Poison!

My creative friend Misty Cole has designed an unusual and intriguing block of the month - poison bottles! She asked me to interpret two of them, so here they are.

The first bottle looks a lot like Misty's sample. I chose a brown background, and because of the word "poison" I couldn't stop thinking about poison ivy, so I added some. I thought it looked sort of like an old bottle you might find tucked in the back of a barn, and wouldn't it be ironic for it to be sitting in some poison ivy?

Pre-stitching

The background and bottle were created from fabrics I designed in photoshop, while the leaves are hand dyed.

I think it's kind of fun.

The next bottle Misty calls a "coffin" bottle. Well, it looked kind of like a vase to me, so I went with that. I went a little wild and carefree with this one, screen printing the flowers and using some fabric I designed for the vase.

Pre-stitching

After quilting.

I was going for sort of a retro cut glass look on the bottle.

I like the flowers, but feel that the white ones still need something - maybe a few lazy daisies in the centers and some French knots?

If you'd like to join in the fun head over to Misty's blog and download these free patterns.

Thanks for inviting me to play, Misty!

Dinner at Eight - Affinity

Last year I once again had the pleasure of being juried into the invitational exhibit for the Dinner at Eight Artists. The theme was "Affinity", and I chose to represent my affinity for color (see blog name). I never really posted much about my quilt, but better late than never!

Paint the Town Red ©2015 Diane Rusin Doran

Detail Paint the Town Red ©2015 Diane Rusin Doran

Here's a link to a youtube video where I discuss the quilt for the Quilt Alliance Go Tell it at the Quilt Show! project.

As usual, I created a digital collage for my 40 x 40 inch piece. I began with a photo I took on my first iPhone about five years ago. It was a chance snapshot of a very bright door in Fort Worth, Texas. We were visiting my sister-in-law and had just finished eating breakfast at a local eatery. I took an antsy child to the car, and saw this beautiful doorway across the street. Here's the original photo with it's inspirational bright red door framed by an amazing tree:

And if you look very closely, my reflection is in the window pane to the left of the door. (I hadn't even noticed that reflection until today!)

Sacred Threads - A Little Bird Told Me

I've been remiss in blogging about this year's wonderful Sacred Threads exhibit. We were out of town for most of the duration of the show, but I was delighted to go Friday morning and record an interview for Quilter's SOS and, more importantly, look at the exhibit. I didn't expect to be as moved as I was; it was a remarkable experience.

As I wandered through the exhibit several other quilters were being filmed for their interviews. Hearing the stories of the quilts in their own words and voices was wonderful. There was also an audio tour, available by phone, and again hearing the voices of the artists made the exhibit even more meaningful.

I had two quilts in the exhibit, California Dreaming, which I've blogged about before, and a new quilt made expressly to enter in Sacred Threads. It's called A Little Bird Told Me.

A Little Bird Told Me copyright 2015 Diane Rusin Doran

Detail, A Little Bird Told Me copyright 2015 Diane Rusin Doran

Here's an approximation of what I recorded for the audio tour for this quilt:

We found out in August 2013 that my mother had malignant melanoma. After months of enduring surgery, infection, infusions, and many hospitalizations for a variety of serious side effects, we knew that most likely she was nearing the end. In May of 2014 I went to stay with her for the weekend, as my father was in the hospital and my mother could not care for herself. She had become more and more forgetful and depressed, but never complained. We finally took her off one of her medications, for cholesterol, and it seemed to really perk her up. She was still somewhat forgetful, but so pleasant to be around. That weekend, to my surprise, she took me up on my suggestion to go for a walk in the park behind her house. It was a stunningly beautiful, perfect spring day, glowing with light and new growth. As we walked, I realized that it almost seemed as if she were already in heaven, and I was visiting her there. It was a dreamlike experience, and I’m so grateful not only that I shared it with her, but also that when it happened I had the presence of mind to recognize the beauty of it. This piece represents the glow of that day. The two birds are my mother and I, both blue as that is the color we both wear so much. As a child, when I asked her how she knew something, she often said “a little bird told me”, so that’s why I chose the birds and the title. The buttercups are a melancholy touch, as she could not remember what kind of flower they were and asked me their name during the walk. 

Happy Things

A couple of fun and exciting things have happened recently.

- I went to the AQS show in Lancaster. It was wonderful to see so many lovely quilts.

- I won a Judge's Choice award at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival for California Dreaming. Yeah!

