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Susan Brubaker Knapp has written a book that is a feast for the eyes and provides 16 projects that will develop skills for the quilt artist. The book is well organized with some basic art element information at the beginning and some simple but meaningful exercises to develop ones' eye for what will make a good photograph. She even has suggestions for how to store photographs for later inspiration.
Following the introductory chapters, Brubaker Knapp gives patterns and detailed instructions on using her techniques in acrylic painting and thread painting to reproduce the 16 projects. Throughout the book are her wonderful photos and details of her quilts. Eye candy at its best. Susan's background in journalism and graphic arts prior to being a full-time professional quilt artist is apparent in the well written book and her designs. The book is a delight to read- fresh, breezy, and substantial at the same time. No mean feat!
There is a nine page gallery in the back of book of work by other artists who use photographs to produce their artwork. For each of these quilts, the photograph that inspired the work is also given. Some produce works that are copies of the photos, others make major changes. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves photography, beginners and intermediate skilled art quilters, and those who want to increase their composition skills. In full disclosure, Susan is a friend, and one of my quilts is in the gallery. Nancy
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
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
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
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
This past spring, I had the opportunity to visit the Gregg Museum of Art and Design to see a wonderful fiber art exhibition. Even though the exhibition is over, I want to share my thoughts and some photos of from the exhibition with my readers.
Barbara Lee Smith, curator, put together a sterling group of fiber artist for an exhibition at the Gregg Museum of Art and Design at North Carolina State University. Each artist has developed a mature voice and stretches the limits of fiber in their own direction.
Artists included Marian Bijlenga from the Netherlands, Rachel Brumer and Lou Cabeen from Washington, Dorothy Caldwell from Canada, Carol Ann Carter from Kansas, Kyoung Ae Cho from Wisconsin, Marc Dombrosky from Nevada and Michigan, Nancy Erickson from Montana, Susan Lordi Market from Missouri, Gail Rieke from New Mexico, Devorah Sperber from New York and Clare Verstegen from Arizona.
It was the first time I had the opportunity to see in person the unique work of Devorah Sperber who recreates classical images in spools of thread that can only be interpreted when viewed at a distance with a "viewing sphere" that turns the image upright and lets the brain assemble the dots of color into a familiar image.
Fascinating.
Kyoung Ae Cho created a series with seedling tree roots and burn marks that was lyrical and evocative at the same time. I love this artist's work. I
have literally sat on the floor in front of one of her pieces in Quilt National and studied it for hours.
Much of the art was of large scale. Marian Bijlenga's Palimpsest 1 was both minute and grand of scale. A detail is seen on the cover of the catalog. The overall dimensions w
ere 106 x 108". Much of her work had the same opposite scale characteristics and masterful use of space.
Dorothy Caldwell also masters scale usage with small details keeping the eye moving across and around her monumental pieces. The second photograph is her Fjord which is 120 x 114". It is wonderful to see fiber work on such a grand scale, and used so effectively as these two artists are able to do it.
At first look, Caldwell's Fjord appears to be a weaving with patches. Upon closer viewing, it is surface designed with her own silkscreen printing with small appliques and much hand stitching of details. To get a feel for the masterful use of color, look at the number of different shades in the blue band near the top of Fjord.
The third photo is a detail of Fjord and shows her silkscreen background work and the hand stitching across the surface of her work. Caldwell's work can overwhelm in the pure size of her pieces, but then they draw the viewer in to look at details and textures created by hand stitches.
Caldwell spent a year traveling in the Canadian Arctic and Australian Outback where seemingly small details mark the place in great expanses. Her work conveys the importance of these markings very well. Having traveled above the Arctic Circle in the summer of no night, I love the imagery in "How Do We Know When It's Night?" It takes me back to the long daylight hours when there was no darkness or "night". Caldwell has an amazing ability to convey location with her work.
The Gregg Museum and Lynn Jones Ennis, the Associate Director and Curator of the Collection, are to be congratulated on this excellent exhibition guest curated by Barbara Lee Smith. The selection of artists was inspired. The work was well hung and showed very well in the gallery at the Gregg. The catalog is well done, and quite informative with excellent photography to document the work for the future.
I look forward to future fiber exhibitions at the Gregg. Nancy
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
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