Inspiring Quilting: Elly's blog to boost your creative IQ

Archive for the ‘Art + Quilt’ Category

Let It Flow

Saturday, October 24th, 2015

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Ahoy there, mateys! Just picking up from my posts of June 29 and July 1. Seems like I row row row my boat, get off of it, get back to it, and row some more. Isn’t that how everyone courses through their bigger projects?

Please excuse the metaphors, if they don’t float your boat. Always thinking of my son and his fiancee as they about halfway through their one-year trip sailing the Great American Loop, which you can read about on their blog, sailbatic.al.

To refresh everyone’s memory, including my own, the wind beneath my sails is a challenge from Quilts for Change, titled Water Is Life. See this post for info, and this post for my launch of the project.

The weavings came together, with lighter and darker sections cut in curves and overlapped, as shown above. Then, I added stream of consciousness phrases with free-motion script:

Justice
transparent governance
wellsprings of knowledge
flow of info
ponder policies
unclouded judgement
funding streams
wo/mandates
fathom the depths

After that, some dense quilting in wavy lines. Then appliques to lighten some areas, tone down others, add interest and contrast and texture.

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The finishing was a whole ‘nuther trip around the bend. One rust binding all around wasn’t enough, so that became an inset with a pieced binding.

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Still not enough. So I auditioned several different sizes and colors of rickrack. Aqua, white, yellow, blue and gold…

DSCN2893 white rickrack

Opted for a yellow green to add light to the whole. Or, as a mutiny against spending more time and angst over this piece. (I’m ready to set sail on a new project.)

Yes, after months, I have finally reached the shore and completed my art quilt today! And submitted images, a bio and a statement.

Title: Let It Flow

Water is a deeply complex issue, swirling with interwoven challenges of safety, security, social justice, and access.

Only transparently clear, progressive, democratic governance can ensure a good flow of information and funding streams.

As the traditional water gatherers who understand what is best for their communities, women deserve a place in discussions and decision-making. When mandates become “womandates,” results are life-affirming.

Done! And 9 days before the deadline: a record for this captain of last-minute industry. Making art and quilts is usually a lonely, isolated journey, so comments and constructive criticism are always very welcome!

Let-It-Flow,ELevie – Version 2

Posted in Art + Quilt, Exhibitions, Personally Speaking, Surface Design, Weaving | 4 Comments »

Give me a hand…

Friday, July 31st, 2015

KitchenHamsa (2)

Seems I have a hamsa series going. Often called the Hand of Miriam by Jews, or the Hand of Fatimah by Muslims, this middle-eastern symbol features three fingers and two thumbs. Don’t ask me why. A good luck charm, it’s said to ward off the evil eye…cast by those who would be envious of what good fortune you may have. Lots of folks wear a hamsa as a talisman around their necks. But since bad luck can occur right at home, frequently in the form of cooking disasters, I recommend a household hamsa —especially in the kitchen. Done in foil-lined, plasticized packaging like coffee bags and tea bag envelopes, the resulting art can be wiped clean of cooking grease, sprays from spills, dust and grime. I teach this class as a workshop for trash-stash quilting, using the sample shown above, or for a westernized version, the hand-in-heart motif below.

Hand-in-Heart folk art, by Eleanor Levie, 2015, approx. 8″ x 10″

First time I ventured into hamsa territory was for a 2011 Quilt Alliance challenge; lots of shiny packaging made it impossible for this amateur photographer to capture a good representation.

Tahrir Square, by Eleanor Levie, 2011, 16″ x 16″

Recently, I answered another challenge with Eyes Wide Open as the theme. Right away, I thought of a hamsa with an eye, done out off coffee and tea bag packaging to reference the caffeine that literally opens my eyes, and the need to reduce and recycle that informs my trash stash quilting. Two other inspirations guided my creative pathway. First was an article in the Summer SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc.) Journal referencing the keynote speaker at the SAQA annual conference. Namita Gupta Wiggers is an art historian, and director and co-founder of Critical Craft Forum. She pushed for art quilts to take a place of power. Art in and of itself, instead of simply as a reference to the older, more traditional form of a bed covering. To do that, she encouraged breaking out of the rectilinear picture plane, and redefining the medium through the use of materials other than cloth. Hmmmm.

Another inspiration from a few years back was Pamela Allen’s Black-Eyed Susan art quilt, where plastic doll eyes peeped out from the centers of a bouquet of blooms.

Thus was born my Black-Eyed Susan Hamsa!

Securing top layers to bottom layer of black felt.

