Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

I’ve spent the last several days quilting this piece, which I want to enter into a major show. It’s  more than a little daunting and I was struggling with the quilting motifs because this show is known for accepting only the most cutting edge work. I wanted to do something new and different, but it wasn’t happening. After spending an embarrassingly long time beating my head against that particular wall, I realized that I have to create what is in my head and my heart. The work has to be authentic, or it won’t have any soul. Whether my piece gets into this particular show, or another one, or none at all, isn’t really important.   What is important is that my work comes from my authentic self–then I can send it out into the world with confidence. I can’t create according to someone else’s rules, or worse, my idea of what someone else’s rules might be!

Once I got that straight, it was much easier to finish the quilt. I can’t show the entire piece, which is tentatively titled “Wonky Stripes,” because I still plan to enter it into the show and the work for this show can’t have been shown anywhere else before it’s exhibited there. Maybe it will get in and maybe it won’t, but I’m satisfied with what I’ve done and that’s a good thing!

The green fabric is here, my son is graduated from high school and I’m ready to get back to work on this piece. I took a break from the studio for about a week while the graduation festivities went on and we had family in for the celebration, and I think that was a good thing. I have more energy to do the design work now.

Creating these pieces is intriguing for me, because it’s all about the process. There’s no pattern to follow, no instructions to guide me. I have to get with the flow of the process and let the color and design choices I make dictate what comes next. It’s exhausting sometimes and I’m full of doubts about whether I’m on the right track. But ultimately I think this is the path I want to explore right now.

I don’t have a name for this one yet and obviously it’s in the very early stage of design–the green chunks of fabric are just pinned in place and the blocks probably aren’t finished. I really like the curved piece in the central block and I think I need to repeat that shape somewhere else. I got a little stuck on this one before I took my break because I started thinking about how I would quilt it and nothing came to me. While it’s important to think about the quilting while the piece is in progress, it shouldn’t overtake the design. So I’m not going to worry about that until the piecing is finished. I also like the idea of using several different greens in the background to liven up the plain areas–the quilting will be important here. My thought was to expand on the idea I used for Amber Harvest and put three improvisational blocks in the design instead of just one. Perhaps there will be another small block in one of the lower corners as well.

The lesson learned here is important to take breaks every now and again to let the ideas percolate in my head without forcing them. Stay tuned!

I was thrilled to get a “thick email” last night notifying me that two of my quilts, Amber Harvest and Beach House, have been juried into Art Quilts Lowell 2010 in Lowell, Mass. The show runs from August 7 through September 11, 2010 at the Brush Art Gallery and Studios at 256 Lowell St., with an artist reception on Saturday, August 14 from 1-3 PM.

Amber Harvest, at right, is part of my Color Block series exploring improvisational piecing and solid colors. This was the first piece I used only one large improv block set onto an asymmetrical background. I really like the combination of warm colors with clear cool accents. I also tried a new quilting idea on this one. I quilted echoing curved lines over most of the piece, then offset them with a round pebble motif in the upper right corner. Right click on the image to get a better view of the quilting.

Beach House is also part of my Color Block series. I created a horizontal band of improv piecing in this one, sort of like a landscape. The name came from the small house shape in the center and I quilted waves and pebbles in the lower section and a cloudlike motif in the upper portion.

I’m really enjoying the process on these pieces and I’m excited that they are going to this show. There’s more to explore with this idea and I have a couple of more pieces in the works. Creating the compositions is intriguing–almost like putting together a puzzle–only I don’t have the completed picture to guide me! It’s also interesting to come up with quilting motifs to complement the design. For each piece I challenge myself to come up with at least two or three different motifs that work well together and add interest to the whole.

I hope I’ll be able to get up there to see it!

