Update From Terri

Hi All! Sometimes when I think back on my involvement with this group, it sort of seems like a dream. Did I actually make all those quilts and participate? Well I did and I have the quilts to prove it. It is all a wonderful memory and it will always have a special place in me. I'm so fortunate to have been able to participate with this great group of talented artists and I cherish their friendship.

Seeking Red
40 x 40" mixed media quilt

In the time since, I have been keeping busy. I am still very creative and make art quilts, although not quite as many. I have, recently, (like some of the others here) been making more traditional quilts. Some of these are on the modern side and some are improvisational piecing, which I really enjoy.

While I've always enjoyed working with mixed media and fabrics, it seems I have become even more enamored with my desire to create my own fabrics. I love designing and took an online course on surface pattern design. I have become more involved with screen printing and stenciling and creating fabrics to use in my quilts and other projects.  I have designed several stencil designs for StencilGirl Products and I have several other stencil designs that I sell in my Etsy shop. Most recently I have been teaching myself how to create my own silk screens and screen print fabric yardage.

I also taught myself how to weave. I started out with a rigid heddle loom and then graduated to a 4-shaft floor loom. My favorite things to weave are scarves and kitchen towels.

I don't post a lot on my own blog anymore. I am finding it much easier and convenient to share what I'm doing on Instagram and Facebook. When I'm not busy with my creative activities, I enjoy spending time with my family. My grandkids bring me a lot of enjoyment. My granddaughter just turned 4 and my grandson is not yet 2. I still have my cats. They are aging now and a couple of them have developed some health issues. I still live in North Dakota, where it seems like nothing exciting, "quilt-wise", ever happens. Thanks to all of you who have followed along on this journey. I feel so blessed to have been a part of it.

Fiber Art for a Cause

I am so happy to pass along information about an exciting new initiative raising money for the American Cancer Society. It's Virginia Spiegel's Fiberart For A Cause. This year her project is called "The 100." 

100 Artists - 100 Patrons - One Day
$10,000 To Fight Cancer
February 4, 2015
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/FFACThe100Fundraiser.html

Six of the "twelves" are included in "The 100" along with many, many other amazing artists.

Deborah Boschert

Gerrie Congdon

Terry Grant

Kristin LaFlamme
Karen Rips

Terri Stegmiller

Want to make a donation and receive a piece of art? Mark your calendar for February 4 and check out the details are here.

Fiberart For A Cause has already raised $240,000 through the generosity of fiber artists and patrons.

SAQA Benefit Auction 2014: Dream Collection

The annual benefit auction is the signature fundraising event for Studio Art Quilt Associates. Your purchases help increase the recognition for art quilts and the artists who make them while supporting SAQA’s exhibitions, publications, and education outreach. The 2014 SAQA Benefit Auction is coming up in September and Dream Collections are starting to appear online.  The dream collection set out below is comprised of works donated by six of the Twelves that are up for auction:
    Nightfall: Deborah Boschert             Sky Blue Pink: Gerrie Congdon            Undecided:  Karen Rips                   The Visitor:  Terri Stegmiller                    Eye of the Crow: Terry Grant                   Neptune's Necklace#1:Brenda Smith

Talking of SAQA, congratulations to Helen! Her work Graffiti 1 was juried into the “SAQA exhibition Wide Horizons IV that will premiere at the Carrefour Européen du Patchwork/European Patchwork Meeting  in Alsace, France:18-21 September 2014.  Don't forget, all 144 works from the Colorplay Series will also be on exhibition at this event.

Graffiti 1:  Helen Conway

Many of the Twelves enjoy the educational, networking, mentoring and exhibition opportunities offered by Studio Art Quilt Associates. If you’ve been thinking about joining SAQA, add the discount code “BGS” to the application form and you will receive a 10% discount on the membership fee.

SAQA Benefit Auction 2013 at the International Quilt Festival

The 2013 SAQA Benefit Auction continues with the final tranche open for in-person bidding at the International Quilt Festival, Houston in Houston from 28 October to 3 November (with online bidding available on 28 and 29 October) . This is a great opportunity to purchase quality textile art and support SAQA’s exhibition programs. You can view the quilts in this tranche at page a and  page b of the SAQA website including these works donated by some of the Twelves in their distinctive styles.

Deborah's work Rocks, Rivers and Rooftops incorporates many of her favorite motifs and techniques: the houses, the hand embroidery, handwriting as surface design, a painted stenciled twig and the arch over the top of the suggested landscape.  You can read the surprising back story  to this piece on Deborah's blog and learn some of these techniques yourself in Deborah's new online workshop called Branches, Buds and Blossoms Fabric Collage.

In her work Awareness, Karen stitched a piece of fabric with wool felt underneath to shrink it up for texture.  After bleaching, she overdyed it a very pale blue, which took away the cream color.  Raised circles, created with buttons, adds extra interest.

Terri's Kitty Rides Back features a portait and two kitties in stencilled fabrics made from her very own stencil designs.

If you happen to be attending the International Quilt Festival, Houston in person, be sure to check out the following exhibits that also features works by some of the Twelves:

• An Exquisite Moment  features works by Deborah Boschert, Gerrie Congdon, Diane Perin Hock and Karen Rips.  There is also An Exquisite Moment Catalogue available for sale;
•  Tactile Architecture and What's for Dinner special exhibits feature works by Deborah Boschert..