Couching satin cord over felt edges.

Black-Eyed Susan Hamsa, by Eleanor Levie, 2015, 14″ x 24″ ?

Photo by Carl Harrington, who is angling to get out of the photo business!

Posted in Art + Quilt, Flowers, Inspiration, Recycled Art, Unusual Materials | 4 Comments »

Tea Rex

Saturday, March 28th, 2015

TeaRex, detail

Word play is often a part of my art quilting, so my riff on T-Rex shouldn’t come as a surprise. And like other pieces in my ReUse, trash-stash series, this piece is made of tea bag envelopes, coffee bags, and other foil-lined packaging. And yeah, it’s a “green quilt,” as in the term coined by Susan “Lucky” Shie, representing an effort to use what’s on hand and upcycle, to do our part for the planet. Of course, the citrus net bags, vintage fabrics and trims, buttons, beads, and rickrack are here partly because, as my hubby bemoans, I never throw anything away.

Yes, I began with an appealing pun, a Barney-like dino and an Alice-in-Wonderland tea party set up, with a funky vase made from my grandmother’s well-worn, embroidered neck wrap, and the vase is filled with—what else?—tea roses.

TeaRex-detail-ELevie

Here’s where the word play wandered into sword play, quickly and quilterly lunging into the more politicized rooms of my mind. Didja notice the space ship and volcano out that window?

window

How about the tsunami rushing in, the blazing sun, the meteor hurtling towards earth? It seems our titan of leisure is cluelessly indulging in conspicuous consumption. Our Tea-Rex is denying inconvenient truths, such as global warming and waning resources for those lower on the food chain. Instead, the arriving guest invents wild fabrications…and invites extinction. A cautionary tale? A parable for our time? Obviously, this Tea-Partier is way out of date.

Tea Rex, by Eleanor Levie, 32″ x 57″, March, 2015

Posted in Art + Quilt, Inspiration, Personally Speaking, Recycled Art, Unusual Materials | 4 Comments »

Volcano Season!

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

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The Slow Stitching Movement: So. Not. Me.

This is me: Scraps on the floor after another obligatory project is due and done. Restless rumblings. Silk, rayon, and frenetic free motion stitchery building, colliding, bursting, erupting—all in the course of one intense evening—just don’t ask me how I define “evening.” Ideas surge and flare, drowning out the inner mom trying to guilt me into cleaning up before starting something new, the urges to check the computer screen one more time, the calls from the hubby to come to bed. This is how I do my best work, imho. If only this brief season of volcanic creative activity would strike more often than once in a blue moon!

But opportunity may strike for you! Here’s how:

1 Day (Feb. 4) — 100 Artists (I’m one of ’em!) — 100 Patrons (You could be one!) — $10,000 for the American Cancer Society. My 8″ x 10″ art quilt, which I call, “Volcano Season,” is one of the amazing 100 art quilts that could be yours. Mark your calendar: Wednesday, February 4, 2015, at 10 a.m. Central. The first 100 people to contact Virginia Spiegel at her website, VirginiaSpiegel.com will be given a link to donate $100 by credit card directly to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause. Somebody gets my piece. But oh, you gotta check out the talented quilt artists–lots of big names–who are also among the 100 contributing artists. This site shows you a bunch: http://www.pinterest.com/…/the-100-fundraiser-to-fight-can…/ You’d contribute to the ACS anyway, right? Be on time, and the bonus is gonna be bodacious in your abode.

What about you? Do your brainstorms erupt suddenly? Or build quietly over time?

volcanoseason-elevie-detail

Posted in Art + Quilt, Exhibitions, Inspiration, Personally Speaking | No Comments »

Quilt-scape Album

Friday, January 2nd, 2015

Sad but true: We never print those photos anymore. Whaaaa. We are captives of our electronic world. And a captive audience for anyone who shoves a smart phone in front of us to thumb, er, swipe through a batch of pics. Fight back, quilters! Just as folks enthusiastically welcome your quilted table runners, pillow covers, and tote bags, they’ll love looking at your vacation pics in a handcrafted format, and they’ll be overjoyed to receive their very own brag book with a cover handmade by you. Here’s the how-to lowdown:

1. Get a plastic photo album that holds about the number of 4 x 6 photos you want to include (12, 24, 36). Dollar stores have ’em. For a dollar.

