International Quilt Festival-Chicago

Posted from the Best Western O'Hare in Rosemont, IL:

I am staying here while vending at what is locally known as the Rosemont show. It will be moving to Cincinnati next year so it might be the last time I do this show.

Just wanted to let you know I will be giving tours of the Rust-Tex Collection at 2pm on Friday and Saturday and 1pm on Sunday. Hope you can join me!!!

No Rust Dyeing This Week!

On Thursday April 8 those of us who live in Madison, WI woke up to this!!! You can see I had already set up the Rust-Tex outdoor studio...sigh...I could not do any rust dyeing for many days. That was okay with me because I was VERY busy getting ready for International Quilt Festival in Chicago. Here is what my dining room looked like this year. PLUS the Rust-Tex Collection is premiering at that show. My studio assistant was very busy last week making all the roll-ups for the quilts. She spent all last week making them.

Way to go, Diane!!!Here is her completed work. Way cool!!!
I am doing walking tours of the Rust-Tex Collection at 2pm on Friday and Saturday and 1pm on Sunday. I hope you can join me!!! If not visit me in booth 1632 in the Make It University area. I will be doing an Open Studio on Thursday night 5-7.

Chickens!!!

While taking a walk, with my friend, we came across some chickens. Until last year it was illegal to keep chickens in Madison, WI. There was a strong movement called, "The Chicken Underground" that pushed hard to have that law repealed. Which is one reason that one of Madison nicknames is Mad City.
Here is the girl who helps with the chickens. I love this picture because her hair is almost the same color as the chicken.

Her father gave us some fresh eggs. Did you know the white chickens lay white eggs and the brown ones lay brown eggs? I did not probably because I grew up in the city of Chicago, not one of the suburb and was VERY removed from farm life.

We also saw a redheaded woodpecker on our walk. We have decided to take more walks. Especially if they are so full of adventures as this one was.

Where I Have Been

I vended this past week-end at the West Suburban Quilt Guild show at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, WI.

Here is what the booth looked like. It took me 7 hours to set up because I did it alone...sigh...but I got so MANY compliments on how beautiful my booth looked it was worth the effort.
I was near the stage so I hung some things for sale out there too.

My biggest thrill was someone bought a rust dyed shirt. She came up to me and said, "This looks like something I would wear." She wore it as she viewed the quilt show. Here is a picture of her in her newly purchased shirt.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Nina Edelman is a relatively new art quilter. A recently retired librarian and teacher, she is thrilled to finally have the time to throw herself into being a student of the many facets of the fiber world. A perennial workshop attendee, she has enjoyed soaking up new techniques and skills in workshops in piecing, dyeing, surface design and quilting. Rustscape

Nina's inspiration for this piece came from her husband being a metal sculptor. She pilfered some of his objects to rust dye fabric, in what she calls "my rust garden". In the fall she enjoys deciding what to make with them. Many pieces of her rust dyed cloth reminded her of space type landscapes, thus the split planet. Rustscape was influenced by Nina’s love of Japanese art, specifically woodblock prints.

You can see her husband's work at his website:

http://www.edelmansculpture.com/

Rustscape
Machine pieced, fused applique, 100% cotton rust dyed fabric, commercial and hand-dyed cottons, free-motion machine and hand quilted with cotton, polyester, rayon and metallic threads, embellished with seed beads.

In the past two years she has focused on commissions for installations in synagogues, and has been in juried into museum shows. She feels each creation is an experiment and a chance to learn patience, perseverance, and humility.

When not working in the studio, Nina enjoys tap dancing and playing ukulele. She also dabbles in free-lance writing. You can see her work in American Quilter November 2008. The article is called, “Quilters Take a Bite Out of the Big Apple.”

You can see the entire The Rust-Tex Collection at International Quilt Festival-Chicago, April 16-18, 2010. I will be in booth 1632. Not only will I be selling rust dyed fabric and copies of a CD with the 25 winners of The Rust-Tex Collection on it, but many items used for rust dyeing.

A SSS (Sure Sign of Spring)

I like to post the first sign of spring on my blog every year. I know spring has arrived when I see snowdrops blooming in my yard. Last year I did not post a picture of snow drops. I totally missed the date.

