House Rules 2

I am in the middle of teaching an online course on how to make this little art quilt (“House Rules 2” on joggles.com. It features my whole family, pets included. (Yes, I made myself skinnier and with fewer wrinkles!) The figures are drawn on white fabric with pencil, then colored in with watercolor pencils, and moistened with a wet paintbrush before drawing the outlines with a Micron Pigma pen. The amount of water in the paintbrush determines how much the color bleeds out. You can see this in the difference between the eye and the cheeks in my sun, below:



There is a ton of handwork in this piece. The figures are done with needleturn applique, and all the “chicken scratch” quilting in the background took about six hours to complete.


I framed this piece in an inexpensive frame purchased at Ikea, after stitching it to the mat:


I really like the way it looks in the frame. Now to find the perfect spot to hang it!

– Susan Brubaker Knapp

A post from Debbie:

As Nancy's last post indicates...'tis the season for exhibits and shows of all types.

This Saturday, November 14th, the Charlotte Art Collective will be having its fall/holiday show. I'll be there with fabric art: quilts and wearables (including the scarf on the left in the middle).

Barking Dog Chocolatiers will be represented by hubby Joal Fischer. (the 3 marbleized hemispheres in the upper left hand corner are actually chocolates).

If you're a local or just passing through the Charlotte area, do plan to join us from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m at Avondale Presbyterian Church (2821 Park Road about a mile north of the Park Road Shopping Center in Charlotte).

With 18 other artists - showing everything from jewelry to turned wood to pottery - it promises to be an exciting opportunity for holiday shopping or just to sample the chocolate and enjoy the rest of the "eye candy" on display.

I hope to see you there....

Debbie Langsam

The Ups and Downs of Entries

This has been been a wild couple of weeks. I have entered a number of juried exhibitions; both art shows and art quilt shows. The results are win some, lose some. I did not get into Elements, while not unexpected, it was still a real disappointment.

I recently joined the Charlotte Art League and had one piece accepted for their Fall into Art juried show. The photo below shows a detail of the accepted piece.

Winter Fruit detail

Three of my winter pieces will be in an international juried art exhibition, Winter Whites, at the Ciel Gallery here in Charlotte, NC.

Here are details of two of the pieces in that show.
Reclamation, detail

Winter Confection III detail

Photos of the full size quilts are on my website: http://nancygcook.com .

Below is the e-invitation to the show. Reclamation is the lower right detail in the collage. Ciel Gallery (1519 Camden Road) is next door to CAL (1517 Camden Road) and the openings are both this Friday from 6-9. I will be skipping back and forth between the two venues. At least they are not across town from each other.

If you are in the area, I hope to see you at the openings.




Observation: The major difference in the jurying process for these art exhibitions and the art quilt exhibitions has been the length of time that submitted work is tied up waiting on jury results. The art shows let the artists know the results within a week; the art quilt shows take months to let the artist know, thereby tying up entered works for months even for work that is rejected.

Pink Petal Party wins Best of Show

My quilt “Pink Petal Party,” which is the focus of my new book, Appliqué Petal Party, just won Best of Show at the Lake Norman Quilters’ 2009 show. Wish I'd worn a different shirt tonight; it is hard to tell where the quilt stops and I start in this photo. :-)

We hung the show tonight and it is going to be fabulous. (Please see my previous post for more information on the show.)

– Susan Brubaker Knapp

Lake Norman Quilters’ show is this weekend

The Lake Norman Quilters’ show is this Friday and Saturday in Mooresville, NC. Grace Howes and I are both members of this group. It is going to be a beautiful show, with more than 230 quilts. If you are in the area, I do hope you’ll come!



Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 31
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
East Mooresville Intermediate School
1711 Landis Highway, Mooresville NC 28115

For directions to the show or more information, please go to the Lake Norman Quilters’ webpage. It contains a downloadable PDF with a map and general information.

October is "Barnful of Quilts" Time....

a post from Debbie...

"Barnful of Quilts" is becoming a lovely October tradition for quilters in this part of the world and I was delighted to be asked to participate for a second year...

"Barnful..." is the brainchild of Valerie Fox who raises El Escondito Paso Fino horses on her farm in Waxhaw, NC. (a decidedly "exotic" locale for a city born and bred northerner). Once a year, Valerie organizes friends and members of her church and the neighboring community to clean out her beautiful barn for this fundraising event.

Quilt artists (traditional and contemporary) are invited to display their work -- on walls, in stalls, in the exercise ring...basically any available surface or space. And along with vendors, a silent auction, a bake sale, and horses looking on from nearby pastures -- it adds up to a festive day-long treat for all.

My work was in a perfect spot -- the front entrance wall; ideal, because folks entering the show can see my photomosaic pieces from a distance and then come close to see the details




Here's Valerie taking a (very rare) break to view my pieces....

For this show, I displayed some framed mini-quilts from a new series of "urban silhouettes." The silhouettes are not specific to any particular city --- but, barn locale or not, I guess my New York roots peek out in the two below.

These are both from the "winter series:"

Winter Dawn
























and

Winter Night


For more pictures of "Barnful of Quilts," check out the images at Valerie's website, the ones taken by her daughter, very talented photographer Whitney Gray and those by Ellen Guerrant (last year's feature artist), whose "stall" of fabulous quilts and hand-dyes were once again hard to resist..

Susan’s space featured in Studios magazine

by Susan Brubaker Knapp

My studio is featured in the Fall 2009 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors’ Studios magazine!

There’s lots to love about this issue:

• a feature about a converted factory that is now an artists’ enclave in Pennsylvania
• tips on hosting an Open Studios event
• photos of more than 20 artists’ studios to inspire your own space
• fun projects, tips, tricks, and storage solutions

Get your copy at a local newsstand, or order one at the Interweave online store. The price is $7.99.

New Work

A few weeks ago I joined the SAQA Visioning project. This is a step by step, year long project that participating SAQA members will use to define one long term goal to help them move forward in their art careers.

My goal is to to define my artistic voice, to work towards narrowing down a couple of processes/techniques I want to use consistently in my work. From time to time I will report my progress.

This week I finished quilting 2 new pieces. The small red work below has been sitting waiting for some quilting. I find I enjoy the linear look of evenly spaced quilting lines and, of course, these colours always intrigue me.

The 2nd quilt is a definitely a departure from the warm colours I usually gravitate towards. For this piece I did a little experimentation with discharge paste. I cut circles in a freezer paper stencil and ironed it on to the quilt top, making sure the inner edges of the circles were completely sealed.

I find this is a much easier way to discharge fabric than using liquid or gel bleach. The paste (from Dharma Trading Co) is a gel medium consistency that I brushed over the stencil with a foam brush, waited for it to dry, gave it a good steaming then washed it out.