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2. Open the photo book out flat and measure across the back cover, spine, and front cover, then measure the length of the spine. Make a little quilt (or quiltlet) 1/2″ larger all around than these dimensions. By my book, 11″ x 7 1/2″ were the final dimensions. OK, woooo, that sounds like a Star Wars commercial, the “final dimensions.” I was inspired to borrow from Karen Eckmeier’s techniques explained in her Accidental Landscapes book (which I was privileged to edit and which you can get from her website) and also in the masterpiece “By the Sea” which Karen contributed to my Skinny Quilts & Table Runners book). I started using her layered/topstitching method, pressing edges under and topstitching them to a background— you’ll see that below where the sea meets the sky, for a crisp horizon line, and in the sand of the foreground. Then I threw caution (and patience) to the wind. I abandoned pressing edges under and just tore fabric. The raggedy fringes suggest frothy waves, as do couched ribbons and lace (Karen’s ideas).

3. Pin a looped strand of elastic to the middle of the left side edge. From fabric, cut two rectangles the same size as the little quilt made for the cover. Set one aside for the backing. Cut the other crosswise in half (along the spine). Then fold each crosswise in half again, and place on top of quiltlet so raw edges are aligned at top, bottom, and sides. Pin to hold in place temporarily.

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4. Place the backing on top, with right sides facing. Stitch all around, 1/4″ from edges and leaving a 4″ opening at the center of the bottom.

5. Clip corners, and pull the quiltlet through the opening. Use a pin to pick out the corners. Turn the edges of the opening 1/4″ to the inside and stitch them closed. Insert the covers of the photo book into the side pockets.

6. Stitch a button to the front cover to correspond to the loop.

7. You might want to knot a length of ribbon to the elastic loop — for decoration, or to wrap around the photo album.

Eh voila! Nice, old-fashioned way to capture vacation memories, latest escapades of the grandchildren, or hilarious costumes you forced your pet to wear.

Do leave a comment: what images and techniques would YOU showcase on a photo album cover?

Posted in Art + Quilt, Gift-Making, Inspiration, Memory, Quilted Accessories | 2 Comments »

Walking the Boards

Tuesday, November 25th, 2014

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November 24, 2014, and temperatures in the 70s. With cold–and even snow expected in a couple of days, the hub and I wisely decided this was NOT a good day to stay in and work…or go to the gym. He had a destination in mind: the newly-built “Boardwalk” on the Schuykill (River, that is). Here’s the professional shot:

Boardwalk on the Schuylkill

My pics, while not so panoramic, showcase far prettier sunshine and shadows, if I say so myself…and I just did. The light mid afternoon was spectacular. I felt as if any one of my photos could inspire an art quilt. Which one do you think makes the best composition? Which one would translate best to fabric?

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“Wood-grain” cement floorboards, with shadows…and I can picture this one with black lines of quilting, can’t you?

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Some photo editing took this scene into a more fantastical, if not Peter-Max-imum realm:

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Writing this blog post certainly inspired me to learn to spell Schuylkill correctly. Going Dutch, like the 17th century Europeans from the Netherlands as well as Sweden and England, gives us the translations of schuylen and kill to mean “hidden creek.” Perhaps since the mouth of the river was “discovered” by these explorers hidden behind dense vegetation at Delaware River’s League Island.

Along the boardwalk, runners, bikers, strollers (like us, but the kind with babies on board, too) all make tracks.

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To one side of us, the glorious Schuylkill River, the dreaded Schuylkill Parkway (where traffic is almost always at a crawl), and beyond that, West Philadelphia. On the other side, the scenery was equally EPIC. Train tracks, trains, construction sites, scrub brush, texture and movement.

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Yup, today’s walk was such a good idea…which is invariably the case when following this guy’s train of thought:

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OK, we’ve reached the end of the line!

Posted in Art + Quilt, Inspiration, Personally Speaking | 4 Comments »

Iceland Rocks!

Wednesday, October 8th, 2014

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In a trip to Iceland this past August, the husband and I took mini-bus tours out to the rocky coasts, where cliffs, hillsides, and beaches bore the vestiges of volcanic and glacial upheaval.

I’m so lichen this interplay of ground and sky.

Landscape or still life?

Like a man-made mesa, with a walking path high up just on the other side of this wall.

If I were a rock climber with all the right equipment, if I were not so scared of heights, if I never had to descend, and if I never looked down, then maybe…

Green green, grows the grass on the far side of the hill. Which is why the names for Iceland and Greenland should be switched.

Rocks + water = Gorgeousness, no?

Arc-i-texture! (with a tip of the cap to Carol Taylor for the caption title word-play)

Gully, but this cliff is terrif.

