Commission Installed at CMC-Mercy Today

At noon today, Mr. Chan Roush, President of CMC-Mercy, unveiled A Kousa for Mercy, the commissioned piece for the Doctors' Lounge. Here is a photo of the piece installed behind a sheet of acrylic, Mr. Roush, and the artist.

This is a photograph of the entry way to the lounge. Love the way the Kousa leaves beckon one into the lounge.

The native American dogwood is much loved, but is dieing from a fungus. Horticulturalists are introducing the Asian Kousa dogwood to replace our dieing natives. Botanists are cross breeding the Asian dogwood that is resistant to the fungal disease with our native dogwood as a way to produce a dogwood with resistance with the look of our native dogwood. This scientific story is still unfolding.

I loved how well this piece conveyed both art and science, that is such a part of medicine today.

Mr. Roush, the administrators at Mercy, and art consultant par excellence, Christie Taylor, have been a delight to work with. If all clients were so well attuned to art and artists, every artist would be willing to do commissions!

Nancy

Blocking and Finishing Underway

After completing the hand stitching, the next step is to block the quilt.

Blocking consists of pinning quilt to a padded surface with consistent tension across the entire quilt. The pinning removes any torsion that may have been established with the quilting.

I use yellow headed pins to do this and pin it down onto carpet. Once pinned, I thoroughly steam it with a steam iron held just over the surface about 1/2 inch until it is thoroughly moist throughout. Then it will need to dry for 2 days before removing the pins. At this point, the piece will have the low relief sculptural finish that I designed.

The next step is cutting it to size and putting on the bindings.

It gets exciting to be this close to the finish line!

Nancy

Hand Stitching Completed on Commission

Love incorporating details in the leaves. This first photo shows the sky through a hole in the leaf.

I used a variegated thread that had a warm tone to it to outline the area of the leaf eaten out, to move the color of the Kousa berry around the surface of the quilt.



This second photo is of a couple of other leaf holes and show another leaf in the background. A bit of shadow is seen on the leaf below.


I love the little eaten areas on leaves, showing that the leaf has served something well.

This bottom photo is of some subtle stitching to convey the connective lines between the larger leaf veins. On the leaf they are very subtle and can only be seen when holding the leaf up to bright light.

The hand stitches can convey a whole additional level of detail in the work.

Next comes blocking the piece and finishing. It is coming together.


Nancy

Hand Stitching Threads for the Commission

Tonight I selected the cotton embroidery floss that I will use to do the hand stitching on the commission piece.

I love thread and seek out new colors wherever I can find it. I particularly like variegated threads that do not change much in value (dark to light). They used to be easier to find, but like so many supplies for hand work, they are getting more difficult to locate easily.

I will use some or all of these colors for adding details to areas I want to emphasize. Some will be used to move color around the surface to integrate the design.

Tomorrow I begin stitching. It will take several days to complete this step.

Nancy

Machine Quilting of Commission Completed

Finished the hand guided machine quilting of the commission piece for CMC Mercy Hospital today. That is always a day to celebrate.


This first photograph shows the echo quilting around stems and a leaf. It is reminiscent of the echo quilting used by traditional Hawaiian quilters. Only their quilting is done by hand and a line of quilting is stitched one finger width apart from the previous line.



I like the texture and rhythms that are set up by the machine quilting and I like to make my quilt lines about 1/8 to a 1/4 inch apart from each other.











The next photo is of the berry and some of the background quilting. The quilting also adds a level of detail to the piece without introducing more complexity to the design.


The final photograph is of the back of the piece and shows the berry and some leaves from the back. The quilting shows up well on this plain fabric. I pull each thread to the back of the quilt and tie it off with a double knot.


As I was knotting and cutting the threads, I thought of surgeons who have been the most usual sewers among men. I wondered, with the staples that are now used, are the surgeons still sewing sutures as a part of surgery?


Next comes the hand stitching. That is one of my favorite parts of the process. It is like the icing on the cake.

Nancy

Background Quilting of Commission Piece Underway

The hand guided machine quilting of the background really makes the motifs stand out. I begin in the smaller areas that are in the center of the piece. With every change of direction, I have to move the entire quilt. Small areas require a lot of moving in comparison to the number of stitches.


This part of the construction process goes somewhat slowly, but with each finished area, the piece is better revealed as what it will be.


This photo shows one of the challenges that I had with the colors in the piece. There are a lot of overlapping leaves in the design. I needed to make sure that it is clear which leaves are in front and which leaves are further back.


I used several different techniques to convey depth in the artwork. One technique is overlapping the edges of the motifs. Another more subtle but really important technique is the use of warmth and coolness of colors. Greens that are more yellow will seem in front of greens that are more blue. Shadows also help clarify images. Shadows are visible in the stem and in the lower leaf.