I will experiment with this some more to see if I get any different results that would vary the amount of discharge. Even though I prefer not to use the noxious bleach I will still do more comparisons with that tool as well.

~ Grace ~

Indian Corn

Indian Corn (2009) 14 x 11.5"

This is a small piece I just completed this weekend. Earlier this week, I created a stamp of the corn pattern using Fun Foam mounted on a cylinder. I made stamps using both the positive parts (kernels) and negative parts (spaces between the kernels) of the design. You can read more about the techniques and materials I used for this piece on my blog post here.

Yes, Virginia, PJ does still make stuff!

Last week, I enjoyed 3 days of workshops with Barbara Olson. I have not yet finished my straight-lined spiral from her cosmic spirals workshops, but here's my finished "organic" spiral. I really simplified her pattern by removing half of the seam lines and piecing the background far more simply than she does.

(see http://www.barbaraolsonquiltart.com/)

I've also jumped out of the box with some odd wire figures. That's Virginia in the middle (so named because of the state map I used for her hat and body); Scarlet on the left (for her color, of course); and Winka on the right (there's a small W on her hat). Yes, the wire is leftover from when our house was built; and, those are recycled CDs as stands.

On the set at Quilting Arts TV

by Susan Brubaker Knapp


Pokey Bolton, editor of Quilting Arts magazine, and me, getting ready to shoot my first segment.

I just returned from Cleveland, where I was shooting two segments for Quilting Arts TV, and a Quilting Arts Workshop DVD. What a wonderful, nerve-wracking, exhilarating couple of days! You can read more about my adventures and see lots more photos of the amazing artists I met there on my blog.

Susan and Janet to speak at The Mint Museum

On December 1, Janet A. Lasher and Susan Brubaker Knapp will be guest speakers at The Mint Museum’s Artists’ Forum. These events are designed to give area artists a platform to discuss their work as well as current issues and activities in their artistic fields.

The forum is being held in conjunction with American Quilt Classics, 1800-1980: The Bresler Collection, showing at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design now through February 6, 2010. The collection includes spectacular examples of Baltimore Album quilts, crazy quilts, Chintz pictorial quilts, Amish quilts and log cabin quilts.

DETAILS:
Tuesday, Dec. 1
7 to 8:30 p.m.
Mint Museum of Art
2730 Randolph Road
Cost: free

(You can click on the image above to see an enlargement of the flyer.)

An Update from Linda

The Kerr Grabowski workshop in Fall River Mass. was wonderful - I had a great time and learned a lot. The facility is an old

manufacturing building but was roomy, very bright due to large windows and air conditioned!

Kerr is an excellent teacher and I would recommend her classes to anyone interested in deconstructed screen printing.

After returning, I have been working on

"Blue Orchid" and am almost finished except for adding the aerial roots and labellum, without having it look too "Georgia O'Keefesh".

-Linda-

Another solo show....

An update from Debbie

Last Friday was definitely "Davidson Day." Nancy was in Davidson, NC being feted at a reception for her show at the Wooden Stone Gallery. And I was on North Davidson Street in Charlotte (also known as "NoDa") enjoying the mid-August gallery crawl that included my solo show at Beet Contemporary Craft and Functional Art Gallery.

Beet is a lovely space featuring an eclectic and a wonderfully beautiful mix of jewelry, glass, ceramics, wood, metal, and fiber arts.

And owner Nancy Neely is incredibly generous in inviting artists to mount month-long shows in the middle room of the gallery.

There was a good crowd on Friday night -- with folks wandering in and out of the galleries, munching on snacks and relaxing with a little wine.

The show's title, "Stitched: An Artquilt Journey," probably says it all. It's a sampling of quilts (and styles) that I've been doing over the past few years.

There's a wall (and then some) of abstracts:





(I've got some new abstracts as part of the show...I'll plan to report on them in another post....)

There's also a wall of "urban images:"

These fiber pieces feature photos of some iconic Charlotte (NC) hangouts.

The hangouts are gathering places that cross color and class lines -- where bankers mix with bikers and lawyers share a beer with construction workers.

The images that have been transferred to fabric and made up into quilts (either free hanging, or framed)

And finally, there's a wall of photomosaic quilts (I'm "posing" in this one -- hot, sweaty and a bit pooped after helping to hang the show):




The newest photomosaics are the first two in the picture -- They're titled "Out of the Mouths of Babes." (one is "Tomato Lips" and the other is "Grape Lips" --- guess which one is which....)

I've been thinking about these quilts for a while (and probably working on them even longer).

As you can see... from a distance, the image is of a pair of lips


























A close-up view shows that the quilt is actually made up of small 1/2 x 1/2" photos of women...from Jane Austen to Miss Piggy to Benazir Bhutto to Babe Zacharias (one of the first female golf pros).

(This photo shows a section of the unquilted surface)

















On the back of the quilt is a photo key/index that shows each woman, some information about her, and a quote attributed to her.

Because I got to be "Queen of the World" (or at least "Queen Quiltmaker") while making the quilt, I picked the women and quotes that appealed to me -- because they were poignant, thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain funny. It's been an interesting journey.

I'll end this entry with a small sampling of some of my favorites:

"When I sing, I don't want them to see that my face is black. I don't want them to see that my face is white. I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless."
Marian Anderson - 1st African American Metropolitan Opera singer and star.

"A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water."
Eleanor Roosevelt - Humanitarian, American 1st Lady

"I would be the most content if my children grew up to the be kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."
Anna Quindlen - Writer, Journalist

"My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother."
Althea Gibson - Athlete (track)

"It's not enough just to swing at the ball. You've got to loosen your girdle and let 'er fly."
Babe Zacharias - Athlete (golf)

Cheers to all,

Debbie

A stretch to realism - from janet's studio

The Fiber Art Options group meet today, and I had to miss the meeting. It made me sad that I didn't have a chance to visit with the group and share about all of our new work. So here is my August update.

A friend once said that I went to food markets like other people went to museums - it is true. Whenever I go to a new city I have to scope out the food markets, of course in Seattle and all over the US but also in France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and Japan. Sometimes this makes the people I travel with crazy - why spend a half day looking at lettuce, cheese, and olives, why in deed, but we always have a great time and learn about new foods and customs.

Last week I went to the farmer's market near my house with the camera and took a bunch of photos and brought back a few bags full of avocados, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, mushrooms etc. I love to arrange still life compositions on the wooden cutting boards and bowls that live on my kitchen island - these give me inspiration to chop, saute, and cook - but these images rarely find their way into my fiber art.

The past few months I have been sewing almost exclusively on paper. Most recently, I have been playing around quite a bit with sewn paper collages using handmade papers that I stain with watercolors and dyes. The paper gets torn up, arranged, repainted, and then machine sewn to a heavy paper foundation. Quick and fun to do. I had planned to spend some time in the studio working on collages when I decided to use one of the still life photos from the farmers market as inspiration. Here is the first veggie still life.

