Sentinelle is finished

This is my sentinelle piece for the upcoming Sisters in Cloth exhibit in Stony Creek at the Willoughby Wallace Library gallery, which is opening Friday, March 27.

The wood block prints were purchased from Dijanne Cevaal and each of us decorated our print according to our own aesthetic. I often embellish with some (or many) beads, but this one is strictly embroidered.

I've had some positive comments on my Facebook page, so I think I may have to do another. Dijanne has a new similar design, Queen of Chartres--along with other block prints. Click HERE to see them.

The act of sitting and embroidering while I was recuperating from pneumonia was quite therapeutic. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this needle craft. Perhaps another sentinelle or a Queen of Chartres will be upcoming?

Happy New Year

2015

The years pass so much more quickly as I have celebrated more and more birthdays. My mother-in-law said that many times, and I've found that she was right.

We are well into this century and I am in my seventies. I won't be achieving everything I had thought I would, but I am doing what I like. I teach math at a community college, which is very gratifying, and at a local state university. Freshman math. The things most people hate, but I try to make it as painful as possible. And I love my students.

The main drawback to my continuing to work is a lack of time and/or energy to pursue my art. If it weren't for Sisters in Cloth, I might never get any quilts done. In November I completed this quilt for our recent exhibit at the Guilford Public Library. It has now been transported to another exhibit at Brookside Quiltworks in South Egremont, Massachusetts.

I enjoyed making this quilt, as it used traditional techniques but non-traditional fabric. (I love making all those points and corners come together.) Except for the white, of course, the fabric was all from one piece of my snow-dyed fabric. The pattern is Greek cross, but the lack of sashing between the blocks gives it a very different look. I also quilted it differently from the way I might have back when I was doing more traditional quilts.

Happy New Year to all.

Around the World Blog Hop

 

I'm delighted to have been invited by Mary Lachman to take part in this blog hop. I hope to visit many new sites and hope to get visitors to mine. As I said in my previous post, my blog was hacked and disappeared. I'd been working on it for many years and had many delightful posts, as well as a list of bloggers that I enjoyed following--also lost. This worldwide blog hop is serving as an incentive to start working again.

I invite you to also visit Diane Cadrain's blog.I know Diane through SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates). She can be seen knitting small items, such as leaves, flowers, or backgrounds, that she may include in her next quilt. I had the pleasure of walking by and viewing Diane's quilts on display at the UConn Health Center for three months as I made frequent visits there for dental work.

Diane is a member of The Connective Fiber Arts Collective (CFCA), a group of very talented women who frequently exhibit their work around the state. I am happy to be friends with many of them.

Mary is also a member of CFCA and SAQA. I was first drawn to Mary's work when I saw her unique felted art that incorporated lace and doilies into her pieces. Mary is a delightful person who is also a scientist and the author of a book, Moth in the Window, a beautiful book focused on her grandfather's poetry.

What I have been doing more than anything is teach math. I try to get some projects done on the side. This is not the ideal way to be an artist, because often I have inspiration and a desire to create, but there is a pile of exams to correct.

If you check an earlier post in this new blog, I took a class, along with other members of Sisters in Cloth, with Kate Themel. She is one of the most talented women I have had the privilege to meet.

I have just finished a small piece for a Sisters in Cloth exhibit at the Guilford Town Hall. While going through the fabrics I have painted or dyed, I came across a piece of mono-printed fabric--created in a class with Rayna Gillman--that contained a leaf image. I cut off that part; it was about 6 x 8. After free-motion stitching around each leaf, I painted them with Inktense pencils. Here it is, framed and ready.

This picture had a white circle in the middle--the reflection of the flash. I was very happy to be able to cover that with the paintbrush in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Continuing with the magnolia quilt

I've posted pictures from Part II of the class Sisters in Cloth took from Kate Themel.
Link to that post on the Sisters' blog here.

Here's Kate explaining what we'll be doing:

And here I am trying to follow her directions. I'll post more pictures as I progress with the quilting.

Class with Kate Themel

Sisters in Cloth are lucky enough to be taking a class with Kate Themel. In Part I  we used her patterns to create magnolias. We did as many as time allowed, which in my case was two. Homework was to make as many more as we wished.

In addition to Kate's patterns, she provided us with kits containing fabrics dyed by Carol R. Eaton. We got to choose our colors. Isn't that background gorgeous?

Here is my piece ready for tomorrow, when we will quilt our masterpieces.

It's going to be fun to see everyone's creations. You can see Diane Wright's here and the Sisters at work here.

 I am really looking forward to the free-motion quilting, not one of my greatest skills. Maybe I'll be better after tomorrow.

Starting Over

My blog, Fiber Art by Ruth Anne, was removed by Google. Maybe the blog was hacked. I don't know what happened, but I spent an awful lot of time trying to get it back.  Finally I decided it's not worth it, so I'm starting a new one.

This quilt, Community and Variety, was my entry in a recent Sisters in Cloth exhibit at the Guilford Public Library. The exhibit, Food for Thought: Inspired by the Library, was for the most part rather loosely interpreted by our members.

Below are the self portraits that  we created. Anyone who knows us well enough can pick out which portrait is which Sister.