Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

Amber Harvest 34"h x 25"w

“Amber Harvest” is the newest piece completed in my Color Block series and it moves off in a different direction that I’m very excited about. For this piece, I created one improvisational block by cutting strips, resewing them and cutting again until I had a block I was happy with. Then I framed it asymmetrically with gold solid and machine quilted it. The other pieces in the series are busier, with groups of these blocks put together into a composition. I wanted to see what would happen if I just showcased one block.

For the quilting, I tried something new to me as well. The upper left and lower sections are machine quilted in echoing waves, which reminded me of a planted field. The upper right has a pebble design which plays nicely against the more orderly lines to the left and below.

I think this is an interesting new direction and I’m going to do more of these!

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.

Jazz Rhythms Latest Update

This is the latest version of my “Red is a Neutral” piece–which I’ve renamed to “Jazz Rhythms.” I took it over to show my artist friend Jennifer Duncan recently to get her input. Jennifer does wonderful abstract mixed media paintings and uses a bright color palette similar to mine–you can see her work at http://www.jenniferduncanart.com

We decided it needed more of the wonky stripe sections, so I brought it back to the studio and made some changes, which I think have made it stronger, but also a little edgier–so I decided to change the name, too. I’m in the process of hand quilting this with red perle cotton in a concentric circle motif and then I’ll have to decide if it wants a binding on the edge or an irregular faced edge. Stay tuned!

Cindy Grisdela Studio

I had a photographer, Al Reitan, come over and take pictures of my studio recently for the Great Falls Studio Tour that will take place October 17-18 this year and I thought I would share this photo of my space. I have a studio that would generously be called “compact” at about 8′ x10′ in size. There’s great natural light from two windows to the left and right of my sewing machine and a good sized design wall. I have a large ironing surface to the right of the machine set on top of wire baskets and another set of baskets form the base for my cutting table. At the bottom left is another view to the other side of the machine that shows the ironing board and basket arrangement. I keep my fabrics in the wire baskets divided by color and type, so the cotton printed fabrics are separate from the batiks, solids and hand-dyed. As you can see, I work on more than one project at a time on the design wall. If you’ve visited my blog before, you’ll see “Tropical Reef” in process, as well as the red improvisational piece in solids and the next idea in my “Salsa” series, among others. Usually my two cats are in the studio with me–one under each window–but they were frightened off by the straightening process that went on before these photos were taken.

On another note, after much reflection I recently added prices to my website. If you see a piece you like in one of the galleries, click on the thumbnail to view a larger image with the dimensions and the price. You will still need to contact me if you are interested in making a purchase, but you’ll know the price beforehand. I hope this additional transparency will be helpful to my visitors.