MoNA style coming up

This show is a one day event - 27th year running - at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, WA. The whole museum is transformed into 35 booths for hand picked artists. The evening bag on the publicity card is one of mine - Night on the Town - Budapest. This is the second year I'll be doing this show. The staff and volunteers are terrific. They actually help schlep stuff in, provide lunch, etc. This, from what I've heard and seen, is highly unusual in the world of art festivals. Last time I did this one, the director of the museum was on a stepladder adjusting lights to better show my display. Models will stroll through town and have informal shows in four of La Conner's restaurants. Two of them are among my favorites in the Skagit Valley. http://nellthorn.com/ and http://www.insidelaconner.com/LaBrew.html. Both conveniently just steps from the museum. For more information on the show, including the artists involved, see http://www.museumofnwart.org.

Electric Coral at the Blue Heron

This is my next show! It's with Contemporary QuiltArt Association, which has 120 members throughout Washington state. This is a joint show with Vashon Allied Arts at the Blue Heron Gallery on Vashon Island. The image is a detail of my piece, Electric Coral, used in publicity. An image of the whole piece, along with a nice write up about the quilts to be displayed is on http://www.vashonalliedarts.org/gallery/gallery.htm

Hot Cocoa

Considering the snow outside, this image seemed appropriate. This handbag is called "Hot Cocoa".

A lot has been happening since I last posted ages ago. The Best of the Northwest show was fantastic. 250 artists. I didn't get a chance to talk to many of them, though I did come extra early one day and at least saw most of the booths. I had terrific neighbors who shared their experience and advice doing shows. And, thanks to swaps, came home with a luscious pashmina cashmere shawl and a landscape view of Cannon Beach.

One of my great excuses for not blogging during Dec. is that I was swamped - what a great problem - with getting work completed. I had work at two holiday shows. One at Gallery Cygnus in La Conner, WA and the other at Gallery by the Bay in Stanwood, WA. http://www.gallerycygnus.com/, http://www.gallerybythebay.com/

A small group of artists and I did a co-op show for several days in Dec. I also did an open studio in mid December. Visitors were slow, but it was a great reason to clean house a bit and sort through the studio. There is a fine line between creative chaos and just plain chaos and I had jumped over that line some time ago.

Coming Fall

This piece, Coming Fall, is small, ten inches square. The limbs are thread lace. Freehand maching stitching on a stabilizer that dissolves in hot water. Then, I pin the limbs, let dry and stitch in layers onto the background of handpainted silk. I sew just enough of each branch so that other twigs are left 3d.

This weekend is the Best of the Northwest Art show. 230 artists, wine tasting, music, seminars, all kinds of great stuff. I've checked into my neighbors a bit and can't wait to see the work in person. For ticket info and directions, take the link http://www.nwartalliance.com/events/Fall_2010_Best_of_the_Northwest/

This is the biggest show I've done and I'm hoping for a busy weekend.

Everett Home & Gift show

Hi all,

A week ago, I spent three days at the Everett Home & Gift show at the Comcast arena. My first three day show. I'm not sure of the numbers, but I heard 400 vendors, about 20 were artists grouped together. Lots of people, but I still had time to meet with my neighbors a bit.

http://www.lachausseeglass.com/ and http://www.vonschroeder.com/ both had beautiful glass. http://www.fourcornersdesign.net/ has eclectic and fun work.

Now, I'm gearing up for Best of the Northwest. http://www.nwartalliance.com/events/Fall_2010_Best_of_the_Northwest/ I haven't attended this event, but I've heard only good things about it. At Gal-aPalooza, I talked with another artist who has done BNW before. I asked her for any advice. She looked at my work, smiled and said, "Bring lots of inventory!" Great encouragement! So, back to making stuff! The satin bag here is "Night on the Town - Aruba"

Gal-aPalooza

This is the next event! The 13th annual wearable arts show presented by the Arts Council of Snohomish County. The link http://artscouncilofsnoco.org/events/gno/galapalooza.html will take you to more information on participating artists and businesses.

Fresh Paint Festival

Fresh Paint is held at the Everett Marina. Great event! The staff and volunteers were all enthusiastic, even in the bit of rain one morning. It was so busy that it took me three hours to eat my sandwich on both days. I brought my sewing machine to do demos and that was a great draw and talking point. Some people said they were inspired to dig out their own machines and sew again and several that asked me to start classes. Great ego boosting couple of days of people enjoying art. Now, back to earth, back to work planning for the next big thing. In the next two months, I have four shows!

La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum

I haven't been posting, but I have been working and connecting. I have been honored to be asked to join the Board of Directors at the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum. (www.laconnerquilts.com) This is an incredible place held together be an even more incredible group of people. I'm eager to contribute, but I'm also eager to learn from these folks! I'm also now represented at Scott Milo Gallery in Anacortes. They will carry my handbags and journals through the summer. "Cascade" is piece I've donated to the Museum of Northwest Art's annual auction next weekend. http://www.museumofnwart.org The pieces shown are Cascade, Night on the Town - Jakarta, Budapest.

