Our fearless leader is back! Welcome home, Ardy!

Ardy opening the July meeting with a summary of her absence.



Surprise . . . Ardy’s reaction to seeing her get-well heart quilt.



Oh my, is that for me?



Sandy Poteet and Sandra Bruce display the heart quilt made for Ardy by some of the MAQ members.



Sandra Bruce showing the back of the quilt.  Notice the Bandaid on the heart.



I was surprised, speechless (also dumfounded, flabbergasted and a few
more adjectives) to receive my beautiful heart quilt at the end of the
MAQ meeting  - with my mouth open - - I can't imagine how you all
got the blocks made, got it quilted and bound in just the month since my
surgery! It truly is the most wonderful gift and I thank you all!  I
have now spent a good deal of time looking at each of the blocks - -
your artistry is amazing and I can feel the love you put in every stitch!

 

Special thanks to Sandy Poteet who collected the blocks and assembled
the quilt top with design assistance from Lin Schiffner and Gail Sims;
to Sandra Bruce who quilted it so expertly with hearts and words, and to
Darlynn Evans who added the binding - - all in record time!

 

Extra thanks to Joan Dyer who organized the "feed the Tobins campaign"!
Every evening for two whole weeks, a delicious and healthy dinner
arrived on our doorstep.  That was so much appreciated as I was really
not up to cooking (my husband is a good handyman, but not a cook)!



MAQ has been a great source of joy to me over the past 11+ years! I
promise to go to cardiac rehab, get better and continue to see that our
MAQ continues to provide us with the friendships, inspiration and
validation we all seek.

I love you all and thank you!
Ardy

MAQ had it's second challenge reveal on July 24, 2013. The challenges were: Hole(s),,,a piece wih at least one hole, Chose an Art Genre and Architectural Elements. At the end of the reveal, the members voted for the following, Best Interpretation of Challenge Theme, Best Design, Best use of Color and/or Value and Viewer's Choice.

Hole(s) . . . a piece with at least one hole

Millie Ruffalo
"Hole-in-One"
26" x 21 1/2"

My sense of humor and ideas changes as the quilt is being made.  The quilt tells me what to do.

Patti Henderson

"Wholly-Purple Haze"

13" x 12"

Painted stamped on canvas, Timtex, beads and Inktense pencils were used.  Painted metal using alcohol based paints were also used. The holes are represented by beads and grommets.  Beads were made using "Carla Perry's" straw method.

Lynda Lasich
"Celestial Space"
21" x 17"

Inspiration came from an article, "Stitching on Air" by Nancy Green, in the Oct/Now 2012 Quilting Arts Magazine along with Pine Tree Quilt Guild's challenge "Fabric of Space."  The sun and planets are what I think of when talking about space.  Trying to depict the sun as explosive and bright in the cosmos led to beading on air.

Pat Gillings
"1000 Island Inverse"
15 1/2" x 20 1/2"

I visited the 1000 Island area between Canada and the US recently and this reminded me of the islands clustered together but in reverse colors.  Creating the hole and supporting it as I wanted was definitely the challenge of this quilt.  This was created in the Fractured Circle class by Sharon Alves.

Ingrid Cattaneo

"Fuji Apple"

38" x 31"

Inspired by nature and its range of colors made this piece a challenge. The range of natures colors, particularly "greens" has always fascinated me and has always presented a challenge since green is not my favorite palette. That was my first challenge.  The second challenge was "burning" a hole through the quilt using a wood burning tool.  All the fabrics are hand-dyed, except the branch which is commercial. Original design inspiration came from a photo I took after I had cut the apple branch from the tree.

Winner, Best Design

Choose an Art Genre

Millie Ruffalo

"Rhapsody in Blue"

43" x 20 1/2"

I have always wanted to do a quilt of the music title "Rhapsody in Blue,” written by George Gershwin (Sept. 26, 1898-July 11, 1937) George Gershwin was asked to compose the new American music "Jazzy" and classical by Paul Whiteman.  The music was due in two weeks when George agreed to do the composition in 1924.  Gershwin was on the train from NY City to Boston when he was inspired by the sound of the train. George wrote the composition while on the train. The concert was held in NY City.  “Rhapsody in Blue” was his biggest hit.

