The Last Slice on the Dayton Skyline

The Miami Valley Art Quilt Network's rendition of the Dayton Skyline as seen in May

You may recall me writing about the Dayton Landmarks project which the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network under took and exhibited earlier this year.  You can see what I wrote about it here. (There are a total of 4 posts, this is just the first, and they are consecutive commencing June 4, 2012)

Our project was to interpret various Dayton area landmarks in fiber.  To that end, Ronnie Doyal took photographs and we divided the photographs into "slices" then divvied them to all the participating members of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network.  This is Ronnie's shot of the Dayton Skyline.  Back in May, we were missing slice number 1.  Life had interfered with the person who originally had it, and wasn't able to do it.  So...we showed it without the slice.  I was adamant that we find someone else to take that slice. Some of our members said, just forget it....but then the photograph wouldn't match our renditions.  Not only that, I felt that the absence of that first slice made for a less dynamic and balanced composition. We needed that slice.

Suzanne Kirchner, Slice 1 Dayton Skyline

Suzanne Kirchner, a relatively new member of MVAQN stepped up to the plate and I am just ecstatic over her piece.  Here it is. I love the turquoise building.  I am also thrilled with her fabric choices.  Absolutely unexpected, but perfect touches.  The turquoise blocky print really reads like the windows in the building at the far left of the photograph.  But when we look more closely at the detail, you find even more happy surprises.

Don't you just love that shot of madras type plaid at the far left?  And I love that really "thready print" green just below the spruce tree.











And the pink is just the perfect touch for the building at the right.  Look at the wonderful texture she put in with the thread painting which also gives the shading on the spruce.

I think that Suzanne's piece fits wonderfully with the others which were done prior to hers, and is the absolute perfect completion of this image....and far better than leaving it as the truncated piece which originally showed up there.


I'm participating in Nina Marie's "Off the Wall Fabric Fridays" .  Please check out the other blog participants here.  I'm sure you'll find lots of fund, fiberlicious stuff.

The quilts will be on exhibition at the Dayton Metro Library, 215 East 3rd. Street, Dayton, OH  45402 until December 27, 2012 (Library tele.: 937-463-2665).  additional showings will be at the South Park United Methodist Church, 120 Stonemill (at Brown St.) Jan. 6, 2013 until Feb. 27, 2013 and additionally at the Southminster Presbyterian Church, 7001 Far Hills Ave., Dayton from March through April 2013.

Dayton Landmarks Quilts: Sacred Heart, last installment

It has been such a fiber-full spring, and there is still so much more to share, although this is the last installment of the Dayton Landmarks Slice quilts, at least in this rendition.  We really hope to add more.

Here's Ronnie Doyal's shot of Sacred Heart Church.  Dayton architect Charles Insco Williams designed it in 1888 and it stands at 217 West 4th Street in Dayton. One of the cool things is that although the Catholic church closed it, they "mothballed" it until another congregation could take it over.  Just a year after the closing, in 2000 a Vietnamese congregation took it over.

I think that this rendition is one of my favorites.  I am amazed at how all three of the artists simplified the building in pretty much the same way, giving us a graphic rendition of the church.  Although each of the individuals styles are usually pretty different...this one could almost be done by one person.  You would think that they collaborated closely on this piece....but they didn't.  From left to right, the artists were Pam Geisel, Sara Lynne Walsh and Ann Diller.

I'm not sure exactly who has the more detailed of the two pieces, Pam or Ann.  As usual, Pam pays extreme attention to detail.  However in this piece, much of her detail is achieved through her quilting, although her shading is impeccable.  The angles and straightness of line are perfect, a very difficult feat to achieve when dealing with fabric.

I hope you can see it here.

Sara Lynne Walsh's style is much more lose than either Pam or Ann's.  I love how she did the cross at the top of the dome by using organza ribbon.

Ann Diller used a little bit of fiber roving or angelina, I can't remember which but I think roving, to make her whispy clouds. Ann has a wonderful color sense and always chooses her fabrics well.

Aren't they just great?

Dayton Landmark Art Quilts: Mendelson's

Nestled in the north end of Dayton, just opposite 5th/3rd field, home to the Dayton Dragons, a farm team for the Cincinnati Reds, stands Mendelson's Liquidation Outlet.  Old industrial buildings fascinate me and I loved Ronnie Doyal's shot of Mendelson's....although there were a lot of people who complained that we picked it as a "Dayton Landmark."  When we thought of the project, it was things which were recognizably Dayton, not that it was a point of pride, a long time standing institution or whatever...and since you see the name emblazoned on the building when you drive past, or when you are at the ball park...well, it fits the bill, not matter how much people complained about it.
I felt that the shot offered lots of interesting tidbits for people to try.....but of course, I lusted after the water tower.


Chris Landis got the first slice.  I loved how she handled this.  Chris is a consummate quilter and has a machine quilting business, Feather Creek Quilting.  For her segment, she took the sky and interwove pieces.

you can see her quilting and what I mean a bit better here in this detail. I also loved the way she handled the trees.