Nancy

Quilting on Commission Piece Continues

Today I finished quilting the leaves, stems and berry. The quilted berry is shown at right.

Now I begin the background areas. These will be closely quilted to let the motifs stand out. The large areas of the background allows more rhythmical movement than in quilting the motifs. While I like the results of close quilting, I get impatient at this stage to see the final product. But there are many more steps before it is completed.

This quilting is accomplished by hand guiding the fabric sandwich through the sewing machine. It is a bit like drawing with the pencil held stable, and moving the paper under the pencil.

After the hand-guided machine quilting is completed, I will add hand stitching and that brings another element of detail and interest. Here I can play with small bits of color and additional texture that a machine cannot do. I planned some of the hand stitching today as I sat in the dentist chair waiting for procedures to begin.

Nancy

Quilting Underway for Commission Piece

I have been quilting for several days at this point. The leaves are outlined and the veins put in. Always feels good to get the outlining of the motifs done. Then I can begin removing some of the basting lines. That starts revealing what the piece will look like when finished.

The photo shows one of the leaves. Some of the basting remains.

Tomorrow I will be working on the stems and berry. Then comes the background. That always takes a lot of time, but really adds punch to the piece by allowing the lesser quilted motifs to stand out from the more heavily quilted background areas.


As said before, I really love what the quilting adds. It takes on a sculptural feel once the quilt lines are laid in giving dimension and adding life to the work.

Nancy

Trapunto for the Commission

The Kousa Dogwood commission piece continues.

I love to add the additional dimension of extra padding behind a few key elements in the design. It adds to the sculptural aspects and highlights key elements in the design.

In fabric, this padding process is called "trapunto".

Here are a couple of photos of the process. The first photo is of the back of the largest most forward leaf. You can see the basting threads and the lines of the leaf and the veins in the leaf. The stitch lines serve several purposes, some decorative, some for stability of construction. The challenge is to make sure that lines that are needed for stability also serve the design as well.


The second photo is of the back of the berry after I removed the basting stitches and cut away the extra padding that was around the berry.

My next steps are to complete the trapunto process for the leaf and then I will do the two step basting process for the entire quilt. That is both equally necessary and unexciting to do.

Nancy

From Inking to Construction

Progress on the commission for CMC-Mercy is continuing.

Once the commission piece is inked, then I pad two sections - the forward leaf and the berry - to give them more dimension.


Careful basting is critical. You can see one of the pins that I used in the pin basting before the hand basting. Next I will stitch around the leaf and any details that I want to have less depth than the others.

This technique is called trapunto and leaves some areas raised and with more prominence.


After completing the trapunto, then I will put together the inked top, a wool batting from Australia, and a commercially printed backing fabric. These will be carefully basted -- first with pins, then by hand stitching.








After basting, the next task is to find the threads that I may use in stitching the piece. The basket below contains the threads that I will select from in stitching. Often, I find that I have to buy additional thread. Not a problem!!


Nancy

Kousa Berry Details

Having inked the leaves to the design, I return to the berry to add details that will bring it alive. So often the intricate details in nature add the touch of authenticity and the eye of the artist.

The Kousa berry has wonderful details that are both organic and geometric in nature. Since I am completing this part of the design prior to berries ripening, I collected a number of photographs of ripe berries to use in designing the berry details.

The first photo is of the details for the stencils for the berry. I often make a second set of stencils to add details.

The second photograph is of the details on the fabric. More detailing will be added in the stitching process.

The entire top has been stenciled. Now I will go over each part to see if additional details need to be added to increase the balance and to make sure the image conveys what I have planned.

Next steps in the process- such as two different forms of basting the top layer, the batting layers and the backing fabric - while essential to the quality of the finished project, are not very visually interesting, so I will be blogging less about the steps until I get further along.


Nancy

More Progress on the Kousa Dogwood Piece

The commission for the Doctors' Lounge at CMC Mercy Hospital is moving along.

One of the largest leaves is set up for stenciling in the first photograph. Between the white stencils, you can see the hand-dyed cotton sateen fabric that is the fabric that I am stenciling my design onto.The colors in the fabric seemed well suited to the colors in the doctors' lounge where this piece will hang when finished.

I purchase the hand-dyed fabric from a dyer from Germany, Heide Stoll-Weber. She is the only fabric dyer I have found whose hand at the dye bath results in a subtle fabric to use for stenciling designs. You can see that I have already inked the veins in the leaf.

In the second photograph, I replaced the stencil over the veins to protect them from the inks used on the leaf.

The bottom half of the leaf has had some ink added in the initial stenciling process. While more ink will be added, the colors of the fabric will come through the semi-transparent inks, giving a watercolor effect to the finished piece.