California Dreaming copyright Diane Rusin Doran

- I'm so pleased to have two of my quilts (Winter's Tarnish and Return of the Grackle) featured in the April/May issue of Quilting Arts in Jane Davila's article on filler stitching, plus a full page ad for Craft Daily featuring Sunrise Serenade as the backdrop. (All these quilts are on my "Recent Quilts" page.)

- I finished a small quilt! When I find out if it was accepted to the exhibit I entered it in I'll share all the details.

I was so wishing spring would have arrived by now, but alas, this is how it looks in my neck of the woods today:

Here's hoping spring has already sprung for you.

NEW Work for FFAC 2015

I am very honored to be an invited artist for "The 100" to be held tomorrow, Wednesday, February 4, 2015 . The goal for this fiber fundraiser for the American Cancer Society is to raise $10,000 in one day.

How? All the details are here: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/FFACThe100Fundraiser.html, but here are the basics: On February 4, the first 100 people to contact Virginia Spiegel (Virginia(at)VirginiaSpiegel.com) beginning at 10 a.m. Central will be given a link to donate $100 by credit card directly to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause.  Each donor will receive an artwork from one of the 100 artists who have generously donated their work. Assignments of artwork will be made using a random number generator. 

I'm sure you will want to be one of the very exclusive 100 patrons who will be randomly assigned artwork from an extraordinary line-up of international fiber artists. 

Here is my contribution, Leaves/Reflections 1. 

Leaves/Reflections 1, © Diane Rusin Doran 2015
11.5 x 11.25 inches
Digital collage, Machine quilting

Fiberart For A Cause has already raised $240,000 through the generosity of fiber artists and patrons. I've been a participant several times before. This year I especially wanted to contribute, but at the same time it was very difficult for me. This is the first piece I've made since May of 2014.

Detail Leaves/Reflections 1 ©Diane Rusin Doran 2015

My mother was diagnosed with metastatic Melanoma in August of 2013. She had surgery that fall, and we rejoiced when it seemed that it was "only" stage 3. Unfortunately, in February of 2014 we learned that the disease had spread further. The months between then and her death on July 8 were a blur of doctor's appointments, infusions, and emergency room visits. My brother, sister and I tried to go to as many of these with our parents as we could, and we counted ourselves lucky to be able to do so.  

I've seen the impact of cancer on other family members, but this was truly overwhelming. I hope that by doing my small part I can help just a little to prevent someone else from going through something like this. I don't want anyone else to have to miss their mom the way that I miss mine, or watch her go through so much.

To preview some of the other artwork go to our Pinterest board, https://www.pinterest.com/d_boschert/the-100-fundraiser-to-fight-cancer/ .

Thank you!

Winter's Tarnish

As the trees begin to lose their leaves I realize that in the craziness of this past year I never shared one of the quilts I made. I created it specifically for an exhibit called "Tarnish" that was held at Visarts in Rockville, MD. Here's the description from the Visarts website:

"The Studio Art Quilt Associates present a juried exhibition of contemporary quilts from the Maryland, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina regions. Artists address the idea of “tarnish”- a patina that affects the outside surface but protects the underlying layers- with inventive quilts."

I've always been fascinated by the sculptural quality of deciduous trees in winter, as well as by the wide range of colors in the woods that routinely go unnoticed when overshadowed by the brighter colors of spring, summer, and fall. It occurred to me that many of the colors of the woods in winter resemble those of weathered or tarnished metal - verdigris, rust, browns and the like. This inspired me to combine and manipulate photos of trees and leaves to represent what I think of as the tarnish of winter.

Winter's Tarnish copyright 2014 Diane Rusin Doran

Detail Winter's Tarnish copyright 2014 Diane Rusin Doran

The exhibit and exhibition space were beautiful as you can see from this shot of myself, Misty Cole and Linda Strowbridge at the opening reception. I felt honored to be part of this wonderful exhibit!

Dinner at Eight Artists Exhibit 2014

I'm so excited! Yesterday the accepted artists were announced for this year's Dinner at Eight exhibit, and I'm in. Many thanks to Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal for all their work in creating and curating this exhibit. It looks like another great lineup of artists and I'm thrilled to be in their company.

The theme this year is reflections. I spent lots of time considering this, first thinking about literal interpretations as I have *many* photos of reflections in water and windows. Eventually, though, I felt better about doing something a little different. I wanted this quilt to reflect my techniques and styles, not be something in a totally new direction. Here is my piece, Intertwined.

