Esparta Fiber Arts Blog

I have been working (at least in my head) on this piece for some months. I had not had time to work on it until school let out. So finally, it has gotten beyond the tea stained piece of fabric I started out with. This piece is approximately 12″x12″ and is for the SAQA Auction. This raises money for Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) which helps artists who have a fiber art focus. This group is really diverse and provides a lot of support and inspiration for those of us whom are newer in the field.

I did a series of photos of this piece to document my process. Much like “guys in the band” (yes, I am still working on them) this is a similar process… although not on as large a scale and I did not use resist for this piece at all… I just freehand painted and then had at it with the sewing machine. It was a fun piece to do and nice to be able to finish in just a few days.

Information on the auction and the pieces that have already been sent in can be viewed here SAQA website. Here are the photos of this piece… “Dock Ropes #7″.

Dock Ropes # 7 in process

Dock Ropes #7 in process 1

Dock ropes #7 in process 2

Dock Ropes #7 in process 3

Dock ropes #7 full view finished

Dock Ropes #7 back stitch detail

Dock Ropes #7 detail 1

Dock Ropes #7 detail 2

The other piece that I recently finished was for Quilt Art’s  “Quinceañero” challenge. It was a ton of fun and meant to celebrate QuiltArt’s 15th year. I have only been a member for 4 or 5 years now, but I have learned quite a bit from various list members.

My personal piece is called “QA15″. I know it is not the most original title, but it was a ton of fun to create. I have been exploring blobby, cartoony type shapes and trying to get them more dimensional. I used my favorite method of painting with ink onto white fabric, then I used “prismacolor” pencils to add detail and shading. Really fun, but lesson learned. Wow, do you need to spray that stuff with fixative of some form… My arm was pretty grey after shading in… I also evened out the paint job with corresponding colors. I think it came out pretty cool. I need to redo the binding as it is really awful. Someday…

Here are photos of my “QA15″ piece.

QA 15 starting to pencil in

QA 15 in process

QA15 mostly painted penciled

QA15 full

QA15 detail

So I would highly recommend visiting the links to the SAQA site and Quilt Art site as they have such a great group of artists to view and I am really proud to be among them!

have fun,

mathea

Last week, my son stayed home sick from school… I think he was mainly overtired, but he does have ear issues. Anyway, I was in need of a new purse/bag as the handles of my other bag had worn to shreds. So while my son was watching a movie, I drew up the pattern for a new bag. It is based on Lazy Girl Designs “Miranda Bag”. I lost my pattern for the “Miranda” so I came up with this in its place. The quilting is not the world’s greatest, but it is functional. I did draw out the sashiko stitch pattern and stitched while my son learned how to do the stitching on his own piece of fabric. All in all, not a bad bag and it is stuffed with junk already… Picture below.

have fun,

mathea

New Bag

Ok, I really tried hard to finish this piece for IQA Houston, but that did not happen… I was moving right along and it had potential to be finished on time, but rushing probably wouldn’t have given me the better end result. I really enjoy working on Dock Ropes #6, it is colorful, nice texture and really embodies where I live. In fact, I should thank one of the local fishing persons who was picking up their child at school. I saw the truck piled high with used ropes and loved all the bright, yet worn colors all tossed around. I am pretty sure these were heavily used lines and they were being sorted to see what was still useful or what needed to be recycled. (In these parts, many of the used lines get made into door mats.)

So I tried to be creative with the progress photos this time and I created a slide show with them… There is music (“Ushas” by E.S. Posthumus: Makara album) so if you do not like sound, please either turn down or turn off your volume. The pictures end with the current state of finish… as you can see, I have more to go!

I hope to finish in the near future. Thanks for stopping by…

have fun,

mathea

click on link below to see slide show

Dock Ropes #6 progress

I realize that I am dreadful and have neglected this poor blog for far too long… It has been busy around here. I have been working at the schools, teaching skating and eventually getting burned out and a fabulous case of pneumonia. So I have not had the energy to do a ton. I am in the process of working on some smaller things.

I did manage to complete the challenge on Quilt Art for its 15th anniversary. I will not post a picture just yet as it has not been posted by them. Soon, really, I will post it… really, I will.