You can see a bit of stem and some other leaves at the upper right of the bottom photograph.


Nancy

Progress Continues on the Kousa Dogwood Commission

Progress continues on the commission piece. here are some additional photos. The photo at left is where I am transferring the design onto freezer paper. I cut my stencils from the freezer paper. This slick sided paper will stick tightly to fabric when heated with a hot iron. Getting a close contact makes for crisp images when stenciling. The second photo is of the Kousa berry after a number of edits. Still more to come. A couple of the leaves have been inked as well. The red orange berry is really popping against the green leaves.

Enjoy.

Nancy

The Kousa is Coming to the Doctors' Lounge at CMC-Mercy Hospital

The Kousa Dogwood is a lovely understory tree that is Asian in origin. As our native Flowering Dogwood increasingly succumbs to a disease called Dogwood anthracnose, tree specialists are recommending that when necessary to replace our natives that we use the Kousa Dogwood with a similar flower. The Kousa is much more resistant to disease than our native.

The Kousa's flower is generally pointed at the ends, unlike our native, and blooms about 4-7 weeks later in the spring. The berry is quite different, looking more like a cross between a strawberry and a raspberry. It is edible, but not particularly flavorful. Leaves and tree structure are quite similar to our native.

Given the tree's good disease resistance, it seems a natural choice for a doctor's lounge. My design for the lounge is based on photographs and specimens from my garden. I find the leaves to have lovely rhythm to them and the berry is a marvel.

Nancy

New Commission Underway

CMC- Mercy Hospital commissioned me to create a gift for the doctors' lounge.

Christie Taylor of Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy presented my work and other artists to the hospital. The hospital, where my husband was born, is undergoing renovation. As each area is renovated, new art work from regional artists is selected to grace the area. Some of my favorite artists are represented, including a fabulous fig tree by Micheal Sherrill in the entry area that is large enough to sit under. It is an honor to be creating a piece that will be in such great company.

Several aspects made creating the initial designs easier. One, I was able to see the exact location and environment where the art would be hung. Secondly, I was told which piece of my art work most represented what they wanted.

Working from my photographs of a couple of different species, I created designs and selected possible fabrics for the piece. The hospital selected a design based on the Kousa Dogwood so I am ready to proceed.

This is a photo of the a branch of the Kousa Dogwood from my garden. Next time I will share some information about this tree and why it seemed so appropriate for a health care setting.

Nancy

Great News!! Made My Day!!

Just received word that Kousa: A New Dogwood's in Town will be in Sandra Sider's upcoming publication: The Studio Quilt, no. 6: State of the Art.

A detail of the quilt is shown here.

Originally planned for 30 artists, Sandra is including 60 because of the great response and quality of the submissions she received.

This makes four books that will carry some of my work in the coming 12 months. The first out will be Susan Brubaker Knapp's book. Point, Click, Quilt! coming out next month. Susan's book will feature her extraordinary work, projects using her techniques, and a gallery photos and art work from other artists who use photos for imagery for their quilts.

Martha Seilman's book: Art Quilt Portfolio; The Natural World will be published in 2012. She selected me for one of the featured artists for the book and it will include both an interview and discussion of my work, my inspirations, my work processes and several of my quilts. I am very humbled by this terrific honor.

The last book will be the next publication of SAQA's Portfolio series of work by the Professional Art Members. It will be available as an on-line e-book on the SAQA site and as a printed book. This should be out in October 2011.

SeedPlay Exhibition Hung!

Kousa: Another Dogwood's in Town

Wednesday my DH and I, with many of the staff at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens, hung my solo show. I am delighted with how it looks at the venue. The galleries are to the right and left of the entry on the hall where the restrooms are. So many people will walk by them on the way to the necessaries. I have several new pieces in the show that have not been exhibited previously. I will show details of some of them here. Hope you enjoy. (Yes, they were my Quilt National entries.)

The top photo is of the Asian dogwood that is finding its way into our landscapes as a recommended replacement for our beautiful native dogwoods, as the natives are dying from a fungal disease. It blooms later and the berry is very different.


Mockingbird's Larder

The detail above is from a piece that celebrates the joyous color that the deciduous hollies provide throughout our gray winters. The berries ripen late so the birds find them welcome food for the late winter when other food is gone.


Echoes of Tulip's Summer

The tulip poplar is one of my favorite trees. It sheds its seeds for more than a year thereby better ensuring that some of them will find suitable soil and weather conditions to germinate and grow.

For me, the multiple ways that tree seeds use for reproduction provide a metaphor for the importance of diversity for a species' survival as conditions change. The lesson it teaches us about the importance of diversity for humans is one that we need to learn in the depths of our hearts, minds and souls.

Please wish me luck for my show that runs until November 14 and come see it if you are any where nearby Belmont NC.

Nancy