Whos Who of Subversive Stitchers at Art Quilt Elements!

It is thrilling to announce that so many guest bloggers and members of Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles will have their work included in the Art Quilt Elements exhibit from April 17 through May 19 at the Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA.

Jurors who made the difficult choices for this exhibit are highly respected and strike fear in the hearts of fabric artists. OK, more like AWE in the hearts of fabric artists. Jason Pollen, Robin Schwalb, Deborah C. Warner.

Photo: Susan Shie's The Food Scales/Justice which has a long and interesting journey studed with awards and near misses on its way to this exhibit. Check out her blog.

Below is the list of  PARTICIPATING ARTISTS with the name of their entry:

Natalya Aikens* NY Piter I

Elizabeth Barton GA Strange Beauty

Linda Beach* AK Dawn

Regina Benson CO Night Bloom

PHOTO: Virginia Spiegel's Boundary Waters 48

Dawn W. Boyd* CO Le Croix de Guerre

Peggy Brown IN Changing Colors III

Benedicte Caneill* NY Units 19: Cityscape

Cher Cartwright* CA On the Other Hand

Paula J. Chung* NV Japanese Anemone I

Jette Clover BEL White Wall 1

Linda Colsh BEL Cabinet of Curiosities

Yael David-Cohen* UK Musical Explosion

Wen Redmond of NH -- Perspective of Trees. For more of her work visit her site.

Fenella J. Davies* UK Shadows

Helene Davis KY Incarnation

Sandra T. Donabed* FL Evil Apples

Linda J. Engstrom* AZ Web of Life

Dianne Firth AU Cell Structure #7

Denise M. Furnish KY Nine Patch

Leesa Z. Gawlik ITA Timeline II

Lutgard Gerber-Billiau* BEL Black Hole #I

Dianne K. Hricko* PA Urban Rhythm

Jeanette Jacobs* RI Splash

Terry Jarrard-Dimond SC Joy and Sorrow

Jess E. Jones* TN Ligament

Anita Kaplan* CA Graffiti III, Cappadocia

Katherine Knauer* NY Katrina

Paula Kovarik* TN Spring

Pat Kroth WI Pathways

Liz Kuny* NJ A Steady Beat

Judith Larzelere RI I (Heart) Summer

Eileen Lauterborn NY Afterimage

Susan Lenz of South Carolina with her first art quilt for this exhibit: Father and Mother, part of her Grave Rubbings series.

Susan Lenz* SC Father and Mother

Susan L. Lumsden* MO Slipstream Adventure

Libby & Jim Mijanovich* NC All In

Lori S. Moum VA Kimono Form #4

Sharon Nemirov* AZ Leaf Flakes

Wen Redmond NH Perspective of Trees

Toot Reid WA Aug 5, 2008 - March 28, 2009

Photo: Leslie J. Riley IL Chutes and Ladders (she also won first prize at Quilts=Art=Quilts)

Leslie J. Riley IL Chutes and Ladders

Luanne Rimel* MO Touch

Deidre Scherer* VT Into Light

Susan M. Shie OH The Food Scales/Justice

Diane Siebels* VA His Remembered Tree

Mary Ruth Smith* TX Crossover

Virginia A. Spiegel IL Boundary Waters 48

Daphne P. Taylor NY Quilt Drawing #11

Amy Thomas* WA Quilt No. 1

Bette Uscott-Woolsey PA Passing Fancy

Cynthia L. Vogt* VA Ishi-Datami

Kent Williams WI Light Emitting Fabric

For more information about the exhibit and the artists, visit ArtQuilt Elements 2010 site.

My View: Three techniques you'll want to try

If ever you want to be inspired to make your own art quilt or activist art quilt or just make a fun project – these DVDs from Quilting Arts Workshops are for you!

Where to begin!

Lesley Riley, a well known name among fabric and collage artists demonstrates three ways to transfer images onto fabric in her “Transfers Tried and True” DVD. In 45 minutes she gives watchers enough information to try and succeed at the use of transparency transfers using Golden Matte Medium and a foam brush plus burnisher (aka a serving spoon). Also how to make a water transfer using Printworks photo paper and everyday matte photo paper and a mist spray bottle. And last and perhaps the best option – permanent iron-on transfers using TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) and a hot iron. By performing the three methods, she shows watchers the differences in the techniques’ results.

Lesley provides an easy to understand demonstration of transfer techniques as well as tips and troubleshooting to guarantee success. She’s comfortable in front of the camera and clearly articulates the instructions. Lesley also is the author of several helpful books, her most recent is Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur.

Perhaps the more messy, hands on, fun kind of transfer begins with Thermofax Screen Printing as demonstrated in “Demystifying Thermofax Screen Printing” by Claire Fenton. This begins with how to make a thermofax image and ends with Fenton spontaneously printing a third scroll in her New Orleans series. It is fascinating to see how her mind works and to look through her artist’s eye. By the end of the piece I was pointing at the screen suggesting “Put it there, make an image there!”