I also managed to finish my challenge for the Coastal Quilters, one of the local guilds I belong to. I really enjoyed this one. They gave us each a fat quarter of black and white paisley fabric and we needed to make a 9″X12″ landscape orientation quilt using the fabric prominently. I don’t often piece or use fabrics other than white unless I am making a bag or something of a non-quilt nature.

I fussy cut out a few of the paisley/bloom pieces and fused them to white fabric. Then I used Inktense pencils and made some of my squishy cartoon blobs and migrated over to ink painting then onto acrylic with fabric medium. I also used some dry gold dusty paint as well… fun. Then I shaded with Inktense pencils, Prismacolor pencils and Fabrico markers… Stitched the outlines and added a couple of detail stitches and covered the entire thing with gel medium with a glossy finish. I have to say, this was a ton of fun and it is nice to start to get to use art materials again.

I had given up for fear my kid would eat them or some such thing. The best thing is that he is curious and loves to use the paints and mediums. (granted, with really close supervision) He really enjoys art and creating things. I hope it continues!

I am also working on a project called “Dock Ropes #6″ and we will see if I manage to finish it… I need to I entered it into Maine Quilts, so I need to get my act together. I would love to get it done for the IQA: Houston deadline… that remains to be seen.

So that is it for now… Pics below of the “Trip #437″ challenge piece… some from late process through finish.

have fun,

mathea

Hi everyone, I know it has been a bit… Work has been busy and in this economy I need to work when I can! Spanish for grades K-3 has been fun and most of my free time goes to making up lesson plans, coloring pages, and games for the kids. But I have managed to create some small pieces for therapy and I hope to finally get back to some of my larger stuff when I get a chance!

Here are some photos of my “dock ropes” series… all of the photos are of unfinished pieces, they are very nearly done… enjoy and thanks for visiting. Incidentally, this is my 100th post… hmmm… maybe I should celebrate with a cappuccino or espresso…

have fun,

mathea

Ohhh, I know its been a while… I was in the unfortunate position of having to look for a job. Not a whole lot of fun, especially in the area that I live in. I really love where I live, but it is not exactly rolling in jobs and we are fairly remote. But luck is finally with me and I got a part time job with two of the local elementary schools for tutoring Spanish. This should be entertaining as I really love language. So this has left me with little to no time for art. I managed to finish a few home dec pieces and one arty piece that I started a while ago.

The home dec bits needed to happen. My son needed to not be in a crib anymore… So I bought a used bed frame, sanded it down and painted it black. Then I painted his room (alcove) in 4 different shades of blue/green and then painted the bathroom a cool blue. So I finally quilted a basic cuddle quilt with lizards and bugs on it for Kurt and it works in the new room really well. (now for some curtain action) I hung the “my beach boys” quilt in his bedroom. and it all works nicely. The bathroom is now not baby poop brown and needs a painting to brighten up one wall. I will post a pic of that when I finish.

The other home dec bits were for the living room. The pillow covers were my first ever sewing experiment almost 4 years ago. Needless to say, they had been beaten on quite a bit and looked really tired. So I took the samples for my MIL’s shower curtain and turned them into pillow covers and pillow cases for the dec and guest pillows. So the living room looks a little fresher now…

The art piece that I finally finished is the silk “sew/slash/sew” experiment… I really like it. It is quilted with a sunburst like pattern and the teal stripe is quilted with flames. I then mounted it on stretcher bars and beaded it with vintage silver-lined crystal beads. I like the colors and the composition works for me. I really like the randomness of the beading. All in all it is a piece that I really like… would it win awards… probably not. But I like it and it makes me happy and that is enough.

I have pics of all of these projects following… next blog will be a slight departure and I will write a little about the massive rehab my parents did on an antique barn up here in Camden area. It is really cool and I think I got some good pics.

have fun,

mathea

Today is the start of the SAQA auction. This is one of the larger fundraisers for this organization for the year. I am proud to be a member of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates), although I do not utilize the services that they provide nearly enough. I just have not had the time to figure it all out. But back to the auction. This is a fundraiser that benefits artists. Lord knows we need support!

