The Army Wife in Charlottesville

Regular followers of Twelve by Twelve know that my life as an Army spouse comes through in much of my work. My small quilts for Identity, Twelve, Metamorphosis, Maps, and Maverick certainly reflect this. I am proud to announce that I will be having a solo show called The Army Wife in Charlottesville, VA during the month of September. Both Identity and Twelve pieces will most likely be part of it. For anyone in the area, I'd love it if you came for the opening reception, my artist talk, or just any time during the month that works for you.

Colourplay at Grand Rapids

Thanks to Monica of Michigan for sending through some photos from the Twelve by Twelve Colourplay exhibition at AQS Quilt Week at Grand Rapids.  The show continues until Saturday, 17 August.  

Invitation to Colorplay at AQS Quilt Week, Grand Rapids & Des Moines

Colorplay is back in the USA! You can view all 144 quilts in the Colorplay Series at:

• AQS Quilt Show, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA 14 – 17 August 2013; and
• AQS Quilt Show, Des Moines, Iowa, USA 2 – 5 October 2013.

Beneath the Southern Sky: Final Exhibitions

The exhibition tour of Beneath the Southern Sky is drawing to a close. The final venues are:

• Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, UK: 8-11 August; and
• International Quilt Convention Africa: 6-8 September 2013.

Brenda is curating another travelling textile art exhibition in 2014/2015. See the Living Colour! website for more information.  Entries close on 31 January 2014.

Colourplay at Midsomer Quilting

Thank you to the all of the UK quilting enthusiasts who visited our exhibition at Midsomer Quilting. Here are a couple of photos:

Inspired by Twelve by Twelve, Midsomer Quilting has staged their own 12x12in challenge with their customers with a "Fruit" challenge in 2011 followed by "Book" in 2012.  Check out the virtual galleries on the Midsomer Quilting website. This year the challenge is "Film/Movie". Entries close on 2 November (see the rules).  It's fun to see other challenges.

By the way, Colourplay will next be on display in the United States at:

• AQS Quilt Show, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA 14 – 17 August 2013; and
• AQS Quilt Show, Des Moines, Iowa, USA 2 – 5 October 2013.

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.

Colourplay Arrives in the UK

It is always a little nerve wracking to ship quilts to the other side of the world.What a relief when the "Delivered" tracking message appears on screen.

Colourplay will be on exhibition at Midsomer Quilting, Chilcompton, near Bath, United Kingdom 18-22 July 2013.  Here is your invitation!

Living Colour! Call for Entries

Following the fantastic response to Beneath the Southern Sky, Brenda is curating another travelling textile art exhibition in 2014/2015 that will premiere at the Australasian Quilt Convention.  This is an invitation to all textile artists to submit an entry exploring the theme Living Colour! Each work will be in a 100x40cm (L x W) vertical format and up to 30 works may be selected. To submit an entry, please review the Conditions of Entry and complete the Online Entry Form. The closing date for entries is 31 January 2014. International entries are welcome.

Pièce de Résistance in Art Quilting Studio

Pièce de Résistance, my very first Twelve by Twelve challenge quilt,  is one of my karamatsu, circle stitched resist shibori works  featured in the magazine Art Quilting Studio Summer 2013 that goes on sale on 1 June. My contributor copy is still making its way across the Pacific, I can't wait to see the other articles inside!

Detailed tutorials for various shibori techniques are available on my FREE STUFF page.

Quilt National

I'm just back from Athens Ohio and Quilt National which you can read about on my blog http://www.fiberartmusings.blogspot.com

While there I was asked to participate on a panel discussion about how we came to this point in our artistic lives to enter Quilt National, and I want to quote a few things I said in my talk

"Backtracking for a moment, in 2007 I was asked to join an online group called Twelve by Twelve, The International Art Quilt Challenge , started by Diane Perin Hock."

 "Twelve by Twelve was one of those aha moments in my life.  I was able to focus on a small piece of work, try out new techniques, and even in a last minute panic, experiment with something purely on instinct."

"...the group was supportive in every way, like a nurturing mother.  I think that's just what I needed at the time to build confidence in my artwork"

So thank you Twelves, for helping me to this point in my artistic career.

A Sweet Update

Following Helen's completion of her quilt, here's an updated mosaic of the Sweet mosaic:

 

And here is an overview of Helen's 2012 Series:

Sweet reveal: Leave my Land Alone

You might recall that I for the special 12/12/12 reveal I managed to produce only an insipid, contrastless, unexciting map.  You can read the sorry tale here . Since than the map - which looked like this

 



has sat unloved on a corner of my work table. every now and agan I'd pick it up and mutter 'Sweet, sweet, sweet. Come on. Think. Sweet.' but no ideas came. I did not know whether to bin this and start again.(But I had no alternative ideas). Or to make this work. (But I didn't know how.) I hated it. I hoped everyone would forget that I never finished it. then I got news that the 20/12 quilts were wanted for exhibition. I had to finish it.

Then one day I was tidying up some boxes of scraps and bits and this sample Maasi warrior fell out onto the top of the sweet map.

 Ta-Dah! Of course.. it needed a man. That much should have been absolutely obvious from the outset. Mostly because the quilt is about the story of how the government are taking the land of the Omo tride in Southern Ethiopia to make sugar plantations. The maps shows their current land and how much will be affected by their forced relocation.(Read more here). For me the stories in my quilts are always about the people and their lives. Not the landscape. So, how I didn't think to add an Omo tribesman with his traditional body paint I will never know.

Especially as the first page in my Studio Filofax, which I open almost every day, is, um, a picture of an Omo tribe family.. (Doh!)

And the great irony is that this most hated and loathed quilt is now my favourite of my 20/12 series!

Time will do great things.

Using Sheers in Fabric Collage

I'm thrilled to be offering another webinar through Quilting Daily (the same folks that do Quilting Arts magazine, TV show and dvds). This one is all about using sheer materials in fabric collage.

I just went back and did a count of all my 12x12 quilts --- the Theme Series, the ColorPlay series and the 2012 Series. Guess what... I used sheer fabrics in 18 of my 29 quilts. 

Here is my quilt, Garden Gate, from the Rusty theme of the ColorPlay series. It incorporates a sheer silhouette of a crocus created with tulle. I will be discussing this technique --- and many others -- in the webinar.

The live webinar is TOMORROW May 22 at 11:30 am EST. If that fits your schedule and you're interested in hearing all kinds of things about sheer fabrics and the cool ways you can use them in your artwork, you should register! You'll get an email confirmation right away, then you just log in tomorrow. If you can't attend tomorrow, but are still interested, register anyway and you'll get a code to download the audio and video of the webinar anytime you like.

One of the cool things about webinars is that anyone anywhere can join in. I think it's just amazing that our 12x12 project has fans all over the world and I'm excited that some of you might be able to join me tomorrow.

International Fiber Art Showcase: 14-17 August 2013

Colorplay will be a special exhibit at AQS Quilt Show, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA 14 – 17 August 2013 along with quilts from the Philippines, Germany and the Tentmakers of Cairo.

Be first in line to reserve your tickets, schedule your classes, and secure your seat for special events - all from the comfort of your computer. Registration opens to the public on May 13, 2013 at 9:00 a.m. central time.

See www.aqsshows.com/AQSGrandRapids/ for more information.

Colourplay in Down Under Textiles

Look out for the Colourplay article in Issue No 10 of Down Under Textiles magazine:
Here's a peek but there is more!

The magazine also has articles on Radiance dyeing; how to use deColourant; screen printing with Sally Westcott; breakdown printing and other techniques.