Inspired by a Painting Challenge

Fiber Visions is the new name of Sue's art quilt group that meets monthly, for the last year via Zoom.  The inability to meet in person has not stopped the group from completing a new challenge. Last December, member Terry issued a challenge to create a quilt inspired by a painting.  The selected painting is called Skiffs by Gustave Caillebotte which is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. It was painted in 1877 and exhibited at the 4th impressionist exhibition in 1879.

The only guideline was a height of 24 inches.  Other than that, quilts could be any width, landscape or portrait, or irregular in shape.  Photos of the finished quilts were to be submitted by April 20 and the results were revealed to the group in a slide show at the May 5 meeting.  Nine quilters participated, with one person submitting 3 quilts.  Inspiration could be taken from any aspect on the painting - colors, shapes, mood, textures.  Following are the interpretations of the Fiber Visions artists.

Linda Cooper - Serenity

Linda drew inspiration from the skiff shape when designing her flower and the oars provided inspiration for the yellow leaves

Willa Downes - Crew Practice on the Occoquan

Willa's daughter rowed in high school and college and coached a college team for a couple of years. As soon as she saw the painting she knew she had to put her rowing in the quilt. 

Lisa Greisen - Fleeing the Dark

Lisa was initially drawn to the turquoise and orange flecks in the water and wanted to create a watery effect and the movement of the water. But the more she looked at this painting through the gloomy days of winter, she felt that the trees in the background were overshadowing and ominous and that the skiffs were fleeing from that darkness. Hence, the name sprung from that.

Janet Palfey - Movement

Janet was inspired by the stripe-y reflections in the water and the shapes of the paddle blades. She tried to use a similar color pallet of striped, commercial cotton fabrics to show movement, placing the stripes horizontally to indicate calmer sections. She quilted the lower 2/3 at a 20 degree angle - the same as the paddle in the foreground of Caillebotte’s painting.

Terry Peckarsky - Take Me to the River

The colors in Caillebotte's Skiffs inspired Terry to play with the analogous color scheme using Katie Pasquini Masopust's Artful Log Cabin technique for an abstract response to the painting.

Terry Peckarsky - Local Motion

Terry was fascinated by the texture of the water in Caillebotte's Skiffs, so attempted to recreate the artist's brushstrokes in small rectangles of fabric. Her photo of a single rower on the C&O canal seemed to be right at home.

Terry Peckarsky - Let's Row

Upturned canoes at the lake near Terry's home seem poised to get in the water. She altered the photo before printing on fabric and quilted it tightly. She printed the words of a French folk song about "mon petit joli bateau," or "my pretty little boat," as a reference to the French painter's Yerres River. The wavy flanges and the three-dimensional pinwheels suggest the movement of the water and the paddles of the oars on the highly textured water.

Susan Price - Ripples

The cool blue-greens in Skiffs by Gustave Caillebotte were Sue's inspiration for this challenge. If you look at pieces displayed on her design wall, you’ll see that this is a color she uses a lot! For this challenge, she decided to try to make an abstract version of the painting. Her goal was to convey a feeling of tranquility reflecting the gentle ripples in the water.

Bonnie Rhoby - Skiffs Texturized

Stepping out of her usual realistic work Bonnie wanted to capture the texture of the painting and still relay to the viewer the overall essence of the subject. She used various styles of yarn that were either hand stitched or machine stitched. Of course there had to be some needle turn appliqué.

Barbara Sherwood - Lazy River

Barb was inspired by the gently flowing waters in the photo. She used the following materials: Cotton fabric and thread, wool felt batting.

Barbara Wise - Floating

Elements of the piece that inspired Barbara are the colors blue, green, grey, and yellow. Keeping within her signature style but using geometric shapes, she tells an abstract story of falling leaves on water. Background squares are painted, rectangular tree is a monoprint, and square leaves are fabric dyed with turmeric.

Here's a look at all the pieces together.  As with our last challenge, it is a cohesive group, tied together by color, shape and movement.  We did a great job, didn't we?  It's always fun and interesting to see everyone's interpretation and how our individual styles interact with each other. 

 

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Art Bee Whisper Challenge 2020

The Burke QU Art Quilt Bee is a group of approximately 20 members who normally meet in person once a month to share our love of creating with fabric and art quilts.  We share techniques through demos, discuss upcoming events and participate in challenges.  During the pandemic we have been meeting virtually and just last week revealed the results of our third Whisper Challenge which has taken place over the last 10 months.   

What is a Whisper Challenge?  Well, it's basically a game of "telephone" in the form of quilts.  The first person in the chain chose an inspiration photo and made a quilt inspired by that photo. She passed her quilt to the next person in line, who made a quilt inspired by the previous one.  And so on down the line, with each person seeing only the previous quilt.  Each person had one month to make their quilt.  When the pandemic restrictions hit and we were no longer able to meet in person, we switched to sending photos of our quilts electronically to the next person.  Ten of us participated in this challenge.  The rules were simple:  all quilts must be 18 x 24" in portrait orientation, and any interpretation of the inspiration photo/quilt is allowed.  With that, let's get to the big reveal!

This is the inspiration photo chosen by Judy Grumbacher who made the first quilt.

Judy made a colorful interpretation of the windmill photo, then passed her quilt to Anna Willard.

Anna was inspired by the blades on Judy's windmill to make a windmill on a hill. She passed her quilt to Judy Albert.

Judy was inspired by the windmill shape to make "Lighthouse".  She also chose colors to tie in with the previous quilt, and passed her quilt to Linda Cooper.

