"A Color Runs Through It" Comes to Salem

"Lighter Than Air" (detail), by Georgia French

Fiberexplorations member Deb Sorem is one of five textile artists whose work is featured in the show A Color Runs Through It: Art Quilts at Salem's Bush Barn Art Center.

Each of the five artists designed and created a series of quilts featuring a specific color.  We were lucky enough to see Deb's pieces (showcasing the color green) at one of our meetings earlier this year.  Most of them featured an abstract study of a daffodil's growth cycle, from bulb to full flower.  Fascinating!
 

"Awakening" by Deb Sorem

The other four fiber artists (Diane K. English, Georgia French, Laura Jaszkowski, and Paulette Landers) chose red, yellow, purple, and blue, respectively.

Deb's study of green, showcased alongside the other artists' color studies, creates an exciting and vibrant visual treat, and you have until August 29th to see it!

Two members juried into regional show

Congratulations to our members Deb Sorem and Erika Close, who recently learned that their quilts were juried into the 2013 show Fabrications: The Art of Quilting. 

Deb's "The Signal and the Noise"

Erika's "Meyer Lemons"

This is the second year for this annual juried show of art and contemporary quilts, which is sponsored by the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  It opens on March 1 with a First Friday reception from 5-8 pm at Franklin Crossing.  This venue is on the corner of Franklin & Bond in downtown Bend.   If you can't make it for the opening reception, the show is open for viewing until the end of March.
 

Fabrications is the only juried exhibit of art and contemporary quilts in Central Oregon.  Quilts were submitted from Oregon, Washington, California and Arizona for consideration.  Jurors selected quilts that represent original design, excellent composition, and unique surface and finishing techniques.

Both Erika and Deb have logged many studio hours over the past year, as their work clearly demonstrates!

Deb's quilt accepted into Road to California Show!

Fiberexplorations member Deb Sorem recently learned that her quilt Grandmother's Secret Flower Garden was accepted into the juried Road to California Quilters' Conference & Showcase "The Best in the West."  The show runs from Jan. 24-27, 2013 in Ontario, Cal.

Gwen, Cora, and Harper in "Grandmother's Secret Flower Garden" by Deb Sorem.

"I took my granddaughters' names and worked them into kaleidoscopes," Deb said.  "The traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern was a favorite of mine, and my mother made one for me as a wedding present.  I repeated the shape of the hexagons in this contemporary version." 

You can see the pieced hexagons in the blue sky background above

Detail.

This ingenious design could have easily worked as Deb's entry for our current "Letters" challenge, but I think she's done something entirely different for the challenge!  Here's one more detail shot of her quilt:

Detail.

Deb's granddaughters' names are Cora, Gwen, and Harper.  I think I've successfully deciphered each girl's name in its corresponding flower.  If you want to give it a try, click on the first photo to enlarge it.  (Hint:  each flower blossom spells out one of the girls' names in both its normal orientation and in reverse image.)

My "answer"  to the puzzle (and I sure hope it's correct!):  Clockwise from the top left, the three names are in the order given in the  first photo caption above.

Happy 3rd Anniversary!

For the Fiberexplorations group, this month marks our third anniversary!  I think that's cause for a celebration, and our monthly meeting is tonight.  Hmmm . . . cupcakes!  I still have time to make them.

Deb won't be at tonight's meeting, but she sent me a photo of  her almost-finished (just needs more quilting) challenge quilt  to share:

Deb Sorem's Fabric Swatch Challenge quilt.

I think it's exuberant, fun, unique, and expressive of her personality!  Hope to get more photos at tonight's meeting.

Deb's "Small Wonder" quilt

Two of our members, Torrie and Deb,  have submitted quilts for the Small Wonders Challenge.  Here's Deb's entry: 

"Sister's Temptations" by Deb Sorem

The Small Wonders Challenge and fundraiser is one of the highlights of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS).  This is a judged contest (with prizes), and all donated quilts have to be of an original design.  Last year, over 80 entries were received, raising $1,100 for a local charity.

