Dispatches
January 2007

A Happy and Healthy New Year to you all!

The good news about the arrival of 2007 is that we now have less than eight months left to wait for the next QBL! Your quilt for the show is well on its way to completion, right? I hope you received and have read about the availability of air-conditioned suites of rooms at QBL next summer. Given the heat we endured last summer, this is a welcome addition. If you have misplaced the information about these rooms, contact QBL for details.

In the midst of college visits to the Finger Lakes this fall, I had a chance to visit the Schweinfurth for the first time, and was happy to be there while the Art=Quilts=Art exhibit was there. So many names were familiar; it was great to see so many QBL participants and teachers represented. What a talented collection of quiltmakers!

“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.”

Teachers in the News
Design Exercise
Books to Consider

Teachers in the News

Patty Hawkins has been awarded the Quilt Japan Prize for “The Light of Day” (see below) at Quilt Visions. With this award, Nihon Vogue hopes to play a role in the development of quiltmaking by helping to link the ties between Japanese and American quiltmakers. Visions, located at the Oceanside Museum in Oceanside, California, will be open from November 12, 2006 through January 21, 2007. Patty reports this is “a fantastic honor, and means I will go teach [at Visions] for three days.

Bob Adams will be new to the faculty at QBL in 2007. His biographical information is readily available on his website, http://www.bobadamsart.com, so in planning to feature him here, I asked a series of questions I thought would give DISPATCHES readers information not discussed elsewhere.

Who were your most influential art teachers?
When I was in the 7th grade, I had an outstanding art teacher and knew at that time that I wanted to teach art.

Quilting teachers?
Roberta Horton and Hollis Chatelaine

Why fabric and thread?
I was a painter, and thread and fabric gives me a textural quality that I could not achieve with just paint.

What influences you the most?
My internal time clock and the need to do my art before I went off to teach in a public school. I get up around 1:00 or 2:00 am, and find that time seems to be my most creative time of the day. Getting up at this time in the morning I see the moon in all its phases. This inspired me to do my lunar series. I am constantly growing and try new techniques and explore new ideas.

Bob Adams Lunar Series: Spring Evening

Barnscape 2 Bob Adams

Since the last issue of DISPATCHES, Bob has added several accomplishments to his resume:
(For a complete list, visit Bob’s website)

• September 2006: Retrospective at the Barnhart Gallery, University of Kentucky
• October 2006: “Men of Art”, an all male show at the Greater Lafayette Art Museum, Lafayette Indiana
• Juried into the Quilt Art at the Carnegie Show, ”Form Not Function”, New Albany Indiana
• In March 2007, Bob will be featured on a PBS special called “The Art of Quilting”. The first segment focused on Quilt National, 2005. Check your local listings!

A painting is never finished…it simply stops in interesting places.”

~ Paul Gardner

Bill Kerr is featured in American Patchwork and Quilting due out February 5, 2007, and will have a six page feature article complete with project instructions. What better way to preview his classes at QBL! Fun Quilts owners Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr design and make heirloom-quality contemporary quilts, design for fabric, author books and teach nationwide. See Books to Consider for their newest publication.

Anna Hergert just wrapped up taping two segments for the HGTV show of “That’s Clever with Weller/Grossman Productions in California. Taping for the segments took place in Anna’s studio on December 5th, and will air sometime between May and July 2007.

“Indian Summer” Anna Hergert

Anna is an active member of The Fibre Art Network (FAN). FAN is a co-operative of self-defined art quilters based in Western Canada. The co-operative was first conceived in the spring of 1997 by British Columbians Pat Crucil and Gail Hunt and then organized later that year by Gail. The group is committed to promoting quilting as an art form and each other as artists. Visit their web site at http://www.fibreartnetwork.com/index.htm.
Anna’s monthly newsletter is available at http://www.nucleus.com/~hergertfamily/Anna/AnnaM.htm. The newsletter also features design exercises, recommended books and many photographs.

Priscilla Kibbee recently exhibited for the third time in the Bernina Fashion Show at the International Quilt Show and market in Houston. After the show Priscilla’s garment will be part of the traveling exhibit. Priscilla will also be giving a lecture in Houston about how she designed and made the garment. More to come as well; Priscilla has been invited to submit a garment again next year.

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“The artist need not know very much; best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.”

Design Exercise

Following the frenzy of events this time of year, I find it hard to focus on creative pursuits. After running from one thing to another, I feel like I just need a fresh breath of air. I hope the design exercise this month will give you a little push to get going again. In celebration of a brand new year, maybe you can venture into less known territory!

1. Take a project you have been working on (do NOT select your life’s work for this one) or an idea you have been considering, and purposely make a mistake. Sew the wrong piece, sew it backwards, use the wrong fabric, alter the position of shapes, whatever.
2. Next, find your way out of it! What are your options? Is there only one way to solve the problem? How many solutions can you come up with?
3. Try new things. Could a fabric marker or paint fix the problem? Could you add free motion stitching, embellishments, couching, or other stitching? Could you vary the rest of the blocks in the same way to make an unplanned for design
4. Make notes on the process so you have them to refer to if the same circumstance should happen accidentally.

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Books to Consider

Quiltmakers Color Workshop: The Fun Quilts Guide to to Understanding Fabric and Choosing Fabrics by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr

I have discovered a few new books recently:
On Becoming an Artist by Ellen J. Langer

Portions of this book are rather academic, but the book as a whole is one more to add to the list of books on creativity and “keeping it going”.
A View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro

Not usually a fan of short stories, these are captivating and worth every minute.
The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

A delightful fantasy experience, just for fun.
The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
If you are a fan of Ellen Foster, this is for you. It is a sequel of sorts, as if written by Ellen herself. If you have not read Ellen Foster, do add it to your list!

Here are more from the 2006 QBL book list

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Until next time, Happy creating!
Kathy
qblnews@aol.com

Past Dispatches
October 2006
June 2006
April 2006
February 2006
November 2005
June 2005
April 2005
February 2005
October 2004