Monday, May 15, 2017

Threads of Resistance

Back in February, a call went out for fiber art interpreting the theme "Threads of Resistance" for an exhibit organized by the Artist Circle Alliance to protest the Trump administration's actions and policies.  The Artist Circle, made up of 10 prominent art quilters, conceived this exhibit as an opportunity for fiber artists to express their hopes and dreams, fear and anger regarding this new administration. 
The entry deadline was May 1 and over 500 entries were received for this juried exhibit.  Though the jurying is not yet complete, an online gallery of the entries has been created so that all the artwork may be viewed and the artists' voices heard.  The number of pieces that will be chosen for the traveling exhibit is not known, but likely will be only a fraction of the submissions.  Whatever your views and political opinions, we appreciate this opportunity for fiber artists to have their voices heard. On the website menu, go to "the artwork" link to see the submissions which are divided by topic and can be played as slideshows.

Sue submitted a piece for this exhibit called "Women's Voices Matter"; it depicts the Women's March on DC on Jan. 21 in which she took part.  Here is Sue's quilt, which can also be found on the website in the Women's Rights group. 
There are currently 12 venues scheduled for the exhibit through October 2018.  If you have the opportunity to visit any of these venues beginning in July at the New England Quilt Museum, we're sure it will be an exhibit worth seeing. 

Monday, May 1, 2017

Cindy Grisdela - Improv Quilting

Recently, Sue attended a lecture/trunk show by Cindy Grisdela, author of Artful Improv.
Her lecture traced her transition from traditional quilter to improvisational quilting. This is the style that she works exclusively in now. 
Cindy is a quilter local to Northern Virginia and also serves as the editor of the QU Digest, the e-newsletter of the Quilters Unlimited guild, so Sue was already familiar with Cindy and her work.
Below is the quilt featured on the cover of her book.
Not only is her piecing and layout interesting, as in the quilt below,
her free motion quilting makes great use of and enhances the negative spaces.
Sue was particularly interested in the lecture because she has an improv quilt in process and was looking for some inspiration to figure out how to complete it.  It's always helpful to see and hear about other quilters' work and process to help refine your own. More on Sue's quilt in another post.