Linda used the lighthouse inspiration to make "Souvenir Lighthouse".  She has been playing with painting and creating bubble and glass images, so set Virginia’s Assateague Lighthouse in a snow globe. She passed her quilt to Barbara Wise.

Barbara's "Safe Harbor" incorporated the colors of Linda's quilt.  She interpreted the lighthouse as a metaphor for safe harbor, creating a safe shelter for the bird.  She passed her quilt to Susan Price.

Susan focused on the idea of "shelter" in Barbara's quilt and used this collection of door photos to show that "There's No Place Like Home".  She passed her quilt to Barbara Sherwood.

Barbara's "Shelter" reflects a home in her neighborhood.  She passed her quilt to Terry Peckarsky.

Terry was inspired by the colors in Barbara's quilt and used them all in different values to create "Here Comes the Sun".   She passed her quilt to Willa Downes.

Willa liked the contrast of warm and cool shades in Terry's quilt and wanted to create the same feeling in her quilt which she passed to Janet Palfey.

Janet's "Sunflower" was inspired by the sunflowers in Willa's quilt.  Since it was fall and hers was the last quilt, she focused on sunflowers ready for harvest with seed heads heavy and bending over.  She also stayed with the same color palette.

Didn't these turn out great?  It seems to be a very cohesive group and it would be great to see them hanging together in an exhibit somewhere.  Barring that, we've put them all on one slide so the progression is easier to see.  (click on the image below for a larger version)

This is a fun challenge for any group - the hard part is waiting till the end to see the reveal!  What is your favorite type of group challenge?

Sue's Word for 2017

Positivity.  "The state or character of being positive; a positivity that accepts the world as it is." That is my word for 2017. 

I have been thinking of late how difficult a year 2016 has been - it included an accident 8 months ago that my husband is still recovering from, as well as the deaths of several people I knew.  And anticipating what could be in store for 2017 and beyond, there is certainly much to be concerned about.  So I decided to try to focus on the positive in order to counteract the negative - in daily events, our country, and the world beyond.   To find the positive in every day, in people, in my creative pursuits, and the world in general.   I know that some days will be hard, especially as I head to Pennsylvania today because my 95 year old mother was hospitalized yesterday. But I will try, so wish me luck!

Elizabeth's Word for 2017

Word Reveal:  For 2017, Elizabeth has chosen the word “Persist” (along with all the derivatives such as persevere, persistence, persisting, etc).  This is a word that has long been a favorite of hers as an elementary school resource teacher.  One of her job requirements is to teach “Critical and Creative Thinking Skills” to all the students in the school through whole class lessons each quarter of the school year.  Each year, she starts out with a lesson on persisting. She has done this for more than a dozen years.  It is a mindset that she truly believes needs to be nurtured and encouraged for all children. 

Many of the students in the school know persist as her “favorite word” and will say it to her when they see her in the hallways.  As she teaches about persistence she often uses a book such as The Little Engine that Could, Pearl’s New Skates, Salt in His Shoes, or The Most Magnificent Thing.  Sometimes she uses videos like this commercial for a bank in Thailand or one of the many motivational videos about the failures and persistence of Michael Jordan or another athlete with whom the students are familiar. 

However, she hasn’t always practiced what she preaches and so this is the year to consciously think about persisting in all aspects of her life.  Whether it is sticking with a diet plan, maintaining a positive attitude about a career which increasingly is about students filling in trivia questions on standardized tests, or finishing up all those sewing UFOs, persistence seems to be something she would do well to focus on.  So, up on the wall the word will go so that it is right there above the computer and she can remember to persist, to re-evaluate what she is working on and learn from the failures too.

Elizabeth has used the software built into her Babylock Destiny to create this image of the word “Persist” with the crosshatched stitching underneath.  One of her goals for the year is to persist in learning how to use all the powerful features on this lovely sewing/embroidery machine.

Have you selected an inspirational word for the New Year?

Printing Inspiration Package

I recently received a birthday gift of a package of books, DVDs, and other supplies for print making that was offered by Interweave/Quilting Daily.  Look at all this inspiration!  (A little overwhelming, actually.)

There are 4 books that cover various types of printing - gelli plate printing, screen printing, stamping and carving your own stamps, and Printmaking Unleashed, which features a wealth of over 50  techniques for mark making.  Also included is a pad of printmaking paper, a squeegee, a thermofax screen and stencil by Julie Balzer, and 2 DVDs.  Exploring all these techniques (some new, some not) will keep me busy for quite a while!  Not to mention  another recent book acquisition with more things to try. 

Julie Booth's recent book features fabric printing with food and found objects from the kitchen.  I see lots of ideas for experimentation in PGFiber2Art's future, especially for Quilt Camp 7!

Inspirational Book

I received a wonderful new book for Christmas - Lesley Riley's Inspirational Quotes Illustrated. 

The book contains 130 quotes that Lesley has been collecting for over 50 years.  Each page contains a different quote, each illustrated by artists from varying backgrounds - collage, paint, quilt & fiber, beading, paper, watercolor, digital art.   A nice feature is that the pages are perforated so you can post or frame your favorite quotes. 

I have to say that I started reading it while riding in the car and was completely absorbed, page after page.  With one pass through, there were several pages that spoke to me more than others.  Of course I didn't have anything with me to mark them, so it will take a second equally enjoyable read to find them again. 

If you are looking for some new inspiration or motivation in the new year, this may be the book for you!