Had a lovely day yesterday travelling to Parrsboro – my friend MaryAnn drove because she wanted to visit friends and family who live there. Our first stop was the Art Labs Studios and Gallery on Main Street to deliver and hang my four quilts and two wall pieces.
Finished Wall Hanging/Table Runner
I had finished the wall hanging “Circles #6” last week. It just fit the spot where it got hung (I’d created it for a different larger space in the gallery which was already occupied).
Here is a glimpse of the other half of the exhibit – William Forrestall’s work (egg tempera on paper).
MF relaxing for a moment
I had a chat with William Forrestall who made interesting observations about my work – he picked up on the connection to traditional quilting techniques but also noticed the focus on colour and the movement of colour – all intentional aspects of my work. He also commented on the technical aspects of the quilting.
Circles #5
The quilts are on display until August 30. If you’re anywhere in the vicinity, drop in for a browse.
Moving quickly. I have the background assembled and I can immediately see a problem I want to fix – that dark strip in the bottom left corner has to go! Needs to be lighter. I’m not sure about the second one- I think it may be OK.
I actually started this quilt in the middle of May; I got sewing on it on June 18 (a month ago). I finished it last night (label and hand sewn hidden binding)!
Now I’m ready for the Art Labs show in Parrsboro, Aug 10-30.
I should be able to hang four throw quilts, including this one. I’m calling my contribution to this 2-person exhibit “Circles”.
Circle Quilt #5Circles On PinkDrunkard’s Path #5Planets and Moons
In reserve I have two others:
Skyline #3Study in Blue / Green
There’s also a narrow wall in the gallery where I may get to hang this small piece
I didn’t think I’d ever manage to finish this piece! It seems like I started it forever ago – I began on Jan 16 with a couple of inset circle blocks. Three days later I had the layout pretty much established and I couldn’t go any further (trump was sworn into office the day after that, and all hell broke loose…).
Three days ago I decided to try some embellishment – sat at the machine and immediately broke the needle (!), then didn’t like the particular stitching I started. It took close to an hour to remove what I’d done.
The next day I tried again and managed to embroider the large, lower-left circle, both inside and outside; stuck again. Yesterday, I was determined to get the rest done! I actually did.
Today, I added the binding. I’d chosen the black fabric with the small circles to tie the whole together and hoping a dark binding would lighten the piece (not as much as I’d hoped it would).
Now I’m looking for a name for it – something that highlights the bright circular shapes. Any ideas?
On Sunday I took down the Craig Gallery Exhibit (can’t believe the three weeks went by that fast). I was collecting the tags on each item when I discovered a red dot on one of the quilts – SOLD! That was a surprise. From the start I wasn’t sure about pricing the quilts (and other pieces). Looks like I wasn’t out of the ball park after all.
Not only did I sell a quilt, I sold one of the wall art pieces, as well as two 6×6 floral pieces (one has been sold twice – a friend of my sister Donna wanted the same piece that another person had already bought; I wasn’t able to say “No” to her so I’m creating another; that’s actually three of the 6×6 pieces sold).
All in all, a good outcome for a show of this size, in a location like this. A lot of visitors dropped in, they all spent more time looking at the quilts and other fibre art pieces than usual, and all left with smiles. When I was in the gallery visiting with friends who’d come to see the exhibit, all sorts of people either eavesdropped on what I was explaining, or came over more overtly to join the conversation. Everybody I spoke to was very engaged and interested in how my art was constructed.
I have just completed this series of twelve 6×6 wall art pieces. You may remember the previous efforts in 2022 and 2023. Early in the spring Brandt Eisner sent out an invitation to participate in another “pop-up” 6×6 show. I agreed to participate and decided to play with “flowers” one more time.
An Original 6×6 Wall Art PieceSecond Iteration of 6×6
I’d managed to get the construction of four pieces done (with four more partially assembled) when Brandt sent a note that the show was being cancelled. That stopped me dead. It was the middle of June – I was working toward an early July deadline – and I stopped. Just couldn’t get going again.
Two weeks ago, I finally picked up the silk background squares I’d prepared, pulled out the box of circles, and began assembling some 6×6 arrangements. Once underway, I was able to keep working on the project and this afternoon I finished the pieces, completely mounted on blank canvas frames, with paper backing and saw-tooth hangers.
This project is ready for the November Craig Gallery solo show!
I finished up the panel I was working on yesterday and completed a second today. I’ve got a better handle on how to make the outline flower stand out by how I position the underlying circles and setting the leaves so they appear to be under the flower petals. I also downsized the signature a bit so it’s less prominent. I think this idea is now working.
I left for Truro around 4:30. The drive took just under an hour. I’d taken a friend with me – conversation always shortens the trip. We had time for coffee (and a sliver of peanutbutter cream pie – yum!) before Christene Sandeson, the person with whom I’m sharing the gallery space for July/August at NovelTea Cafe, arrived.
