QUILTING ARTS SOCIETY

Several months ago a small creative group of women that meet monthly, invited me to join them, which I did. Unfortunately I have only been able to attend two meetings so far. The main purpose is for “show & tell” and artquilt world discussion. But a long-time topic has been the search for a suitable location for “get your hands dirty” working meetings. A restaurant environment is a bit limiting when we would like to dye, discharge, paint, glue, & heat gun, etc. This last Saturday we were invited to Linda Berry’s beautiful home in “countryland”, where she and her husband have lived for 30 years and raised 4 beautiful, successful children. Set on, I don’t know how many acres, is a sprawling 4-bedroom ranch home with a full walk- out basement. Since her children are now grown and out of the house, Linda has appropriated this entire basement as her studio !!!! And boy is she organized !!! I apologize for not having more photos to show you, not good at remembering to do that just yet, I will get better, I promise. But near the end of the day I did remember and here are a few.

This is Linda & Darcy's "work station" on the table

Actually this table was big enough for 3 of us to work on small projects all at one time, what fun that is !!!

This is only one entire wall of many just like it !!

Darcy Berg, trying out a new photo transfer technique

MARLENE WOODFIELD

This is a Fiber Portrait of Caroline Jarboe

PAQA member, Marlene Woodfield created this startlingly realistic art quilt as a 40th Anniversary gift for her sister and brother-in -law. It is a surprise, so if you know them, don't tell them yet!!! Caroline is their youngest grandaughter.

How did she do it?

A flesh colored commercial fabric was used for the base of the face and neck. With a sable brush, Marelene used Tsukineko acrylic inks, just as though she were painting on canvas, strategically applying them layer by layer, developing the facial features and shading. White on White fabric was dyed with procion dye to color the background fabric.
The hair is freehand cut and applied rough edge with many different fabrics to achieve the color tones. The quilt was heavily machine quilted both with flowers and a "patchwork" checkerboard design to add dimension for the background.
Nine different commercial fabrics, mostly batiks, were used in the crazy nine patch border.
Don't forget to click on the photos to see the closeups of this amazing artwork.

KAREN ROHRER

Geneva Cultural Arts Commission

recently sponsored the Emerging Artist Air Fair held with the Geneva Art Fair in Geneva, IL

Karen Rohrer, exhibited as an Emerging Artist

She won an Honorable Mention award for her jewelry.

Karen has been a student of several disciplines at TLD Designs for some time and has recently determined to concentrate on jewelry making

Congratulations, Karen !!!

DARCY BERG

DARCY BERG

ENTRY FOR PAQA CHALLENGE

"A CLEAR CHOICE "

I DIDN'T KNOW ART COULD BE POLITICAL

PAQA Meeting Part 2

Welcoming new Guests

Write that down before I forget !!

Reassurance

PAQA Meeting

PAQA, The Professional Art Quilt Alliance was formed in January, 1993 by Barb Albrecht,
Maureen Bardusk, Melody Johnson, Ruth Reyonlds, and Laura Wasilowski. Click the link for a slide show of current members work.

All the founders had been members
of other quilt organizations but felt the need to develop a new group with specific aims for
the innovative art quilt and art garment field.

The current Midwest group meets monthly at
the Glen Ellyn Library, a westerly suburb of Chicago.

Members come from Wisc, Iowa,
Indiana, and of course, IL.

Since the meeting begins at 10 am, many are on the road at a
very early hour. Why do they come? What do we do?

Bring work and show work
Encourage new artists in the field
Network
Discuss professional issues
Share wisdom and experience

Prize Winning Fiber Art by Tammy Deck

I really love green !!!

It's so hard to make a decision !!!

SOLD

Tammy Deck Gets First Place !!!!

Saturday was my day for gallery duty at TLD while darling daughter Tammy was very busy selling her fiber art and garnering a first place award at Art in Your Eye in Batavia, IL. Read her reaction on her blog today

SKYDYES

Yesterday I mentioned a fabric-painting book, by Mickey Lawler, which I purchased in 2001. I have painted on canvas and paper for many years and at that time had a pretty impressive collection of acrylic paints. When I first began experimenting with them on fabric I was always disappointed with the stiff plastic results. The fact that this is inherent in the nature of those paints was beside the point, I continued to search for a solution. My first experience with Setacolor paints happened at a PAQA retreat when Melody Johnson brought some for all of us to play with. She brought fabrics she had painted with this stuff, heat set it, washed it, and wonder of wonders, it did not change the hand of the fabric significantly, in most cases, not at all. This was one of those totally WOW experiences for me.

My next step, as is my normal pattern, was to find a book and learn more. At my favorite local, not so traditional quilt store, I found the book. I read it from cover to cover the first night. The very next day I went in search of the paints. My favorite local crafts store stocked them along side the T-shirt blanks. 9 or 12 pretty basic transparent colors, $9 bucks a bottle. That was really expensive for me at that time. I was accustomed to 49 cents a bottle for most acrylics, maybe $1 for airbrush quality. On the wall I found a starter kit, with 6 small jars, mostly primary colors. Ms. Lawler said, in her book, that a 50/50 dilute with water was her starting point and sometimes more. I had a 40% off coupon so I figured OK, I’ll try this and see how far it goes. Magic !!! Years and years and yards and yards of fabric later, watching the wet into wet paint moving, primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors, becoming new colors, right there on the fabric still excites me!!! If you want to try fabric painting, buy this book and work through the exercises, you won’t be sorry.

Yes, that's a piece of my fabric up there at the top.

OFF-THE-SHELF Fabric Painting

by Sue Beevers. The info I’ve been getting is that this GREAT RESOURCE for fabric painters is out of print. Amazon has a few available from their Marketplace sellers. This is the book I have been recommending (strongly suggesting) to students in my fabric painting class at TLD Designs. It is the only one I have found, other than SKYDYES, by Mickey Lawler, that address ONLY FABRIC PAINTING (no dye recipes or techniques included). This book shows you the way to create fabric soft enough for use in your quilts, wall hangings, or garments. Sue Beevers takes us step by step through 30 recipes and 15 techniques (she calls them recipes for gourmet results) with easy to understand and follow instructions and great photos of her results.

Underwater Gateway



Underwater Gateway
©2006 JoAnn Deck
18 H x 15 1/2

In May of 2006 I created UNDERWATER GATEWAY for a PAQA challenge traveling show. The theme was WATER to be interpreted any way we wished. Only stipulation was size, no larger than 18” on any sideas I really, really like this quilt I was happy to see it at the Mancuso show in Chicago in 2006.