I've been working the last week or so on evening bags. Here's one of the most recent. It's made of free motion quilting over satin and just big enough for the essentials along with your symphony tickets.

For the month of April, I have the honor of being "artist of the month" for Skagit Artists Together. This is a diverse group of artists. Take a look!

Co-op show, Fidalgo Island Quilters

Hi all,

The last couple of weeks I've been finishing up pieces for a local co-op show of 27 artists. This is a great show for the month of April. We're set up in a local winery, next to the tasting room. (Tulip Valley Winery & Orchard, Mount Vernon, WA)I have lots of new bags and a few new wall pieces. The first photo is of Azzurro, 6x6", hand painted silk and free hand machine quilting. (Teeny tiny quilting)

This weekend was also the Fidalgo Island Quilters biennial quilt show. More than 350 quilts and wearables were displayed. I had two quilts, a jacket and two bags displayed. Blueberry Dream (jacket) and Tokyo (evening bag)are here. I'll share more later.

Bryophyte

Sunday was a great day for my ego. It was the opening of a show that will display my work, along with five other artists, for the next three months. This is in a luxury condo building in Seattle; multimillion dollar views, 300 seat theater, four in-house restaurants kind of condo. The place was great, but the people made the whole day incredible. I felt like a celebrity, especially considering the caliber and experience of the other artists. Amazing work in a variety of other media. The images are of Bryophyte, in a new series I'm working on right now. The whole thing, including frame is 11x23. I start with white silk and hand paint it. All the little circles are free hand machine quilted over Peltex. (Peltex is an ultra thick stabilizer - the same as in the bills of baseball caps) The biggest of those circles is about 1/2". My next project is to work on a piece for the Museum of Northwest Art's auction, their biggest fundraiser of the year. I'll post pictures in process. I have intended to do that before, but I get involved and forget!

overwhelmingly good stuff!

I'm overwhelmed, by good things all related to art. In the next three months, I'm involved in, I think, eight shows and several more over the next few months. The piece I shared on the last post will be used in publicity for that show with Contemporary QuiltArt. Quite an honor. This week, I delivered nine pieces for a show in Seattle in conjunction with MoNA. (http://www.museumofnwart.org/) There are three deadlines coming in the next week. And I've only submitted one. Now you know what I'll be doing for a few days.

The picture is one of the pieces for the show in Seattle. It's called "Morning Light." It is pieced and tightly quilted. The textured leaves are made by sandwiching and shaping yarns between layers of dissolvable stabilizer, and stitching to hold it all together. The stabilizer washes out and I'm left with loose fabric like pieces. I hand stitch the leaves and allow them to stand out a bit from the base and add dimension.

Juried into CQA

“Cedar Path” is a piece that was just juried into a show in Issaquah, which is part of Seattle. Take a look at the website, www.contemporaryquiltart.com. I have recently joined and I am eager to learn from this terrific group of artists. This piece was also shown this past November in La Conner in the Arts Alive! Festival. (www.artsalive.com) A new section was added this year to recognize emerging artists for the region; it was an honor to be included.

Cedar Path is 33x35 and is densely quilted. The detail shot is about 8 inches wide.

As yet untitled forest piece and yes, it's been way more than a week

So, my plan for posting once a week or so, hasn't worked out well. I'll get better, really.

My latest project is one for a show coming up soon. I ordered 30 yards of fabric, partly for this piece. The fabric came... and I got called in to interpret for the three days. The next day was spent washing and ironing. A couple of years ago, I got caught NOT washing a fabric when I ironed with steam and the color bled. Of course, it was red next to cream, it was in the middle and it was on a commission. I had to tear most of it apart. I learned my lesson.

This piece is about 11 1/2" x 36" and will be in a dark brown wood frame. The photo shows just a section. The orange lines are about 1/16" to 1/8" wide. I'm still thinking of a title. It's representing a forest, mostly greens with bits of red and orange. Any ideas?

Blog Beginnings

In the week of Christmas, I am usually wrapping hundreds of homemade caramels, canning yet another batch of marmalade and frantically stitching just one more stocking/bag/quilt/hot air balloon. Maybe not that last one. Usually, I look at what I’ve already finished and think…it’s not enough. This year, I’ve done a fraction of what I usually do for gifts, and, amazingly, it hasn’t made the news and the world has kept turning and no one is refusing my phone calls.

So, while the world keeps turning, I’ll keep doing what I do. For those who don’t know me, I am a fiber artist or art quilter or quilt artist. Call me whatever you like; I make textile stuff. Quilts or quilt like objects, framed, gallery wrapped on artist’s canvas, or finished as traditional quilts, are made to display. I make altered fabric, with yarns and threads stitched over a background of fabric, for wall pieces, handbags, journal covers, etc.

I live in the Skagit Valley, in the northwest corner of Washington State, in a continually remodeled home. My studio, however, is complete. Well, mostly.

I’ll be updating every week or so. That will keep me on track with projects, but not be a blow by blow account of every refill of coffee. If you’d like to see current work, my website is AndiShannon.com. Please drop me a note to let me know you’ve visited.