I did take a picture of snow drops in bloom. It was at Olbrich Gardens, our local botanical gardens. I took it on March 20. I love that the digital camera time stamps each picture you take.

To learn more about snowdrops click on the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowdrops

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Deborah Gregory's work focuses on nature’s cycle of growth, flowering, decay and re-creation. Rust on fiber fits neatly with decomposition. After she rusts fabric, she burns it, and colors it to represent decay. There is an article on The Textile Blog where you can read about her philosophy. It is titled: Textile Artist Deborah Gregory and the Cycle of Decay and Renewal. Click here to link to the article. Strata

This work was inspired by how layers of earth form and tell a story in each layer. The rust formed layers of heavy staining that reminded me of the way iron and other elements sometimes form a design in the side of a hill when excavated.

You can visit Deborah's website by clicking on the link below.

http://www.deborah-gregory.com/

Here is a quote from her website:
My goal is to go beyond the visible record of our climate's seasons and uncover what is just beyond. I expose the images hidden in the fabric to form a record of my spiritual connection to the earth and celebrate the mystery of our existence.

Strata
Whole cloth quilt of white cotton stained with rust, polyester fabric, fabric pens, pencil, heat distressed, free-motion machine and hand quilted.

Deborah made the rust marks with her favorite “ruster”, a window sash weight she found in a hardware store that sells recycled items. First she wraps wet fabric around it. Then she added more water and a bit of salt to the already wet fabric. She lets it sit for several days, to encourage the rust process. When she likes the pattern she see, she takes the fabric off the item and starts to make a quilt of it.

Deborah strives to depict the beauty of decomposition or decay and honor earth’s cycles this way.

You can see the entire The Rust-Tex Collection at International Quilt Festival-Chicago. I will be in booth 1632 selling rust dyed fabric and copies of a CD with the 25 winners of The Rust-Tex Collection on it.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Candy Flynn like many fiber artists, explored many mediums and techniques, until 1997 when she really focused on quilt making. After making traditional quilts for several years, she became interested in art quilts. She began to experiment with non-traditional techniques, design, embellishment and surface design. In 2002, she joined Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists (MCFA), a group of women making art from a variety of fibers. Since joining MCFA, she has been inspired to experiment with other fiber techniques such as knitting, dyeing, beading and basketry.

Going

After having surgery on her wrists, which restricted her ability to quilt, she began to experiment with compost dyeing using plant materials to dye silk scarves. This in turn led Candy to rust dyeing.

Going

Whole cloth quilt, rust dyed cotton fabric, hand quilted using commercial and rust dyed cotton threads, embellished with seed beads.

This quilt was inspired by the imperfection in the transfer of a broken rusty bowl. The image appeared to be both a 'sun' and an 'eye', as though both providing light and taking it in.

Another one of Candy's incredible quilts, Edge of the World, was selected to be included in Lark Books’ “500 Art Quilts”. She has exhibited work in shows and galleries around the country, as well as done commission work.

You can see Going and the rest to The Rust-Tex Collection at Spring International Quilt Festival-Chicago. I will be in booth 1632 selling rust dyed fabric and copies of a CD with the 25 winners of The Rust-Tex Collection on it.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Jill Robinson is the Rust-Tex Collection (RTC) winner I am posting about today. I found this quote on Jill's website, "Using renewable fibers and recycling the beautiful cloths of the past is a driving force in my work. I often combine my own fabrics with commercial textiles to achieve variety and complexity. When I'm in the design stage, I pull out the hand-dyed cottons, the silks, a treasured piece of vintage linen-- all of it!"

You can visit Jill's website by clicking on the link below:

http://thefibercave.com/index.html

While there be sure to look at the AMAZING works of art on her gallery page!

Solar Crust

This quilt was inspired by three rusty circular saw blades and a lawn rake. When combined, the cloths created a solar image

This is what Jill said about making her entry in to the RTC, "Solar Crust was my first attempt to make a rusted fabric the focal point of a piece. It sat in my stash a long time before I found companion fabrics that worked but didn’t compete with it. I did a lot of free-motion stitching on the rusted part; the discharged part has some also but is mostly straight stitching with heavy cotton thread. I enjoy hand-dyeing over rusted fabric, too. There are many possibilities that I’ll be experimenting with—when summer comes to Wisconsin!"

