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!

As I’ve mentioned previously, I have three shows coming up in September and October, in addition to several exhibits I’d like to apply to enter. Getting ready for shows and exhibits means working backward. Let me explain. If I know I want to mount a piece on stretcher bars, like Over the Rainbow, at right, then I have to create it and finish it in enough time to give the framer at least two weeks to do her work. If it needs to be photographed to be entered into an exhibit, then I need to factor in another couple of weeks to set up an appointment with the photographer to take the photos, process them and get them back to me.

I spent the last two weeks working on the pieces that need to be sent to the framer’s and I got them in to her, so she’s working on them. I’ll spend the next two weeks working on the larger pieces that won’t be mounted. I have an appointment with the photographer on Aug. 31, so hopefully the mounted pieces will be finished and the larger quilts will be completed so everything comes together at the end! I’ll keep you posted.

If you’re interested, my framer is Turner Framing and my photographer is Greg Staley . I highly recommend them both!

My shows are the Artsfest 2010 at Annmarie Gardens and Sculpture Park in Solomons, MD on September 18-19, the McLean Project for the Arts MPAartfest in McLean, VA on October 3, and the Great Falls Studios 7th Annual Studio Tour on October 16-17.  In addition, I’ll be having a solo show at Maison du Vin in Great Falls October 19-December 15. Mark your calendars!

Over the Rainbow is a new piece that I had a lot of fun with. I made a fairly large improvisational block for the center using bits and pieces of fabrics that I rearranged until I had a composition I liked. Then I framed the brightly colored center with tilted black and white framing borders. I auditioned quite a few black and white fabrics for the outer border and nothing worked quite right until I came upon that leafy print. It’s almost like a light bulb goes on when I hit the right fabric combination and I just have to be patient until it happens! This piece is mounted on stretcher bars with a solid red background that brings out the brights from the center. It’s 27″h x 24″w.

On a personal note, another quilt that’s been occupying me for much of the summer is this one for my son to take to college. It’s a simple abstract design based on a traditional nine patch. I wasn’t expecting him to want to be involved in the process, but to my surprise he was very interested and wanted to participate in every aspect of the design, from the color choice to the backing fabric to the quilting design. It was like accepting a commission from my son and it was a lot of fun to work with him to design exactly what he wanted. His favorite colors are black and red, and we threw in a little grey and dark blue for contrast. The biggest issue with this quilt was the fact that he wanted it to be quilted with one large red spiral. The quilt was too big for me to be able to do that accurately on my home sewing machine and I wanted very much to do it all myself, so I ended up taking most of the summer to hand quilt the spiral. It was a labor of love and it looks fantastic on the back! The picture isn’t the best, but if you right click on the image you’ll be able to see the stitching lines. He goes to college this weekend and I’m proud to say I finished it last week with over a week to spare! Even the binding is sewn down and it’s ready to go.

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!

Thanks to all who commented on my last post about creativity and chaos. I think the secret is to just show up in the studio and put something together, even if it’s just “therapy sewing” of random pieces. That’s what I did in the piece at right–its temporary name is Wonky Square.  For the interior, I put together random bits and pieces, some left over from other projects, until I had something I liked. Then I bordered it with black and white triangles. It didn’t seem finished, so I unearthed this great black and white fabric that looks like leafy stripes and put that on the edges. I didn’t have quite enough length for all the borders, which meant I needed to find some corner squares. I spent a very enjoyable, creative day auditioning different fabrics for this piece. It’s such a wonderful feeling when I put a piece up on the wall and it just fits. Of course there are many pieces that don’t survive the trial and error process, but that’s part of the fun and it reminds me why I love doing this so much.

I’m going to quilt this piece and show it at the Great Falls Farmers Market next Saturday. This will be a busy week getting ready for that, but I’m looking forward to it. Today’s a soft, rainy day–perfect for spending hours in the studio.

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?

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 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!