“It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to pursuit.”
– Antoine Rivarol
I am back after way too long. My life has been very busy with new art, group shows, personal and family developments but I am back here to share my progress, my art and my joy for life thru my art with you.
Create has been a defining word for me all my life. To create what is always swirling in my mind. To create new and wonderful art and the theme for me in 2019 is to create the life I have always dreamed of for myself. This creation of a new life included a move to a new living space that has room for a studio along with living space. I had to declutter and decide what to move to my new space. That took more time for me than I thought. It is hard to decide what to toss and what to keep. As a quilt artist that collages many fabrics, thread, yarn, beads, charms and what ever else I can use I had a lot to sort through. Add to that there is meaning for those personal things that you have kept in a closet for 30 years or so. Yet why are they still important when they have been stored for that long?
I had to be judicious in my selections for my new space is thankfully smaller. Besides the question of why I still needed to hold on to that high school scrapbook, I had to be real with myself asking if I still had a need to keep that scrapbook. I am a lover of history but honestly if I no longer remember the events that are kept in the scrapbook then it is time to let it go. Life is so much lighter and free for me now, though I honor the path that took me to this point.
I also was busy creating new art for a group show with my fellow fiber artists that was on display for May thru July this year. I still am in love with the wonderful colors in the sky of sunrise and sunset. I decided to do a series of smaller pieces in this style for the show. Such fun to take the bright and intense orange, yellow and purple in a sky scape. Then show trees, boats and landscapes in shadow so the bright colors are sparkling.
Here is Spring Trees. I used layers of batik fabric fused to a stretched canvas, color adjusted with Inktense water color pencils then stitched in the trees with embroidery thread in various colors and thread types. This piece is small, 18 inches long by 6 inches tall but it was challenging to keep to this minimalistic style.
I had taken some pictures of a tree in early spring. The twist and turns of the limbs just fascinated me. This tree had been thru many thaws and freezes making many marks on it’s shape. I used this tree with a bright yellow orange sunset for this piece Spring Beauty. It is 6 inches wide by 12 inches tall with various thread colors and weights. I am so amazed by the light lavender colored silk thread. It changes color based on the color it is laying next to. It appears gray and soft with just one strand but you can still see the purple within the thread.
This last piece, Purple Spring, I have shared before. I was honored to have it accepted in this years International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas in the landscape special exhibits. I had not planned on going back to Houston so soon but just had to see my first acceptance for this acclaimed show. It is 36 inches wide by 38 inches tall. This is my largest art quilt so far therefore no hand embroidery at all on this piece.
So you can see I have had a very active year behind the scenes of this blog. It has now extended into 2020. I am very happy to announce that I will be teaching an embroidery class May 1, 2020 at a conference, Fiber Fusion, here in the Kansas City area. Coming from a family of teachers I love sharing my knowledge and showing how I use basic stitching to create art. I approach teaching embroidery as a technique or method to express your desires to create. If you can thread a needle and make a mark with that thread you are creating.
In my class, participants will learn several embroidery stitches which can be incorporated into art quilts and other fiber pieces as a way to add design and textural elements. I will teach you how to do the feather stitch, chained feather stitch, French knot and colonial knot, honestly they are different, drizzle or cast-on stitch, lazy daisy stitch, chain stitch, stem stitch, buttonhole stitch, fly stitch, and bullion stitch. Boy you will have a full tool box to use.
Once students have a handle on these stitches, I’ll show you how these stitches can be altered to your own artistic vision. You will see how beads and thread thickness can effectively be used to add texture. I’ll have several examples of my work to share. I will provide students with muslin, embroidery hoops, needles, scissors and thread to use in the class. I will be more than happy to meet you in person and share the fun and create with you. Below is the link for the conference. Check it out the link below and let’s create together.
jackie keirnan hale 