Feed back anyone?? (be kind - I don't do art that are supposed to look "like" things as a rule)

Fall classes

Susan and Janet are teaching online classes on Joggles.com in November. For details, click on the red “Classes” button in the sidebar on the right-hand side of this blog, or click here to go directly to that post.


House Rules by Susan Brubaker Knapp


Embellished Travel Journal by Janet A. Lasher

PJ's Latest Orchid Piece

I chose this yellow orchid from my array of orchid photos primarily because I knew I had several yellow and green fabrics in the stash to use in Ruth McDowell style piecing. Here's the photo with pattern lines added (using Quilt Assistant software ... see http://www.cosman.nl/software_en.html).

And here is my progress so far. The piecing is more tedious that I had hoped, so this may be my last piece in this style!

-PJ-

Soy Wax Fabrics

A few weeks ago I had another go at soy wax (1st foray was in Janet's workshop). This time though I decided to play with layers.

I had some dye left over from a recent dye day and needed to use them up. After soaking the PDF in soda ash and letting it dry I stamped my first layer of soy wax with a foam leaf stamp and painted the fabric with chartreuse dye.


After 2 more layers of soy wax and dye painting I ended up with the dark green layer at right.

The last thing I wanted to do was to create a crackle effect. I did this by painting the whole piece of fabric with soy wax, letting it set up, scrunched the whole thing into a ball (see below),

then painted with Havana Brown dye and left it to dry.


I like the effect the crackle produced and will definitely try that process again.


The extra crackling you see was due to not believing the dye would reach the fabric under the thick layer of soy wax and scrunching the fabric a second time. Still, a great piece that I definitely will be using soon.

Here are 2 more fabrics from that soy wax layers session....




~ K. Grace Howes

Nancy’s work installed at Wooden Stone Gallery

from Nancy G. Cook

Don and I spent Thursday morning at Wooden Stone Gallery in Davidson NC installing my work as their Featured Artist for August. Wooden Stone is one of my favorite galleries featuring usable art. We have been shopping at the gallery for years and have found lots of work that we loved and brought home. It is a real thrill to be their featured artist for August.

Here are some photos from the installation. I Love the warm gold walls and how well all the art looks on them.


This photo shows two of my pieces, Mimosa Dancing and Sourwood Festoons, over some really interesting hand crafted furniture.


The photo above gives the display of five of my wall pieces and shows some of the smaller pieces available as well. Two of my newest pieces are on the wall here. The upper right piece was Best of Show – Small at the Charlotte Quilters’ Guild Show in 2009 which was another first and a great honor.


I love the combination of wall pieces with the pottery in this display. It really shows how well different art mediums work together.

There is a Meet and Greet the Artist scheduled for Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 from 6-9 p.m. If you are close by, I hope to meet you there.

An Update from Linda

Have been working on the blue orchid quilt for our orchid project. Still have a long way to go but colors have been chosen. Orchids and leaves will be very three dimensional (hopefully).

I decided to take a break from orchids and play with my felting machine to create "Undercurrents". I used my soy wax batik fabric from Janet's class, enhanced with silk and wool roving and highlighted with Shiva oil paint sticks and heavy quilting.

I am very excited for I leave tomorrow morning for Fall River, Massachusetts to take a Kerr Grabowski Screen Printing class. Will post details later. -Linda-

Post from Nancy

Thought it would be fun to share progress on my two latest pieces. I Have been working hard to get ready for 2 shows, details will come later. One opens in Davidson, NC next Thursday. One opens in Chapel Hill, NC Sunday Labor Day Weekend.

The first piece is Late Summer Dawn, featuring the wonderful crepe myrtle seed pods. Here are the threads initially pulled for quilting and a detail of the piece.

Aren’t the seed pods wonderful and equally as interesting as their fluffy flowers (flowers not shown)?

The next piece is of a little evergreen ground cover found at our local shopping center. As best I can figure it, it is a form of juniper. The bluish forms are not berries, but a young form of a seed cone. Seeds and fruit forms are endlessly fascinating to me and are continuing to feed my creativity. If anyone recognizes the genus, please let me know. Enjoy!

Do you like the un-quilted forms in the background? Let me know what you think, please.

Nancy

Nancy's Latest

Hi, I am so proud I could pop!! My husband launched a website created by Holly Knott that features his art made on gourd strata. If you enjoy sculptural work, check it out. http://donfaires.com. This piece is called Ta Nish and is a 5 foot high rattle/walking stick.

I promise to keep my future blog updates fiber related, but could not resist sharing his good news. He has always supported my art and work, so seems only fair to share my pride in his.

-- Nancy --

A newcomer's entry...

from Deborah Langsam

As a "newbie" to Fiber Art Options (not to mention blogging...), a post on a new venture seemed apropos...

It all started with a bag of rice purchased at a local East-Indian grocery store in Charlotte. The rice - which was wonderful - was gone and I was left with an illustrated fabric bag: colorful and a bit funky.

.

I couldn't bear to toss it out. So with a nod to traditional flour/feed sack quilting, frugality (courtesy of Depression-era parents), and eco-friendliness, it is evolving into a beaded wall-hanging.


My initial thought was to mount it, complete with handle, on a background -- perhaps even stuffing it to give it the 3 dimensionality of a bag still being used for it's original intent. I haven't shut the door on that possibility. Since the bag is illustrated on front and back, a second lovely lady - this one including handle - still waits for me.

For now, however, I've taken a different route. I cut out the central motif and appliqued it onto a background of red, green, and black; I'm beading it for a more "Bollywood" effect. What you see below are pictures of the partially finished project...

Of course, the problem with beading is to figure out when to stop...and now I'm tempted to cover everything with beads (which also means beads appearing singly, in pairs, and in little groups on nearly every surface of the house...the bead explosion). What started out as "quick" project has, predictably, taken on a life of it's own.

As far as titles...there are two that are currently in the running:

"Recycling is the Mother of Invention"
"Bollywood Rice"

I'll keep you posted on progress...I'm glad to be on board.

Debbie

Susan’s first orchid piece

This is the start of a new piece I am working on for Fiber Art Options’ group exhibition. All the pieces will feature orchids. We are hoping to turn this into a travelling exhibition when we finish early next year.

Several of us in the group took hundreds of orchid photos at several locations, and shared them with the group. Together, we picked this photo to use as inspiration or a jumping-off point for each of us to create one 12x18" piece:



I chose to zoom in tight on the amazing color and pattern on the orchid’s petals. I started by cropping a photo that showed the petals from a more straight-on angle on my computer, then sizing it to the required 12x18", printing it out on paper, and putting it on my light board. A piece of white Kona Cotton fabric went on top, and then I lightly traced the lines (using very soft lead in a mechanical pencil) from the photo onto the fabric.

