Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

I flew up to Boston on Thursday to meet my husband and son and to stop in at the Art Quilts Lowell 2010 exhibit in Lowell, MA. I was delighted to find out that  Amber Harvest was awarded Juror’s Choice in the exhibit and Beach House has been sold!

Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me so this picture was taken on my phone. Sorry about the picture quality, but  I wanted to show the award with the piece. Click here to see the quilt on my website with good resolution and lighting.

We really enjoyed the show–the quilts were top notch and I kept going back through the room to look at each one more closely until my family was more than ready to find a place for lunch! I would highly recommend a visit if you’re in the Boston area. The show runs until Sept. 11 and you can find details here if you scroll down to the bottom of the page.

I’ve spent the last two days taking a class in machine quilting from Ann Fahl–an award-winning quilter from Wisconsin. I had seen her quilts at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival for the past few years and really admired them, so when she came to my area to teach a class, I signed up. Although I’m happy with my quilting expertise, I think there’s always more to learn, especially from people who’ve won prizes for their work.

Ann creates wonderful applique quilts of gardens and animals, especially her cat, Oreo, and adds inspiring machine quilting to the backgrounds, pulling the viewer in and giving something interesting to look at close up. I don’t do much applique, so I decided I would learn more if I made a class sample that was more me, so to speak. Thankfully Ann seemed to understand.

My goal with this piece was to create a variety of quilting motifs going all over the surface of the quilt without regard to the piecing. This is harder than it sounds. Although I’ve done it before, I thought the time dedicated to this in class would be well spent. You have to really think about what you’re going to do next and where you’re going to go using this technique.

The jury’s still out, since I haven’t finished the piece. In addition, I used a different kind of thread than I’ve used before–a shiny rayon–variegated of course. It gives a nice little sheen to the quilt surface, although it takes more concentration to “drive” than the cotton thread I usually use. If you click on the image above, you can see details of the quilting.

As I hoped, I did come away from the class with several new “nuggets” that I’ll be able to incorporate into my own work and hopefully make it better.

I finished and delivered the commission piece I’ve been working on for the last couple of months–that’s a great feeling.

On the list I belong to for members of Studio Art Quilt Associates there was a thread not long ago about the power of using a sketchbook to record ideas and thoughts for times when you need inspiration. I hadn’t really thought about it much before, but while I was working on the commission, I decided to try and keep some record of ideas that I’d like to try out when I was finished.

Below are some of my sketches and at right is my first attempt at a new piece based on one of the sketches. So far, I’m really happy with the process. Before I started doing this, I would have an idea or see an image that I wanted to explore and I was sure I would remember it later, but the reality was, I usually didn’t. I was also self-conscious that my drawing wasn’t really very good. But then the light bulb went on and I realized that it doesn’t matter–all I’m doing is recording an idea for later, so when I’m ready to start on a new piece, all I have to do is look back at my sketches and decide which one to work on first.

This piece isn’t named yet, because I’ve just started it, but I’m excited with the possibilities. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’ve been working on a series of quilts that explore color and color interactions without the distraction of patterning–I call it my Color Block series. For this one I used scraps of Cherrywood handdyed fabrics I’ve been collecting. I really like the soft look the handdyed pieces have, compared to the Kona cottons I’ve used before. To create this piece, I started with the idea of a vertical strip of wonky improvisationally pieced units. I just started sewing the units together and let the fabric do the talking. It needed to have colors that were similar in value–not too many lights or darks, mostly medium values. Then I wanted to set it asymmetrically on the piece, with yellow on one side and soft orange on the other. Initially I thought the wider side would be green, but when I put it up on the wall, the green didn’t work. That’s what I mean by letting the fabric do the talking. I’m not sure about the yellow triangle near the bottom of the strip–now that I see it in a photograph, it stands out more than it does in real life, so I may have to do something different with it. That’s what I enjoy about this process–the give and take and the intuitive nature of the design–Stay tuned!

Snow Days are relatively new to me, since I grew up in Florida and never even saw snow until I was 18 and in college.  But we’ve had quite a few this winter and since we’re snowed in from the monster storm that hit the DC area this weekend, I’ve been thinking about the idea. Snow days mean you have to slow down. You can’t get out of your driveway, so there’s no place to go, unless you can walk. There’s no newspaper or mail. I can live without the mail, but we get three newspapers a day and I really miss reading them with my morning coffee.

To keep me busy, I have a quilt in the hoop to hand quilt and I’ve learned how to knit. Both of these activities are meditative for me. When I hand quilt I enjoy the slow pace of the needle moving through the fabric and my mind is free and open to new design ideas. Not every project lends itself to hand quilting and I would never give up my machine quilting and go back to doing everything by hand, but I do usually have a hand project going. Knitting is a different activity altogether. I’m not very good at it yet–I’ve finished one scarf and I’m almost finished with another one in a different technique so I can learn something new. I’ve tried to learn to knit three or four times in my life, but I think I’m going to be able to stick with it this time. It will never take the place of quilting for me, but it’s a new way to think about fiber and design, which are my favorite things as an artist.