Ruth Robinson

"Illusion"

26" x 36"

I took Christine Barnes on-line class in transparency.  I used cotton fabric, cotton Aurifil thread and ink.

Edith Gregersen

"Art Scrap Quilt"

27 1/2" x 28"

Choose an Art Genre.  What does that mean?  "Genre" means a kind of art — well a quilt made out of scrap leftovers can be put together in an artistic, non-traditional way.  This quilt is made of all leftover scraps from other quilts.  It is sewn together in a haphazard way that is balanced yet carefree with colors, triangles, squares and strips harmonizing with each other.  Hung on point gives it a fanciful look.  It is art that is modern in style; traditional in content.

Jan Reed

"Restoration"
31" x 35"

Inspiration for this piece comes from Alphonse Mucha and Maxfield Parish. Hand painted and commercial batiks, sateen, colored inks and pencils were used. An angel, exhausted from helping troubled souls on earth, chooses to rest in the clouds and use beams from heaven to restore her spirit.

Winner, Viewers' Choice

Patricia Porter
"Quiet ABSTRACT"
23" X 25"

Inspired by Ben Nicholson-a 20th century British artist.  Cotton, silk, upholstery fabrics, some hand dyed fabrics were used.  Cotton thread of various thicknesses and wool batting were used. 
Ben Nicholson painted austere geometric art.  He used subdued colors and subtle relief in some of his art.  I echoed his art by using soft colors and upholstery fabrics to create subtle relief in this piece.  I usually work with brighter colors, so this was a challenge for me.  I'm very pleased with the results. 

Karla Rogers

"Oceanic Illusions"

46" x 46"

Source of design was OP-Art quilts by Marilyn Doheny.  The gentle beauty created by rippling water in the Coastal Tide Pools was my inspiration for this piece.  The optical illusion that results from the waters movement often distorts and magnifies the creatures and shells seen below the surface.  It is my hope that the center quilt design and subsequent quilting hint of that gentle beauty that is so dear to my heart! The most challenging aspect was to accurately piece the various strips.  As one can imagine, the narrowest 1/4" strips presented a particularly difficult challenge.

Architectural Elements

Ann Sanderson

"The Windy City"

30" x 37"

This was an attempt to play with bright light fabrics alongside dark fabrics on a neutral background

Winner, Best use of Color and/or Value

Jeanie Ferguson

"The Star Barn"

21" x 19"

Source of design is a historic iconic architecture building that I drive by everyday. I worked with the Searls Library Historical Research to obtain specific info from Mr. Donald Canon, owner of the barn and property. We had a 5-window GMC pick-up truck just like the one pictured. My story is that the old beat-up car in its garage was "resurrected" to be this shiny beautiful 1952 GMC pick-up.

Carol Walsh

"Layers of Time- Clonmacnoise" Ireland

33" x 26"

Source of design was a 2011 visit to this magical and reverent place. The monastery of Clonmacnoise was founded in 545.  It was strategically located on the River Shannon, half-way between Dublin and Galway.  Clonmacnoise became a major center of religion, learning, craftsmanship and trade.  Through the years there were raids by the Viking and Romans and many pilgrimages by followers of Catholicism.  This was my attempt at realism.  I need to learn more about proportion and shading.

Kate Grant
"Interior Screen Door with vines and lizard"
29" x 71"

We needed a door for the doorway to our bunk room, but I wanted light to be able to pass through as well. The main material is nylon screening, cotton fabrics for the door frame, leaves and a lizard.  The door handle is made from ultra suede. When I decided to make a screen door for this space, I was faced with challenges ranging from design to construction to embellishment to installation.  I looked up screen doors on the Internet but didn't find any that appealed to me. So I designed my own.The final challenge was how to hang the door. The door-quilt will be mounted on a swinging rod and when not in use as a door, the quilt will appear to be a wall hanging. I am now searching for a pull-rod, like those used on hotel curtains, to open and close it.

June's Show and Tell

Dee Jones

Linda Waddle

Sandra Bruce

Lorna Tiller

Kate Grant

Sandra Poteet

A special Mountain Art Quilters Exhibit was featured at this years Pine Tree Quilt Guild "Spring Time in the Pines" Show. MAQ was invited once again to have the exhibit in the lunch room where there is always a large garthering of attendees throughout the two day event.

