Extreme Quilting

Well, my solo exhibit, Cindi Huss: Extreme Quilting, is up at the Kingsport (TN) city hall. Yea! Here's a tour:

Main wall with "After the Storm II," sign about my work (with an image of "Wending Onward" which is currently at the Belger Arts Center in KC, MO), and "Contemplating Madness."

Smaller works wall with "Night Life," "After the Storm," "Labyrinth," "Molehill," and "Mapping the Subconscious Mind."

Wall of studies with "Labyrinth II Study" (photography), "After the Storm II Study" (watercolor pencil), "Stone Wall Study" (acrylic and quilting), and "Ralli/Shisha Study" (for a commission in progress, embroidery and quilting).

The process wall, which has some touchable samples of hand dyeing, needle felting, and extreme quilting.

Up Against the Wall Gallery framed "Contemplating Madness" and "After the Storm II" and did a variety of other things to help me prepare for this show. Just have to say that they were great to work with. Frequently I left the store with a smile after having entered in a tizzy. Everyone there was kind and patient with my sleep-deprived, highly caffeinated self.

American Quilter Magazine

Just got my contributor's copy of the September 2009 issue of American Quilter and my article "Auditioning Your Quilt Design" (page 62) looks great! In the article I explain two methods for auditioning the quilting design on paper before you commit to needle and thread.

Another tip for folks who might still feel a little nervous about committing to needle and thread: Do the first bit of your quilting with water-soluble thread (no, I did not get paid to add this link--Superior Threads is just great to work with).

• If you like it, go over it with regular thread then dissolve the water-soluble thread.
  
  
• If you don't like it, dissolve the water soluble thread, dry the quilt overnight, and try again in the morning.

Either way, it all comes out in the wash--literally!

This avoids tedious ripping and gives you the freedom to experiment with something new and perhaps unusual for you.

Down to the Wire

After the Storm II

Working like a maniac to all hours to finish this in time to have it framed to hang next Thursday. Not time for a long post, but thought I'd keep documenting the process.

Have created "speed nuno" for the trees (on silk) and bushes (on kona cotton). There'll be more dark bushes in front of the trees on the right as well, but haven't cut the felt yet. Also, field'll be a little less tilted (but only a little).

Had originally planned a straight edge for the field (my traditional roots are showing) but found the curved edge evoked the sense of motion I needed. I passed several fields like this in the Midwest last summer and snapped one photo from the window of the car to remind me I wanted to make this.


This work isn't based on the photo per se, but rather is a melange of memorable images.

The whole thing will be constructed on canvas wrapped stretcher bars and framed.

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Later . . .
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Final composition more or less, but the angle of the field is just a tad too flat. Pay no attention to the white bit--it's the paper placeholder for the field, not actually part of the quilt.

Less is more

My starting place, but too little contrast and too literal

Added some basic trees without many layers, got better definition.

Removed some layers on other elements for better definition and like where it's going. Less literal, more suggestive.

Thought I was going to sculpt with layers, but looks like I'm back to sculpting with the quilting stitch. Not that I mind. A couple of years ago I thought I would soon break away from purple, green and gold, too, but hey . . . :-)

Why knock a good thing?

I have a tree!

Just finished my first tree. Well, it's actually more of a bush and will actually be mostly behind everything else, but I figured that made it the best one to start with.

Anything else I need to do will, I hope, become clear as I finish more pieces of the picture. Has been fun for me to realize I needed to invert all my shapes--the trees all needed concave rather than convex curves and pointy bits rather than rounded bits.

I frequently beat up on myself for working too slowly, but really I'm coming to realize that I can't rush when I'm trying to figure out how to make something work--I need time to stew and ponder. Once I've found a solution I'm happy with I work pretty quickly, but if I rush in before I'm happy, inevitably I'm very unhappy with the final product. It's all part of my creative process, I guess, and fools rush in.

Check it out!

Just visited the Kingsport Art Guild's website for the dates of an exhibit and found my piece at the top of this page. Cool!

Narrowing it down

Ex-per-men-ta-tio-on, Ex-per-men-ta-tio-o-on, it's makin' me gray!

(you know, like anticipation and Heinz ketchup?)

(and yes, I know there's an "i" in experimentation, but it didn't fit in the song--artistic license and all that!)

Spent the day yesterday closing in on my method and think I'm getting there.

Nope. Not enough shape, too much difference in texture from middle to edges. Do like the distortion the stitching caused and will try to figure out how to make that happen on purpose.

Nope. A little better at evoking a "bushy" feeling, but don't like the lines crossing from one layer to the next.

Nearly there. Need to create a "trunky" bit or some brush at the bottom, though. Think I might create some nuno brush. Has its own texture and color variations and great to sew on since stitches sink down and hide in its depths.

Hopefully color will help, as well, since it will add visual depth and interest to the "trees."

Tomorrow I must begin using the actual materials--no time to procrastinate. Darn it--I think this creating quickly and on a deadline might be good for me! Mom always said things like this build my character and she may be right. Double darn!

One of these days . . .

. . . I might do a quilt that doesn't require me to tackle a construction conundrum (sure would save a lot of time)
. . . but I don't think so.

I need to make trees. Abstracted trees that have the texture and general shape of trees without being either too literal or too cartoonish.

