The Journey - Dinner at Eight, 2016

This is my 5th year to be included in the Dinner at Eight Artists exhibit at the Houston and Chicago International Quilt Festivals. (One year I was unable to enter, and one year my entry wasn't accepted.) I'm absolutely thrilled that my piece, "The Journey" has been accepted for 2016, and want to thank Dinner at Eight's founders, Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal, for their ongoing commitment to this wonderful exhibit.

The Journey, 40" x 40"
created for the 2016 Dinner at Eight "Patterns" exhibit.

Shadows stretch out from beneath our feet, up toward
something greater. The Journey must start somewhere.

From their annual interview of the artists, I've pulled a couple of my own answers to include here.

Although I'm a visual artist, I get most of my inspiration from literary sources ... songs, stories, and quotations. One of my favorite resources is my 93-year-old mother, who still sings songs from her long-ago childhood ... oftentimes, these songs or verbal snippets find their way into my artwork.

I think of myself as a whimsical artist because I love humor in all its forms, but I also love bold and mysterious abstracts. My style has developed so gradually and has morphed in so many subtle directions that it's hard to pinpoint when I "found" it ... in fact, I'm pretty sure I'm still searching for it.

"The Journey" began as several digitally manipulated photographs, printed on cotton sateen by a printing service, which I then painted, inked, thread-sketched, and machine quilted. I have been using a "faced" method of finishing my art quilts, rather than a traditional binding. Below is a detail shot of the quilt.

The Journey - detail

As Karey Bresenhan's Quilt Festival in Houston grows nearer (only a couple more months!) I get more and more excited about all the fabulous traditional and art quilts I will see. Miles of inspiration, all in one huge building ... I can't wait!

More Quilt Festival photos from the 2014 show

Here are the last of my Quilt Festival pictures ... next year I'll be sure to take a "real" camera rather than my phone camera, as I wasn't really happy with the quality of these images. Still, good enough to enjoy and remember good times and beautiful quilts!

Above is the introduction to the Dinner @ Eight exhibit "Reflections", by Jamie Fingal.
The exhibit itself is curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison.

Not all of my pictures turned out, but here are some of my favorites from the Reflections exhibit:

Cottonwood Reflection by Cynthia St. Charles

Groovin' on a Sunday Afternoon by Barb Forrister

Haiku by Lyric Kinard

Matisse and the New London Skyline by Leslie Tucker Jenison

Amazements of Tender Reflections by Wen Redmond

Read and Reflect by Lesley Riley

Reflections of Our Fathers by Desiree Habicht

The Parable of  the Dragon and the Sheep by Susan Fletcher King

Troubled Water by Larkin Van Horn

These next quilts are from various categories, but all are art quilts.

Rockin' Cat by Barbara McKie
This may be my favorite quilt of the show. The cat and the background are from two different
photographs, and they meld so beautifully that the cat is quite camouflaged. I loved the surprise.

Shared Destiny by Patricia Kennedy-Zafred
This quilt won a First Place ribbon in Digital Imagery.

Sheer Joy by Pam Holland
This was another small Silent Auction quilt that I would have loved to own.

The Dogs by Shannon Conley

The Visitor by Susan Fletcher King
(still one of my favorites!)

Three Times Three by Peggy Brown
I stood and stared and this quilt for a good ten minutes ... enthralled.

Umbrellas in the City by Terri Krysan and Page Johnson
(this quilt won Second Place in Mixed Technique)

Unequal Until Death? by Randall Cook
This is the one quilt that I wanted to quote the Artist's Statement for:
"The couple depicted has spent 22 years creating and living their lives together.  The lack of marriage equality makes their marriage less than and not equal to heterosexual marriages.  Depicting the couple in a somber and "un-couple like" representation, with portions of the figures as mere ghost-like approximations, is an attempt to convey some of the emotions involved with this inequality."

Randall Cook with his quilt, shown above.
I'm sorry I don't know in which category his quilt won the ribbon,
as I can't find it on the IQA page.

Unfinished Arrangement by Peggy Brown
A small Silent Auction quilt.

Windbreak by Mariane Williamson

Women of the Desert by Janneke de Fries-Bodzinga
A small Silent Auction quilt.

Worry by Virginia Greaves
This quilt won Third Place in Art-People, Portraits, and Figures.

I had quite a few more pictures that, unfortunately, were not clear enough to publish. I have tried my best to give proper attribution to the artists, but if you see any errors, please contact me with any corrections.  Please enjoy my little quilt show!

Houston Quilt Festival 2014

I made my first quilt in 1976, and have attended the Houston International Quilt Festival every year since it began showing at the George R. Brown Convention Center. It's an overwhelming experience, but for those of us who go every year, we eventually learn how to navigate the "most important" aisles ... the types of quilts we are most interested in ... and try to (mostly) avoid the vendors' booths.

Since I am mostly interested in art quilts, those are the ones I took pictures of ... here are some of my favorites. (Sometimes it was impossible to get a clear shot without one of the black metal statement stands getting in the way ... apologies for that.)

