Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

I’ll be at the Great Falls Studios booth showing my contemporary quilt art at the Great Falls Farmer’s Market this Saturday, June 27 from 9AM-1PM. I’ll have my colorful wall quilts, pillows and purses on display.

“Summer Solstice II,” at left,  is one of a series of small wall quilts I’ve designed and mounted on stretcher bars so they’re ready to hang. These pieces are smaller, less than 16″x20″, so they fit into spaces that need a little zing, but aren’t large enough for a bigger piece of art. This one is great for a beach house, or just to remind you of summer!

If orange isn’t your thing, “Jump for Joy,” at right,  is another new piece that will brighten up a small space. “Jump” is mounted on black linen and uses improvisational piecing of small bright fabrics surrounded by black and white curves to give it punch.

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

This is another one of the new pieces I added to the website last week. It’s called “Abstract Skyline” and it’s made with Cherrywood handdyed fabrics. I cut and resewed random strips together in two different colorways to make the “buildings” and then I heavily machine quilted different motifs in wavy lines across the piece horizontally using variegated thread. I wanted the quilting to give the idea of the energy of the city. This piece is 22″h x 50″w.

I had some camera problems, so I haven’t been able to post in a few days. I think I’ve fixed it, at least temporarily, so I’m ready to share what I’ve been working on recently.

First, my big news of the day is I was accepted into the McLean Project for the Arts ARTfest! It will be held this Oct. 4 in McLean Central Park. I was there last year and I’m very excited to be accepted again. So, I need to get busy and get some new pieces finished.

This piece is called “Coral Reef” because the colors remind me of tropical fish. I really enjoy working with these improvisational blocks. I just pick out a color scheme and pull together lots of different batiks to start. Then I cut them freehand in groups of 5 or 6, shuffle the stack so there’s a different fabric/color in each position and sew them together.  The sections purposely don’t match and I think that makes it more interesting–sort of like controlled chaos.  Originally I had the wonky log cabins and the circles alternating, but I decided that was too random–there really wasn’t a good focal point, so I limited the circles to the center. I like combining these wonky log cabins and the circles; this is the second time I’ve worked with them in a quilt.  The other piece is called “Carnival” and you can see it in the Large Art Quilt Gallery.

So far this is just a top–I have to decide how to quilt it. On pieces this busy I usually pick an overall freemotion design, but I might try something new with this one. The question is whether or not the quilting will show up if I do different designs in different areas.  Decisions, decisions. I’m open to suggestions!