This piece, just begun and as yet unnamed, has been in the idea stage for months. I had the idea, I knew what I wanted to do, yet I couldn’t seem to get started on it. Then I read a blog post from a site I visit regularly about productivity. Here’s the link: http://fineartviews.com/blog/19916/how-to-be-more-productive-part-2

Basically the point is that it’s OK to switch between multiple tasks in your life as an artist, because the artist is usually wearing many hats, from creating art, to marketing, to preparing exhibit submissions, to photography or framing, to writing a blog post, and so on–you get the idea. I always felt it was somehow cheating if you didn’t start one task and finish it before starting another, but I’ve discovered that’s not the way I work best.

In order to get started on this piece, I began cutting strips for something completely different. That’s important work to get done, but it’s fairly mindless, so I was free to think about my other project. After being in the studio cutting for a few hours, the idea I really wanted to work on began to crystallize and I was able to put the other work aside to start putting it together. I made the initial improvisational block and it went well, but then something happened.  For a piece like this one, I have a basic idea of what I want to convey, but once I start working a dialogue starts between me and the design that sometimes ends up going off in another direction from my initial plan. When that happens, I need to walk away from it a bit and do something else–like write a blog post, maybe. I realized that I need to make two or three additional improv blocks and that I want to use the green solid as a background, but I don’t have enough of it, so it must be ordered and I’ll have to wait until it arrives to proceed. That’s a good time to take a couple of recently finished small pieces to the framer’s to be mounted on stretcher bars.

So I’ve gotten a start on two new pieces, I’ve written a blog post, and I’ve taken two pieces to the framer’s, all because I was procrastinating on getting started on the first idea.  That’s not a bad set of accomplishments. Thanks to Luann Udell and FineArtViews.com for the inspiration!

What do you do when you’re stuck?

“Beach House” is another new piece I’ve finished just in time for summer. I tried something different with the improvisational piecing for this one, creating just one band of color set against a yellow and orange background. When it was finished, a small house shape appeared almost in the center–a blue body with a green roof. So I quilted a pebble and wave motif in the lower portion which reminded me of sand and ocean, and a wind or cloud motif in the upper portion. The whole composition reminded me of a great day at the beach–thus the name. If you double-click on the image at right you will be able to see the quilting details.

This piece was actually inspired by my previous work with Color Blocks–see Amber Harvest and Jazz Rhythms on my website. “Jazz” was the first piece and it is designed with a very busy combination of seemingly random improvisational blocks tied together with wonky stripes.  “Harvest” was next and explored the idea of using just one larger improv block set in an asymmetrical style with strong quilting lines. “Beach House” looks at the improv piece as a band, rather than a block. I’m intrigued with the concept of using solid fabrics and experimenting with various quilting lines to give the work character. Looking back at my body of work, my strengths appear to be bold color combinations and an interesting quilting line, so I’ve decided to concentrate on those two areas and see where the road takes me.

If you visit my website at www.cindygrisdela.com I’ve added some new work to the galleries and done some rearranging so the newest work is at the top of the page. Stop by and take a look!

I got the photos back from my photography session last week and I’ll be sharing the images and posting them to my website this week. I’m having a little trouble coming up with a name for the quilt at right, which is unusual for me. It’s pieced from purchased hand dyed fabric and hand quilted with perle cotton. I really enjoyed the process of making this one–somehow the asymmetrical spikes really speak to me and I like the idea of having the curved borders on only two sides. I can see that I’d like to revisit this concept and see what else I can do with it. I’m not sure if this piece is part of my Color Block series or an entirely new one, so we’ll see where it goes.

Which brings me to thoughts on creativity and chaos. I’m not by nature neat when I’m working on a project, so my studio often looks like a tornado hit it when I’m working. I often have several pieces in process at any one time, so if I get stuck on one, I can move on to another while the ideas percolate in my subconscious. There comes a point, however, when the chaos overtakes the creativity and I can’t think because there are too many piles of fabric and snippets of scraps littering the landscape of my studio. I’ve been spending time the last week or so in between some traveling and family obligations trying to get a handle on the chaos so my creativity can reemerge. And it seems to be working. I’ve got some sketches and some new ideas to try–now I just need to find the time to get started on them! I have several shows and exhibits coming up in the next few months, so I really need to get going on creating this new work. I’m excited by the possibilities, so stay tuned.

