Upcoming Exhibits

I will have a piece, Forest Floor, var. 3 at Quilt National, opening May 25, 2013 at The Dairy Barn Gallery in Athens, OH.

Also, Reflections, Venice, var. 20 is currently at Form Not Function at The Carnegie Center for History and Art in New Albany, IN until July 13, 2013.

Reflections, Venice, var. 18 will be at the International Quilt Festival - Long Beach, California in  July 2013 and also at the National Quilt Museum, Paducah, Kentucky, September 12 - December 2, 2013.

Screen Printing with Stencils

Screen printing is one of my favorite surface design techniques. It's fast when working on large pieces and it creates a beautifully rich surface when multiple images are layered with dyes. Lately I've been playing with a technique I learned from Jane Dunnewold. The basic idea is to apply acrylic paint to a piece of interfacing to block out a pattern.  Then the interfacing is taped to the back of a blank silkscreen. The paint or dye, when pulled through the screen, will not go through the areas that are painted. It is a convenient way to create a silkscreen without dedicating the screen to one image.

I also tried lutradur as an alternative to interfacing.  It is more open, so it doesn't work as well, although I did get some interesting patterns from it. Polyester window sheer fabric is another alternative. Below are some of the stencils I created and the corresponding print.

Acrylic paint brushed through lace

Acrylic paint brushed through lace

Acrylic paint brushed through lace on lutradur

Acrylic paint brushed onto sheer polyester fabric

See the slideshow of the GRAND OPENING

This free slideshow generated with Smilebox

24 x 80 at Fiber Forward - Palos Verdes Art Center

The Grand Opening was January 18, 2013, and the show will be up until March 17 open daily in the Peninsula Center (Southern California).  The opening was a fabulous success with well over 200 people in attendance!   There were praises and interesting questions for the duration. 

Interested in Joining Us?

The Art Cloth Network is now accepting applications for new members. Members of our group find that the opportunities for community, conversation, sharing of techniques, inspiration and resources have benefited our art and creativity. Applications are due by March 15, 2013. If you are interested, please read on for more information.

Our group is focused on art cloth and its specific surface design techniques and approaches.  This includes making lengths of cloth, rather than just small samples or fat quarters. While some of us also make art quilts or mixed media work,  as a group we focus on art cloth. Please read the information about art cloth on our website and look at examples, to make sure that you are interested in this field.  Only those artists who submit examples of art cloth that meet this description will be considered for membership.

We meet as a group every 9 to14 months in different regions of the United States, usually between August and October. Since these meetings are critical to our growth and vitality, we require attendance at two out of five consecutive meetings. Your membership will begin with the first meeting you attended. Members bring and discuss their work at these meetings, and share other professional concerns and opportunities. Previous meetings have been in Texas, Minnesota, Illinois, Florida, California, Georgia, Arizona, and New Jersey. The 2013 meeting will be held in Evanston, Illinois.

We also produce a new exhibit annually, with a call for entries each year. Since opportunities for showing art cloth are limited, this is an important membership benefit. Members are required to enter three of five calls for entry in order to maintain their membership status.

Only applicants who can and will attend the next meeting will be accepted into the Art Cloth Network during this membership call period. That meeting will be in Evanston, Illinois from September 19^th – 22^nd, 2013. Full details about the conference and this financial commitment will be mailed to those extended a membership invitation.

The current deadline for membership applications is March 15, 2013, and you can send in your application materials at any time prior to the deadline. You will be notified by April 15, 2013 whether your application has been approved. 

Send a request to jeanne@jeannesisson.com in order to receive detailed information and application instructions.

ACN (and more) Exhibition - Click to Enlarge

New Art Cloth Experiments

I can't see to leave well-enough alone. I am doing some giant printing these days, cutting large stencils from freezer paper and then screen-printing with a blank screen over the stencil using textile paint (and a mix of tempera and textile ink, go figure, I wanted the matt texture of tempera. I just hope the pigment holds up!). This started small and has evolved into something completely out of hand.

Art cloth article in Quilting Arts magazine

I have an article on digital design and printing using an online printer in the December/January issue of Quilting Arts. Please check it out. Available online at QuiltingArts.com or on the newstands.

I am excited to see the cloth and the words in print! This is my 3rd article with Quilting Arts. They also published my DVD - Three Dimensional Fiber Art: Shape and Texture, Light and Shadow, which has been doing well.

Having spent so much of my previous career in publishing from the publisher end, it is fun to be an author.

Art quilts at International Quilt Festival in Houston

Here are some photos from the SAQA Seasonal Palette exhibit that was at Houston a week ago. The show will be traveling to Cincinnati, Long Beach a a few other venues over the next 18 months, I hope to go see it in Cincinnati next April. My piece is the water reflection piece at the far right in the first photo. 38 artists were asked to make pieces for the show - each of us were given a particular season and color collection to work from. As well, we each created a notebook documenting our process and work along the way. There is a catalog ($20) available from the SAQA.com site. Photo credits: Gregory Case.

Another exhibit at Houston was A Sense of Scale. Very large pieces were interspersed with groupings of small pieces. This exhibit will also be traveling to other venues and also has a catalog available from SAQA.com. My piece in this exhibit was Mingled Waters - the very large piece shown in photo below.

Art Quilts of the Midwest Submission Guidelines

Hi everyone,

Here is a great opportunity for those of you inte midwest to submit your work fo possible inclusion in an upcoming book.