The economy is awful, but SAQA will use these funds to run exhibitions, educational workshops, outreach programs, and publish catalogues all things helpful to artists. Fiber Art is newer to critical recognition in the art world, but it is expanding and SAQA helps those of us navigating through the arts to find our way. So if you have the time and spare change, please support a great cause. SAQA is helping people like me and I am grateful for it!

Here is the best part. The artwork is phenomenal! Many well known and not so well known fiber artists have made 12″X12″ works of art. Today the price of the art works will be $750.00 US and as this is a reverse auction the price will drop each successive day. I did not donate any work to this auction as I ran out of time, but there are so many great artists represented. I wish I had the money to buy all of these pieces and I got to see many of them close up when I was out at Quilt National. These are beautiful and there is no way that the computer screen is going to do many of these pieces justice.

These are some of my favorite pieces… I am sorry to those artists that I did not get to mention. I really enjoyed looking at everyone’s work and thank you for supporting SAQA with your time and talent! I limited myself to 5 pieces per page and will include a link to the artists website as well if possible. The page number will link to the full page, the artist’s name will link to their website and the name of the piece will link to the SAQA auction larger image view.

OK, here it goes… On page 1a my five favorites are: Sue Dennis’s “Ant Hill Country 3“, Wen Redmond’s “Angels Do Listen“, Ruth Powers “Yellow Headed Blackbird“, Cathy Kleeman “Ventanas #17“, and Leslie Carabas “2009-3M”

For page 1b my current favorites are: Anna Hergert “Eddies and Undercurrents“, Kathy Angel Lee “Autumn Colors“, Tanya Brown “Domestic Goddess“, Katharina Litchman’s “Under the Bridge“, and  Tommy Fitzsimmons “Family Pictures”

For page 2a my favorites are: Linda Colsh ” Into the Wind“, Susan Shie’s “Garden Hug#3“, Elaine Quehl “Unfurling“, Deidre Adams “Horizon 12“, and Jette Clover “Whitewash 1”

for page 2b my 5 faves are: Brenda Schlecter “Blue Moon“, Paula Chung “Red Tulip III“, Alison Schwabe “Timetracks 12“, Meredith Filshie “Yellow Fantasy“, and Marianne Williamson “Morning Light on the Pond”

Favorites on page 3a are: Terri Stegmiller’s “Mixed Berries“, Patti Shaw’s “Holding Court“, Catherina Breedyk-Law’s “F and M: fabric and metal #2″, Noriko Endo “Fall Color #4“, and Martha Sielman’s “Jellies Dance”

And for page 3b my favorites are: Jean Neblett “Small Works 27“, Kathleen McCabe “Liberty“, Katie Pasquini Masopust “Circles“, Ruth Carden “Then and Now“, and Laurie Brainerd “Imagination“…

Please remember, I only chose 5, but wow! Oh and I forgot to mention Judy Schwab‘s piece “Pieces of Eight“, I really like the combination of metal and cloth… Ok, I know, I need to stop. But seriously,there are some excellent pieces of art there, please take the time to support SAQA or one of the very generous artists that contributed to this worthy cause.

have fun,

mathea

Well, here I am slacking again on putting a post up. I actually have had quite a bit of personal stuff going on so nothing fun art related was happening. At the beginning of August I applied for juried fiber arts show at the Jonathan Frost Gallery in Rockland, Maine. I am really pleased to say I got in. I really had no major expectations for getting in as my stuff is a form of fiber art, but it does not quite fit any one format.

I am not a traditional quilter and my chops are not nearly as amazing as some of the local talents that we are so fortunate to have. I am still very much finding my way in this respect. But I am really happy that 4 of my pieces were accepted into the show that will occurr mid September through mid October. The pieces accepted can be seen at the end of this post. So if you are in the Midcoast Maine area enjoying the foliage please stop in and check out the gallery.

So this is it for the moment…

have fun,

mathea

I have been somewhat busy this week, so getting around to doing a post has been slow. Let’s see… This past weekend I went to Maine Quilts in Augusta (that is our big state show) and I have been somewhat busy trying to finish some smaller pieces…

I really enjoyed Maine Quilts. My friend and  fellow adult skater Terri went with me to check it all out and we met up with my other friend Heather who is also an adult skater. We all enjoy quilts as well. The show was really nice. The judging was tough this year, although I am very pleased that many of my quilting friends received ribbons for their hard work.

