A Fiber Christmas Card

I have a very talented quilting friend whose work you have seen here many times before.  Joan Sterr has a wonderful habit of sending me hand-made fiber Christmas cards.  This one is a felt snowman mounted on a silver sparkly denim.  The selvedge at the bottom makes it look like grass, and the buttons/eyes and stars are all sequins.  Way fun...

I envy her as she must start very early to get them made and out...even if she does home made ones for a select few...and I'm honored I get them.  Rest assured, I save them all and I am getting quite a cool collection of cards that people have sent me or that I have purchased at various fund raising auctions.

This is short and sweet as I MUST get back to working on some quilts and I am going to be out of commission tomorrow as I have some tests done. 

Dayton Landmarks Quilts: #4 Dayton Skyline

Dayton Skyline by Ronnie Doyal

I have dreaded starting this post.  For one thing, it is the largest slice of all the ones we interpreted in fiber.  For another, the person who had the first slice, the one of the far left didn't get it done.  So...it is a little problematic.  In addition, when we hung the quilts at the Schuster, we were at the mercy of the brackets we used to hang them over...there was no fudging to make the quilts be hung close together.  We had to split them into two groups because it would have been too long on one batten...and probably would have required us to use a 2 x 4 in order to support the weight.

So, here are six of the originally planned 7 panels showing the skyline as the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network saw it. When we hang it at the next venues, the two center sections will be closer together.

Kate Burch did the first panel.  I was amused by the fact that so many of the quilters in this group chose to do a pieced background.  Kate's perfectly pieced squares set on point really do give the illusion of a lightly clouded sky from a distance.

When I was looking at the slice photo, I kept on wondering if Kate left us a secret message in script on the trees.


No, it's just shading that she did with her free motion quilting.  I've tried to show you in this closeup below....you still don't see it well.

Ginny Crabtree did this next section. Ginny is one of what I think of as the newer MVAQN members, although I think she joined us about 4 years ago. Ginny has really progressed in her development as an art quilter.

I am particularly taken with Ginny's steeple, and the detail that she used above.




Debra Bentley's section is really fun. I love how she made her sky and the change of shades in the trees. The glass on the building in the foreground is masterful, as is her alignment and handling of the windows in the multi-sided building.
































Sara Lynne Walsh is another newer member of the group, who has moved to the Raleigh/Durham, NC area. Our loss. I love her use of masses....she uses large segments of pieces to evoke the image...and her color choices are always dead on. While I am one to add many fussy details, Sara Lynne communicates her ideas in big blocks. I just love it!  Her choice of batik for the sky is also just perfect.












Pam Geisel IS one to add fussy details, and to do it with superb precision. She usually incorporates traditional piecing in her backgrounds, but she adds elements which are perfectly aligned.















Joan Sterr always does interesting work. She, like Kate Burch, made her sky from squares set on point, but Joan uses pieces with more pattern and value changes than Kate did.






Below is a detail showing the ribbon she used for the metal bits and the prints for her trees and sky.

I hope to get the last segment done before we hang the show at our additional venues.  Tomorrow will be the last slice quilt from the current works.

Art Quilt Cards

 Last week, I was showered with cards as a week ago was my birthday, and of course Valentines Day worked its way in there as well.

You've seen Joan Sterr's lovely home-made fiber art cards before.  I haven't seen Joan in a while as she is playing the part of a snowbird....lucky duck.  She sent me this interesting thread stitched card.  She did it all freehand/free motion.

I especially like it because it reminds me of lady in an 18th century gown, with a stomacher (the yellow part) covering the lacings on her bodice....A throwback to my area of historical specialty, Colonial America.  You know....in some ways, the face sort of resembles Joan...This was her Valentines card to me.

 This fun little piece is simply a section of aboriginal print Joan embellished and quilted.  I love the color combos....

 Ruth Treon, one of the Batty Binder Art Quilters (Twisted Stitchers) made this little confetti style postcard.  She and I took Noriko Endo's class together at the International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati last year.  She wasn't happy with her piece, and has yet to finish it.  However, she did this little piece as a fun thing using Noriko's technique.  She said that this was more fun and I think you'll agree, it is pretty successful.