Solar Crust

Machine pieced, rust and tannin dyed cotton/linen bend, discharged cotton and discharged linen; free-motion and straight-line machine quilted with cotton threads.

Jill will have a Special Exhibit at Minnesota Quilters, Inc., 32nd Annual Quilt Show and Conference, June 17—19, 2010 St. Cloud, Minnesota. By calling her a fiber artist MQI is defining her and her exhibit. The exhibit will feature Jill's hand-dyeing process and surface design by highlighting three techniques; dyeing, using resists, and discharging. Several pieces will showcase her glorious results.

Don't look for Solar Crust, it will not be there. To see Solar Crust you have to go to Spring International Quilt Festival-Chicago. I will be in booth 1632 selling rust dyed fabric and a CD with the 25 winners of the RTC. Hope you can make it!!!

PAQA Retreat

On Monday I posted I was at the PAQA retreat. It is good to be back in good old Madison, WI again. I am especially enjoying sleeping in my own bed!!!

I love going to these retreats. They are held in the Siena Center in Racine, WI. While in Racine be sure to eat at the Douglas Street Diner. All the food is home cooked. I have eaten many different foods there over the years and have NEVER had a bad meal. It is decorated like a 1950's soda shop. With black and white tiles on the floor, red Formica table tops and big deep booths.

If you click here you can see their menu.

I love the way I captured the light fixtures in this picture of Marilyn Monroe. The Siena Center is right on the shore of Lake Michigan. They have an outdoor labyrinth. To see what it looked like in the snow, search my archives for March 15, 2008.
There were 50 of us to hear Art Biz Coach, Alyson B. Stanfield, tell us how to advance our art careers. You can visit her site at:

http://artbizcoach.com/

While there be sure to sign up for her newsletter. It comes on Monday and has some very good tips in it. I have been an artist for 35 years. I thought I knew every thing about being an artist, but I was able to pick a few gems on customer service from her newsletters.

Alyson didn't have anywhere to hang the mobile microphone. I suggested she hang it from the top of her booth, which she did. She is always on the move. That is why she is out of focus in this picture. She had a really good energy. We learned quite a bit in the two day class. On the way home the sun was setting and there was fog in the low lying areas. Being in a car full of women artists, we allowed ourselves to get out of the car and take these amazing pictures. That is not a lake it is a field!

More Rust-Tex winners tomorrow. You can see them at International Quilt Festival in Chicago. I will be in booth #1632 where you can buy a CD that has all the Rust-Tex Collection winners on it.

It's All About Today

No postings Mon-Wed as I am at the Professional Art Quilter's Alliance meeting in Racine, WI. I will post on Thursday when I get back To Madison.

CSI

I got a call from the property master of the TV series CSI. They wanted to buy some rust dust. I have no idea when this episode will air so I don't feel bad posting an outline of the plot. A man dies. The crime is solved by opening up his stomach and using magnets to find that he was killed by drinking too much rusty water. I told the property master that rust dust is not magnetic. I did find some iron oxide I bought from a chemical company to use as rust dust was magnetic. It had been anneal so it didn't work for the my "Rust Dust Sprinkle" technique. The iron oxide I bought is a very fine powder. I plan to send him some rust flakes, which he can grind up, if they need something larger to show up on camera.

As promised here is the result of the double galaxy.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Terry White grew up in a large artistic family that encouraged originality, creativity and sharing. When she learned something new, she enjoyed teaching those new skills to her sisters and friends. Now she not only teaches on the road, but she and her husband, Scot, produce video classes so everyone can learn her sewing machine based techniques.

Spring Rites of the Turtle

Terry has published two books with the American Quilters Society. “Thread Painting Made Easy” and “All Beaded Up by Machine”, in which Terry has beaded by machine a piece of Rust-Tex fabric. She is currently working on her third book about embellishment techniques.