Next, I taped it to my kitchen countertop (which is ancient laminate and can be easily scrubbed clean) and painted with Jacquard Textile Color, brushing the lines in with thick paint, and then with a brush loaded with lots of water to create the bleeding out and blotchiness. I used the same hot pink color on everything, but watered down in some spots, except for the tiniest bit of yellow on the edge of the lip.

The open areas will be another color, something dark. I’m very eager to get this under my sewing machine needle and thread paint it!

I have always loved orchids for their exotic looks. They seema curious mix of exquisite beauty and delicacy and something darker, more dangerous. Don’t the mouth parts look like they could open up and chomp you? (Well, maybe I watched “Little Shop of Horrors” too many times!) But I stopped having them in my house after a beloved cat ate some of the bark chips that they grow in, and developed Histoplasmosis, an infection caused by the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum that can live in decaying plant matter. By the time we discovered what was wrong, it was too late, and I had to have him put down.

When I work on a piece based on something in the natural world, I usually do some research on it, so I can understand it better. It makes the whole creative process more meaningful. According to a great website called Beautiful Orchids, the orchid family has 35,000 species and 60,000 registered hybrids, and has “far more diversity and specialized pollination methods than any other flowering plant.” Vanilla is made from the seed pods of one variety.

– Susan Brubaker Knapp

ArtQuiltTransitions is now in Cary NC

The ArtQuiltTransitions traveling show has moved to Cary, NC at the Page Walker Arts & History Center. Here are three of my pieces in the show. The one on the left won Juror’s Choice from Susan Brandeis. What an incredible thrill for her to like my work. She is such a wonderful quilter and instructor. To see my post with more photos from this show’s opening in April, click here.

Page-Walker Arts & History Center
119 Ambassador Loop, Cary, NC 27512
Tel: 919-460-4963
Thursday, June 25 - Saturday, August 22, 2009

– Nancy G. Cook

Classes

Here’s a schedule of current and upcoming classes taught by members of Fiber Art Options:


House Rules
with Susan Brubaker Knapp
Online at Joggles.com
Starts Nov. 3; $50 for five lessons.


Embellished Travel Journal and Memory Book
with Janet Lasher
Online at Joggles.com
Starts Nov. 12; $38 for three lessons.

Fiber Art Options welcomes two new members

Last month, Fiber Art Options brought two new members into the group: K. Grace Howes and Deborah Michael Langsam. You can read more about them in the posts that follow this one. Welcome, y’all! – Susan

Deborah Michael Langsam

“Circuitous” might be the word to describe Deborah’s path to art. The colors, shapes, and textures of fungal spores led her to a doctorate in botany from Duke University and a career as a biologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. After twenty two years her attraction to the visual and tactile took a different turn … this time in the direction of textiles.

Working now as “Barking Dog Fiber Art,” Deborah creates contemporary wall-hangings and fiber art wearables. Her wall-hangings combine traditional quilting techniques and fabrics with an array of unique materials — photo transfers, beads, and found objects — to form original contemporary designs that play with color, texture, and light. Many of her pieces incorporate urban images and some of her most recent works draw on these images to form fabric mosaics and landscapes.

“Fiber art marries two of my passions … science and art,” says Deborah. “At the core, science and art projects are pretty similar: you usually need a little precision, a bunch of trial-and-error experimentation, and then a whole lot of creative problem-solving. And just as in science - where there’s always a story behind a discovery – there’s also always a story behind the fabric and stitching.”

In addition to private collections across the country, Deborah’s work can be found at Maddi’s Gallery and at Beet Contemporary Crafts & Functional Art (both in Charlotte, NC). The proceeds from Barking Dog Fiber Art are donated to SupportWorks, a non-profit charity in Charlotte, NC that helps people find and form support groups and research medical information.

E-MAIL: dmlangsa@uncc.edu


Havdalah I (2007) 20" x 20"


Tikkun Olam II (2006) 15" x 44"


Under the Watchful Eye of Queen Charlotte (2009) 28" x 46"


Under the Watchful Eye of Queen Charlotte detail (2009) 28" x 46"


Me'irah's Quilt: Study of Torah is Equal to Them All (2007) 33" x 22"


Driving Up to the Penguin (2008) 25" x 58"


I Wish I Had a River (2007) 15" x 39"


I Wish I Had a River detail

K. Grace Howes

“I have always been fascinated by fabric – it’s texture, its versatility, its ability to be manipulated and still be a tactile piece of woven material.”

K. Grace Howes has worked with fiber for most of her life, first making garments for clients in her native Bahamas then, with a family move to North Carolina, shifting her focus to quilts. This shift in how she worked with fabric eventually evolved into the fiber art pieces she now produces.

Grace’s work is a process of exploration whereby she creates pieces that are mostly abstract in nature using colour and form in a non-representational way. As she describes it “I play endlessly with line and shape, letting a piece speak to me as I try to map out its formation.”

These days you can find Grace in her studio making quilted artworks, playing with paper and fabric to produce her handmade journals and sketchbooks or up to her elbows dyeing or adding surface design to fabric.

With her fascination for colour, deeply rooted in her cultural history, and a connection and adherence to her own spiritual authenticity, Grace’s journey in art making is a never ending process.

WEBSITE: www.redbarn-studios.com
BLOG: www.redbarn-studios.com/Blog.html
ETSY: www.redbarnstudios.etsy.com
E-MAIL: grace@redbarn-studios.com


Red Moon (2009) 17-1/2" x 19"


Mother Love (2008) 29" x 25"


GreenPiece (2008) 10" x 9"


The Place to Be (2007) 11" x 9"


Breathe (2009) journal

What next?

I think I am almost done with the embroidery on this piece. I have really enjoyed working on it, and it was the perfect thing for me to take to the beach last week; very portable and small. I have decided to call it “Petri Dish Promenade,” because the circles are starting to look more and more like the circular petri dishes used to cultivate bacteria in the lab. Now I have to decide how I am going to finish this piece. I'm considering a frame of pieced hand-dyed fabrics.

The entire piece is shown above, and a detail shot is below. You can see more info and detail photos on my blog here.

Surface Design Conference 2009

Janet just got back from the Surface Design Conference held in Kansas City.

Hooray for summer and BBQ - which is everywhere this time of year in Kansas City. I had an amazing time.

All the exhibitions were wonderful and covered all types of fiber art, including encaustic, machine and hand embroidery, some amazing felting, knitting and crochet, beading, textile design, and well - everything!!

It is a wonderful conference with something for everyone, lectures on art v. craft as it relates to fiber, demonstrations, great talks on ethnic textile traditions, and multiple day workshops.

Alice Kettle's extremely large and heavily embroidered tapestries were on exhibition at the Belger Gallery - they were spectacular. She gave a talk one evening and discussed how she works - for hours on an industrial machine to stitch these heavy pieces onto a canvas foundation. She uses every type of thread working from the top and the bottom of the pieces.