Intertwined, ©2014 Diane Rusin Doran

Seahorses often have patterning (and sometimes coloring) that reflects the environment in which they live. By using transparency, I've made these seahorses do just that. Additionally, their appearance also reflects that of their kin.

Be sure to take a closer look at these detail shots. I threadpainted all of the green elements to add some depth and interest. Note to self: that amount of threadpainting takes way more time than you think it will.

If you've seen my Quilting Arts workshop on digital surface design you'll probably recognize how I created the digital collage. I started with a faux drip dyed background and worked forward from there. It was very fun to create.

I have another new piece of work to share very soon, so stay tuned. Thanks for stopping by!

New Work - Sunrise Serenade

Somehow I finished this piece, sent it to a show, and never shared it with you all. So here it  is:

Sunrise Serenade © 2013 Diane Rusin Doran

Unsurprisingly, it's a digital collage printed on fabric. I believe I printed it in the spring of 2011. It took me a while to decide on how to quilt it, plus other deadlines loomed, so it patiently waited for my attention. All of the imagery except for perhaps one bird is from photos taken in my yard. 

The quilting was done using mostly Aurifil cotton threads, with a little bit of rayon and silk thrown in. Much of the background quilting is overlapping to echo the transparency of the various background elements. The locust leaves and maple branches/buds were outlined, and then additional quilting was added on top. I originally planned to quilt the birds quite ornately, but thought better of it and went with a simpler approach. It was fun to use so many of my favorite colors (blues and greens) and quilting motifs (leaves and ferns).

P.S. Don't forget the Blog Hop going on until January 28! Both Candy and Sarah are accepting entries now.

A New Quilt - for Dinner at Eight!

OK, it's been a loooong time since I finished a "big" quilt. I'm constantly making small samples for publication, and have made several quilts for donation in the last few years, but nothing much bigger than 12"x12". Hence I'm *very* excited to show you this new work! Without further ado - California Dreaming:

 I made it specifically for the juried invitational exhibit Dinner at Eight. I'm very honored that my quilt was accepted for the exhibit, and will appear at International Quilt Festival in Long Beach; August 1-4, 2013, and International Quilt Festival in Houston;Oct 31- Nov 3, 2013. 

California Dreaming is 24"x60". It's a digital collage comprised of  several photographs I took while on vacation with my family in Florida and California last summer. (The pelicans are from Florida, the grasses and flowers from California.) The theme for this year's exhibit is "An Exquisite Moment". This quilt represents the exquisite moments I experience with my little family on vacation, free from the everyday stresses of work, school, extracurricular activities, and all the minutia that go along with them. The three pelicans represent my three sons, ages 15, 13, and 10.

If you enlarge the detail photo, you'll be able to see better that on the flowery parts I repeatedly stitched over the lines of the flowers, adding some weight to those areas.

Little Pink Bird

This weird phenomenal Spring just keeps on amazing me. The other morning I ventured outside to find this:

 The driveway has been carpeted in leaves many times, but not in maple blossoms! They all seemed to fall simultaneously the night before.


 Here's a little bird that I'm using to try out some quilting ideas. I didn't want the quilting to be realistic, and also wanted the wash of colors on the bird to remain visible. What do you think?

Branching Out - Again!

Turns out an old dog can learn new tricks. My Machine Quilting Unlimited column, Filler Finesse, is expanded in 2012 - 3 fills per issue instead of two, and an additional stitched out sample using all three fills in one composition. I've decided to use the "three fills in one" compositions to try out some techniques that I haven't really used before. Back in September I shared an experiment I made using thread painting - something new to me. For the March issue I tried something else.

I can't show you the whole sample, as that would give away the quilting fills, but wanted to focus on this flower. I've used fusible applique many times in the past, but generally satin stitch the edges down. In this sample I quilted the entire background first, then fused on the flowers. OK, not terribly exciting. However, the real departure for me was that I did not trace the flower parts at all. I looked at a bunch of crocus photographs, made some very rough sketches, then applied fusible web to my hand dyed fabrics. I then cut out all the applique pieces free hand, just looking at my little sketches. I think I could have done a little better with the shading of the fabrics, but for someone who has always done applique in a very preplanned and precise manner, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Have you tried anything new lately?

Non Stop Action

Wow - so much going on! And I'm not just talking about earthquakes, hurricanes and flooding. (Luckily we've been spared the worst of it all, though I do miss the sun.)

