Salsa Complete! and Design Wall Weekend #3

"Salsa" by Christina Fairley Erickson
Freehand Machine Embroidery, decorative stitching, freemotion quilting, trapunto

Fiber Art exhibit at the Schack Art Center

It's been a tough week.  Of course, completing my "Salsa" quilt and getting it entered in the Contemporary QuiltArt Association's (CQA) show (of the same name... Salsa), is a big achievement.  But perhaps it's a bit of a let-down too... I've put so much effort into this piece I'm not quite sure where to go from here.  I apologize for being offline this week- between taxes being due, having lots of work to get ready for the jury process for the Salsa show, and feeling a bit under the weather a couple days, I just didn't get much time at the computer.  I'll work at doing better over the next week.

"Pray for the Forest II" by Larkin J. Van Horn
Fabric, beads  $750.

I did get to a wonderful fiber art show of artists from the Whidbey Island branch of the Surface Design Association earlier this month at Schack Art Center in Everett.  Here are a couple of the wonderful pieces exhibited there.

"Compare and Contrast" by Liz Axford
3 layers silk organza- front and back layers
are screen-printed multiple times, hand-stitched
with cotton floss to reveal patterning $6500.

Design Wall Weekend #3 -- What do You Have on Your Design Wall?

What kind of blogs should link up?

I think that it's best to have content that matches the content and interests served with the blog that's hosting the party, so please only link up if your blog post is about any of the following:

• Quilting and fabrics 
• Fiber art of any kind
• Hand & machine stitch or embroidery
• Mixed media art
• Book-making, art journals, and sketchbooks
• Tutorials for any quilting, fiber, mixed media, sketchbook and other arts
• These can be works in progress or finishes

Rules for the blog linking party

• Mention Fiber Artist Journey in your post, either with a link or button-use the direct link to the specific post - not just your main blog website (this helps with your search engine position.)   If you have buttons on your sidebar that works great, please just at least mention something in your post, for example "I'm linking to Fiber Artist Journey, see my sidebar for their button."  An example of a link to a specific post would be: http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com/2013/04/red-hot-chili-peppers.html rather than http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com . If you need help on how to add your link, read this.

• If you follow my blog, I'll follow yours!  PLEASE make sure to comment and tell me you're following, and I'll visit and  follow yours too.)

• Please take the time to visit other links, everyone loves new visitors and comments!  Try to comment on at least two other blogs in the party.

If you would like to add a button to your blog you can copy the code which is below my buttons and add it as a gadget on the layout page of your blog. Here is a tutorial on how to do it.

You Might Also Be Interested in:

Tutorial- Sashing 
Pre-Quilted Blocks

True Triangles 
Video Tutorial

Fireworks Freemotion 
Quilting Design

Check Out These Other Great Blogs!

Nina Marie Sayre Art Quilts

Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Quilt Matters

Richard and Tanya Quilts

CQA Surface Design Party

Today turned out fantastic at our CQA meeting!  We had the following stations for making surface-designed fabrics to contribute to Stashfest:

Christina Fairley Erickson (me!): Shiva Oil Paintstick Rubbings, Stencils, Fabric Markers and Tsuneko Inks
Cameron Mason: Mono-printing with thickened dye
Colleen Wise: Thermofax silkscreening and foiling
Peg Swartzman: Oil Paintsticks with resists and stencil brushes
Kathy Cooper: Printing with Print blocks

Peg Swartzman teaching how to use Oil Paintsticks with
Freezer paper resists and stenciling brushes for an
elegant gradient effect

Cameron Mason (far right) teaching mono-printing with
thickened dyes to Roslyn Duffy (left) and Roberta Andreson (center right)

Roslyn Duffy's mono-print with thickened dye

Flora Dalglish making Shiva oil paintstick
rubbings at Christina's station

Debbie Babin designing with fabric markers after adding oilstick rubbings
at Christina's station

Barbara O'Steen (left), Barbara Kanaya (center) and Debbie Babin (right)
working at Christina's stenciling, fabric pens, and oil stick rubbing station

CQA President Marylee Drake (foreground) doing
Thermofax screen printing with Colleen Wise (background)

Some of our finished packets of fabrics to sell at Stashfest

We labeled each packet with the artist's name who made the fabric(s), size(s),
and the processes used on each piece.