Natural stadium seating.

Don’t mind taking a seat myself.

Patch of colorful life.

Wildlife sighting: a colony of puffins.

Don’t mind saying that while life has its ups and downs, our marriage has never been what I would call rocky. The husband is my rock, and a rolling stone who propels us on these adventures.

A favorite quilt artist who really rocks the heck out of color, shade, and perspective. “Out of the Dark,” by Esterita Austin.

“Into the Light,” by Esterita Austin. Check out her workshops! http://esteritaaustin.com

I confess, these days I’ve hit rock bottom in terms of time, energy and motivation for creative fabric play that’s just for fun and personal enrichment. However, as far as seeking inspiration and dreaming about quilt projects to come, I’m leaving no stone unturned! How do you rock your quilts…or your quiltmaking regimen?

Posted in Art + Quilt, Inspiration, Travel | 1 Comment »

What if?

Tuesday, September 16th, 2014

Yeah, what if?

What if I crowdsourced an arrangement of elements on my blog (see my last two posts!)?

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What if I took all the suggestions to heart, and kept going?

What if I continued the graphic lines in the fabrics into the quilting?

What if I curved the side edges?

It’s my modus operandi, the “what if” way of working. Try this, take a look or take a picture, then try something different. With digital image reminders, I can easily go back to a previous rendition. Anyone else use this “making it up as you go along” method?

The result, called “What If?,” natch, is about 28″ at its widest x 36″ — if memory serves.

Furthermore, much as I enjoyed the process, I see all that could have been—a simpler, stronger, less belabored piece of work. Out of my sight for a while, I’ll return to look at it with fresh eyes and a more accepting attitude…I can only hope. But here’s another thing about the way I work with fabric art: I am never totally pleased with an oeuf…er, oeuvre. But even working in a series, it’s almost impossible to make something that’s just slightly different, with just minor readjustments. And the next word play art might just be Just/Readjust!!

As the adage goes, “Done is better than perfect,” and I won’t be redoing this puppy. OK, maybe minor revisions. But what if I were to apply your points of view to my next piece? I’d get to be a better fabric artist, wouldn’t I?

In the meantime, what if any of you are going to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza in Oakes, PA, this Thursday thru Sunday? If so, look for it in the Spirit! exhibition group.

Whether you go by these images of the full piece above and detail below, or whether you get a glimpse of it in the cloth, let me know what you think in the comment box below. Remember, no hoops to jump through, no weird characters to copy to prove you’re not a robot. Your constructive criticism, easily keyed in, is always appreciated.

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Posted in Art + Quilt, Inspiration, Personally Speaking | 3 Comments »

Are We There Yet?

Thursday, August 7th, 2014

A new day, a new perspective. Up to now, grid-like horizontals and verticals have ruled—and enforced a sense of static, grounded, cityscape or Easter Island kind of construction. Now at least one errant angle provides some sense of movement. For this paradigm shift, I have to thank my resident critic—my DH. And yeah, he is also a wonderful supporter of my work. He’s been looking at the images I shove under his chin, occasionally glimpsing my design wall, and agreed, up til this point, that this art quilt-wannabee has not yet arrived.

I’m gonna keep the previous numbering system from previous blog posts. (In reality, the number of candidates I’ve arranged and photographed approach a hundred.)

#18

#19

#20

#21

#22

The hubby just stopped in to turn his work break into a short play-date. See what resulted:

#23–See someone flailing?

#24–the start of my what IF series…

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C’mon now, leave a comment. I really need, if not a crowd-sourced solution, at least a vote of confidence for one of these fabric sketches, or your advice for an old or new direction! Thanks!

#26

Posted in Art + Quilt | 16 Comments »

Auditions are Ongoing (Arghhh)

Thursday, August 7th, 2014

Dozens of renditions for this puppy…or perhaps I should say dog of a project. I’ve lost all perspective. Really. I can’t get back far enough, I just keep slapping (various elements up on the design wall) and snapping (pics to crop and consider). Tell me if any are getting close! The numbering system continues from the last post.

#10–the quilting will provide the interest…

#11–maybe without that yellow piece top center…

#12

Lucky 13??

#14

#15

#16

#17

Do not worry if you don’t like any of these (I don’t!). Clearly I am not there yet. Tomorrow I’m going to try angling a piece or two, and working from the center outward. I may be driven to abstraction–in both senses of the term, but I’m not ready just yet to go back to pictorials!

Posted in Art + Quilt | 2 Comments »