Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

Time Travel 34 x 30

This week I’m previewing work that I’ll be showing at the McLean Project for the Arts Artfest this Sunday, Oct. 4 from 10-5 in McLean Central Park, McLean VA.

At right is “Time Travel,” one of the first pieces in my Color Block series. I haven’t been able to show it much at my exhibits because it’s been traveling. This piece was juried into the Pennsylvania National Quilt Festival last fall and then it went to the Quilts=Art=Quilts juried show in Auburn, NY through January 2009.

” Time Travel” was inspired by the Gee’s Bend quilt exhibit I saw in Baltimore. I hand pieced the log cabin style blocks with improvisational piecing using solid commercial cottons. The blocks with the slanted stripes use strips left over from another project that I couldn’t bear to throw away. I pieced the blocks and then put them up on my design wall and played with the arrangement until I had a pleasing design. I really love the way the colors play off against each other in this piece–if you didn’t know it was fabric, it almost looks like it’s painted.

Because this piece had a folk art feel, I hand quilted it with red perle cotton thread in concentric circles over the entire top. The name came to me because I felt like I was traveling back in time to be inspired by the quiltmakers of the past, yet the bold graphic quality of the design seems very contemporary.

If you’re in the McLean area on Sunday, stop by the Artfest–there will be great art, food and entertainment! I’m in tent #24. For more information on the Artfest, visit the MPA website at www.mpaart.org

Summer Breeze 33 x 27

For the rest of the week I plan to feature some of the work I’ll be showing at the MPAartfest this weekend and the stories behind them.

At right is “Summer Breeze.” It’s 33″h x 27″w and it’s mounted on stretcher bars so it hangs on the wall by a wire just like a painting. This piece was finished in 2008 and it grew out of some of my early experimentation with improvisational piecing.

The bright blocks range in size from about 1 1/2″ wide for some of the long skinny ones to  4″ for some of the square ones. I randomly pieced the blocks, really just playing with color combinations, until I had enough to put up on the design wall. Then I chose several different yellow and yellow orange fabrics and added border strips on two or three sides of each block.

At that point, I put the blocks up on the design wall in my studio and arranged and rearranged them until I came up with an overall design that I liked. It was a lot like putting together a puzzle. Some blocks needed more of the yellow border and some less to make it all fit together. The quilt itself was faced with irregular edges before being attached to the background fabric and mounted on the stretcher bars.

I named the quilt “Summer Breeze” because of the playful, free way it was constructed and because the colors remind me of a day at the beach. It’s a great way to add a splash of color to the wall in summer and bring a welcome reminder that summer will come again during the colder months of the year.

The Artfest will be held Sunday, Oct. 4 in McLean Central Park at Old Dominion Drive and Chain Bridge Road in McLean, VA from 10-5. In case of inclement weather, the event will move indoors to the McLean Community Center. For more information, visit www.mpaart.org and click on “Artfest.” I hope to see you there!

Only one week left until the MPAartfest on Sunday October 4 in McLean Central Park! I’ve been busy working on some new pieces for the show, most of which haven’t even been photographed yet. At right is “Wild Geese in Flight,” one of my newest works which I’ll be hanging at the Artfest. I’ll be in tent #24 this year–look for lots of color and that’s where you’ll find me!

The show is free and runs from 10-5. Hopefully the weather will be beautiful, but if it’s not, the show will still be held inside the McLean Community Center. It’s a fun day with lots of art and entertainment, so please stop by if you’re in the area.

For more information about the Artfest, visit the McLean Project for the Arts website at www.mpaart.org

Amber Harvest 34 x 25

I’m thrilled to announce that “Amber Harvest” has been juried into the Quilts=Art=Quilts 2009 exhibition at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY. The show will run from Nov. 1, 2009 through Jan. 10, 2010 with a preview reception on Oct. 31 from 6-8 pm.

As I noted in an earlier post, this piece grew out of my Color Block series, when I decided to see what happened if I used only one of my improvisational blocks on its own, rather than putting a group of units together the way I’ve been building the other quilts in the series. The one block is  surrounded by an asymmetrical solid border in a color similar to the majority of the block so the bright blue, lime green and pink accents stand out.

Most of the piece is machine quilted with echoing wavy lines that run at right angles to each other, but the upper right quadrant has small circles quilted in, like rocks or seeds. My husband said the wavy lines looked like furrows in a plowed field, so that helped with the name. The thread is variegated within a narrow amber range, which also adds interest to the overall design. This show acceptance energizes me to explore this idea further!

"Cosmos" 48 x 29

I’ve been working on “Cosmos” most of the summer and it’s finally pieced! This is the newest piece  in my “Playing with Colors” series and I expect to have it finished in time for the MPArtfest on Oct. 4. You can see the others in the series “Playing with Crayons” and “Playing with Colors” on my website in the Large Art Quilts gallery.

The other two quilts in the series use the full color spectrum, but in this one I wanted to focus on just two main complementary colors, blue and orange. I used the same improvisational quarter circle blocks I’ve used in several recent pieces and pushed the blues on both sides of the color wheel from blue-green through blue-purple to add interest to the design. There are also 3 or 4 different oranges.

Initially I had the orange sections floating randomly across the surface of the piece, but after it sat on the design wall for several weeks, I decided that it would be more interesting to have them form more of a pattern. The result reminded me of pictures from space–hence the name.

I’ve been on vacation the last couple of weeks, but I’m finally back in the studio now.  No pictures yet, but I wanted to let everyone know that the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) Reverse Auction of 12″ square art quilts starts today. There are many wonderful works to choose from and you’ll being helping support a great organization that organizes exhibits of art quilts, publishes a portfolio of work from current members once a year and offers much needed support and encouragement to art quilters all over the world, among other activities. I’m proud to be a member of this group.

The auction is held in three sections. On the first day, the price for any work is $750. The price drops at 2 P.M. on the following day to $550, then to $350 on the third day, then $250, $150 and to $75 on the last day. The first section starts today, Sept. 10, the second section starts Sept. 17 and the third section begins Sept. 24. All start times are 2 P.M. EST.

Here’s the link to the first series of quilts http://www.saqa.com/newsebulletins/Squares09_1.aspx

Happy Bidding!