Crosscurrents: Finale!

Now that I finally have people reading my blog, it's a bad time to neglect posting and keeping things updated!  Sorry that I disappointed anyone by not sticking to my plan of daily updates on the Crosscurrents workshop.

My progress at end of Day 4.

Little green centers (cotton lame') added to X's.

One of my favorite "units" was the one below, which I started on Day 4 and finished the last day.  It's based on Lisa Call's style (the example in that link shows her typical use of solids and repetitious stitching), though mine is a little different. 

First, the base is made of 9 fabrics, stitched together at an angle.  A stabilizer was added to the back, then I used a fabric chalk marker to lightly sketch in a grid on the front, totally ignoring the lines created when I stitched the 9 pieces together.  I began straight-line stitching, changing the direction of the stitching lines within the grids to create lots of movement. I believe Lisa does her stitching in the quilting stage, but my goal was simply to make an interesting "background."

"Grid-stitching."

On our last afternoon, each workshop participant talked about their work and what they learned that week.  For me, I learned to think differently about backgrounds.  Rather than simply a base to add your work to, I learned that the background could more accurately be described as "the first layer," and to make it as interesting as every other part of my design.  I now realize that multiple layers give a richness to your work, and can be the element that beckons the viewer to come in for a closer look.  I'm not sure I'd previously heard the phrase "Would it make a man on a galloping horse come back for a closer look?" but it really makes sense to me now.  And finally, I liked Rosalie's term for negative spaces:  the spaces in-between! Like the background (or "first layer"), those spaces provide another design opportunity.

More tucks.

 

During the week, I left my piece of Black Cherry-dyed shibori hanging on my design wall because it gave the impression that I'd made more progress than I really had.  But as I explained this during my turn to sum up my experience, several classmates encouraged me to include it.  I hadn't thought the color worked with my overall design, but I've played around and casually made some tucks and fabric inserts, and now think it might work.  I think tucks (which I used successfully in my piece for the Bits & Pieces exhibit) may become a recurring element in my work!

There's still one more story to tell from this week, but I'll save it for the next post.  Thanks for reading about my explorations!

Crosscurrents: Day 2

I used so much creative energy on Day 2 that there was no energy of ANY kind for posting an update last night.

Day 2:  some X's, crossed lines, cross-currents.

 In the last half-hour of Day 2, I stabilized a piece of black dupioni silk (in upper right of  photo below), then added random rows of machine stitching to it.  Along with the white-and-gray background piece next to it, I quickly created more crossed lines using leftover fusible-backed fabric strips.

Day 2:  old and new pieces

My design wall on Day 2

My design wall now includes a long piece of Black Cherry shibori-dyed fabric created a few weeks ago.  Not sure I can use it in this project, but it fills out my wall area nicely!

"Crosscurrents" Workshop with Rosalie Dace: Day One

I feel so fortunate to be taking the 5-day Crosscurrents design workshop with S. African art quilter, Rosalie Dace.  What an incredible teacher!  The workshop is at the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, OR.  In the weeks leading up to this workshop, our assignment was to pay special attention to the shapes x and +, which have intersecting lines, and collect images of these shapes.

My design wall: Day one

Day One was all about PLAYING, EXPERIMENTING,
and trying out different ways of designing with intersecting lines. Tomorrow we'll begin our actual design compositions, but Day One was all about exploring.


   
 Rosalie brought a wonderful selection of images that featured intersecting lines.  I sketched a few ideas from them, but went back to a previous little sketch in my design journal.  Here's how it looks now that I've interpreted it in fabric:

My first piece.  (Ignore the dark line on the right; I don't have a photo-editing program on this laptop!)

Exploring that idea further, I had a good start on my next piece.   Then Rosalie came around and asked the magical question   " . . . what if . . .?"  She gave me that extra little push that I needed, resulting in this piece:

Designing in layers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I knew about "what if . . .?" but now realize I hadn't been asking it enough when designing art quilts.



 I began one more composition before quitting time.  It's not finished yet, but here's where I left off:

3rd design, still in progress.

I'm very excited for Day 2!  And something special happens Thursday evening -- Jean Wells, who's also in this class, has invited all of us to her house for dinner that evening.  Then at 8pm, it's time for Oregon Art Beat's season premiere (Ore. Public Broadcasting); one of the two featured stories is the one about Jean, filmed this past July!  I was privileged to be at the filming as one of her "students" working through the critique process.  It will be so much fun to see the results of that day's filming, done in the classroom and at her home studio!