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

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