I have to admit, this is the orientation I like best...as if the leaves have fallen from the aspens and are now on the forest floor.

However, this is Ruth's intended orientation.  I think because the yellow is such a strong color that the balance is better with it on the bottom...If the forest floor were darker, then I think I'd put it her intended way.....

Either way, I really like it.

I am beginning to have quite a collection of fiber art post cards....no where near rivaling  Del Thomas' collection of 12" x 12" pieces...but who knows?

An Abundance of Joy!

 So, tonight I'm bringing you more thoughts on joy....maybe just for a moment, you can take a breath and enjoy these things.

Several of my friends said that their pets bring them joy....(of course, they can also bring consternation!).

One thing which brings me joy is home-made items...I love them.  This year, I was fortunate to receive two home-made Christmas cards.  I really appreciate the time that each of my friends put into making these.  The top one is from Joan Sterr, a member of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network.

 This one is one Carol Magato, a gardening friend who lives across the way and has her own business making memory bears.

If you have been a reader for a while, you might recognize Joan's name as she makes delightful quilts and last year made me a clever Christmas card as well.  I wrote about it here. 

For me, lots of things bring me joy.  Sometimes I think I'm a tad simple because I laugh at so many things, and get pleasure from such small things.  Laughing is one of my favorite things to do...

Joy can come in the light in a barn, shining golden with fairy dust flitting through in the cracks.  The long light in the morning and just before sunset...sunlight breaking through dark, heavy clouds...making long beams that I used to think of as angel slides.

I find joy in learning, and in lecturing.  I find joy in my family...yes,  even my family of origin....or perhaps especially my family of origin.  Being with friends....quilting (especially hand piecing).  Sun on water, the sweetness of the Great Lakes.  Hoar frost.  Sandhill cranes flying south.  A warm bed.  Sugar cookies.  A dog's adoring eyes, and even better....training a dog so that it obeys with hand signals.  The smell of leaves.  A baby's skin.  An old lady's wrinkled cheek.  A cat who loves you. A pastellito and a cup of coffee while sitting near the ocean.  Praying mantis in my garden.  A lily freshly opened.  Singing. A warm breeze.  Warm rain.  A huge moon.  The Milky Way as seen from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan or another place where light pollution isn't evident'.  Moonlight on the snow. .  Cut Bank Creek.  The colors turquoise, cobalt blue and scarlet.  When my daughter says I've made an awesome meal 

I have always loved the surge of power when I ride my road bike, and the rush when you're flying down a trail side on a mountain bike making decisions quickly.  At one time, I was indeed a bicycling speed merchant.

There's a lot that brings me joy.  For now, I'll leave you with what Joan wrote on the inside of her card.....and consider it applying to you as you read it.  

A Christmas Blessing

May your presents be tall,

And your troubles be small.

May you get all the blessings you need.

May your art fill your soul,

And fun play a role. 

May you have everything you need to succeed.

Aullwood: Repurposing

The Theme at Aullwood this year is "It's a Green World." Joan Sterr, who I know from the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network, submitted this piece called "My Cup Runneth Over."

If I had to characterize Joan's work, I would say that she usually has an element of playfulness in her pieces....a clarity and simplicity which is fresh and fun. Something which was brought home today when I saw her felted pieces and small quilts she brought to our group.

Joan made this piece out of re-purposed materials. The background fabric was given to her, something which was being discarded. The flowers and basket, however are just too wild for words. The whole image is made from bras which Joan was going to discard.

Thg lines of the stems are the underwires. The little loops the strap adjustment parts. All of the other bits and pieces were from the decoration and body of the bras. I think that the black center is a button, but I can't clearly remember.













The woven part of the basket is made from the straps. Even the top and sides of the basket are made from straps and decorative parts.

Just great fun...and keeping things out of the landfill. Way to go Joan!

Friend's work at NQA

It's always fun to see someone's work you know at a big show. Two of my fellow quilters from the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network had pieces in the NQA show. Kate Burch did this thread painted and machine embroidered piece called "Colonial Algae (Various Species of Hydrodictyaceae). Kate thread painted over an inkjet printed image of the algae. Her comment is "Pond scum, like people, often reveal their inner beauty upon closer inspection."