Terry has been keeping busy this year. She has designed her first line of fabrics for Clothworks which will be released in the spring of 2010. She is also working with Coats&Clark thread company, on exciting new developments, for their Star Cotton line of thread.

Terry's used a turtle as the inspiration for this piece because that is her totem. She is exploring the religion and culture of this lovely species. Making turtle shrines has helped her develope techniques and decorative devices to express her reverence.

Spring Rites of the Turtle Detail

Thread painted with cotton threads, rust-dyed cotton damask napkin, fused commercial and rust-dyed cotton fabric, organdy and chiffon hand wrapped flowers, hand-dyed vintage laces, free-motion machine quilted with metallic threads, embellished with hand twisted cords and beads.

This quote from Terry's website puts into words why we make quilts:

"The quilt is the best form in which to put my work. I had made many embroidery panels and with the variety of techniques and layers of fiber I tried, I would generally have to put my work in frames or on stretcher bars. When I began to quilt, I found that the quilt process added another layer of texture to the work and it supported the weight of my ideas in a textile form."
You can visit Terry's website by clicking on the link below:

http://www.threadpaint.com/index.html

Tomorrow I will post the results of the first run of the rust dyeing kiln!!!

Rust Dyeing Kiln First Attempt

I am taking a break from the winners of the Rust-Tex Collection to bring you some great news!!! I started using the rust dyeing kiln today!!!

You are probably asking yourself why I am posting a picture of a doll? It is not a doll!!! It will be a double galaxy when it is finished. It is the trees technique wrapped around a small Godiva Chocolate bottle and a glass vanilla extract bottle. At least I am hoping it will turn out to look like a double galaxy. Here is what a galaxy looks like.Here is a picture of the rust dying kiln all loaded up. I stated up the kiln at 3pm. By 6pm everything was DRY!!! I added more water to everything. I let it run till 8pm. Then I turned it off for the night. I can hardly wait until tomorrow to see what developed!!!

The rust dyed buttons will be done tomorrow, outside even when it is HOT, they usually take week. My studio assistant, who arranged them in the cast iron frying pan, must have a magic touch.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Pat Bishop, has been sewing since she was a child, either by hand or machine. Her impatience and busy life means she tends to use the sewing machine more often than not. Pat loves the feel, texture, depth of color, even the smell of fabrics and the ability to lose herself in the whirr of the sewing machine. Sometimes she feels like she is copping out by using cloth rather than paint. By using cloth she slows down the process, giving her time to make decisions about what to do next.

She #3

In Pat's abstract work, simplicity is used to achieve a goal. Abstract gives her freedom to manipulate components of the composition to express her own impression and representation. You can see this in the third quilt of Pat's, "She Series", where she is attempting to show the strength of a woman.

She #3 Detail
Machine pieced, rust dyed cottons, commercial fabrics, discharge dyed, free-motion machine quilted with cotton and rayon threads.

The happy accidents of working with dyeing fabrics give results that can be challenging and pleasingly unpredictable.

Do yourself a favor by watching the video on Pat's blog in full screen.

http://patbishop.blogspot.com/

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Today I am posting the quilts of Tricia Coulson.

Producing and creating art is an essential element in Tricia's life. She is a textile artist with a genuine love of her medium. You can visit her website here:

http://triciacoulson.com/

Bricollage 9

Tricia used to create rusted found object sculptures, so rusting fabric seemed like a natural progression. She went to her collection of rusty items and tried different combinations. When she hit on circles and triangles she was inspired to enter The Rust-Tex Collection.

Bricollage 9 Detail
Machine pieced, rust dyed cotton, over dyed rust dyed cotton, screen printed with textile paint, machine stitched with mono-filament, embellished with hand embroidery, rusty wire and washers.
Bricollage 10
Tricia has an interesting interview on Valley Fiber Life called Tricia Coulson and the Human Journey. Click here to read it.

Row Houses won Tricia the best use of beads or beaded elements

in the beaded category for Lark's Quilt It Contest.
She works full time creatively and exhibits her work across the US.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

The Rust-Tex Collection had 112 quilts entered by 80 people from all over the world. Entries came from Australia, Israel, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and Belgium. The majority were from the USA. The only International entry to be juried into the Rust-Tex Collection was "Rust Rest" by Els Vereycken of Belgium.

