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Thanks!
Janis

Excursion to Lowell

I've been having problems posting any pictures here on my blog, which is why I haven't posted at all for awhile.  Sorry 'bout that.  If anyone else is experiencing this please LMK, especially if you know how to fix it.


Anyhooo... some nots on last Saturday's excursion to Lowell! Our small group of 6 fiber artists met at the Lowell Studio Lofts on Western Avenue.


 Tarja Cockell is one of our small group members and she has a studio there where you can see some of her beautiful work!  She's a vibrant, talented, local artist! Check her out at the next Open House  in March.


 I also got to meet some other fiber artists who are members of  Lowell Fiber Studio , one of whom was Linda Dunn, another incredibly talented local!


They are both in the same building, but it's a huge space, so if you're going to see them, Tarja is in Studio A 412, and Linda is in A Studio 512,  just one floor up.


Meanwhile I'm still involved in classwork in Pam Allen's online class.  Let's try it this way linking to Picasa: Here's another recent small art quilt that I made for the class I've been in, using only black and white fabric - no greys - you have to make your greys by way of illusion.

A Class With Pamela Allen!

My days have been pretty busy here between printing and art quilting. My Year of the Horse prints are drying and will show them here after they're off and running and corralled at their new destinations with members of The Baren.

But there's been lots of art quilting fun! I'm taking an online class with one of my favorite art quilter's, Pamela Allen.  She has a new Etsy site that's worth a trip over to see at https://www.etsy.com/shop/Pamelart.

It's a very exciting class that's a constant challenge, with new lessons every day. It's called ABOUT CONTRAST and  nothing is quite finished yet but I can show the beginning stages.

I started out cutting and laying in some of the basic shapes and realized before long that I needed a lot of different values of B&W fabric - more than I had.  So, up I went and printed up some new fabric with old hand-carved soft block....and as you can see below, it worked!

The entire foreground is my hand made on the fly fabric as well as the back of the chair on the left.

Finally, the top is finished with the "piecing" of it...it's actually fused on so it's really a fabric collage.  To finish it I will Free Motion Quilt it and then go in with some hand embroidery before  binding it in some way.  I'll probably stretch it onto some stretcher strips.   And I'm on to the next!

Putting Our Best Foot Forward

Once again, we proceed into the future in a new calendar year.  It never ceases to motivate me to take stock and look with fresh eyes at the path that I'm on.  Do I want to make any changes?  Do I want to shift any gears?  Am I satisfied with how how I'm handling things? What improvements do I want to make?

Last night I looked back and found that I had finished 20 quilts!  I was astounded at the count!  It's true that some of them were only about 8 to 10 inches, but only a few. Four of them were full sized quilts with backs that were up to the challenge of serving as fully reversible.  So, I'm pretty pleased with my level of productivity and did, indeed, succeed at my main goal going into 2013, both in terms of quantity and quality. I learned a tremendous amount and grew pretty ably into my own voice!

I still have a distance to go at a few unmet goals.  I'm slowly working on my 100 small quilts but toward that end I did create over 100 new digital images (!) to get my digital skills up to par (which still needs work) and to start a new library of my own digital images to use in my art.

This year, I will create my own website.  Although I've been slowly working at getting it together, I'm going to pick up the pace and throw myself into it. An important measure of success for me in the coming year will be to sell some of these products I've been laboring on.  Hence, the website is a critical component of the coming year's efforts.

I have a zillion ideas floating in and out of my head.  I never know which ones will land and demand attention, but I've already invested some time into digital art. This is one of these photos that has already sprouted some wings and you should see transformed into fiber this year.

Happy New Year to all of you who listen to me, watch my progress and take the time to comment on what I'm doing here.  Thank you for your participation and support! May we all put our best foot forward and reap the rewards that come of it!

Last Finish of 2013

Last finish of the year - winding down 2013 attempting to finish so many things!

 

  I've been at this one for over a month and it's finally finished and bound with a facing on the back.  Full size is 41.5" X 32.5", but these are smaller detail shots.

 

Hand dyed shibori on cotton. Machine quilted and hand embroidered with running stitches.

Hand dyed and batik.

Sections hand painted with Jacquard fabric paint, embellished with hand carved designs.
 

Goodbye to a year that had its fill of grief and sorrow, but also had many good times and a lot of persistent labor on and progress in my art!

 

I started off the year with a carving that foretold the focus of the rest of the year.

 

This year I entered my first submissions to a SAQA quilt show and was accepted by the curator !

 

I also showed at the Boston Modern Quilt Guild Exhibit at the LQF 2013.

 

We've wound down a group of book artists who finished our second collaborative book, this year was a fiber art book.  You can see my finished book here, although I still can't publish all of the pages just yet.

 

I've submitted a small art quilt that will travel with the SAQA Trunk Show during 2014.

 

I finished a quilt for my grandson Jack that I still haven't taken a finished picture of!  And for Josh.

 

I started a new small, private group of local art quilters which has turned out to be a fabulous collection of talented women, all doing their own unique fiber art. Collectively we have some high hopes for our future!

 

I HAVE BEEN BUSY!  And that's just some of the highlights and I've been sitting around on this computer still in my bathrobe for waaayyy too long. 

 

I better start preparing my New Year's Eve Dinner.  On the menu: Ceasar Salad,  Onion Soup, Beef Empanadas, and Fruit Salad with Gingerbread Cookies for dessert! 

 

 

 

"The Lake"

I keep thinking I need to find some new places to photograph but I  find myself drawn back to "The Lake" over and over again.   It never loses its appeal.  It's always ready to smile for the camera - not shy at all.  It just stands there looking back at me.  Why do I think I need to go somewhere else when this place always has the ability to capture your imagination, to make you stand there gaping at its natural beauty and aura despite all of its commonplaceness. I'm on my way to somewhere and suddenly the place calls to me, "Stop!" and I park and pull out my camera. Gotchya!