"Cosmic Connectivity" part of Art in the City

Me and my art quilt "Cosmic Connectivity"

My art quilt “CosmicConnectivity” was selected for inclusion in the city-wide art show “Art in the City,” which is sponsored by the Downtown Dayton Partnership and the Dayton Visual Arts Center. My piece, and 25 other artworks, will be exhibit in one of 26 downtown businesses during the period of June 3-17, 2016. The public will be invited to view shows and vote for their favorite work of art. Votes will be tallied and Art in the City will culminate with a prize award and announcement on Fri., Jun 17, 2016.

Both myself and my piece will be at the Wheat Penny restaurant for the Friday, June 3 kickoff event from 6:30-8:30 pm. My piece will remain at there through June 17. The Wheat Penny is located at 515 Wayne Ave. in Dayton. Here's a map that includes all of the locations plus other art events going on in the city.

Another one of my pieces, the third panel of the slice quilt “Industrial Dayton” that I made with the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network, was accepted as a group submission and will be on display at AAA Tire Auto Service located at 200 E 3rd St. in Dayton.

Playful Paper Piecing: Eiffel Tower

"Eiffel Tower," 8.5" x 15", made by Pam Geisel, May 2016

This month the Island Batik Ambassador's are creating pieces using paper piecing.

To be honest, I'm not that fond of paper piecing. I find that I tend to over estimate how much fabric is needed and then I end up cutting the extra parts away, which I think is wasteful. Perhaps if I did it more I'd get better at estimating. Also I like to chain piece when piecing, which saves on thread. But you can't chain piece when you are doing paper piecing!

It is a good technique to know how to do, and it is helpful when you want to be precise. I used paper piecing once when I was making a custom piece that had 27 log cabin blocks. Each block was 15 logs across and each log was only 1/4" thick. I don't think I could have done that any way other than with paper piecing!

Not sure what I wanted my subject matter to be, I looked over my Island Batik fabrics then went searching on the web for paper piecing patterns, I ended up buying this Eiffel Tower pattern designed by Jennifer Ofenstein of SewHooked.com.

I ended up using fabric from the Wind & Sea collection. I used the mostly solid lime green, bright blue, and light purple for the tower and I used a multi-colored piece for the background that had all three of those colors on a navy blue background.

Even though the original design had one color for the tower and one color for the background, I decided to alternate the colors and give it more splash. And I liked the movement in the background, like they could be fireworks going off around the tower.

I also added a small row of blue seed beads near the top and also some lime green and blue seed beads in the middle of the tower for some bling.

I usually like to face my art quilts but there was a binding fabric that I used that was just the right color. As I've done recently when doing a visible binding, I like to couch a piece of yarn in the binding seam. This time I used a lime green yarn.

I've never been to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, perhaps someday.

You can click on any of the photos to see them larger.

More about Eiffel Tower

The New England Quilt Museum

After visiting Baltimore, New York City, and Boston, we headed a little north to go to the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA. They have a large collection of quilts that they display and they also host travelling exhibits.

When we were there they had an exhibition of Butterfly Quilts curated by the Texas Quilt Museum, which is on display here until July 10. It was interesting to see the combination of contemporary art quilts along with some vintage traditional quilts.

They don't allow published photos of the quilts, so if you want to see photos of quilts, you'll have to visit their website.

Lowell was a picturesque town with red brick buildings and brick streets. We had a lovely lunch before heading home.

Baby Quilts with Animals

 

"African Safari" handmade baby quilt by Pam Geisel, 29" x 33.5"

So I was doing inventory of fabric that I've bought to make baby quilts and I noticed that the baby quilts that I currently have all have images of animals on them.

Here's a close up of some of the African animals on the "African Safari" baby quilt. Some of the images are of the animals with their babies.

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"Forest Friends" handmade baby quilt by Pam Geisel, 35" x 35"

This baby quilt is made with cotton flannel and features baby forest animals.

In this close up you can see some of the forest friends are hedgehogs, bunnies, and owls. There are also raccoons, deer, foxes, squirrels, and lady bugs.

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"Owl Always Love You" handmade baby quilt by Pam Geisel, 35" x 35"

This baby quilt is also made with cotton flannel. I just love the title.

There is only one animal on this quilt, but how adorable are those owls?

All of these baby quilts are machine washable and in gender-neutral colors so they are good for both boys and girls, and a good bet when you don't know what sex the baby will be. You can find the baby quilts I have available in my Etsy shop.

"Color & Light : Brush & Needle" a watercolor and art quilt exhibit at the Wind's Cafe

My friend Libby Rudolf, who is a very talented watercolor painter, invited me to be a part of her most recent exhibit at the Winds Cafe, 215 Xenia Ave. in Yellow Springs. The Winds Cafe is open Tues.-Sat. from 11:30 am-2:30 pm and 5-10 pm, and on Sun. from 10 am-3 pm, they are closed on Mondays.

The exhibit will be up for the months of May and June and there will be an opening reception on Sun., Sept. 20, from 6:30-8:30 pm.

Since we are exhibiting together, I suggested that she make a painting of someone quilting and I'd make a quilt of someone painting, which I titled "She Paints with Fabric".