Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

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.

I’ve been busy getting ready for the Great Falls Studios Spring Art Festival this weekend, April 10-11, 2010. It’s going to be held at the historic Colvin Run Schoolhouse again, which is located on Colvin Run Road in Great Falls. I’ll have my art quilts, plus quilted pillows, fabric journal covers, coasters and note card of some of my quilts to show.  That’s my booth setup at right.

In addition, 17 other artists will be there in a fun historic environment at the schoolhouse. It’s a great opportunity to meet local artists, some of whom are award winning, both locally and nationally, and pick up a gift for someone special, or maybe for yourself! There will be oil painters, watercolorists, photographers, jewelers, potters, a weaver and a woodcarver, so there’s bound to be something for everyone.

Stop by and say hello if you’re in the area–we’d love to see you!

Charmed Zebra II

I just finished my last show of the year this past weekend, so I can get back to blogging more regularly. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to see me the last couple of weekends at my shows in Great Falls and to all those who have given me such positive feedback on my solo show at Katie’s Coffee at the Old Brogue Restaurant in Great Falls.  It’s so much fun to see old friends and make new ones! See my earlier post for information about the Katie’s show, which will be up until Dec. 30.

“Charmed Zebra II” at right is hanging in the Small Works exhibit at the Great Falls Foundation for the Arts Gallery at 1144 Walker Road, Suite D in Great Falls. It is open Saturdays from 12-4 and by appointment. Visit their website for more information at

http://www.greatfallsfoundationforarts.org/GFFFTA_Gallery.html

This piece is mounted on a 12×12 artist’s canvas. I used improvisational piecing with the zebras as the focal point and touches of red to spark the black and white color scheme. It is quilted using several different motifs with black and white variegated thread. Then I created a background using red with insets of black and white and stretched the whole piece over the canvas. It’s a cheerful piece that would be great to brighten up a small space in a kitchen or office area, perhaps.

I’m pleased to announce my new solo show at Katie’s Coffee House at the Old Brogue Restaurant in Great Falls. The show features ten of my contemporary art quilts and will remain up until the afternoon of Dec. 30.  Katie’s hours are 6 AM-3 PM Monday-Friday and 7 AM-2 PM Saturday and Sunday. It’s a warm, welcoming place to have a cup of coffee and a muffin and chat with friends, so please stop by if you’re in the area!

This is my first time exhibiting at Katie’s and I appreciate the opportunity to show my work in such a great environment. The photo above shows three of my pieces in the show–from left to right they are “Fly Away Home,” “Snails in the Garden,” and “Herb Garden.”

Impressions of Paynes Prairie

I’m excited to announce that two of my pieces were accepted into the Quilting Natural Florida II exhibit, which will be on display from Feb. 6-April 25, 2010 at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida. I grew up in Gainesville and I’m thrilled that my work will hang in the museum where I visited as a child. Actually, the museum is in a new location now than it was when I was young, but you get the idea!

One of the accepted quilts is shown at right. It’s called “Impressions of Paynes Prairie,” which is a state park near Gainesville.  I remember driving through the park and hiking there with my dad. I had fun with the quilting on this one–it has waves and pebbles and boardwalk designs, plus some fun vegetation and clouds at the top. You can see some of the quilting in the detail below.

The other quilt that was accepted in this show is “Sunrise on the Beach,”  which embodies the many memories I have of long lazy days spent watching the seagulls and the ocean. I didn’t really realize until I began writing this that both of these pieces use the same curved piecing technique to represent a landscape. It’s fun to do and very easy once you get the hang of it. You simply lay two pieces of fabric right sides up with an overlap between them. Then you cut a gentle curve freehand with a rotary cutter, remembering to stay within the overlap.  After discarding the waste pieces, sew the curves together right sides together. They will look like they won’t fit, but trust me–they do! Press. It’s as simple as that.

Sunrise on the Beach

If you’re in the Alexandria area on Saturday, Nov. 21, I’ll be doing a show at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology on Braddock Road–my son’s alma mater. The show, which runs from 9-4, is for the benefit of the TJ crew team, which my son rowed for four years before going off to college. I’ve got some new small items for sale, including pillows, covered journals which are really fun, pieced coasters and holiday ornaments, in addition to my quilts. Stop by and say hello if you get a chance! It’s a great cause and there should be some interesting booths there. For more information visit their website at www.tjgiftshow.com

Detail of Jazz Rhythms

October was a very busy month for me, with two major shows–the MPA Artfest and the Great Falls Studios Studio Tour. I had tons of fun meeting new people and sharing my work and I was pleased and gratified that a number of my quilts went to new homes last month! A big thank you to all of you who visited me or contacted me online–I enjoyed chatting with you and I really appreciate all your feedback on my work.

Getting ready for a major show, let alone two in two weeks, is an exhilarating, exhausting undertaking. For me, at least, it’s also a time of intense creativity that makes me realize why I love my work so much. When I’m gearing up for a show, typically I have an idea of what I want to exhibit and I always try to have as much new work as I can so it’s interesting for people to come see me. It never fails, though, that I have more ideas than I can execute in the time I have available. Sometimes I have two or three pieces in process on my design wall and several more ideas bubbling around in my head. I try to write down either a rough sketch or a few words to capture the thought for when I have more time. Usually I’m working late into the night and up early in the morning to finish as much as I can before the show opens. It’s fascinating to me that I thrive on these times. The creative force that drives me gives me such energy and appreciation for the ability to do work that I absolutely love doing, no matter how much time I spend doing it.

