orange fruit against dark green. A real California dream.....

Sadly, a few years later Mulberry Farm was sold for subdivision and the horses were gone - not a very practical economic plan to raise a young family. after all, but I've always loved the orange groves of my native southern California though sadly the majority of them have disappeared in favor of tract homes and shopping malls.

This latest quilt "California Dreaming: Down in the Grove" is from a photo I took in our own little urban garden of a dwarf limequat laden with fruit this past spring. Though it's not exactly from a grove it brought back all those memories of California's citrus heritage.

As for the technical stuff - I manipulated the photo on my Ipad in Sketch Guru to obatin a watercolor effect and again on my desk top computer in Photoshop  to tinker with color and saturation.  The photo was printed on a large scale by Spoonflower.com.  I added fabric paint to highlight some of the effects, thread painted the resulting image with silk and polyester threads to obtain texture and trapunto'd the fruit and a few leaves in the foreground to give depth and dimension. The background was free motion quilted very tightly to flatten and thus pop the other design elements. This is the third piece I've finished using these techniques, tweaking each along the way. I'm liking the results.

 

Off the Wall Fridays

Sacred Threads 2013 Opened Yesterday in Herndon, VA

Sacred Threads 2013 is open as of yesterday at Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia and will be open through July 28th. Two of my quilts both pictured below are included and it is a very happy moment for me to be included for the third time in this lovely,  meaningful exhibit. 

Check out Sacred Threads 2013 on Facebook

 Chaco I

2009: A Space Odyssey

If you're going to be in the suburban Washington DC area this month I hope you'll visit! If you do, I'd love to hear your impressions and if you're there with your camera take a photo or two of my pieces and if you're so kind, send them off to me at Sally@sallywrightquilts.com

Off the wall Fridays at http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

My New Love......

Remember the "white" 1965 Singer Featherweight I purchased earlier this year?  Loved the hum of the little machine, but I really hated the off-white sort of celery green color. Sorry Featherweight purists, but I had to do something!

So after a lot of research I sent her off to Gerald Holmes in Hot Springs, Arkansas. His price was right, he promised fast turnaround, and he had good internet recommendations. Et Voila! She has come back after a little more than a month with her lovely "Lexus Pearl White" finish (he uses automotive paints - you choose). Here she is below resplendant in her gold Singer decals...

 I finished a whole baby baby quilt top on her last weekend and loved working on her fitted into my Sew Ezi table upstairs in our son's old room with its leafy green views of the neighborhood. (He lives and works in Nashville so he will never know.....)

 I had to make her a special cover - loved this pearl gray fabric from Sew Modern here in LA  with abstract thread spools....

  - which I embroidered with her name --- "Pearl"

Blue Plate Special II off to Houston......

Got the word last week that my "Blue Plate Special II" will be going off to IQF Houston to be part of the new "What's For Dinner" show this fall. The show curated by Jamie Fingal features place mat sized quilts featuring answers to her favorite Facebook question. Rumor has it that they are going to try to display these on an actual table. What a cool idea!

My offering includes digital imagery of my great-grandmother's silver tomato server and an actual linen napkin along with a painted, thread painted and trapunto'd digital image of last summer's
 heirloom tomato bounty on a  pieced background .
Hope to be there in person to see the show!

Check out Off the Wall Fridays at www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com .

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Join me as I share some news and events from my textile art world as well as some thoughts on travel, food and the creative process.

View my website at www.SallyWrightQuilts.com for more from my studio....

Sally Wright, Textile Artist
Los Angeles, California

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Color is Everything

As I have been concentrating on an on-line art marketing class, I have focused on how to write a cogent artist statement. Lots of thinking - not much actual writing. The more I think about it I realize that my artwork and indeed my life revolves around color. Color in my art, my garden, the food I cook and consume, the colors In our home interior, the sky, the earth, the eyes of people I meet - it's all about color for me.

 

I have been told that my work shows a good natural eye for color , but to improve it I have been watching a class with Joen Wolfrom featured on Craftsy.com.  She started the class by asking students to paint their own 12 step color wheel. I, of course, decided to sew one instead and used a bundle of 12 hand dyed fabrics with a luscious sueded finish for just this purpose from my favorite Cherrywood in Minnesota. I adapted Anelie Belden's Dresden plate techniques and drafted my own twelve blade Dresden using these sumptuous fabrics which I also strip pieced into a rainbow like border - all of this on a black background.

 
Also last week I found myself watching a series of lessons online on The Quilt Show site with the talented quilter and teacher Libby Lehman demonstrating how she uses stitches already in her sewing machine to add color and interest to her quilts. So I got out my polyester embroidery threads and tried a few stitched borders using the decorative stitches on my Viking SE.

I added four different colored narrow flanges to finish the setting for this smallish quilt and then thought about the quilting. What I thought would be a quick and easy project, was quickly becoming quite an undertaking!

 

I  hauled out my box of #100 silk thread from YLI and Superior. I love the sheen , the beautiful saturated colors and the fine gauge of the thread for close quilting.

Diane Gaudynski has been a real mentor for my free motion quilting. I enjoy her technique for feathers - mark the spine only and then let go and see what happens.... I also use her technique of stitching an extra outline around the feather in another color - these were all done in a complimentary color and they really pop! Only one corner left to go!






I continue to think and pray for Libby Lehman as I worked on this quilt. I learned that the day after I watched her videos she suffered a brain aneurysm, has had two brain surgeries and has subsequently suffered a stroke. Quilters from all over the world are praying for her and her family.


 Check out Off the Wall Fridays at www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com .