SWAG (Sierra Wearable Art Group) was also invited to exhibit their lovely wearable art. 

All pictures were submitted by Cathy Stone. Thank you Cathy!

Yesterday MAQ had its first challenge reveal for 2013. The challege catagories are Going in Circles, Floral Fantasy and Inspired by a Famous Piece of Art. During the reveal, members were able to cast their vote for Best Interpretation of Challenge, Best Original Design, Best use of Color and Viewers Choice.



Going in Circles

Robin Hart
"The Great Spiral Whirlpool Galaxy"
38.25" x 47.25"
Inspired by Hubble telescope images of spiral galaxies.  Materials used are batik fabrics, cotton and polyester threads, a lot of stitching, appliqué, cotton batting and some fabric paint. 

Won Best Interpretation of Challenge.

Lorri Wolfe
"Orion's Nebula"
18" x 25"
I am taking an astronomy class and one of the first things I saw thru the telescope was Orion and its nebula star nursery.

Joan Dyer
"Ocean Planet"
20.5" x 36"
The background fabric was freely cut and thin black strips were inserted irregularly.  The panel was machine quilted with a walking foot with several different threads. Then the circle was appliquéd by hand onto the background.

Patricia Porter
"Circling Around"
23" x 23"
Inspired by Sonia Delaunay, a 20th. century Parisian graphic artist.  I've created a composition of circles and half circles to show movement with intermittent lines to rest the eye.  The palette is a warm monotone of red/orange with an accent of cool blue/violet compliment. The variety of values works to enhance the overall layout of "Circling Around"

Ann Sanderson
"Catch of the Day"
29" x 28"
Inspired by what to do with fun fabrics.  I set out to play with a stack of "fun fabrics".  My idea was to create interesting shapes on a black background and then add circles for the theme.  I used hand printed fabrics & some commercial fabrics.  Hand dyed thread used for surface embellishment.

Dee Jones
"Smoke Signals"
16" x 23"
Working with velvet proved challenging, especially on small circles.  Several backing fabrics tried. Decorative machine stitching didn't work well either.  The heavy silk background called for patience also. Materials use: heavy silk tie fabric, silk ties, velvet, crochet chain, beads, blood, sweat and naughty words.

Darlynn Evans

"Astral Fantasy"

34" x 34"

Inspired by Libby Lehman circle quilts.  This is my first attempt at reverse appliqué.  I used lighter colors underneath and darker on top.  I actually made two tops.  One dark and one light and layered them on top of each other before I did the cut aways. It was a surprise to see what I would get. I like the look of transparency.  It's a wedding gift for my niece.

Claudia Sinsel

"Crop Circles"

34" x 42.50"

Inspired by shapes of crops viewed from a plane. I did some sketches and when the challenge of "Going in Circles" came up, I knew I had the perfect subject.  All the crop shapes were rough edge appliquéd and stitched down with Wonder Invisible thread and quilted with cotton thread.

Nan Curry

"Triangles Circles and Squares, ‘Oh My’"

12" x 19"

Inspired by my burlap bag!  I wanted to make a very primitive quilt.  All raw edge machine appliqué, hand & machine quilting, hand embroidery.

Heidi Emmett
"Calculating Circles"
16.5" x 33"
When the challenge came out, I gathered materials and just started creating circles, hand work in the evenings. I enjoyed creating all the textures using wools, embroidery floss, glass beads and buttons.

Margaret Vodicka
"Apollo"
18" circle
Inspired by Susan Carlson fabric sun collage pattern in her book. As I chose materials among my scraps of material, I used mostly warm colors to represent the warmth of our sun and applied what I recently learned about color value. I use a wire wreath frame to create a circular shape that makes this project an appropriate challenge for Going in Circles.

Linda Waddle
"Bubble Up"
16.5" x 25"
A little piece of hand dye printed in a Jane Dunnewold class led to this small quilt.  Dynaflo paints stamped, a glimmer of gold leaf and stitching to add depth and layers. Tried raw edge layered fabric as construction technique.