Bedolina Threads by Maggie Vanderweit

Can We Talk About the Steak? by Barbara Yates Beasley

Dazzling Dahlia by Andrea Brokenshire

Direction by Lyric Kinard

Dotting Inside the Box by Sandi Snow
(this quilt won First Place in Art-Abstract, Small)

Drips by Sherri Lipman McCauley

Floppy by Enid Weichselbaum
(this sweet little piece was one of the Silent Auction squares ... so simple and adorable, I meant to
go back and bid on it, but ran out of time ... and money!)

Fly Away Butterflies by Charlotte Hickman

These next three images are of the same quilt ... "Frame of Mind" by Flora Joy. You see a different person depending on where you stand in relation to the quilt. Flora describes her inspiration and a hint of her technique in the statement below the pictures. She won a second place ribbon in the Digital Imagery category.

Galaxy by Lynn Koolish

Gone Fishing by Kim Ritter

Identity Crisis by Suzan Engler
(this won an Honorable Mention in Digital Imagery)

Mangolicious by Ellen Lindner

Panning for Gold by Lea McComas
(won First Place in Art-People, Portraits,and Figures)

Penelope's Poppies by Laura Wasilowski

Pouring Cats by Christina Belding

Red-and-White Exhibit, from the front of the hall.

from the other side ... spectacular!

And now for something completely different ... just a couple of "people pictures" ...

Liz Broussard, all dressed up for her String-It-Up class. Too cute!

Maggie Winfield, adorable as ever in her ca-ra-zy Halloween bat/skeleton outfit,
found time to meet me for a hug-and-chat before I left for home on Friday.

More quilt pictures to be posted tomorrow ... enjoy!

Quilt Festival 2011, Part 4 ... some quilts and friends

First, some quilts made by some very dear friends of mine ... in the category of Texas Guilds' Award Winning Traditional Quilts, 2011:

Total Eclipse, by Sharon Dixon

1950's Santa Quilt, by Barbara Wafer; quilted by Barb Knoblock

Flowers in My Cabin, by Shirley Chriss; quilted by Linda Teddlie Minton

Flowers in My Cabin, detail

Flowers in My Cabin, quilting detail

Standing Strong, by Sharon Dixon

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One night several of us walked to an unfamiliar restaurant several blocks from the hotel for dinner.  It was cold and windy (unusual for Houston!) but we had a wonderful time.

Maggie Winfield and me ... our yearly snuggle.

Best buds Sharon Dixon and Jody Gantz having a giggle ... before or after margaritas?

A tiny glimpse of the huge Food Court at the GRB Convention Center.

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In yesterday's post, I showed a picture of "Alice's Odyssey", a group challenge quilt made by 16 members of the Beyond the Borders art-quilt group in Katy, Texas.  Here are some of the members, gathered at different times in front of the exhibit.

Exhibit placard -- it was a single-quilt exhibit!

Connie Fahrion, Hannah Mallon, Sara Norris, Elaine Connelly, Cathy Winter 

Sitting: Nancy B. Dickey, Linda Teddlie Minton, Ann Schaefer, Cathy Winter
Standing: Cheryl Johnson, Jo Sweet

and here's the quilt again, so you don't have to flip back to look for it:

Alice's Odyssey
Each puzzle piece was created by a different artist, based on a chosen
theme from Alice in Wonderland and conformed to a specific puzzle shape
in order to fit in with the others.  The edges were satin stitched, and the
individual pieces were painstakingly assembled onto a quilted background by
Nancy Dickey.

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On Friday night, Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison gathered all of the participants they could, of the "Space Between" exhibit sponsored by their Dinner at Eight Artists group.  We had dinner at Spencer's Steakhouse in the Hilton Americas Hotel ... a fabulous (and fabulously expensive!) restaurant worthy of our exalted presence.  We even had the Chef's Table, along with appropriately superb service.  Here are just a few of the more sedate (?) moments of the evening.

Karen Rips and Rachel Parris

Susan Brubaker Knapp & Leslie Tucker Jenison

Frances Holliday Alford & Gerrie Congdon

Barb Forrester and Susan Fletcher King

Jamie Fingal and me

Susan Fletcher King and Judy Coates Perez
(don't hate her for wearing a fur coat ... I think that's Barb's hair on Susan's shoulder!)

The Adorable Deb Boschert and the Inimitable Jamie Fingal debate wine choices.

Judy and her daughter Indigo Perez.  Indigo is a fine artist in her own right,
and always a welcome addition to our table.

Leslie starts us off with the D@8 tradition of "spoonology" ... a fine old art.

Susan B.K. shows us how it's done.

Terry Grant gets it right the first time!

Barb carries it off with aplomb.

Jane LaFazio sets up her spoon

Susan F.K. looks like she's been doing it all her life.

Step 1:  Frances misunderstands the concept.

Step 2:  Frances reinterprets the concept.

Step 3:  Frances shows us how easy it really is.

The end of a long but lovely day.