Stashfest Creator and CQA Member, Patricia Belyea
measured the fabrics and helped bundle them for sale

Want the chance to buy some of these wonderful fabrics?  Come to Stashfest April 6 and 7 up in LaConner!

You might also be interested in:

Making Fabric

Viewing for Inspiration

Making Fabric

Defining Myself

While I currently define myself as a "fiber and mixed media artist", I struggle with the definition. I started early on as a seamstress,then as a costume designer. I moved to being a quilter for a short while, then specialized in art quilts. I've played around with many styles, but basically feel my niche is in representational art.

When I started falling in love with making my own fabric, I became a surface designer.  But, I was still pretty wrapped up in using my fabrics in my quilts.  Now, I'm moving even more to embroidery.  Whether it's dense machine embroidery, thread painting, intricate machine quilting, or hand work, stitch seems to give me a tactile grounding that no other medium has for me.  But how do I define myself?  Where does this work fit in?

I know that most shows that are quilt-centered are very strict about their definition of a quilt... 3 layers connected with stitch, often needing to be professionally bound in some way.  If I decide to create a stitched piece and stretch it over a frame or canvas, then it won't qualify.  So the question is, how important is it to me to fit into the categories that show producers have come up with?  Or even, how important is it to me to continue to exhibit?  Is it more important to create and then find the right niche for my creations, rather than creating to fit particular guidelines?

While I don't feel like I have a strong enough discernible style or large enough body of work to go into solo shows, I do enjoy having my work out in front of the public.  The question is, will work that is not formally a "quilt" get accepted into shows?  Do I feel I need to break out of confines of being defined as a quilter?

I don't know that I have the answer for that yet.  Maybe as I work out my goals for the upcoming year, it will become more clear to me.  How do you define yourself?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Quick tip for productivity:  I recently found the iPhone app "Evernote".  This is a way to organize all your notes, including Word docs, Adobe Acrobat PDFs, and simple text inputs.  You can also use it online or download a version to your computer, as well.  They all sync together. You can organize notes into notebooks (so I have one notebook for my studio, one for family, one for my blog, etc.) and put as many items within each notebook as you want.  It's a great tool!

Making Fabric

Snow-dyed and then stenciled using oil paint-sticks

 A couple of friends and fellow CQA members met at my home today to do some surface design on fabrics to be donated to Stashfest, a fundraising event to benefit the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum.

Patricia Belyea, on the organizing committee for Stashfest, spoke at our CQA meeting yesterday and really generated some enthusiasm for the event, as well as coming over to play with making fabric today.  Patricia's business, Okan Arts, imports yukata cottons from Japan, as well as promotes using these incredible Japanese fabrics.  She also teaches and makes artisan quilts.

Snow-dyed with Procion MX and
over-dyed with Dye-na-Flow

My other guest today, Carolyn Higgens, is one of two Washington state representatives for SAQA or Studio Art Quilt Associates, another group which I belong to.  Carolyn and I met some time ago in an ongoing Design series of classes by Lorraine Torrance.

Snow-dyed with Procion MX and
over-dyed with Dye-na-Flow

The most wonderful part of the three of us getting together was to find out the ties that we share... our commitment to promoting fiber art in our state.  Carolyn's blog "Fiber Arts in the Northwest" showcases some fascinating artists from the area.  She hopes to expand to covering classes and events that are taking place in the Northwest.

Snow-dyed with Procion MX and
over-dyed with Dye-na-Flow

The photos here are some of the pieces of fabric which I've made to contribute to Stashfest on behalf of CQA.  I love doing surface design!  These four pieces were initially snow-dyed with Procion MX dyes, then I overdyed them with Dye-na-Flow.  The top one was additionally stenciled with Shiva oil paintsticks and Seta-color transparent paint.  I'm also going to be offering a tour of my studio, as one of the special "Stashfest Insider Visits" for sale as another aspect of the fundraiser.  Anyone who purchases my studio tour will be given a choice of two different one yard pieces of hand-dyed/ surface designed fabric.

Freehand machine embroidery piece I'm working
on for my 5 x7 challenge

I also started my first piece for my 5 x 7 personal challenge.  I know, I'm not really supposed to be starting this until 2013, but I wanted to get in the practice now!  So, here's a look at the start of my machine stitched zebra which I'm creating.  I suppose I'm still a little anxious about committing myself to making something each week.  Does it count if I make something larger than 5 x 7?  For instance, if I finish a big project one week, but don't do my 5 x 7?  What do you think?