Here are a few photos taken at Alice's exhibition.

I took 2 great workshops - one using on textile design and was lucky enough to assist Els van Baarle in her 4 day Batik workshop. I have posted a batik book I worked on during that workshop on my blog click over and take a look!

I am back in the studio for at least 2 solid weeks - I will post on progress soon!

Susan! - what wonders you are making with the samples from our workshops together!

Peaceful handwork

I started working on this yesterday, and I’m completely hooked. I think it is because I’ve been doing way too much computer work, and I needed to do something by hand, something tactile and fluid. Something where my brain could mellow and the work would take me where it wanted to go.

This started out as white fabric that was partially transformed in a soy wax batik class with fellow FAO member Janet Lasher (see previous post). Here’s what it looked like after that class, but before the wax was removed and before it was washed:

Here are some more shots of what it looks like now. I’m embroidering it with lots of different kinds of floss and thread, and couching down bits of thready fluff that came off fabric yardage after I washed it.

ooooh, this is highly addictive.

Linda's Latest

I have finished a small (16 x 16") embellished piece that does not have a name at this time.

It was basically an embellishment experiment using painted background fabric, metallic quillting thread, metallic mesh, buttons and soft modeling clay and beads.

Since completing this I have been concentrating on the first of my orchid quilts for our Fiber Art Options project. First I sketched the layout from my photo of blue orchids.

After that I chose a background fabric that I dye-painted and commercial hand dyes as shown. This is my first time working with bamboo batting. Will let you know how I like it.

-Linda-

Nancy’s Hemlock, continued

I have finished the machine quilting on the hemlock piece. As you can see, the echo quilting leaves wonderful patterns on the background negative spaces. The larger the background area, the more I can built up a rhythm to the quilting.

I showed the threads that I was going to consider in an earlier posting. My original background threads were too light. Here are the ones that I actually used. I ended up buying that Sulky thread 3 from the left for the background. Now I will do the hand embellishments with embroidery floss.

I love thread and hate to see the end threads being discarded. So I save them for each piece. I gave the threads to my friend Janet who will use them as base threads for her wonderful machine sewn cords. Here is the thread pile from my next quilt. Janet, more are waiting for you!!

Am considering "Stitches for Socrates" as the name of this piece. Feedback on this name will be greatly appreciated. - Nancy-

Janet's new website is LIVE!

Fiber Art Options member, Janet A. Lasher has updated her website and it is now live. She has added portfolio sections that now include her beadwork, ArtCloth, fiber textured pieces, and wearables. There are also pages for a few of the project she has been working on and descriptions of some of her more popular workshops.

Click over to take a peek into her studio. http://janetalasher.com

Susan’s work featured in 2010 QA Calendar

I was at Quilt Market last week and found out there that two of my pieces will be featured in the 2010 Quilting Arts calendar! I’m on the cover and the month of October. This is a shot of me with Pokey Bolton, the editor of Quilting Arts:

The 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar is already available for pre-order through Interweave’s online store.

Well, while I don't quite like it yet, here's the latest view of the Tightrope Walker that you first glimpsed back in an early April post.   I still think this has too much boring background, so my next step is to add in his story.  That is,  assuming that I can figure out a way to do lettering that shows up enough to be interesting. Stay tuned!  -PJ-

Get a free pattern for Susan’s evening bags

If you missed last year’s issue of Quilting Arts Gifts, which contained my designs for three different evening bags, you can now download the patterns and instructions for free! It’s in a new ebook called “7 Quilted Bag Patterns: Handmade Quilt Bags from Quilting Arts.” My bags are #2, 3 and 4. Just go to the Quilting Arts website by clicking here. If you make up one of my bags, I’d love to see photos and hear about it!

Lepidoptera finished!

Lepidoptera
by Susan Brubaker Knapp (2009)
Cotton fabric, wool/polyester batting, fabric paint, cotton thread. 39" x 39"

I finished this piece, “Lepidoptera,” a while ago, but we’ve had so much rain here lately that I couldn’t find a good time to take nice photos. I usually shoot them outside. This aftternoon, after a day of much fog and gloom, the clouds parted and I ran outside to take a few detail shots. Here they are:



Lepidoptera is the order of insects that includes butterflies and moths.
Can you tell that it started with this photo I took in my garden a few years ago?

This is a Painted Lady butterfly. It has wonderful patterns on its wings, but it is not very brightly colored. I used the patterns and completely changed the colors. My quilt is a bit psychedelic in comparison to the butterfly!

Besides being the first wholecloth painted quilt I’ve ever done, it is the first quilt I faced, rather than bound, and the first quilt I made using batting made of wool and polyester (recommended by my friend Nancy G. Cook, who uses it in all her work). I liked it a lot. “Lepidoptera” is also the first piece I have quilted with Aurifil threads, and I loved working with them.

Aurifil noticed I was using their thread, and asked if they could display “Lepidoptera” in their booth at Quilt Market next week. I was thrilled. If you are going, check it out there!

More Progress on Nancy’s Hemlock

Set up for quilting: I use an open-toe embroidery foot. Before quilting, I double check for good thread balance in top and bobbing on a sample quilt sandwich. The open foot allows me complete visibility of where the needle will go. I get a better stitch when the feed dogs are engaged. It can be tedious but I prefer the stitch quality.

Basting Threads: I remove the basting stitches as I get to them. If I run over them, they can be more difficult to remove. A pair of pointed tweezers helps remove any embedded threads.

Thread Painting: After outlining the design to stabilize the sandwich, I then do the thread painting of the designs using my hands to stretch the sandwich flat as it goes under the needle. This is the stage where the details of the design really come to life.

Importance of Specimens: One of the little cones turned sideways was confusing, the specimen helped clarify lines. Check out the size comparison of the specimen to my design.

Echo Quilting: Once the outlining and the thread painting are completed, I begin the echo quilting. The echo quilting on Hawaiian quilts has always fascinated me, so I riff off them with machine quilting to emphasize the negative spaces (the spaces around the designs) on my quilts. I love the rhythm and texture that builds up.

Chocolate: The first round of quilting is the most difficult and time consuming as that is when many of the details are filled which requires lots of turning of the sandwich and short lines of stitching. I line up the next round of quilting with the presser foot so that the previous line just shows inside the foot. After about 3-4 rounds, the quilting gets easier with smoother curved quilting lines and begins to go faster. The first several quilting rounds are tedious and a piece of chocolate helps me gather strength for the next round. I finish the quilting by going back into the small isolated areas of background and quilt them. Again, chocolate comes to the rescue. The quilt seems totally different when the quilting is done. This is why I quilt rather than paint.

