Wednesday, October 31, 2012

FINE logo - Anne Buchal


Some time ago, at one of our meetings, the group thought we should have a logo to “brand” our shows. This would take the form of a fiber piece bearing the letters F I N E. After some discussion, we planned a wall piece in the form of a quilt. I made some sketches which we looked at and then I went on to make the piece.

I wasn’t very happy with result, which as you see was 4 squares alternating back and white fabric.  No one else was satisfied; the design was too severe, rather old fashioned. Now I am in the process of trying again, aiming for a design with less classic lettering, keeping the black and white which has the effect of carrying power: it needs to be seen across the room.

This is a project for a typographer, not a fiber artist. The pictures show the present quandary, the last of which is in paper. Suggestions welcome. Upper case?  Lower case? Serifs ? Color? 


Monday, October 29, 2012

Slow progress - Maria Simonsson

I continue to work on my map quilts for our show in Pennsylvania next year. It is such slow going! I am now at the quilting stage for the first quilt, the winter scene. I have not quilted in years, so it feels like I am re-inventing the technique, and possibly I am inventing my own version of it. Experienced quilters may cringe when they see me do it. I like the results, however. I am considering taking a basic quilting class, to brush up on technique. Why go through the agony of re-inventing if you can learn from the truly experienced? I am also thinking of joining a couple of quilting guilds. I feel more quilts in my future!

Here is a picture of the quilt, almost finished.


I imagine this image as a birds-eye view of a small Russian village after a heavy snow fall. There is a frozen stream running to the left of the village in the image and a couple of carriage paths crossing through the village.
Outside the village there is a hill (upper right), fields (upper left and lower right) and a meadow with trees (lower left).

Here are some closeups:


The village


Village detail


Plowed fields and some snowy trees


Trees between the stream and the meadow.
They are not beads but French knots, lots and lots.
Takes forever.
Good thing I have some interesting audio books to listen to.

When I started this project I was listening to a couple of classic Russian novels. First Anna Karenina and then The Brothers Karamazov, hence the Russian village imagery.









Saturday, October 6, 2012

Painting on the Porch -- Beth Latture

When the weather is nice I love to work on the screened porch.  Over the past couple of months I've been working on a painting for the Mapping theme that FINE is working on.

I started with a large canvas with a yellow underpainting, then created a "beltway-like" map by masking and sponging over with a magenta paint.



Once I had the structure in place I started filling in the map with color blocks


and then began some patterning within the blocks.


Since I am painting, I'm definitely in the "Nearly" category of our group name - Fiber in Nearly Everything.  However, I find that the techniques that I use - either in painting or fiber - are usually very similar in that they consist of a meditative repetition of stitches or marks.


This is a work in progress with the goal of creating a map-like image from familiar forms and patterns.  The other goal is to enjoy the pleasant days on the porch, painting and listening to music, with my loyal companion Daisy.