Snow Days are family days–we make a fire in the fireplace, watch movies, make homemade pizza and eat popcorn. We read books. We reconnect with each other. Snow Days force us to take a break from our busy lives and I think that’s a good thing.

Journal Cover

Well, I had every good intention of getting back to work in the studio this week, but my kids are home and I haven’t been able to string enough minutes together to do anything productive. That’s OK, though. I feel very fortunate that my teenage boys still want to spend time with me every now and then!

I thought I would share the journal cover I made for my husband as a Christmas gift at right. I started making these covers about six weeks ago to sell at my holiday shows and they proved to be very popular. My husband wanted one for Christmas, but they all sold out, so what was I doing Christmas Eve but frantically stitching a new one for him? These are great fun to make because I get to play with small leftover blocks and scraps that otherwise might go to waste–that’s my kind of project! I never know exactly what it’s going to look like when it’s finished, but he was very pleased with this one and I was happy with it too.

This isn’t a quilt, but I couldn’t resist sharing. We got two feet of snow yesterday and the wind sculpture in my back garden was covered in snow on every surface. It still rotated in the wind and was so beautiful I’ve been wondering all day how to make it into a quilt design! The sculpture has two arms that rotate independently so you see a different circular image depending on how much wind there is.

We were fortunate that the snow came on a Saturday so my husband was home from work, our younger son wasn’t in school, and our older son was home from college this weekend for the holiday, so the whole family was together. We shoveled snow, made cookies, put up the Christmas tree (finally), made a fire and watched movies. It was a fantastic break from the usual hustle and bustle of the season and so special that we were all at home together to enjoy it.

Happy Holidays to All!

Only one week left until the MPAartfest on Sunday October 4 in McLean Central Park! I’ve been busy working on some new pieces for the show, most of which haven’t even been photographed yet. At right is “Wild Geese in Flight,” one of my newest works which I’ll be hanging at the Artfest. I’ll be in tent #24 this year–look for lots of color and that’s where you’ll find me!

The show is free and runs from 10-5. Hopefully the weather will be beautiful, but if it’s not, the show will still be held inside the McLean Community Center. It’s a fun day with lots of art and entertainment, so please stop by if you’re in the area.

For more information about the Artfest, visit the McLean Project for the Arts website at www.mpaart.org

Amber Harvest 34 x 25

I’m thrilled to announce that “Amber Harvest” has been juried into the Quilts=Art=Quilts 2009 exhibition at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY. The show will run from Nov. 1, 2009 through Jan. 10, 2010 with a preview reception on Oct. 31 from 6-8 pm.

As I noted in an earlier post, this piece grew out of my Color Block series, when I decided to see what happened if I used only one of my improvisational blocks on its own, rather than putting a group of units together the way I’ve been building the other quilts in the series. The one block is  surrounded by an asymmetrical solid border in a color similar to the majority of the block so the bright blue, lime green and pink accents stand out.

Most of the piece is machine quilted with echoing wavy lines that run at right angles to each other, but the upper right quadrant has small circles quilted in, like rocks or seeds. My husband said the wavy lines looked like furrows in a plowed field, so that helped with the name. The thread is variegated within a narrow amber range, which also adds interest to the overall design. This show acceptance energizes me to explore this idea further!

Welcome to my new blog!

October is a busy month for me. I installed my solo exhibit, “Playing with Colors,” in the Great Falls Library Meeting Room on Oct. 1.  It will be up all month, until Oct. 31.

On Sunday, Oct. 5, I’ll be participating in the McLean Project for the Arts artFest in McLean Central Park. There will be 40 different artists, including painters, potter and jewelers, so if you’re in the area, please stop by and say hello! I’m in tent #16 and the artfest runs from 10-5.

Two weeks later is the Great Falls Studios Fifth Annual Studio Tour and it promises to be the best yet! The Tour is Saturday, Oct. 18 and Sunday, Oct. 19 from 10-5 both days. I’ll be in the Great Falls library with my exhibit, doing demonstrations of machine quilting and talking about my design process. Plus I’ll be joined by four very talented artists: Ronni Jolles, who creates wonderful pieces with layered paper and pastels; Claudia Samper, who paints evocative portraits and still lifes; Linda Rosen, who designs original jewelry; and Bill Garrett, an incredible photographer.

The Studio Tour is a lot of fun and great opportunity to see artists where they work–there are 38 artists in all on the tour this year, so there’s plenty to see and do! I hope to see you there.

Firecracker 28"x18"