I so wished I had the paint and cheap little plastic scrapers she buys at the hardware store and could get right in there with her. The scrapers may be the only inexpensive aspect o this process. A thermofax machine, which may not be easy to find, runs around $1000. Tattoo artists are snapping them up on EBay so the reconditioned models are not easy to find. Then the film runs about $175-$300 a roll and up. The Versitex ink starter kit -- $18 or the $255 Thermofax basic kit with · 40 thermal screens, ink, reusable plastic frames, etc.

I understand there are now thermal imagers available new. This technique gives quick results and instant success. Other than being messy, I can see this being a fun project to do with your kids. The Thermofax machine can get hot, but once the transfers are made, the process looks complete safe. And did I mention MESSY!

I suppose you can do this with the transfer techniques Lesley Riley demonstrated, but the thermofax screen prints are reusable. Claire Fenton creatively used parts of photos or manipulated photos on Photoshop before printing out an image to be thermofaxed. She also used headlines and newspaper articles, geometric shapes and images that will reinforce the story she tells with her art. Being creative with the thermofax can incorporate much in the way of found art.Another option would be to pay someone who owns a thermofax machine to make your stencils. Since they are reusable, it might be cost effective.

I did say three ways to be creative and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Judy Coates Perez and her Mixed-media Painted Fabric demonstration. Her technique, more free form, marries clip art and various images with transparent paints.

She adhered, using acrylic gel medium, the clip art and bits of paper – phone book pages and pieces of clothing patterns for example to PFD fabric. Then she began adding color and an overall design using transparent and metallic textile paints, black permanent pen or marker and then adding bits of decorative or handmade papers. She worked in layers as did Fenton working for balance and harmony and a melding of images.

It was spontaneous, yet with an underlying basic image that she had in mind. She will eventually add traditional quilting techniques and machine quilting to her artwork. Perez seems to talk to herself rather than clearly speaking to her watchers. But her actions are self explanatory and she emphasizes the necessary steps. Yet some may find her mumbling a bit disconcerting. The techniques and beautiful finished art speak for themselves.

Prices are reasonable, around $20 each.

Let it all hang out

We are the sum of our parts. Not just SOME of our parts, but all. Which means, our memories are influenced by things we don't consciously remember or acknowledge. When making a memory quilt we need to put as many 'parts' of the life together. And see what appears.

If it is a memory quilt of your mother -- how appropriate since Mother's Day is around the corner. The photo shows Leslie Riley's journal quilt of her mother. And gives you an idea of one way of making a memory quilt.

Remember that Mom was first a child, a girl, a woman, a lover, a wife long before she was your mother.

Perhaps begin with a map of where she was born. A family tree, her favorite tree, whether she liked sitting under a tree and watching nature or preferred to experiment with foods in the kitchen. Who does she speak of fondly or with anger? What are her political leanings? Did she chain herself to a cause and carry a placard in the streets or did she quietly move to change the thinking of friends and family, raise her children to see the truth she embraced, or perhaps made an effort to ease the suffering under laws or inequalities she opposed? What era did she come of age?

How much do you know about your mother and her beliefs? What was her favorite color? What does that say about her? Did she like to let her natural beauty shine through or always wore lipstick and nail polish? Was she a war bride? What was happening in her world when she was making her life choices?

When I think of my mother, I see a flower garden quilt. She made several of those as well as the traditional double wedding ring, star of Bethlehem, and other star quilts. Why did she chose stars I wonder rather than log cabins or nine patch or basket quilts? Why do I think of flower gardens when I think of Mom? I think her major life decisions were influenced by her coming of age in the Great Depression. The flower garden quilt pattern was popular during that era and she had told of using feed bags as quilt patches.

The Great Depression caused her family's financial decline, their move into an apartment above the telephone and telegraph office in a nearby small farming town. It caused her to work for the telephone company as well as take a job waitressing in a diner to help care for her aging parents rather than marry. World War II took many of the men from the community and caused the women to shoulder more responsibility.

Because their apartment was located above a business in the heart of the town, she lived across from the hardware store and quickly met the owner's brother who had come to town looking for work and a new beginning.

And yes, that 'brother' became her husband and my father. Mom was also shaped by her religious beliefs, her church, her community of which her family had been members for generations leading back to when the land was first settled.

To make a memory quilt for Mom has to include so much more than photos of her and family photos. Maybe that's why I think landscape quilts make excellent memory quilts. We are never separated from the land -- whether it is covered with cement or tilled by a Massey Ferguson or a team of horses. And what happens on that land imprints us, leads us in the directions our lives will take.

Maybe we waste our time making memory quilts of others. We should work on our own. Mine must begin with a book, a library, a community. Typing lessons at the age of eight, learning to handle money and make change at the age of four -- both skills pushed me in a specific direction. Perhaps if we look closely at what made us who we are, we can make better choices when raising our children or influencing our grandchildren. Maybe a memory quilt needs to be a therapy, a way of finding out just who we are and why.

Collage certainly lends itself to that project. I'd love to see an exhibit of "Who I am" quilts.