Last week I had an excellent time in Cleveland with the fine folks from Quilting Arts. I taped two segments for Quilting Arts TV Series 900, then an instructional DVD! I did not take a great camera, because I had too much other stuff to carry, so all of these pics are from my phone camera. Eventually I'll have to get some better pictures from Helen (unfortunately I have none of me and Pokey on my phone).

In the green room with Candy Glendening of candiedfabrics.com Candy had taped a DVD the day before, and she generously shared invaluable tips with me on how to make it through the taping!

During the DVD taping, Helen Gregory took pictures between chapters. Someone in the green room captured me on the monitor - I'm smirking at Helen in the studio.

Here is the lovely Helen. Helen has such a wonderful, calming, yet totally on top of things presence. She makes all things seem possible.

Missing from this picture is the delightful Jackie Marsal of havelssewing.com (she was taking the picture). I'm not sure why Terry White (threadpaint.com & starthreads.com) is hiding behind that frond, but if you ever get a chance to dine with her, do so! Jo Leichte of berninausa.com provided invaluable technical assistance on sewing machines all day. Margaret Applin (margaretapplindesigns.com) arrived early to tape some segments the next day - I love her take on digital imagery. We had a very fun dinner at Bahama Breeze.

I'll have to take some pictures of the fabulous swag I received and post them later.

New Work & Quilting Arts TV Series 800

Good morning!

I'd like to share a little piece I finished last week. I belong to a local group of quilt artists called Metro Threads. We're putting together a trunk show with similar parameters to those for SAQA's This is a Quilt - small quilts that will fit in a 12"x12" mat with an 8" opening. Here's a quilt that I'm going to submit.


I alluded to the year starting off with a bang in my last post. I'm *very* excited that in February I'll be headed to Cleveland to film three segments for Quilting Arts TV Series 800! Two of the segments are based on articles that have been in Quilting Arts and Quilting Arts Gifts. The third segment is a new project that's been very fun to design. I've been busy behind the scenes here trying to prepare for them all, and getting more excited by the minute!

Houston IQA

I'm so delighted that for the fourth year in a row I've been fortunate enough to receive "the call" from Houston. My newest quilt, which I must say I poured my heart and soul into, has won a cash award in the IQA World of Beauty (Houston quilt show). Here's a sneak peek:



It's a digital collage that I created in Photoshop using a number of my photographs and a painting. I printed it on five panels of silk using my Epson 2200 pigment ink printer, then seamed them to create the quilt top. It's very heavily free motion machine quilted using a variety of threads - rayon, silk, cotton, and maybe even a little polyester .

It's a red letter day, as my oldest son is officially a teenager today. I better run and make his cake!

Oh What Fun!

I had a great time at the Annapolis Quilt Guild Show this past weekend. It was wonderful to reconnect with old friends, and meet many new ones. Here are some photos of the spacious setup they provided for me.

A whole booth! A big shout out to Hilke for the pipes and drapes.

Ann, one of the Quilt Show co-chairs, and I. Ann is a very accomplished quilt artist, and she, Helen, and the rest of the volunteers put on a great show. I know that Ann won at least one (maybe two) ribbons this year. It's truly amazing to behold the set up and break down of this show - they are very efficient.


Here's a lovely reminder of the past. As a guild member I was asked back in 2000 to help design the 2001 raffle quilt. This asymmetric mariner's compass was the focal point of the quilt. The guild has a pin made every year from the raffle quilt design, and Helen offered me one that they still had.

To the many folks who stopped by to chat with me - thank you so much, I really enjoyed meeting you!

Annapolis Quilt Guild Show

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Join me at the Annapolis Quilt Guild Show on Saturday, June 12 and Sunday, June 13. Located at Annapolis High School, this wonderful guild puts on quite a show, including quilts (of course), over 20 vendors, and numerous demos. I'm very excited to be this year's featured quilter, so if you come be sure to stop by and say hi! I'll have quite a few of my quilts with me, and hope to do a little free motion quilting while I'm there.

I haven't posted a picture in a while, so here are two. Yesterday when I went with one of my children to wait for the bus, this is what I saw. It looked like a beautiful dream.

I'm Ready For To Go

That's what my youngest son used to say when he was about 2 and was eager to get going to whatever adventure awaited, and that's how I feel today.

I'm about to start quilting a large (for me) quilt in hopes of finishing it by the deadline for Houston. It's about 40"x50". Note to self: it took one week and a day after the prints were "cured" to stretch, spray, assemble, and baste the whole shebang in preparation for quilting. Now the fun begins!

