What's Been Happening

Hello to all.  Well it must be admitted that the caretaker of our blog went on vacation during the summer.  Mentally more then physically.  We have been meeting regularly and making and sharing ideas.  Right now we are in a transitional stage of figuring out our direction.   We have been working on pieces that were influenced by different art styles and artists.  It has met with various degrees of success, but I don't think that overall we have been that enthusiastic about it.

I think now we are looking for new inspiration.  One of the things that we did this summer was fabric dying.  It was great fun.  Some of us had dyed fabric before and some of us had not.  Actually the process, as I was one of the 'newbies' in dying, was fairly simple.  Messy, fun, but easy.  I am hoping that this experience will help us along a new path.

We are also branching out by going on some 'field trips'.  I think that this will sort of happen as we find things to go see.  More on that when there is news.

We have some new work to share and several examples of our fabric dying experience. Grace and Adena both brought quilted pieces to share.  Grace's piece was from our last art style, which was Art Deco/Art Nouveau.  She found inspiration in Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural designs.  Adena shared a quilt that she finished from a class/demonstration that she participated in some time ago.  All of our other ArtDeco/Art Nouveau pieces, unfortunately did not make it into this post, owing to some camera/photo mishaps and basically technology working against us.

Enjoy our dyed fabrics and Grace's and Adena's  pieces.

Grace Hoya

Adena Joseph

Becky Haley

Becky Haley

Barbara Sawyer

Barbara Sawyer

Barbara Sindlinger

Barbara Sinlinger

Karen Taber

Karen Taber

Playing with Abstract Expressionism

Welcome spring!

This month we are catching up on one of our member's Impressionistic piece from the last round.  She was not able to attend the last meeting so we did not get a picture of it.  Below is Grace Hoya's interpretation of Impressionism:

Grace Hoya

We are well on our way with the next round of art quilts.  This time we tackling Abstract Expressionism.  This is an approach that came about in the 1940's.  Artists were exploring new ways of 'seeing' the world, both the inner world and the world around them.  The pieces below are works in progress.  It will be really exciting to see how they look completed.  The first two are UFO's that Grace is thinking about manipulating for her piece.  She is not sure which one she is going to continue with, but both have really great possibilities.

Grace Hoya

Grace Hoya

The next one is Karen Taber's visual experiment.  She is working on layering fabrics and thread.  

Karen Taber

Our last contributor is Klara East, one of our newest members.  She is using hand dyed silks, velvet, and beading.   

Klara East

And..... we need to give a huge big shout out to Barbara Sindlinger who did very well at Best of the Valley in April.  This is our local annual quilt show in Lindsay, California.  She received the Chairman's Special Merit Award for her quilt Farmer's Wife.  Way to go Barbara:

Impressionistically Inspired

Deolinda Rhoades

 Well here we are again.  Our first projects for the new year.  We are challenging ourselves with art styles this year.  This first round of quilts were inspired by Impressionism.  We looked at different artists and took elements from their work. People were inspired by everyone from Vincent Van Gogh to Edward Degas. It may have been the colors, the objects in the painting, the general feel of the piece, or the entire subject matter.  We have here quite an eclectic presentation. 

Some of us are really thinking about what we are producing, so some of our pieces are not complete yet.  We are looking for more feed back on what we are working on, rather then ideas after the fact, or the finished piece.  

Our next challenge is Abstract Expressionism.  I don't think that any of us can wait to see what we do with that style or movement.

We have two new members this year - Klara East from Exeter and Becky Haley from Springville, and one returning member - Deolinda Rhoads from Hanford.  We can't wait to see how they will inspire us all.

Karen Taber

Barbara Sawyer

Barbara Sindlinger

Adena Joseph

Becky Haley