Another art quilt

Full day. Several classes, lots of hand sewing and dinner and a show later. So here's another old art quilt. This is one I made in 2013 for a local show called Art Hits the Wall. The theme was Kaleidoscope. The artist statement explains my intent.

A kaleidoscope designed and built by William Leigh was engraved with the phrases:

Who could from thy outward case, Half thy hidden beauties trace? and Who from such

exterior show, Guess the gems within that glow! This is my attempt to recreate that

meaning in fiber and beads. The drab and distressed outer layer shrouds an ordered

and compelling interior.

Hidden Beauties

Hidden Beauties detail

Yikes

I was finishing up the straight line stitching this morning and my sewing machine locked up completely. I was able to extract the needle to release the fabric but nothing I tried would would make the machine go again. Luckily I had a spare machine so I finished up the sewing and the fabric is now shrinking in my miraculous new washing machine with steam.

I have moved on to the last finishing details on my other piece for the My Corner of the World Show. There's not much to see there. 

So here's another art quilt. I think I finished this in 2013 but it wasn't seen anywhere until this past September when it was part of an adjunct show to Structures at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts. It is part of a series based on poems by my mother, Nancy Nielsen.

Gritty Wind Blues

Thereʼs no crayon in the box for this,

nothing as dirty as old ice,

nothing as cold as the jagged bay,

nothing as tired as the matted grasses

and the ubiquitous plastic bags

impaled in the roadside branches.

Weʼre all ground down to a nameless shade

of worn.

So itʼs not surprising that I saw the woman

with the shopping cart as defiant.

Way to go, lady, with your ribbons,

with your improbable rainbow garden

of plastic flowers. Red, pink, orange,

purple, green, a whole fistful of colors.

Just what we needed, spunky graffiti

scrawled on the grit of the day.

Gritty Wind Blues

Gritty Wind Blues detail

Not much to see here

It has been another day of stitching straight lines so not much new to see.

I noticed that someone has visited the blog as a result of Googling 'Christine Nielsen quilts'. I don't generally make images of my work publicly available. I don't really make them for others to see and don't need or want the profile that a gallery of my work might bring.

But in the interests of filling some space and perhaps assuaging someone's curiosity, here's an image of one of my two pieces that are currently part of the SAQA regional show Structures.

Photo 51

My day

My day was spent stitching straight lines on a heavy sandwich of wool/rayon felt and upholstery fabric. Luckily the lines don't have to be perfectly straight or evenly spaced. The entire surface will be transformed by shrinkage and the variations in spacing will add to the effect I want. The good news is also that the dog hair will come off in the washing machine.

Progress

It begins. I started knitting a Christmas gift on the plane to Boston and finished it in the boarding lounge while I waited for my return flight. I managed to wind the next skein and cast on during the flight. It feels good to have a head start on my list because I need to spend the next two weeks finishing up two large art quilts which I intend to submit to a SAQA juried show called my Corner of the World - Canada. It isn't good form to reveal photos of the finished work until after the juror has done her work and the curator may ask that successful artists refrain from posting pictures until the show opens. So here are a couple of sneak peeks that give nothing away.

I still have miles of straight line stitching to do on one of them. Picture me at my machine stitching lines one quarter of an inch apart on fabric which measures 2.5 x 1.5 metres. I have a rule that I must get up and walk around every time the bobbin runs out of thread.

In case the mundane details of my life don't interest you, here's something you will be sure to find fascinating.

Finding Friends

About ten years ago I told my husband that I was going to see if my Pilates instructor wanted to go out for lunch with me. I had noticed through informal conversations in class that she and I seemed to have a lot in common. He was dismissive of the idea with a response along the lines of "Are you still in fourth grade, asking 'Do you want to be my friend?'". I ignored him and asked her anyway. Christine is now the person, second only to my husband, with whom I spend the most time. I still take her classes, she takes mine, we go to yoga classes together, we cycle at home and on cycling vacations. We celebrate our birthdays together and my husband I have become a part of her family with regular Thanksgiving and Christmas invitations.

That experience has caused me to actively reach out to a few other people who I have met, mostly when I have been instructing and they have been learning from me. I am visiting one in Massachusetts right now. Last night Beth, her husband and her parents and I played a new card game that Christine and I learned in Ireland this summer. The game was accompanied by much laughter, quite a few gin gimlets, cheese and crackers, and shrimp. It was perfect. I am a game player so it was nice to be with a group of people who play often and well and view it as time well spent.

Today Beth and I will browse through fabric and yarn stores, not looking for anything in particular but chatting about project ideas past, present, and future.

 

Fruitlands

My birthday treat yesterday was a trip to Fruitlands in Harvard, Massachusetts.http://www.fruitlands.org Fruitlands was an unsuccessful experiment in communal living initiated by Amos Alcott, Louisa May Alcott's father. In 1893 Alcott's family and eleven others moved to a 90 acre farm. The founders' philosophy was based in Transcendentalism and among other things allowed no use of animals or their products. Ultimately the colony was abandoned seven months later when the group failed to farm enough land to sustain themselves.
There is now a museum on the grounds which have been expanded to include more than two hundred acres. Only the art museum is open in the winter but at other times of year you can also visit the original farmhouse and two buildings which house collections of Shaker and North American Indian material.
The shows at the art museum were both of interest to me. Some time ago I took some fantastic courses on both traditional and contemporary basketry at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. I have had a continuing interest in working at the edge of the 'what is a basket' question. When I am sick or stuck my favourite book to grab for inspiration is the Lark collection 500 Baskets. So I was thrilled to be able to see the National Basketry Organization's biannual show All Things Considered
The show was presented beautifully in two rooms at the Fruitlands art museum. I took lots of pictures for my own use but you can see professional shots on the NBO website. The docent was very helpful and ultimately asked us to consider which basket we would like to take home. I couldn't narrow it to one so chose the first and third in the second row and first and fifth in the eleventh row. What one would you choose?

Subatomic Particle Vessel by Lanny Bergner

Subatomic Particle Vessel by Lanny Bergner

The adjacent room at the museum contained rarely seen works from their collection by artists from the Hudson River School of artists. I have always loved their lush romantic landscapes. When I see them now I am reminded of my two cycling trips from Buffalo to Albany. And this time I wondered if I like the work because cows figure prominently in so many of the paintings or whether my love of cows derives from their depiction in art.

Autumn Brook by William Hart

We arrived prepared for a dog walk on the several miles of groomed trails but decided against it when the temperature dropped to near freezing with gale force winds. The museum property is beautifully located on a hill sloping to a valley and the views are spectacular. When it is warmer I will return to explore both inside and out.