Blogger Jill asked why I use heavy weight fabric on the back. Jill, it reduces the likelihood that I will have any tucks in the backing fabric. Good question.

Blogger Valerie – hope this answered some questions about quilting.

We really appreciate hearing from those following our blog.

-- Nancy Cook

Nancy's Process 

I am often asked how I get such regular quilting that is so close together, so my next 2 posts will be on the steps I use.  I am still  working on the Hemlock piece shown in an earlier post.  First of all, the batting is wool and polyester blend.  It is very easy to work with.  On the advice of Ruth McDowell, I use a backing fabric of heavy weight decorator cotton.  I pin baste closely with long Japanese pins. 

Then I hand baste with silk thread that blends and a fine needle in a 2 inch grid.  Silk slides through the layers easily and reduces stress on fingers.  I learned the importance of fine basting from Cherilyn Martin who does fantastic quilting to create textural patterns on her quilts.

Next I select a variety of threads.  I love variegated threads that have very little change in values.  They are hard to find, but worth looking for.  The first selection may very well be added to as I work.  Thread becomes my paint for all the details.  I love the King Tut Tone on Tone, YLI Machine quilting, Mettler silk-finish multi, and some Sulky Blendables.  I used a deep green variegated YLI silk thread for the hemlock needles on this piece and loved it.  

My first machine quilting stitches closely follow the outline of the design.  I go for the long lines first.  This is all straight stitching with the built- in walking foot on my old 1473 Pfaff.  I use an open- toed embroidery foot to see where my needle is going. 

Next time I will show how I do the close stitching.  

-- Nancy Cook

ArtQuiltsTRANSITIONS Awards to Charlotte NC Artists

FAO member, Nancy G. Cook was awarded Juror's Choice by Susan Brandeis at the ArtQuilts Transitions show at the Durham Arts Center in Durham, NC.

Susan Brandeis (left) and Nancy in front of Nancy's award winning piece, Winter Fruit.








Deborah Langsam, another quilt artist from Charlotte, NC was awarded Member's Choice at the same show for her piece Under the Watchful Eyes of Charlotte. Deborah and her piece are shown.

Online courses through Joggles

Both Janet and I are teaching online courses this spring/summer at Joggles. I took an online course last summer, learned a ton and got completely hooked on the concept. No matter where you live, now you can take a course to learn something new or improve your technique, via the internet.

If you’ve never taken an online course, here’s how it works: You sign up and pay the class fee. A few weeks before the class starts, they send you a supply list. On the first day of the class, you get an e-mail that gives you information and passwords for signing up to participate in the class forums. Here, you can write messages to the instructor, share your thoughts, progress and photos of your work with your fellow students.

You don't have to participate in the forums, or you can just lurk and read your fellow students’s comments, so it is perfect for people who are a little introverted, too!

Each week of the class, you receive an e-mail with the lesson in PDF format. When I took an online course, I learned a ton from the teacher and my fellow students, and made some wonderful online friends, too. There is lots of fun and sharing that goes on.

Janet’s class, Introduction to Textural Beading and Embellishment, starts June 10, and costs $60 for six lessons.



My class, Tyvek Explorations, starts July 28. Four lessons cost $40.



So please, join us! You’re bound to learn something new, and have a lot of fun doing it.

– Susan Brubaker Knapp

Janet’s soy wax batik class

Today was a day to play! I took Janet Lasher’s soy wax batik class today in her Charlotte studio. This is a technique I’ve been wanting to try for more than a year.

Soy wax is considered more environmentally friendly than beeswax, and it is much easier to remove from the fabric once the batik and dyeing process is finished.

Here, Janet talks to Grace Howes (left) about stamping on her silk charmeuse:


Here is one of my pieces, from the front (the side to which I applied the wax). I started with white Kona Cotton fabric, and painted on the circles. Then I applied blue and purple thickened dye inside the circles, and kiwi green on the background:


Linda Stegall started with a piece of fabric that had already been batiked (and that is her yellow and green piece hanging on the line behind her):


She drew big circles on the fabric, then brushed on thickened blue dye in some areas:


It was gorgeous!


Here are some of mine:






Today, I only used Janet’s thickened dyes for the color. I’m planning to do additional designs in the soy wax on some of my pieces, and may then overdye them with Dye-na-flow or Setacolor. After that, I may discharge them or add additional motifs.

– Susan Brubaker Knapp

In the Charlotte area we have a terrific orchid conservatory at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens (http://www.dsbg.org/ ). To complement one of their future orchid shows, this year's group challenge is "Inspired by Orchids". Each member is creating several individual pieces using orchid photos, shapes, colors, etc. as well as creating a "group challenge" piece inspired by this photo. We've set a few size / format restrictions, but otherwise the sky (or rather the creativity) is the limit! Stay tuned to see more as our challenge work evolves.

The starting sketch ....

Am working on a piece that will relate these two ideas. Stay tuned! -PJ-

Hemlock in progress

I have been working inking the design onto the hemlock piece, using layering of colors to get depth of needles overlapping each other and depth when looking inside the hemlock cone.

The cone is really interesting. It looks small and round when you look inside it. From the side, it is much longer than expected. Selecting threads for the stitching is the next step. That is always fun.

– Nancy

Charlotte Quilters Guild 2009 show

The Charlotte Quilters Guild’s 2009 quilt show opened today! Our own Nancy G. Cook won the Best of Show-Small for “Southern Hospitality,” which features a magnolia tree. This piece also won the blue ribbon in the “Pictoral Professional” category.

Susan Brubaker Knapp and friends won a second place ribbon in the “Group” category for their quilt, “Motherhood” (above), and a Judge’s Choice ribbon from Joanne Arntsen. The panels are by (from left:) Grace K. Howes, Lushorn Millsaps, Susan, and DeLane Rosenau.


Linda Stegall’s “Losing Serengeti” points out that “the Serengeti plains are one of the world’s largest animial habitats, containing the greatest variety of animals in the world. They … are rapidly diminshing due to our indifference.” She won the honorable mention in the “Pictoral Professional” category.


Susan’s “Round Red Barn” won a third place ribbon in the “Pictoral Professional” category.


P.J. Howard’s “Hands On!” won a second place ribbon in the “Art quilt amateur” category.


Nancy G. Cook’s “Winter Confection III” won a second place ribbon in the “Art quilt professional” category.

P.J. Howard’s “Dragon Bag” won second place in the “Wearables” category.


Susan’s “Home Planet” won first place in the “Art quilt professional” category.

Susan’s “Purple Evening Bag” won first place in the “Wearables” category.

Nancy’s “Crepe Myrtle: Homage to Klimt” won a blue ribbon in the “Innovative” category.

“Verde,” “Metamorphosis at Sea,” and Ikea

Since Janet’s screen printing class, I have spent most of my time on screen printing my own fabric for smaller fiber art pieces to be framed or attached to canvas as per photos. “Verde” (above) is attached to canvas painted in coordinated design.

