Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

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

Scrap Coasters

I have bags and bags of scraps from my projects–pieces that are too big to throw away but too small to put back with the folded yardage in my studio.  Getting them out and playing with them is a fun way to sort of jump start my creative brain. I’m always amazed at the serendipitous combinations that I happen upon when I’m just sewing pieces together. I’ve had a busy time the last few weeks as my younger son needed supervised driving hours to get his driver’s license, so I’ve been spending a lot of time as a passenger in the car.  This is the kind of project that’s good to get back into the creative flow.

Scrap Quilt

Anyway, this week I had a project and a goal–make sets of coasters from the scraps to offer at the holiday shows I have coming up–and maybe to give as gifts myself!  At right is one of the sets done in bright colors and soft blue. I’m really happy with these.

But I kept thinking what a great quilt these happy squares would make, and before I knew it, there was a new quilt composing itself on my design wall. The idea behind this piece is similar to the process I’ve used in my color block series with solids–I pick a color scheme and get a selection of fabrics that fit–in this case just scraps—then sew the units together fairly randomly. Once I have enough to put up on the design wall, I arrange and rearrange them until I’m satisfied with the design. I haven’t really decided what to call this one, but Coaster Quilt will do for now.

Now I need to get back to the coasters!

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!