While I don't have a photo of Torrie's entry right now, I'll try to get one, as well as photos of other members' projects.   I just need to keep asking for them!

"Accepted into the show . . ."

There's a new phrase that I'm beginning to love.  It begins "Congratulations!  Your quilt has been accepted into our juried show . . ."

My quilt, "Natural Symphony."

I received notification this afternoon that my quilt, Natural Symphony, was accepted into a new show in Bend, OR called Fabrications -- The Art of Quilting.  But that's not all the exciting news.  Fellow Fabrications members Torrie Gordon and Deb Sorem also heard that lovely phrase today, and they each have a quilt juried into this show:

Torrie's lively, contemporary  quilt, "Water 2," juried into the FABRICATIONS show.

 Deb's exquisitely pieced quilt, "Bolero," juried into the FABRICATIONS show.

Obviously, all three of us are thrilled and practically dancing on clouds as we await the upcoming artists' reception on Feb. 3.  This is a new show and is sponsored by Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, which has made Central Oregon a mecca for quilt enthusiasts with their annual summer quilt show (always on the 2nd Sat. in July), where over 1300 quilts are hung throughout this 1800's style town for one day. 

There are many, many talented quilters in Central Oregon.  Submissions for the Fabrications show numbered over 100, but the venue has space for only 30 quilts.  That's a humbling thought.  Having our quilts selected for this show is an honor, and in our excitement, we haven't lost sight of that.

Deb's pet portrait in Quilting Arts magazine!

We knew Deb's quilt was special when we revealed our pet portraits last December for the Feeling Petty Quilting Arts 2012 Calendar Challenge.

"In the Moment" by Deb Sorem

 The latest issue of Quilting Arts (Dec. 2011/Jan. 2012) features Deb's colorful quilt as one of six Judges' Choice winners.  Who could resist this happy fellow?  As Deb explained, "One way to reduce stress is to live in the moment, rather than fret about the past or future.  No one does this better than my happy, loveable golden retriever."

Congratulations, Deb!

Tomorrow night is the big reveal -- the meeting where we share the quilts we've made for the Architecture Challenge.  A few members have shared their quilts-in-progress, but the majority have not, so most of the work will be a surprise.  It's always a thrill to see how each individual interprets the same subject, in this case, the architecture of downtown Salem's Ladd & Bush Bank building.
After struggling for weeks to find a way to incorporate the architectural image I created from a hand-carved stamp, I finally set it aside.  I couldn't find a way to make it work (it was really too large for this project), so I stopped worrying about it and started over.  I looked through my own surface-designed fabrics, my five design journals, and the work I did in Rosalie Dace's workshop.

My five design journals

LAYERS!   TEXTURE!   HOW TO CREATE INTEREST?

I already had many pieces from my surface design experiments.  Surprisingly, many of them were in shades of purple.  Why?  I took an online fabric-painting class through Quilt University about five years ago.  We used transparent Setacolor  paints (diluted 50/50 with water).  I laid the piece below on a large plastic gridded surface -- it was just a handy place to hang the fabric (in the sun) to dry.  Then I received one of those serendipitous surprises -- the grid, even from underneath, had been sun-printed onto my painted fabric, and I now had about 2 yards of it!

Sun-printed purple fabric

I wonder if anyone else discovered this new and extremely appropriate fabric from Moda (below)?  It was an exciting find, and I painted some pieces with a light wash of purple:

Architecture fabric!!!! (mine tinted purple)

The only goal for this weekend is to make this challenge quilt.  I really don't like waiting til the last minute, but it seems that deadline pressure motivates me.  But before I get back to work, here are a few shots of the chosen elements for this piece.  To see all of the finished quilts, check back on Tuesday.  

TEXTURE: Two fabrics, densely stitched.

Detail: sun-printed, screenprinted fabric.

The elements, ready to be assembled and stitched.

And big news:  Beginning the first of the new year, these quilts will be exhibited in the building that was the inspiration for this challenge -- the Ladd & Bush branch of US Bank!  They liked our theme and want to work with us to share it with the community.  Thanks to member Deb Sorem for making that happen!