Carroll Schleppi drew the next segment and had some really lovely graphic elements to play with.  Carroll chose a batik with an overprint of a metallic...sort of lightening bolt fabric. It is fairly subtle until you see it up close.

 The next segment belongs to Liz Schneiders.  The really cool thing about Liz' piece is that she bought all the fabric for her piece at Mendelson's!  Work clothes, etc. On the back side of it, she included labels and price tags for her purchases, and made a pocket to hold a card about Mendelson's in it.  Pretty cool!












Here's the front.  I love how she made the smoke rising out of the stack, even though in the original photo  it wasn't present.  That graphic smoke broke up the sky and gave it a lot more interest.  I love the shading and the lines made by the stacks and the windows.

The lucky bum who landed the water tower was Sue DeSantis.  Her tower is extremely faithful to the original photograph.  I love the contrast of the back ground of the sky to all the other artist's skys....and I especially like how it references traditional quilting.  Like Chris, Sue also does custom quilting on her long arm and like Chris' work, her quilting is to die for!  We are so lucky to have so many talented people in our group.

I apologize that this is taking me longer, but I have been having a very tough time with this round of chemo and find that I am often just too tired to sit down and right...in some cases, I've sat struggling with the photos and my stupid very old computer trying to get the posts up, but fail when my eyes are just too weary!  The quilts will continue at the Schuster Center through June 24th.  I can't wait until we can actually put them up WITH the photographs which inspired them.  So far, you are the first people seeing them together, so you should feel very special indeed.

Dayton Landmark's Quilts--Interpreting photos by the slice!

Dayton Landmarks as hanging in Schuster Center. L - R: Mendolson's, Sue DeSantis,  Carrillon,  Dayton Skyline (part 1, Carroll Schleppi, Dayton Skyline Part 2, Lisa Quintana, Sacred Heart Church, Dayton Art Institute, Mindy Marik, The Arcade

Some of the craziness I was participating in last week was the installation of a series of "slice" quilts at the Schuster Center for the Performing Arts in Dayton, Ohio.  These quilts were a long time in the hanging.  In about 2009, a group of us had seen the "slice" quilts at the National Quilters Association show in Columbus and we thought we wanted to give it a go.  The quilts in Columbus were scenes of a river, which flowed from one piece into another.  We thought we'd do scenes of locations which were readily recognized as Dayton.

At first, we contacted some photography groups in Dayton to see if they were interested.  When no one responded, we asked our own Ronnie Doyal who is an art quilter and pretty danged good photographer working with David Lorenz Studios in Dayton.  Ronnie took a series of shots and three of us, Lori Gravley, Mindy Marik and I, looked at the images and chose which ones would be best to be divided into segments and then handed out to Miami Valley Art Quilt members to interpret in cloth.

We had sign ups, where everyone who was interested in a particular image put their names in a "hat" and we drew to assign segments.  Some of us did more than one....all of the quilts were to be 42" long, with the width being proportional in order to make sure that the show would look good when hanging with all the segments completed.

This wasn't without trauma as some of the places doing photocopies were less than accurate in their segment lengths.  This is Ronnie's photo of the Carillon Tower at Carillon Park.  I fell in love with the dramatic lighting...taken just as the sun went down.

Here's how Sue DeSantis and I interpreted the piece.  My "slice" is on the left, and Sue's is the right.  Sue used a commercial gradient fabric in teal as her background with a selection of greyish neutrals for the tower.  Her bells are small craft bells.  She quilted it on the diagonal and put small hot-fix crystals to show the evening stars.  My segment was made with a rust dye fabric with tea to give it the greyish look.   The trees are made with a machine lace, which was cut away in segments to let the yellow glow show through.  The blue background is a commercial batik which unfortunately, I was only able to obtain in fat quarter sizes, so I had to piece it.  I used organza ribbon to give the shadow on the pylon.  Unfortunately, I learned too late that organza tends to run away from your presser foot.  I think if I use it again, I'll glue it down first, or fuse so I can get a perfectly straight line.

Lori Gravley, Mindy Marik and I chose to do the Dayton Art Institute in order to show our members what we meant.  I particularly liked how the wording came out "Dayton Art" which we took to be our theme, and our thought was that in future shows this would be the introductory panel.  Lori took the left panel, I had the middle, and Mindy took the right.  I used rust dyed muslin for the body of the building, and over-dyed a piece of peach colored polyester moire for the roof.  I also used various ribbons for the metal parts on the door.  Mindy used various neutrals to replicate the blocks of the building, and Lori made hers from a commercial print.  I think it is pretty interesting how the colors really blend and give the feeling of being on the same building.  My section of the steel sculpture is made with a polyester metallic knit which I fused with sheers, and I can't remember what all to give the illusion of the reflection in the steel.  Lori used various commercial prints.  All of us edited out the various posters and notices (such as the hours) in order to make it a better composition.

Over the next several days, I will be showing more of the pieces.  They will be on exhibition at the Schuster Center until June 24.   The center is open from 7:00 am until about 11:00 pm, after the last show Tuesday through Sunday.  Mondays the building is open for viewing from 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.  We will be showing the quilts with their photographs at two other venues this summer and fall, and will be announced as soon as we have the details straightened out.