I am very proud to say that “my beach boys” got a yellow ribbon! That was really nice. I knew what the comments would be when I got them back… I am terrible and I do not cut the knots off the back of most of my quilts and my stitching is not all the same length and my starts and stops are not invisible. Those were the big negatives for my piece, other than that the judges were quite complementary…

Coming from an art background, this still doesn’t totally make sense to me. I understand for traditional quilts they are, in fact, seen on both sides… I have yet to turn a painting over to check out how the canvas was stapled… so for me, to grade an art quilt on its back is not totally relavant. This is, of course, just my opinion. The other bit about the stitch length kind of frustrates me. In my case, it is not likely to change. I tend to apply the principle for drawing and use different stroke lengths for different effects. I cannot see using a micro stitch for the entire quilt… but for my little fiddlehead type pattern the stitch needs to be shorter so the thing looks round, the same applies to little hooks and other things… As for the start and stop thing, I confess, I have absolutely no clue what they are talking about… I will ask the knowledge base on Quilt Art about that… they are very good about sharing stuff like that.

I am also very please to say that Sarah Ann Smith got a blue ribbon and judge’s choice ribbon for her “Be Inspired” art quilt. It was the only art quilt to get a blue ribbon. (there were only 5 ribbons given out) I really loved her quilt and I know she worked really hard on it. To get the full story on this quilt please go to her blog at Sarah Smith’s Blog.

So I have worked on a bunch of small quilts for fun and entertainment… just to get a break from the big ones for a bit. I am re-thinking the face process for “the guys in the band” so there will be some stitch rippery happening there. I think this method will work better… I will post when I see results I am actually happy with. So I have done a couple of little nautical type pieces and one silk piece that were a lot of fun… now to finish them up!

Here are a few pics…

have fun,

mathea

While I was having a day of paint… I was listening to various musics (ipod random) and one of the tracks was ” the principles of desire” (I think it was the Rippingtons, not sure though) and it got me to thinking about desire, passion and how those words get used and how they are expressed in and throughout art.

Desire was the word used in the song… hmmm, well desire has a ton of connotations to it. Desire is a want mostly. I think the differences in execution of expression of desire depends on the the degree of passion about the desire… Yeah, then I had to then think about passion as well. I did the look up in the dictionary about these words… I do in fact know the definitions, but thought maybe there was more with current parlance being what it is. The defiitions have not significantly changed, but perhaps my view of them as words has. I think that may be the case for many words as I age and see them used in different scenarios.

Desire… I desire many things I am sure. Desire can be just a want or a craving, it can have sexual overtones (ack, now I know I am going to get all kinds of spam…) as can art… Passion has similar sexual connotations as well as religious aspects… again, so can art. These words can be very positive or extremely negative. IE: the joy in creating art is a positive passion, giving someone a beatdown because they do not share your particular view is not a positive outlet for your passions. So how do they relate to art…

Art, music, dance, etc are super outlets for desire and passion to be expressed. Desire can be expressed in many forms… the longing look in a painted face, the reach in a human form, the relation between shapes in an abstract. Passion is (in my opinion) expressed in everything we do as artists. In art it can be the riotous and joyous color, music the notes sung in harmonies or shredded out on an electric guitar, dance and other forms of movement express passion with each motion and position of the body… so…

I decided to create a piece and call it desire or passion. Currently, it is in mini stage. I originally thought it would work as an art quilt. It still may, but I feel that it needs 3D elements to really convey my desire and passion… so I have a start on a small piece and my colors sorted out. Colors that really say desire and passion to me are the warm oranges, red, pinks to the cool hot purples… So that will be my focus group of colors… This will probably wind up being a small series as these words intrigue me right now and my goal is to have small easily accomplished work as my large pieces are moving slowly. You know, my desire and passion for some instant gratification.

So the first little quilt, sort of finished is the above mentioned colors with flame stitching…. I have a partially finished shot of it… I may finish this tomorrow… and then on to the next one.

have fun,

mathea

Desire and Passion take 1