Submission guidelines for Art Quilt of the Midwest book:

For a book with the working title “Art Quilts of the Midwest” under contract with the University of Iowa press, seeking submissions from Midwestern art quilters with an emphasis on quilts whose creation was inspired by life in the Midwest. Quilters are free to define the aspects of“Midwesterness,” be they physical, environmental, emotional, etc., which affect their work.

Eligibility:

Quilt artists must reside in the Midwest, defined for this book as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Entrants must be over age 18. Work submitted must be original and completed after January 1, 2009. Submit digital (300 dpi, 5x7 jpgs) images. Approximately 15 to 20 quilters will be included in the book.

Submissions:

Entrants may submit images from up to three quilts representative of their Midwestern-inspired work. For each quilt submitted, include a high-resolution (at least 150 dpi, 4 inches x 6 inches) image of the entire quilt, as well as a high-resolution detail image (a maximum total of six images). A description of the way(s) the quilt and quilter are affected by“Midwesterness” must accompany each submitted quilt. Entry deadline is January 31, 2013. Estimated publication date is fall, 2013.

For more information and to submit quilts, go to the University of Iowa Press home page (http://www.uiowapress.org) and click on the Art Quilts of the Midwest: Call for Entries button on the left side of the page.

Selected quilts will be included in the book along with a profile of the artist that includes biographical information and explicates the way the Midwest affects her or his artistry. The book will be published in both print and digital editions. Rights to each quilt’s design and photographs will remain with the artist; the publisher will use the photographs, which will be fully credited, only to publicize the book. Each artist will receive a complimentary copy of the book and the right to purchase copies at a 40 percent discount.

Quilts will be juried by visual artists Emily Martin and Mary Merkel-Hess, and craft writer and the author of this book Linzee Kull McCray. The book will include a forward by fiber artist Astrid Hilger Bennett.

Questions may be sent to linzee.mccray@gmail.com.

Quilt National at Oceanside Museum, October 14-February 20

Hi everyone,

I have a piece in the Quilt National exhibit that will be at the Oceanside Museum in San Diego from October 14-February 20. Thye have sent me 2 passes (each good for 2 people) to attend the preview recepetion on October 13 from 5-7 . I will not be able to go but wondered if any of you on the west coast would care to use them? Or if you happen to be in San Diego on the fateful day!

Let me know and I can send them on. It is always a nice exhibit and I am sure the reception will be great.

Barbara

KathyAnne Art Featured artist profile

Kathy Anne White has written an article about me on her blog. Please follow the link to read more and see what I worked on in her digital printing alternatives workshop at Hudson Valley this past July.

http://www.kathyanneart.blogspot.com/2012/08/artist-profile-barbara-schneider.html

An article about my new CD

Quilting Daily

Add Depth to Fabric Art with Double Thread Stitching

‎Monday, ‎August ‎20, ‎2012, ‏‎11:21:00 PM | Vivika_Blog

Being on set when we taped the most recent Quilting Arts Workshop^TM videos was a real education. Not only did I learn how the videos are taped, but I also picked up lots of tips for quilting and fabric art.

Dimensional fiber art by Barbara Schneider, Oak Leaf series.

One of my favorite ideas for enhancing depth and texture comes from Barbara Schneider, who makes gallery-worthy fiber art leaf sculptures. She often uses two threads in her needle at once.

"Using a double thread gives you more definition and 'oomph' in the line. It makes a nice contrast to a single thread used for more stitching in the background," says Barbara.
"Mixing threads breaks up the regularity of the pattern. Most variegated threads have a repetition to the timing that becomes obvious. When I use a solid and a variegated together it breaks up that pattern and gives you a more natural look."

I asked Barbara to elaborate on her tips for using two threads at once, and she happily agreed.

• I use related colors in solids, solid and variegated together, similar but different colors together, similar but different variegated together. It all depends on what look I am trying to get. Sometimes I put the solids as a first layer of stitching and then go back over the same area (not the same lines of stitching) with the variegated (look at the large leaves to see samples of this). The whole purpose is to achieve texture and a more natural look to the stitching.
• I mostly use the rayon threads as they seem to go through the machine the best. Usually, I try to keep the threads the same weight and type, otherwise one or the other might break more often.
• I have two thread holders on my machine, so I thread them both and then pull both threads through the tensioning process together and thread them together. I have an automatic threader on my Janome 6500. If you don't have that, then use a small hand threader (like they sell for threading a sewing needle) and use that to put the thread through.
• I use a large topstitching needle (I like the one from Superior threads the best). It has more room, and the thread seems not to break as often as with other needles.
• I do not play with tension at all. Just leave well enough alone.

I've used different threads in my hand stitching before, but not in machine stitching. I'm looking forward to trying out Barbara's double-thread tips next time I machine stitch a piece of textile art.
On her Quilting Arts Workshop^TM, "Three-Dimensional Fiber Art: Shape & Texture, Light & Shadow," Barbara offers many tips and techniques for enhancing your fabric art's depth and texture. You can now download "Three-Dimensional Fiber Art" and start using her techniques right away.


P.S. Have you double-threaded your machine needle? Is so, how did that work out? Any advice for the rest of us? Leave your comment below.

Sugar Syrup Resist

Do you love working with resists as much as I do? Don't miss my sugar syrup tutorial on today's And Then We Set It On Fire blog.

Visit the Fire blog to download the tutorial and enter a drawing to win a resist-dyed sample set.