“Metamorphosis at Sea” (below) was made from fabric screen printed at Janet’s class and finished with machine quilting and hand stitching in royal blue for accent. I managed to finish and frame by the March 6th deadline and entered it in the current Mint Hill Arts Metamorphosis exhibition.






My other current endeavor is trying to equip a guest bedroom and bathroom for screen printing (not a really good idea, there is only one large dye stain on the carpet so far).

Ikea’s kitchen storage items are great for studio use.

Pencils, brushes and tools are all visible and within easy reach; thus eliminating the 15 minutes I usually spend going through drawers and baskets looking for each item I need.


–Linda Stegall

Eastern Hemlock

I have been working on a series of trees and their seeds, see Seed Play on my website for finished work. Currently I am working on the Eastern Hemlock that has wonderful seed pods that look like little roses.



From the specimen, I made a series of sketches of the Eastern Hemlock to create a design.



Once the small design is completed, I have it enlarged to full size at Kinko’s. Then I make freezer paper templates to use in inking on a design. Inking is underway for the needles. More cutting of templates will be done tomorrow.


– Nancy G. Cook
http://www.nancygcook.com

Janet’s open mesh screen printing workshop

Here are some photos from Janet’s workshop on open mesh screen printing, held on Friday in her Charlotte studio. Janet taught me, Linda Stegall and P.J. Howard some of her screen printing techniques.

Here is a print on fabric by Janet:

and a detail of the same print:

Linda’s print featured an elegant swirl and a sophisticated color palette:

P.J. thought her design came out looking like birch bark …

… or birch trees, when turned the other direction:

Here’s mine:

Janet had done a photo-emulsion screen of a paper cut, then used Caran D'Ache Neocolor Artists’ Crayons to fill in areas before printing:

P.J.’s Caran D’Ache print was interesting on striped fabric:

Here’s my Caran D’Ache print (left) hanging up to dry with P.J.’s birch print:

Janet’s cat Apollo supervised the print-making:

Janet had the BIG set of Caran D’Ache:

What a fun day. Thanks, Janet!
– Susan Brubaker Knapp

Janet is also working on butterflies ...

It is so strange that Susan has been working on a butterfly project, because I have been thinking about the butterfly form also. I renewed my interest in butterflies, after watching a resent PBS program on the Monarch migration from Mexico to Canada up the East of the US.

I often start working with images and shapes by cutting black paper with a very sharp blade. In this case I am following one of the popular excerises from the book Notan by Dorr Bothwell and Marlys Mayfield. This paper cut is similar to the expanded square assignment presented in the book.

I am not trying to copy a butterfly, but filling the form of the wing with sections similar to those of real butterflies and then filling these sections with simple shapes. The paper is then flipped out to create the reverse or negative image. I may not use the outside square in the final design or I might add some more cuts to this field to create more symmetry. This is a good start, but I think a dozen or so cuts and I will have something - or a group of images that I love for an environmental exhibition I am collaborating on with a painter friend. - janet

Lepidoptera in progress

Here’s a sketch of a new work in progress. I’m calling it “Lepidoptera,” and it is based on a drawing I made from my photo of a Painted Lady butterfly. (Lepidoptera is the scientific order of insects that includes butterflies and moths. ) After painting in the colors, I scanned my drawing and then copied and rotated the wings until I was pleased with the composition.

After blowing up my drawing to full size (40" square), I used it to trace all the lines onto white cotton fabric. Then I painted in the colors, using fabric dyes and paints.

I’ve never done a whole cloth, painted piece before, so this is a big experiment. I am also using this piece to wander a bit into abstraction. Most of my work tends to be fairly realistic. I thought it would be a good exercise to start from a photo of a real subject, and then try to make it more abstract, so the focus would be on line and color instead.



I have just started the quilting, outlining my pencil lines that define the color areas with dark blue thread, and beginning to quilt in the colored areas. I always love this stage, where the quilting turns the fabric into a quilt.

–Susan Brubaker Knapp

Now showing…

Here are current and upcoming venues where members of Fiber Art Options are exhibiting their work:

Ciel Gallery

Nov. 6 – Jan. 9, 2010
The internationally juried exhibition “Winter Whites” features three of Nancy’s pieces. They look great in contrast to the textured mosaics in the show. A second reception will be held Dec. 4 from 6-9 p.m. at 1519 Camden Road, Charlotte, NC.

Charlotte Art League’s “Fall into Art” Show

Nov. 6 – 27
One of Nancy’s pieces in the Seed Play series is in this juried exhibition also on Camden Road next door to Ciel Gallery.

Charlotte Artery’s second exhibition
Nov. 13 and 20
130 Bland Street, one quick block off of Tryon Street in Charlotte's South End
Charlotte Artery is an artist run community that leverages marketing and business resources to provide a venue for emerging and mid-career local artists. Janet’s work will be part of this exhibition.

Fourth Annual Denver Art Trail
Saturday, Dec. 5, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 6, 1 - 4 p.m.
P.J. Howard is participating in this open studio tour featuring some 40 Denver, NC-area artists at more than a dozen stops branching off from NC Highway 16 near NC 73 in eastern Lincoln County (on the west side of Lake Norman). You'll find pottery, sculpture, metalworking, woodworking, fabric arts, jewelry, books, paintings, photography and other mediums in a wide range of prices. Watch for directional signs.

“SAQA Frontiers: Art Meets Science”
August 2010
Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, England
This exhibit “explores the unexpected intersections of two seemingly different disciplines, Art and Science. The works focus on inspiration from scientific theories or phenomena expressed in new or unexpected ways, from the harmonies of randomness to the dynamics produced by scientific imagery.”
Nancy’s “Southern Hospitality,” and Susan’s “Lepidoptera” and “Coleus” have been juried into this exhibition.

Published!

The work of several Fiber Art Options members has been published in nationally and internationally circulated magazines, books and other publications.


Susan’s studio is featured in the fall 2009 issue of Studios magazine.


Nancy has a three-page article about her quilting process in Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine.


Directions for making Janet’s soy wax batik scarves are including in Quilting Arts Gifts 2009.


Susan’s door organizer is one of the projects featured in International Quilt Festival Quilt Scene magazine, available fall 2009.


Janet teaches you how to make an image using a collagraph plate in her “Spirit Shrine” project featured in the September/October 2009 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.


Susan’s first title, published through C&T Publishing, is Appliqué Petal Party: A bouquet of 16 blocks & flowering border. It will be released in October 2009. Included is a booklet with needleturn appliqué basics and step-by-step instructions for a 73" square quilt. Full-size patterns for all the 12-1/2" blocks and the border are included on separate pattern sheets.
$17.95
ISBN 978-1-57120-861-3
UPC 734817-107309


Susan’s “Citrus Slices” graces the cover of the 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar. The pumpkin quilt shown for the month of October is hers, too!