Many people ask me how I have the patience to do the work I do. I’m a little confused by the question, because I’m not a patient person. In fact I’m very impatient when I have half a dozen ideas in my mind and not enough time to realize them right away. I enjoy every part of the process of creating and I feel incredibly fortunate to have the ability to follow my dreams of creating art and sharing it with others.

Which brings me to “Jazz Rhythms,” the detail which is shown at the upper right. You can see this quilt in progress by clicking on the “Color Block Series” category at right. I finished the quilt in September and entered it into a major show. On Friday I received notice that it had been rejected. So my great month ended on a down note, but when I looked at the list of artists who were accepted into this particular show, I realized that the jurors were most likely looking for a different kind of work than what I submitted. It doesn’t mean that my work isn’t good enough, simply that it didn’t work with what these particular jurors were looking for for this particular show. Humbling, but I’m still excited about this quilt and this series and I have a few new ideas to move the series forward!

Studio Tour Display

Despite contending with some very soggy weather on Saturday, the Studio Tour last weekend was a lot of fun! At right is a shot of my “Salon Wall” displaying my work.  This is the fourth year I participated in the tour, but the first time I did it at my home studio. I really enjoyed it! I had such a good time displaying my work all over the house and sharing it with interested visitors.

The reason I hadn’t done it here before is my studio is a small upstairs bedroom, just big enough for me, my sewing machine and my two cats. But it worked out fine–I brought my machine and my portable design wall down into the kitchen, which has a large table in front of a sliding door looking out into the garden and a nice gas fireplace–and I did demonstrations of freemotion quilting and my design process on the wall. It was a cozy setup and people seemed to enjoy it.

I’ll definitely do it here again because it gives people an idea of what fiber art actually looks and feels like on the walls in a home environment.

Seashells 42"h x 21"w

I’m pleased with how my “Seashells” piece turned out. Regular readers will doubtless note this is very different color palette than the brights I normally use, but it was fun to try. I pushed the idea of a neutral in several directions, from beige to pink and beige to blue-green and there may even be a few lavenders in there. The result is interesting, yet restful.

These improvisational circles are one of my favorite motifs and I keep returning to them over and over. They are the basis for my “Playing with Colors” and “Salsa” quilts, which you can see in the Large Art Quilts gallery on my website. Depending on how you orient the quarter circles and the color scheme you use, you can achieve very different results. I didn’t invent the technique, as I’ve seen it used in the work of others at quilt shows, but how it’s interpreted is personal to each artist who uses it.

“Seashells” is on display at the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria until Sept. 13.

"Sunrise at the Beach" detail

Looking back over my recent posts, I realized that I had promised a detail shot of “Sunrise on the Beach,” but never delivered. My apologies! I used various different quilting motifs to suggest the waves, the breakers and the sand, plus hand beading in the sand to suggest shells or starfish. The seagull was hand appliqued onto the piece after it was quilted to add some dimension and help the bird to stand out in the composition. “Sunrise” is on display at the Great Falls Foundation for the Arts gallery in Great Falls until Aug. 31.

Buttercream and Chocolate 12" x 12"

“Buttercream and Chocolate” is part of a new Great Falls Studios theme exhibit at Katie’s Coffee in Great Falls for the month of August. The theme this time was simply “Food” and each piece was restricted to a maximum size of 154 inches, including the frame. There are 21 pieces in the show, including paintings, photographs, pottery, jewelry (mounted in a shadowbox type frame) and my fiber piece.

The title of course refers to the icing on the cupcakes, which were hand appliqued along with their plate onto a background resembling a table. The buttercream cupcake has seed beads applied by hand to add some definition and sparkle. The background is heavily machine quilted in several different motifs. The piece is stitched to the red-purple background and then the whole thing is stretched over a 12″ x 12″ canvas.

At right is a shot of one of the groupings of artwork at the show. It was interesting to see how each participating artist chose to interpret the theme–some sweet food, like cupcakes and pies, some fruit, some vegetables, some coffee, some wine. One photographer offered a shot of a classic book open on a table set for dinner entitled “Food for Thought” and another showed a mother sparrow feeding her babies. It’s an exciting group of talented artists–stop by and have a cup of coffee if you’re in the neighborhood of Great Falls Village and see what you think.

Wild Geese in Flight 34"h x 24"w

I’ll be at the Great Falls Studios booth at the Great Falls Farmer’s Market this Saturday, August 1, from 9AM-1PM. I’ll have three new quilts that I haven’t shown before, including “Wild Geese in Flight” at right. In addition, I’ll have my contemporary wall hangings, bright pillows, purses and note cards for sale.

“Wild Geese” has been in the works for a while–it was a lot of fun to finish because I chose a different quilting motif for each section. The variety keeps it interesting to work on as well as to look at. It’s posted in the Small Art Quilt gallery on the website and a detail of the quilting is included there. I’ll also have “Tropical Reef” from the previous post and another new piece called “Seashells” that hasn’t been photographed yet. “Seashells” is an exploration in neutral colors so it’s a little bit of a change from the bright work I’ve been doing recently.

If you’re in the area on Saturday, please stop by and say hello–I’d love to see you!