Rust Rest

During childhood Els watched as her mother made and designed, hats and clothes. Els always sewed, but mostly she collected pieces of fabric to use later on in some sort of combination. Her study of science, job and family left little time to work on all of her fantasies. As soon as she retired from teaching biology, she threw all of her energy into making art quilts.

Rust Rest Detail

Machine raw edge applique, rusted cotton fabric, commercial fabrics, free-motion machine quilting.

Els says, "Time flies so fast, I don’t have enough of it to fullfil all the dreams I have."
She shows her art quilts in national and international exhibitions.

I am so glad Els entered The Rust-Tex Collection!!!

She is a member of Q.Art.Belgium. Here is a link to their very cool site:

http://www.q-art.be/

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Today I am posting about Jean Cheszek.

Jean been quilting for 6 years, but she has never made a traditional quilt.

She was inspired by her sister, who's work you can see here:

http://www.annschroederstudio.com/

Jean needed some artwork to fill up all the blank walls in her new house.

Moonstruck

Early on she discovered the joys of dyeing her own fabric. When she saw the Rust-Tex booth at a quilt show, she knew it would be something else she needed to try. With both hand dyeing and rust dyeing, Jean loves that the process can yield completely serendipitous results.

Moonstruck details

She does not have a blog or a website. However she does make quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). "Fading Memories" will be part of the March auctions. You can bid on it here:

http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html

Fading Memories

Here is Jean's artist statement for this piece: My parents both suffered from Alzheimer's. This quilt portrays them as young adults when they each served in the Navy in World War II. The fabric in the quilt is made from photos taken over the course of their lives -- representing all the memories that faded as Alzheimer's progressed. The back of the quilt shows the photo montage along with a more recent photo of my parents.

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Today I am posting about Bonnie Ouellette, she has been quilting for about 10 years and doing abstract and art quilting for the last 3 years. She founded a small art quilt group in her area to bring together other quilters who were looking for a more forward approach and begin to design their own work.

Tiffany Turquoise Mine

Bonnie loves collecting found objects so rust dyeing was right up her alley. She particularly likes to walk along railroad tracks, where she usually finds some very interesting rusted material. Rust dyeing is accidental. After examining the fabric Bonnie hopes an idea will come to her. This particular piece screamed the veins of a mine. She dyed the original fabric and thought it was a poor example of dyeing with too much white and just a little turquoise color so she "over rust dyed" it. The fun part was when she decided to discharge the rusted fabric with rust remover. Unfortunately, this process is not very well controlled so she had some work to do to remedy that. The mine entrance is from old wood found along the tracks. The mine cart is made from rusted parts from an old toy train. Bonnie loved making her piece for the Rust-Tex Collection and will continue to experiment with rust dyeing. Tiffany Turquoise Mine detail

To see similar pieces of Bonnie's look at her 2009 journal quilt entries by clicking on the link below:

http://www.quiltart.com/triple_play/artists/5.html

Winners of the Rust-Tex Collection

Today's post is about Daryl Dunlap.

Daryl's quilt is the smallest one in the Rust-Tex Collection. At 8 1/2 x 11", Homestead, is one of her journal quilts.

Daryl has been quilting fewer than three years and art quilting for less than half of that time. Since she is a “young” quilter, she constantly tries new techniques to improve her skills and build up her knowledge bank. Daryl discovered a short article on rust dyeing in an older quilt magazine and has never looked back. Although she continues to try new techniques in both traditional piecing and art quilting, the rust dyeing technique continues to pull her in over and over again. Homestead

To date, all of her experiments and experience with rust dyeing have evolved from the whole cloth approach. She loves the randomness of wrapping odd sized pieces of fabric around even odder pieces of rusty whatever. Her approach is to then try to pull out an image from the resulting imprint and create a design around it.

Detail of Homestead

The judges felt her pieces looked like Oriental Art.

Rust dyed whole cloth quilt, machine applique house, free-motion machine quilting, binding is hand done using cotton embroidery thread.