Article in the CT Reminder Newspaper January 2012

Group views the quilt as an art form

By Melanie Savage - Staff Writer
Willimantic - posted Tue., Jan. 17, 2012

When you think of quilting, do you think art? The collection currently on display at the Willimantic Food Co-op is designed to suggest that a quilt can be much more than simply a blanket used to keep one warm at night. The café corner at the Co-op features the work of a different group or artist every month. This month’s featured group is the Quiet Corner Art Quilt Group.

“I think we were on the waiting list for a year before our turn came up,” said group member Joan Johnson.

“We do art quilts,” said member Melanie Johnston. “These are not necessarily quilts that are designed to be put on a bed.” Most of the quilts in the display are rather small, but that’s not always the case. “Just like any other piece of art, they can vary in size,” said Johnston.

Subjects featured in the quilts run the gamut from chickens to abstract landscapes. The group meets monthly, and “There’s an inspiration word or theme every month,” said Johnston. The small black and white cat, for example, was inspired by an “Animals” theme. “That’s my cat,” said Johnson.

The peace sign was inspired by the “Found Objects” theme. It features a tiny, ceramic lamb that Johnston found while her home was undergoing renovations. It also has a story behind it, as do many of the Quiet Corner quilts.

“I was a selectman in Hampton,” said Johnston. A resident who was unhappy with a decision she’d made threw some nails onto her driveway. Johnston incorporated the nails into the fringe of her quilt. The lamb and the nails together inspired the quilt's title: “War and Peace.” The fabrics in the quilt are all hand-dyed, as are most of the fabrics that Johnston uses.

“It’s funny, when we bring them in, they’re all so different,” said Johnson, noting that each group member has her own area of artistic focus. Johnson likes to use photographs printed onto fabric. Another group member likes to embellish with beads and other baubles.

“I’m a technique junkie,” said member Cathey LaBonte. LaBonte has experimented with techniques such as melted wax and fabric paints. “Rogue media is kind of a benchmark of art quilting,” said LaBonte. “Meaning the use of stuff you ordinarily wouldn’t think of using with fabric.” Two of the quilts at the Co-op, for example, feature wine bottle labels. “They’re stitched right onto the fabric,” said Johnson.

What draws the women to quilting? “It’s all about texture,” said Johnston.

“The texture, the colors, everything,” said Johnson. “I just really love it.”

LaBonte, who has dabbled in other art forms, said that art quilting has really engaged her. “I like it because you can combine everything,” she said. “Paint, beads, stitching - you can combine all different kinds of media.”

The work of the Quiet Corner Art Quilt Group can be seen at the Willimantic Food Co-op throughout the month of January. For more information or to see photographs of the quilts, go to http://qcartquilts.blogspot.com/.

Artistic Inspiration

For this month's challenge, we made pieces inspired by a favorite artist.

Kandinsky's Circles: Melanie
I love abstract art and Kandinsky's circle color studies really appealed to me and seemed to lend themselves to a quilted project. I used fabric paint to paint the circles and background on pfd fabric. After heat setting the paint, I quilted the circle rings using the appopriate color thread for each color.

Escher: Pat Ferguson
Last spring, I attended an Escher exhibit and really fell in love with the way he uses dimension and perspective. I try to incorporate these techniques in my zentangles and zen quilting. I hope you can see it in my sketchbook pages and in the design I used on this wooden snowflake.

Kandinsky: Joan
I also chose Kandinsky. I almost did the circles but decided instead on this gradient color study.  I used some of my hand dyed indigo shibori fabric, some other hand dyes and a variety of  additional fabrics I had in my stash. If you study the painting, part of it looks a little muted. I used white tulle to simulate that muted effect. Here are pictures of the original, my piece in progress and my piece with the tulle overlay.

Sadler: Cathey
My artist was Sean Sadler. His piece, "Magic I" grabbed me because it had my favorite fall color palette. I changed some of the colors and bumped up the saturation. I started with a yellow silk base and used a wide variety of fabrics including organza, painted wonder under, ribbon, cottons and added foil and pearl-ex. I used misty fuse to tack down the fabrics. I did not quilt it *yet* because I was worried that it might detract from the sheer qualities of some of the fabrics. I am still thinking about this. Below is Sadler's original and my fabric interpretation.

Impressionism: Marcia
My love the impressionistic style. I used Claude Monet's art work as inspiration to create the apple tree near water. I used "snippets" from some old scraps I saved and my hand dyed indigo shibori. Chenile yarn was used for the tree trunk and more yarns for the haystacks. I put a layer of tulle over the entire piece to secure all the smaller pieces and add to the impressionistic feel.

I also brought along a zen quilt I recently completed. I stared it in one of Pat's classes. I added some red beads to contrast with the black & white. Can you see my initial  "K" in the piece?

Jackson Pollock: Linda
When I think of Jackson Pollock, I think random, bold color! I had a lot of fabrics with bold colors and prints ala Pollock and wanted to try a new technique, "jelly roll race." In this technique, you sew strips end to end then connect and seam till you end up with an interesting pattern. I like to make things that are useful so I made a black and white one into a pad pouch and embroidered it with my initials. I am still deciding what to do with my colorful Jackson Pollack piece.