So I started fooling around with scrap batting and remnant wool fleece. Needle felting always is near the top of my mind but wouldn't work at all in the materials (a variety of fabrics, including dyed cotton batting) and at the scale I wanted. And while batting is cake to needle felt, layers of batting are not. So nix that idea.

Got out the SetaSkribs to see about shading with them, but realized quickly that wasn't the solution because they pick up fibers from the batting like mad AND I've finally faced the fact that I'm a purist and would far prefer to create shading with my fiber materials rather than paint or a marker.

That's not a judgment, 'cause loads of folks use paint and ink to tremendous effect, and now that I've said it out loud (-ish), just watch--I'll have to eat my words on my next work. Anyhow, nix on this approach, too.

Well, looked back at my study and began playing with layered batting again, this time without needle felting, and realized I might finally have stumbled on to something good. Really?! I know you're looking at this thinking, "O.K., if you say so, but I don't really see it," but my mind was racing several steps forward and I thought I was on the right track. So . . .

Kept on playing around with batting and muslin and think I'm still heading in the right direction. Will have to fine-tune my method AND figure out the best way to contruct them, but that's the fun part!

I'll be using this variety of fabrics I dyed, including aida cloth, cotton batting, muslin, Kona, and silk gauze. That should be the final ingredient in creating the texture, shading, subtlety and abstraction I'm aiming for.

If I'm really honest with myself, I must admit that these puzzles, though sometimes frustrating in the moment, invigorate me. They stimulate me to push the boundaries of what I think quilting can accomplish. DH had it right when he said that if I ever make a quilt I'm completely happy with it will be one of the saddest days of my life 'cause I'll have to give up quilting for something with more challenge. I'm happy to report that I still finding quilting plenty challenging--and rewarding!

Oh, and by the way, finishing this quilt quickly is now very important because I'll be having a solo exhibit at City Hall in Kingsport, TN, from Aug. 3 to Oct. 1, 2009, and need it to anchor one of the main walls. If you're local or passing through then, stop by! Woot! (It's been a pretty good couple of weeks!)

Award of Merit

The Beach at Castle St. Gregory
(c) 2007 Cindi Huss

Happy day. Am in the middle of a fun visit from family and found out today I received an award of merit for "The Beach at Castle St. Gregory" (above) at a fine art exhibit at the Renaissance Center here in Kingsport. WOOT! WOOT!

Amber Waves

Despite summer busyness I'm making progress on the first (and most labor intensive) part of my current work and (after realizing that my clever new method of binding small quilts absolutely does not work) have nearly finished rebinding the color study for my current commission. Hope to finish both this week.

Here are the amber waves of mown hay I've been working on:

But alas, that is as far as I'll get today unless I pull some late-night work time because the day is full of other summer busyness and fun. Why is it that summer lasted forever when I was a kid but flies by now?

Tree Down

One of the things I find awesome (in the old-fashioned sense of the word) around here is the weather. Last week we had a doozy of a storm. The rain came sideways in sheets, or maybe blankets. We were at a lesson in a third (and top) floor office and decided to go down a couple of flights for a while because the storm was that violent. Didn't last for long, though, went back up the stairs, finished our lessons, and went home.

To find this:For scale, the girl standing near the tree is approximately 50 inches tall, so say about four feet. And this enormous Southern White Pine just tipped over in the storm, roots rent from the ground. So now we're waiting for the ground to dry enough that the tree guys can bring their trucks to the bottom of the hill (where the tree is) without tearing up our yard.

The most ironic part of all is that we have two enormous pines--and this is the one we were going to keep! Can't argue with Mother Nature, though.

And the best part? Well, there's just so much interesting stuff to see--in the roots, among the branches, along the trunk. I've been taking loads of photos for inspiration!

Studio Tour

Well, it hasn't been quite a year since we moved and at last I have photos of my new studio. I'm pretending that this is like wedding presents--you have a year to do it before you're really a social pariah.

So . . .

First is my shelves covered with zip-off white shower curtains. Lightens the place up a little and gives me a place to pin things I'm not actively working on but am actively thinking about You can also see my classroom tables (that double as more workspace, of course):


And my sewing area with one table that can be either countertop or table height--where I do most of my needle felting (since the bins with my wool are behind curtain #2 above:


(In theory the wall behind my sewing machine will be my design wall, but don't like the close quarters there, so might move shelving there, move sewing machine farther into the room, and use the long wall. Researching design wall materials for now, enjoying having my studio put together, and will probably wait until the fall to tear it up again. Besides, the shower curtains work well enough for now!)

Then there's the little alcove where the TV and comfy chairs are. Hand sewing of all sorts, come computer work, etc. happens there, and hubby can join me in the evenings (since it's the only TV in the house):

And last but not least, my current project storage and office area. The bathroom and laundry room are in this corner as well, and an outside door, so the studio can be completely separate from the rest of the house when I have students here.

Having the bathroom and laundry room is handy for dyeing and felting, too, of course. Boy, I love having all this convenient space--and not having the stuff all over the rest of my house!

And that's about it. The wall you haven't seen has two more storage shelves for the kids' craft stuff and will (hopefully not too far in the future) also have LOTS of bookshelves for our library. We still have eight boxes of books we haven't unpacked as well as an entire bookcase double stacked. (DH's hobby is collecting excellent fantasy and sci-fi, which I happily enable and enjoy.)

Well, now that I've given you a tour, it's back to ripping stitches, then quilting up the orange field in my newest piece (on curtain #4). Have a fabulous day!