In the meantime I've rediscovered my love for piecing. I started out as a piecer, but quickly became A Little Too Serious about it. All my points always had to match. All straight lines were as straight as I could make them. My secret guilty pleasure for the last few weeks has been regularly checking out the Fresh Modern Quilt group on Flickr. Melody Johnson mentioned it on her blog, and looking at those quilts, and absorbing the enthusiasm of that group has brought me much pleasure. A few weeks ago I took a little break and sewed up nine "wonky" log cabin blocks, and boy was it fun! Once I'm done with my "big" quilt I'm going to sew those blocks up and make a cuddly quilt just for me.


All the snow is gone and spring is here! I hope it's a beautiful day where you are too.

Houston Quilt Festival 2009

Well, I once again took a fun but *quick* trip to Houston for the International Quilt Festival. Here's the lowdown.

I took a super early flight on Tuesday and had lunch with my good friends Jill and Bill. Back in the day Jill and I were both engineers at McDonnell Douglas and were known as "the bookends" - we did just about everything together except quilt. It's always a highlight of my trip to get to see them again.

Tuesday night was the exciting awards ceremony - I was delighted to receive third place in the miniature art category. I of course saw Pokey (who presented my award), and fellow award winners including Sarah Ann Smith, Judy Coates Perez, and Candace West.

Wednesday morning I had breakfast with my good friend Debra Gabel of Zebra Patterns. Debra is both an amazing quilt artist as well as an incredible pattern designer. She'd been to quilt market and also had a booth at festival. Her CityStamp, StateStamp, and NationStamp designs were a really big hit - very unique and clever. I also had the pleasure of meeting her friends (and booth staff) Peggy, Dee and Sandy.

This year the luncheon where the top eight award winners speak was thankfully moved to Wednesday (instead of Saturday). I'd never been able to hang around until Saturday, so it was wonderful to be able to attend the luncheon this year. The tables were quite large so I didn't get to chat with everyone, but did sit next to Barbara Lies and Candace.

One side of festival that I've never experienced before is vending. I had the opportunity to help Debra and company with some last minute booth preparations and it was both fun and educational.

Wednesday night - preview night! For the third year in a row the delightful Lisa Ellis did me the favor of taking my picture next to my quilt. I think the next time I go I'll have to plan a little better and actually eat dinner with her or something.

I did my best to see as much of the show as possible. After wards Debra, Peggy, Dee and I headed out to get a bite to eat. We ended up at the House of Blues, and after all was said and done we now have the recipe for the Best Margarita Ever.

I met many other nice folks, and was happy to reconnect with others I've met at previous shows. My flight home was Thursday afternoon, so I soaked in as much atmosphere as possible before then and took one last look at all the great exhibits and show quilts. Once again a fabulous show and of course lots of friendly and creative quilters!

Devotion to One's Art

I was so pleased to receive an acceptance for this year's IQA show in Houston for Last Dance (blogged about here). I'd really wanted to make a "big", new quilt to enter, but life conspired against me. I love this little quilt so I'm happy it will have a chance to travel again.



Recently I've read some interesting posts on QuiltArt about whether folks prefer to read just about the art (quilting), or if it's better to throw in some personal goings on. Sometimes, for me, all I have time for is family life with three busy boys, so my quilting posts are few and far between. In the past year we shared our home for 7 months with a relative displaced by damage caused by Hurricane Ike, and this too impacted my quilt making. I somehow managed to write 4 magazine articles in that time, but couldn't spare the time or concentration to create a major new piece. Having Last Dance in my back pocket as a potential entry for Houston helped me to let go and relax a little this spring instead of going 100 miles an hour to finish a quilt in time. It's funny how things manage to work out.

When I'm strongly focused on finishing a quilt for a deadline it's hard to want to stop working on it. To my amusement I can see this trait in my youngest son, age 6. He LOVES to draw. He loves it so much that the elementary school principal called me to commend him on his creativity (that was a little surprising). Anyway, we were doing errands the other day and that did not stop his drawing. He carried an 11"x18" piece of paper and a pencil with him to Target, the pediatrician's office, and Radio Shack. As we walked through Target each time we stopped to look at something he'd squat on the floor, put his drawing on an available empty shelf, and draw. He also drew at the doctor's office and Radio Shack. I'd call that devotion to one's art!

A penguin, with an ice sword and ice helmet, riding on the back of a baby polar bear while fighting a sea lion. The back of the paper has a shark (or perhaps killer whale?) on it.

I hope that you're finding time for both your art, and some relaxation, this summer.