Susan’s “Home Planet” is featured in the month of April in the 2009 Quilting Arts Calendar.



Susan’s “Harbinger’s Hope” was featured in the February/March 2009 issue of Quilt magazine.



Susan’s evening bags were featured in Quilting Arts Gifts 2008 issue.


Janet’s brooch was featured in the April/May 2007 issue of Quilting Arts magazine.


Susan’s “The Bluest Eye” was featured in the August/September 2007 issue of Quilting Arts magazine.


Nancy’s “Survivor: Ginkgo Biloba” is included in Studio Art Quilt Associates’ Portfolio 13 in 2006.


Nancy’s “Noctural Tidepool” was published in an article on PAQA South exhibition, “Encrustations,” in the fall 2002 issue of Quilting Arts magazine.


Nancy’s “Seeds of Spring” was featured in Focus on Batiks: Traditional Quilts in Fun Fabrics by Jan Bode Smiley.


Nancy’s work was featured on the cover of Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project in 2006.


Susan’s “Teach Me to Hear Mermaids Singing” is included in Masterpieces: Imagine That! (2006 Husqvarna Viking Gallery of Quilt Art)

P.J. Howard

P.J. Howard’s key art message is “Have Fun Being Yourself”. The goal of her pieces is to bring smiles - to her as she happily plays during the process and to others as they view and use the work. Even the smiles which mask the thought "what was she thinking?!" count as success!

Like her inspiring and frugal quilting ancestors, she often uses fabric scraps or recycled clothing, adding copper wire leftovers from residential electrical work and business reply mail cards from magazines. Her fiber work also incorporates art she creates by digitally manipulating nature photos she takes somewhat randomly. Generally her pieces are improvisational -- in rebellion to the planning and forecasting that marked her 30+ years in translating business strategy into data management systems – and small – confined by the 8 ½ x 11 formats from those same 30 years!

E-MAIL: pjhoward@rocketmail.com


Snowcat Survivor (2007) 20" x 20"


Business reply mail decoupage pin (2008) 2" x 4"


Finonacci Spiral 1 (2007) 18" x 24"


Finonacci Spiral 1 detail (2007)


Blue Green Angel (2008) 5" x 5"


Needlepoint Improv – Blue (2008) 1-1/2" x 2-1/2"


Needlepoint Improv – Yellow (2008) 2" x 2"


Needlepoint Improv – Pink (2008) 2" x 2"

Linda Stegall

After many years of making clothing and home accessories, Linda’s quilting history began about twenty years ago with a baby quilt for a niece and rapidly progressed to classes in traditional quilt making and then to art quilts and fabric manipulation. Painting, printing and dyeing fabrics for her quilts are her latest passion. This passion is part of her daily life and is her way of expressing feelings about life, politics and ecology.

Linda has received awards and many blue ribbons from quilt and art shows, including Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza 2007, where she received an award for Best Use of Color in the innovative category. She is a member of SAQA and several local quilting and art associations.

E-MAIL: lindastegall@bellsouth.net


Losing Serengeti (2007) 30" x 37-1/2"


Pottery I (2007) 22-1/2" x 30-1/2"


Safe Harbor (2008) 40" x 38"


Where Have All the Green Trees Gone? (2006) 50" x 58"


Whirlwinds (2008) 17" x 38-1/2"


Fractured Flowers (2006) 40" x 40"

Janet A. Lasher

Janet A. Lasher has been working in textile and fiber related art forms since she was old enough to sit in front of a sewing machine. In 2004, she left her corporate position as a project manager and systems analyst to relocate in North Carolina to work in fiber and paper art forms. Her work is found in private and corporate collections including the Bernina International Corporation in Switzerland.

She works in her studio; teaches embellishment and printmaking, mixed media, and surface design. She lives with her husband and teenage son in the historic district of Dilworth in Charlotte, North Carolina.

WEBSITE: www.janetalasher.com
BLOG: www.janetlasher.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: janet@JanetALasher.com


Total (2008) 61" x 51"


Multicolor Screen Print (2005) 54" x 43"


Bambara No. 6 – Green Fluri (2008) 61 x 40"


Bambara No. 3 – Cowry (2008) 61" x 40"


Aero (2008) detail


7th Street Windows Exhibit, Charlotte, NC (2008)


Ix Chel (2007) International Bead Show 2008

Susan Brubaker Knapp

Susan is a quilt artist, quilt pattern designer and teacher. She loves traditional hand quilting and needleturn appliqué, and also embraces innovative materials and techniques. She started making “art quilts” — works of art executed in fabrics and fibers — in 2005. Susan’s quilts have won national as well as local awards, and have been exhibited at national and international venues.

“Creating fiber art is my consuming passion,” Susan says. “I am an artist who works in fabric and thread. I find great joy in creating works that draw people closer and invite them to savor color and texture. All my art is a deep expression of my values and a succinct statement about my hopes for and concerns about our world.

“Art is my way of celebrating and documenting the deep mysteries of human beings’ relationships with each other, with our innate creativity, and with the natural world. Much of my work explores metamorphosis and transformation.”

WEBSITE: www.bluemoonriver.com
E-MAIL: susan@bluemoonriver.com
BLOG: wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com

Lepidoptera (2009) 39" x 39"


Running Deep (2008) 17" x 22"


Communion (2008) 24" x 36"


Home Planet (2008) 12" x 12"


Harbinger’s Hope (2007) 53" x 62"


The Bluest Eye (2007) 12" x 12"


Teach Me to Hear Mermaids Singing (2006) 51" x 51"

Nancy G. Cook

Nancy G. Cook is a fiber artist using layering of textiles to convey impressions of nature as a metaphor for the stages of life. She works with fabric because she loves the look of it, the feel of it and its historical memory traces.

Cook’s most recent series are contemporary whole-cloth quilts using her own stencils to create an inked design. Her hand-guided machine quilting creates a low relief sculpture with hand-embroidered details.

Cook’s art is in private and public collections and has been exhibited throughout the USA and in Europe. With solo shows in Charlotte and Raleigh, NC, and in Kenosha, Wis., her art textiles and articles have been published in magazines and books, including a piece on the cover of Creative Quilting. A summer resident at the McColl Center for Visual Arts, she has twice received artist project grants from the Arts and Science Council and the Charlotte Quilters’ Guild.

WEBSITE: www.nancygcook.com
BLOG: www.nancygcook.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: nancygcook@bellsouth.net


Southern Hospitality 28" x 38"


Detail from Southern Hospitality


Saguaro: Cereus Giganteus 22" x 17.5"


Pelton’s Rose Gentian 50" x 45"


Detail from Summer Split 28" x 36"



Flowering Dogwood: A Tree for All Seasons 30" x 30"