We got work straight away – each of us laid out the work we’d brought, tentatively placed it on the various display shelves then moved pieces around to better balance size and colour against one another and against the background walls. Didn’t take long – we were finished in less than 45 minutes.
Without discussion we intermingled our work – it just seemed to look better with Christene’s and my pieces side by each rather than trying to cluster each of us separately. We were both happy with how the final hanging looked.
We’ll meet again at the end of August when we arrive to take down the art. Perhaps we’ll make time then to have coffee or a meal together!
The ViewHuntington BeachOn Deck / Two Boats / Study In Pink
The show was hung on Friday morning after our two hour drive from Halifax to Parrsboro. I’ve shown in the gallery enough times that knowing what I wanted to hang, where, required little deliberation. I knew I’d brought exactly the right number of pieces to display.
The show consists of eight lap size quilts, accompanied by two panels each with an array of 6×6 pieces – a total of thirty pieces of textile art. A respectable amount of work.
As you enter the gallery space
On your right as you enter the Community Gallery you find the four Drunkard’s Path Blocks quilts: Let the Trumpet’s Sound, Drunkard’s Path #5, Skyline #3, and Planet’s With Moons (from right to left). It doesn’t immediately strike you that all four quilts are built using the same block construction, but if you look closely you see the basic quilt block is the same in each.
Again, turning to the left you see the “Flower” 6×6 panel above the horizontal post (three have sold so far!), followed by the Convergence quilts – Convergence Quilt #4, #3, and #2.
It always amazes me to see the quilts and small pieces hung in the gallery – the collection has such a different impact than seeing the art one quilt at a time. The technical work slips into the background as the visual impact takes over.
I spoke to a number of people at the opening during the afternoon, all of whom were interested in the decision-making that goes into each work, whether a lap quilt or a small 6×6 piece. People always want to know how long does it take – it’s an unanswerable question – there’s no way to account for the “thinking about it” time that goes into each textile work. The execution, the cutting out, the piecing, the quilting, the embellishing, the binding are all straightforward aspects of making this art. I can predict reasonably accurately how long each phase will take; but the thinking about it is out of my control – it takes as long as it takes.
The show is hanging in the Art Labs Community Gallery (121 Main Street) in Parrsboro NS until late afternoon on Thursday, June 15. If you happen to live near Halifax, or near Parrsboro, do drop by. In addition to the Community Gallery the four resident artists display their work as well. It’s worth a visit.
If you make it a day trip from Halifax, I’d recommend leaving around 9:00 am, driving straight to Parrsboro, visiting the gallery, then having lunch at the Harbourview Restaurant. After lunch mosey your way back, stop at the Five Islands Lighthouse Park to take in the ocean view. Further down the road visit Lowland Gardens – they always have some unusual plants there. You can’t drive back to Halifax without stopping at Masstown Market – fresh produce, great ice cream, good chili if you’re hungry. Depending on how long you take at each stop you should make it back to town between 6:00 – 7:30. You’ll have enjoyed the day.
PS – all of these pieces are for sale. If you’re interested in knowing more about any of them, email me: newman.judith@gmail.com.
I’ve been working away frantically to finish the last quilt. the show at Art Labs in Parrsboro opens a week tomorrow at 2:00 pm! That’s a month to six weeks earlier than I was hoping for so it’s been a crunch to complete everything and get it all ready to hang. I’ll make the deadline but there’s still quite a bit to get done.
As far as the final quilt is concerned, I have the centre panel quilted, the sashing and inner border seam stitched-in-the-ditch. That leaves two more border seams to stitch all the way around, the wide outer border quilted, and the facing and a label applied to the back. I have time, but the minutes are slipping away!
I just finished adding the sawtooth hangers to the back of the flowers, carefully measuring the hanging position for each on the linen-covered panel, adding small nails to hang each piece on. With a little aligning they’ll be fine.
Flowers Hung on Navy Linen Panel
I still have to figure out some way to hang the panel itself – I’ve got an idea for how to do that, but whether it will work or not remains to be seen.
I’ve finished the Modern Flowers panel, as well. Last week I stopped into Sew With Vision to see whether I could find a fabric to cover the hanging panel because I didn’t have enough navy linen to cover it. I came home with a metre and a half of Moda Basic Grunge in Peacoat Navy. It shows off the small pieces beautifully.
Modern Flowers on Grunge Background
Because the navy Grunge worked so well, I thought I’d recover the Flowers panel to match. I went back to the shop this afternoon hoping to find another metre of the navy grunge – no luck – none left. I bought some dark teal fabric but it was worse than the navy linen – it has lighter blue elements which fight with the Flowers. I decided to stick with the navy linen. I did some browsing to see whether I could find a couple of yards/metres anywhere – looks like this particular Grunge fabric is out of stock just about everywhere, and even if I had found some, it wouldn’t have come for a couple of weeks and I have just one week to get everything finished.
jmn 