Colourplay in the UK

Our one and only UK  Colourplay exhibition opens today at Midsomer Quilting at Chilcompton, near Bath. The exhibitions runs until Monday, 22 July. This is an opportunity to view all 144 quilts in the series and who doesn't love a well stocked quilt shop with friendly staff?!
In other Twelve news, check out the new August/September issue of Quilting Arts magazine that features an article by Terri about how she sketches and creates her whimsical story quilts with layers of colour and pattern.

Terri's Stencil Blog Hop

Our very own Terri Stegmiller has designed 14 stencils produced by Stencil Girl Products. Join Terri, Deborah, Brenda and other artists on the Stencil Blog Hop to celebrate the release of this fun new line; explore the creative possibilities of stencilling. and maybe win some stencils of your own to play with!

2012 Series by Terri

Terri has a new line of stencil designs available from the Stencil Girl website and bags, art quilts and other creations for sale in Terri's Etsy Shop. You are all invited to join Terri on her new facebook page www.facebook.com/TerriStegmillerArtQuilts

One Lump or Two

I haven't always been a coffee drinker, but within the last several years I have become one. I don't, however, take mine black. I like it loaded, so to speak....sweetener and half-n-half for me, please.

I have tried many different types of sweeteners in my coffee, the current one being agave nectar. I admit, though, that good old-fashioned sugar is by far my favorite sweetener in coffee.

My quilt is almost entirely hand stitched.  The only machine stitching is the black outlining around some of the elements.

The background of the quilt is made up mainly of neutral fabric scraps. I've recently been adding lots of hand stitching to a few small works and I'm finding the process very satisfying. Plus it gives me something to do when my husband is watching something on TV that doesn't really intrigue me.

The green leaves near the top left represent sugar cane foliage.

The Ultimate in Sweet

Sugar cane

My goodness, when I chose the theme of "sweet" I had no clue how challenging it would be for me.  To be honest though I have been rather busy with other things and have just, in the past few days, had time to really start thinking about "sweet".

I am happy to say that I have landed on an idea and I even have a rough sketch.  Yay!

Onward I go!

But first I must go find something sweet.

Sweet

There's just been way too many M's in our life lately! Sorry fellow Twelves, I just had to Shake thingS up!

And after all, you can't have M&M without an S.

So our theme this round starts with an S.  SWEET

The word sweet can be used as an adjective, adverb and noun.  There are many definition entries (too many to copy) so I'll lead you to a dictionary definition.  Follow this link.

The Radical Tulip

I'm still wondering how Brenda knew about my one yellow tulip among all the red ones??!! See her post here.

The Radical Tulip
20" x 12"

I had the idea for this quilt early on in this round. I gave it some time in case any other ideas popped in my head for the theme. Well, needless to say, nothing popped.

Here is my inspiration photo. I took this photo in my garden in the spring of 2007. I had posted it on my blog and it immediately came to mind after I started thinking about the maverick theme. You know, that only idea I had early on??!!.


My quilt is raw edge fused and free motion quilted.  I added some highlights and shadows with Prismacolor pencils.

The edges are stitched with a zig zag and I also couched some coordinating fibers along the edge.  I was feeling a bit more mavericky and added a stretch of yellow fiber in place of the red.

2012 SAQA Benefit Auction

Congratulations to Helen . Her distinctive African figures feature on the promotional materials for the forthcoming Studio Art Quilts Associates 2012 Benefit auction.  Bidding begins on 10 September and Helen, Terri and Karen have works in the first tranche (pieces by other Twelves follow).  In the meantime, check out the "Dream Collections".

Modern Day Medusa

Modern Day Medusa
20" x 12"

Medusa is from Greek mythology. It seems there are different versions of Medusa's story throughout history. At one point she is a monstrous and ugly being and during another time she is depicted as beautiful.  But most stories seem to agree that if anyone dared to gaze directly at Medusa, they would turn into stone. And for this reason, her image is often seen as a gate or door decoration as a symbol of being guarded by her.

It is said she was raped by Poseidon and became pregnant. When Athena found out about the rape and pregnancy, she turned Medusa's beautiful hair into snake-like serpents. Medusa was beheaded by Perseus while pregnant and as she died, Pegasus (the winged horse) was born from her.

My quilt is machine-pieced neutral fabrics that are then thread sketched and painted with Caran d' Ache Neocolor II Crayons.

Mission Mythology: Completed

Wow, I'm so happy to tell you that I've finished my mythology quilt. Here's a sneak peek. As you can probably tell, it's a face, and a female face at that. Once I figured out what I was going to do for this challenge I was itching to go with it. It seemed like forever since I had created a female face on a quilt. I can't wait to see what the other Twelves create in this challenge.

Twelvestown

Welcome to Twelvestown. 

Population:  12 happy art quilters

Coordinates:  20 x 12

A beautiful, safe and happy environment in which to live.  Quite dreamlike.

This quilt, the third attempt in this challenge, popped into my head when I was growing quite desperate for ideas.  I named all the streets/roads/highways with names that related somehow to our group.   It is a whole cloth quilt and I created the streets using a gel glue resist.

looming, LoominG, LOOMING

The next reveal deadline is looming and will be here before I know it.  I'm not ready!!!  The "map" challenge has challenged me this round.  I need to figure out something and quick.

So far I've had two thoughts on the subject.  One, which I believe Karen touched on a bit in an early post, is mind mapping. 

Upon doing a little online research, I even stumbled upon a Mind Mapping blog.  Who knew??!!

And another idea I've been tossing around on this subject is treasure maps.

So I'm really hoping that something hits me soon and then hopefully I can figure out how to execute it. 

Note:  Photos are from Wikipedia.