Floral Fantasy

Ginny Lee
"Happy Mother's Day"
24" x 30"
Inspired by Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art by C. June Barnes. I wanted to make a dimensional item using the silk suit my mother wore at my wedding in 1967.  I was able to construct my container in the style of the ceramist, Peter Voulkos. I used Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stabilizer for the container. The flowers are made out of silks and were treated with Terial Arts, to help prevent fraying.

Joan Toth
"Fleur de Jour"
32" x 30.5"
Inspired by my love of still life and flowers. Materials used were cotton batting, painted muslin and polyester threads. 

Gail Sims
"Secret Garden"
6.5" x 6.5" frame
Inspired by hand screened silk that looked like a tiled garden path. I've never worked on such a small scale.  I enjoyed the way the tiny beads created an illusion of a flowering bush and the silk embroidery thread was wonderful to work with. The challenge was to get something I liked to fit in a small shadowbox frame.

Pam Berry
"Flower in the Round"
30" round
Inspired by bowls in Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art by C. June Barnes.This was an engineering nightmare, but it was really fun. It started with an article in Quilt Art that used heavy embroidery stabilizer to make vases.  I sandwiched my batik strips along with trim and Angelina Fiber. You don't wash out all the stabilizer! I used poly silk, assortment of batiks, heavy machine embroidery stabilizer.

Darlynn Evans
"Cactus Flower"
22" x 30"
Won Viewers Choice

Inspired by photo taken in Chandler, Arizona. I had some pictures of cactus flowers taken at my brother's house in Arizona.  I decided to kill 3 birds with one stone.  Make a sample, fulfill a challenge requirement and make a quilt for my brother's new house.



Edith Gregersen
"My Flower Garden"
52" x 46"
This quilt is a result of a desire to put three dimensional flowers on my quilt.  The flowers are created by folded, ruffled fabric sewn in a spiral to a white base with green fabric stems and leaves.  The rick-rack was added for color and to cover the base threads.  The yo-yo rounds in the center of the flowers adds more contrasting colors. Fun to make!

Lynn Tubbe

"Cherries Jubilee"

36" x 56"

Won Best Original Design

Inspired by Monet and Impressionism. My own drawing and original design.  I used hand dyed and commercial cottons.  Prismacolor colored pencils and fused appliqué technique.  I attempted pebbling quilting an entire background for the first time . . . whew!  My first experience using colored pencils for added shades of pink.

Cathy Stone

"Enchanted Evening Eye-Ris"

19" x 30.5"

Inspired by my own brain & Ingrid's fat quarter of eyeball fabric. I designed the flower and wanted to use all silks. First challenge: appliquéing silk with fuse-a-knit on the back to reduce fraying is difficult. While I was assembling the flower, I remembered a FQ of eyeball fabric I had.  I decided if this was to be a fantasy piece, I would go all out. So little eyeballs appear here and there.  Second challenge: the wool batting is the puffiest wool I have ever worked with.  I quilted things I had not planned on quilting just to keep the flower from looking like a total puffball.

Inspired by a Famous Piece of Art

Ardy Tobin
"Terre et Mer"
20" x 29"
Won Best use of Color"

Inspired by Corona II: by Caryl Bryer Fallert 1989. I enlarged my own drawing, then traced the design on the sticky side of regular Heat and Bond. The pieces cut from the Heat and Bond were fused to the wrong side of the Ombre fabric, then cut out with a 1/4" seam allowance.  I stitched the various components in units, then either pieced or "appliquilted" them together.  This was my first attempt at feathers.  Thank you Cathy Stone!

Loretta White

"Late Winter Placer Pasture"

20" x 17"

"Tahiti Landscape" by Henri Matisse was my inspiration.  My challenge was to create a landscape using an impressionism/minimalism style, that would present an inviting depth of field and winter mood. I did quick piece appliqué, a technique I learned from Rose Hughes. I sketched the pasture plein air and drew Chance (horse) from a photo I took.  I've done few landscapes and really like this one because it's personal.  

Michelle Peerson
"Georgia"
22" x 35"
Inspired by Georgia O'Keefe study in color-Houston.  I have a copy of this art work in my home.  The original hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.  I was most inspired by the colors.  Materials used are batiks, hand dyed fabrics.  Using irregular sized strips of duplicate paint strokes.  Carol Bryer Fallert rayon Brights threads.