This is a view of the Seasonal Palette exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. SAQA did a fabulous job with the exhibit and it was a lovely display. It was a large square space with openings on two sides and park benches and plants in the center. The space seemed very open and quiet in the middle of the busy convention center. The walls were covered with fabric and the pieces were lit with track lighting. There was great diversity in style and technique in the various pieces but the uniformity of size and sequential arrangement made for a very cohesive show. I had an opportunity to meet many of the artist and hear their stories. It was wonderful and I am honored to be a part of this exhibit, which will now be traveling to many different venues. These photos were taken by Gregory Case. The views shown here do not include all in the exhibit but the artists represented are Susan Willen, Diane Melms, Daren Redman, Geri Patterson-Kutras, Diedre Adams, Nancy Whittington, Susie Apte, Mary Beth Frezon,Roslyn B. DeBoer, Jenny Hearn, and Barbara Schneider. You may purchase an exhibit catalog and see all the pieces here:

'BEHOLD' 78" x 32"

I call the finished piece ‘BEHOLD’. It was a challenging and rewarding project and I am very happy with the results. I have sent it off to the exhibit and am making preparations to travel to Houston with friends and family to see the show. I am very excited to see the exhibit in person and to meet the other artists. If you scroll down and begin at the first post you can see the process of creating this piece from the beginning.

After two months of work on the construction and composition for this piece, it was finally ready for the finishing steps in the process. It was pressed, layered with a thin batting/backing and secured with safety pins. Using a walking foot and monofilament thread, I stitched in the ditch along the main long diagonal seam lines. This secured the  layers so the pins could be removed. I then followed the line pattern in each motif with lines of stitching about 1/4 inch apart. For this I used Superior Bottom line thread in coordinating colors. It was a very long and laborious process which required turning the whole quilt hundreds of times at each corner of the design. This part is the most physically taxing for me. It took 8 days to complete the quilting process. After quilting the piece was trimmed to size, and facing strips were sewn around the perimeter. With a sleve added for hanging it was ready to go. I have documented the process in a sketchbook which will be displayed with this piece in the exhibit. I am very pleased with the finished product and am honored that it will be part of the special SAQA Seasonal Palette exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX beginning Nov. 1, 2012. After Houston, this exhibit is scheduled to travel to several different venues.

The gradation of color value is an important element in this design.  I used the b&w function on my camera to check the arrangement. When the composition was near complete, I began sewing the motifs together in diagonal strips. Throughout this process I continue to make adjustments, rearrange pieces and shift the alignment of strips. Even after a piece is sewn together I always need to go back and make changes, going through the tedious process of removing and replacing pieces to fine tune the composition.

When most of the fabric had been dyed and printed with line patterns, I began cutting and assembling individual design motifs. Squares were cut, stacked, cut in an X diagonally, rearranged and then pieced to create motifs. In each individual motif, pieces were arranged to create either a concentric pattern or a radial pattern. These units were constructed in different sizes and colors. Over the course of the design phase I made over 400 units which were arranged and rearranged to create the final composition.

The next step is mono-printing the fabric using textile paint. After cutting the fabric to size and pressing it, I print many layers of line patterns on each piece. I vary the pattern and the color value,  blending more paint to make new colors and overlapping layers to create complex patterns of lines.

Dying fabric is an interesting part of the process. I start with white PFD cotton fabric and tear it into 1/2 yd. pieces to make it easier to handle. Although I measure dye amounts to make concentrates, when I start to mix dye bath colors it is totally intuitive. I add water to create the desired volume of liquid and guess on proportions of water and dye concentrates to make different hues and values. After the fabric is saturated with dye, I wring it out, fold it, and place it in a ziplock bag. This is heated briefly in the microwave and then all the bagged wet dyed fabric is kept warm overnight to batch. The next day I wash out dyed fabric in the washing machine.

The next step for me in this process was thinking about the composition and the colors. I did a few pencil sketches trying out different design ideas and then tried a collage sketch. I printed several photo images of the piece I am to emulate and then cut it up and arranged the pieces into new configurations. This proved to be a good way to visualize what it might look like with a swath of lighter yellow motifs moving diagonally across the piece.

Taking a closer look, and knowing that I would be creating an artwork with an Autumn theme, I focused on the colorful spectacle we were observing as we traveled north. I took lots of photos, collected leaves, walked through the brilliant vegetation and imagined how I would express this splendor with fabric, paint and stitch. Taking in the view from afar and looking closer too, I felt the space and depth in the landscape. The distant vistas were dappled with subtle color and then transitioned to saturated hues in the vegetation close by. As the cool verdant greens of summer waned, the warm reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks of autumn crept in. Repetition of parallel lines and radiating line patterns prevailed, creating harmony and interest in natures design.

Detail "Sunny Disposition"