What do you do to jumpstart your creativity?

I finished this piece that was started in class last week with Ann Fahl, which I’ve tentatively decided to call “Square Dance. If you click on the image at right, you can see the quilting. I used a wild variety of quilting motifs on this, deliberately ignoring the lines of piecing. It was a fun exercise, but I really had to concentrate on what I was doing and think a couple of steps ahead as I was quilting. This is truly “drawing with my needle and thread”!

I used a shiny rayon variegated thread instead of the cotton I usually use and result was very different. The thread is more difficult to use and a little bit temperamental, so I have to decide if I want to continue to work with it so I learn its ways.

Although I have tried this technique of using lots of different motifs in one piece before, I learned a lot from doing it again in a more concentrated way. It’s a very personal style, almost like handwriting, and no two quilters will do it the same way–I might not even be able to do exactly the same thing again. One important idea I got out of this is to group the motifs so there are recognizable chunks of each design in each space, instead of changing more frequently. That’s the way it appeals to me most. I’ll definitely be working on this concept more this summer, because I think it plays to my strengths–color in the design and the quilting line. Stay tuned.

Wow–I didn’t realize I’d gotten way off my posting schedule–sorry about that! The Great Falls Studios Spring Art Festival was tons of fun last weekend, but the people in charge of scheduling the venue accidentally overbooked it, so we had to take the entire show down Saturday night and put it back up again at 6 AM Sunday morning–it’s taken me all week to recover. Thanks to all who stopped by the show–it was great to see you!

In the last two weeks I’ve also curated and hung two group shows for Great Falls Studios, one at the Great Falls library at 9830 Georgetown Pike, and one at Keller Williams Realty at 6820 Elm St. in McLean. If you’re in the area, stop by and take a look.

I’m thrilled to report that “Jazz Rhythms,” at right, was accepted into the Denver National Quilt Festival. The show will be held April 29-May 1, 2010 at the Denver Merchandise Mart, 451 East 58th Avenue, Denver, CO. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get to the show–my quilts get to travel more than I do!

For those who have been following my progress, “Jazz” is part of my Color Block series that uses improvisational piecing of fabric in solid colors to explore color and line without the distraction of pattern in the fabric. This is the largest piece in the series, at 57″ h x 36″w. Creating these pieces is intuitive and spontaneous, which is rapidly becoming my favorite way to work. I created the units in “Jazz” without any plan in mind, put them up on my design wall in the studio and played with them until I had an arrangement I liked. I particularly enjoyed adding in the wonky stripes to move the eye around the piece. I liked them so much that I took the quilt partially apart after it had been quilted to add more! Not something I would usually recommend, but in this case it seemed necessary. “Jazz” is handquilted with perle cotton in concentric circles to soften some of the hard lines of the piece.

I finished “Fractured Landscape” just in time to send it in for the early bird April 1 deadline for the Studio Art Quilt Associates 2010 Benefit Auction. The auction is a major fundraiser for the group, which is a non-profit organization that promotes the art quilt. The donated quilts are posted on the SAQA website until the auction begins September 20, 2010. Each piece is 12″x12″, or One Foot Square. It’s a reverse auction, with prices starting at $750 and declining each day to $550, $350, $250, $150, and $75. The auction is virtual, so it takes place entirely online and it’s a lot of fun.

This quilt is another in my Color Block series. This series explores the relationship between line and color using only solid fabrics without any other pattern. Creating these contemporary color studies is intuitive and spontaneous, which is my favorite way to work. This piece was built using purchased hand dyed solid fabrics and some odds and ends from previous projects. It’s almost like using sourdough starter–I keep scraps and odd blocks that didn’t fit into earlier projects and invariably they become the basis for something new.

If you click on the image, you should be able to see the free-motion machine quilting, which includes stylized flower shapes, pebbles, clouds, bricks and other interesting motifs.  The name suggested itself as I was quilting the piece–the curved top edge looked like a mountain and the bottom edge like a walkway, with interesting structural shapes in between.

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!