Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Still Sewing

Sewing continues although I see little progress. {Sigh.} However, I do like the way the triangles twinkle. It's the mix of mediums and darks that causes it. It just takes a bit of careful placement so the lightest of the darks is still darker than the surrounding lights. Make sense?

Here's an example of a light green surrounded by several cream triangles.

One scrap quilt block with a large red and white print square in the center.
Ocean Waves quilt in progress

The same green fabric appears again next to one of the red diamonds but this time it's next to a darker light... much closer in value to the green than the creams above. This green won't twinkle as much because the neighboring value is so close. At least, that’s what I think.

A detail view of four blocks sewn together.
Ocean Waves quilt in progress

The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles is currently exhibiting H2OH, a SAQA member show juried by Linda Gass who gave a lecture one evening about how she approaches her art. Linda made a second career as an artist focusing on water resources. Her beautiful work combines silk fabrics, hand dyeing and machine quilting as she interprets maps of various areas of concern.

Front and back views of the soft sculpture. The front is a woman's head.The back shows the view in her mind of a child with a yellow inner tube jumping into a pool
Memory of Water by Susan Else

This three-dimensional sculpture intrigued me most - Memory of Water by Susan Else. It looks like wood but it's all fabric. Growing up in Sacramento, Susan remembers that water was free and wasted. Great fun for a child but a sorrowful memory of an adult.

On another note, I saw this picture at a San Francisco hotel. It glittered in the light so at first I thought it was a diamond painting like Julie's been making recently.

The portrait is made of painted Phillips head screws with subtle variations of height to enhance the image.
Art made of screws

A closer look revealed it's made of screws, attached at different heights and painted single and double colors.

Enjoy the day, Ann

18 comments:

patty a. said...

How big are those HSTs? There are a lot of them! This top is going to be so pretty.

LA Paylor said...

it does sparkle. Little bits of white in the prints, less contrast. I was struck by some interrupted lines in art at our recent show, brush stokes that ran out of paint, thinner color in places, that caused the whole piece to sing. Like your work. Thanks for adding in the unusual piece with screws...

Julierose said...

What lovely works! I am always fascinated by artists who freely use all sorts of materials....
Your Ocean Waves are just lovely--color placement really does affect the whole...[thanks for the shout out;)))]
hugs, Julierose

Quiltdivajulie said...

Need to show the screw-made ball player to DH and elder son - they'll appreciate it greatly. Loving your triangles (tedious as they may be).

Janie said...

Good progress! I like the twinkle, shimmer effect too.
And the other art examples are inspiring.
I'm still piecing projects and with the business of summer I'm running a little slow. Must get next post out!

Cathy said...

I like the clever way you used the fabric for the centers. If I look at a quilt or block up close I get caught up in looking at all the different fabrics and don't notice contrast or twinkling as much as I would viewing from a distance.

I was just browsing the online quilt database at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles last week and saved off pics of two vintage quilts I want to make.

That ball artist certainly did a lot of screwing around!

Ann said...

Thanks, Patty. They are a bit over 2”.

Ann said...

You are correct that the white coming and going adds sparkle, too. I wish I’d seen your art show. It sounds eye opening.

Ann said...

The picture sparkles at first glance and I was sure it was made of crystals. So fun to find the screws. Between their heights and the paint, there was an unexpected addition of dimension.

Ann said...

I could not screw them all in straight. And imagine my angst if I messed up the last two or three. It’s fun to see what artists work with.

Ann said...

Summer is always a time to slow down. So much more enjoyable to be out doing new things.

Ann said...

Thanks, Cathy. There is quite a difference between looking up close and at a distance. I'm glad you liked the SJMQT database. It's a treat to look through all the various registers, isn't it? We are fortunate to have these resources so easily available. I'm sure we'll see your adaptation soon.

Kaja said...

Screws! That's so clever. Isn't it rather wonderful that we can change what we see by switching the surrounding fabrics? I love your twinkling bits.

Ann said...

The different things artists use always amazes me.
We both like playing with fabric and it's interesting to try to determine why we like them.

Marie said...

Looks like you are making great progress - it will be finished before you know it.

Ann said...

Thanks, Marie. I hope so although I may not quilt it until this fall.

audrey said...

Now that I've been paying attention to your hst quilt, I've been seeing a similar quilt pop up on Instagram lately! Amazing how the red print in the middle makes this pattern so 'custom'. It's a good reminder about the values and intensity of colors in relationship to where they lay in a quilt. I definitely get a little careless occasionally about thinking my original stack of fabrics looks great together, surely it won't matter where they end up in the quilt! lol

Ann said...

It is such a simply quilt idea - only hsts one after another. There are some red hsts but they are darker than the center. I looked at my four original choices for the center last week and was surprised how different they made the result so your point about color stacks hit home. I've been reading that we should lay our ideas out in proportion to how we want to use them. Hard to do though so I usually wing it by trial and error. Slower but more fun to play with fabric.