Kate has been doing a lot of work with digitizing and doing machine embroidery.














Joan Sterr did this piece called "Tree-ology" as part of the NQA batik challenge.

Joan Sterr's Damselfly and Copyright issues

I promised you that I would show you another terrific piece by Joan Sterr. This wonderful piece was done in response to our Art Quilt Guild's challenge for August. Guild members write words on pieces of paper indicating themes, inspirations, and techniques and put them in a container. We pull individual slips out of the container for the group to do. You don't have to participate in any or all of the challenges. They can be as large or as small as you want.

In August, the challenge word was "frost." Joan had a photograph she had clipped from a Sierra Club Calendar from the 1980s. She interpreted the photo into this absolutely wonderful piece. If I had had half a brain I would have done a close up, but I was working with my little point and shoot and was trying not to hold up the production during "show and tell."

When she showed us the piece and the photograph, that illicited yet another discussion about copyright issues. All pieces which are derived from images which are not the artists should be credited with the name of the photographer as inspiration. Indeed, that should be said for other elements as well. With copyright-free items of course you don't have to contact the artist or the owner. However, for all other items, you should try to contact the artist or owner of the image.

Joan's face fell when we talked about this. How was she ever going to find the photographer after all these years? Thanks to the internet, she was able to find a website for the photographer, Bill Ivy, and emailed him. Mr. Ivy was very happy to give her permission. Here you can see the original photograph.

Joan did well to do this. We, as quilters, should always cite the inspiration when it comes from something else. Quilters in traditional shows should indicate whose pattern they used, or from what book they took the design. While lots of quilters do their own designs and patterns, it is only right to recognize the thoughts of others....and it does make it much more easy for historians ; ) .

I hope you enjoy this great little piece from someone new to the art quilt world.

Fear, Quilting "green" and introducing a new Art Quilter

Since it is Halloween night...well, theoretically it is Halloween night, but since it's after midnight, it's really All Saint's Day.... but I thought it might be fun to talk a little about fear and quilting.

Not too long ago, someone on the Artquilt message board posted about fear and quilting...thinking that you and what you produce just isn't good enough. This creates blocks and also in most cases prevents others from enjoying your work.

I was surprised at the number of really well recognized quilters who acknowledged this feeling of insecurity. I think that we all have moments, but we need to take that blind leap and just try.

These pieces are by Joan Sterr. Joan has been a member of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network for just over a year, if I remember correctly. When speaking to her a little while ago, she said that she felt that she wasn't as experienced or "as good" as some of the other quilters in the group.

Now mind you, I quilt with some very good art quilters. Sometimes the work is so breath taking you really do feel that there is never anyway you could live up the their work. But...why should you? You're you. You should be quilting in your style and finding your own path.

The other aspect is that we will never be as good today as we will be tomorrow. I have always felt that the day that I didn't learn something new or better my ability in some area was the day that I would be six feet under pushing up daisies.


These two charming pieces are what I call Joan's "green quilts." Joan made these using raspberries to dye (or rather stain) the fabric. In addition, she used some black dyes and some more of the stain with commercially available stamps of Queen Anne's Lace.

She was quite clever in using fancy paper clips with beads for the little flowers ont he bottom....or maybe they are from the scrapbooking section of JoAnn Fabric's, but I swear I've seen similar ones to these at Staples.

In addition to using the natural berry stain, Joan worked on these while at a camp. She used her Singer Featherweight hooked up to a solar panel to provide the electricity, so she was green in the sewing of the piece as well...although I recognize that she could have been just as green by stitching by hand or using a treadle sewing machine.

I find Joan's work here charming. Tomorrow, I'll show you another piece which is just exquisite.

Please share what you think about Joan's pieces in the comment section and I'll pass them on to her. She needs to know that others think her pieces are wonderful...not just the crazy old goose.










I like the simplicity of this piece and I wish you could see the quilting better. She used a tight echo quilting but didn't do the whole piece, just the areas right around the flowers.








Here's a close up showing the stain and the bead and thread work she used on it.