About Pins & Needles Art Quilyting

The Pins & Needles Art Quilters group is a neighborhood circle formed from members of River City Quilter’s Guild.We meet once a month to exchange information about art quilts, to share and critique our work, to pursue exhibitions and competitions, and publishing options. We currently have over twenty dedicated members from varied backgrounds. We challenge our group monthly to try new techniques, or themes, to explore mixed media options, and to share new discoveries.

Our group’s work is regularly shown at the River City Quilter’s Guild annual show in Sacramento, California. Our members’ work has also been shown at several national and international shows, as well as in local venues.


Tuesday, July 21, 2015

California State Fair 2015

The State Fair Craft Exhibit was heavily represented by Pins and Needles members. 

Ordered clockwise around the exhibit:
Artist
Title
ribbon (category)
Awards
Jan Soules (both quilts)

left: Total Eclipse of the Sun

2nd place (pieced quilt small/medium)
NCQC Award
Best Use of Color


right: Parasols

3rd (art quilt small/medium)
Kim Sikes
Greeting the Dawn

3rd (art quilts miniature)
Jan Soules
For the Birds

3rd (applique quilt sm/med)
Kathy Orsburn
Couture Bag

4th (wearable art)
Jan and Kathy's pieces displayed together.
Denise Schmidt
Quadripoint

1st (art quilt miniature)
Connie Horne
Aboriginal Coat Ensemble

1st (quilting beyond bedcovers)
Best of Division
River City Quilting Award
upper right: Denise Schmidt
Groundwater

2nd (art quilt sm/med)
Jan Soules
Trees with Yellow Sky

3rd (mixed technique quilt sm/med)
Kathy Orsburn
Swing Jacket

2nd (wearable art)
center right: Connie Horne
Orange Fancy Bag

1st (accessories)
Jan Soules
City of Lights

3rd (mixed technique quilt sm/med)
Jan SoulesPhyllis McCalla, Jan Bawart, Cathy Brorby, Carole Pirruccello
View of Arles with Irises
1st (mixed technique quilt, group)
Best of Show
Best of Division
River City Quilting Award
Meissner Sewing Center Award
Congratulations to all the State Fair winners!!

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

June 2015

Show and Tell
We started our meeting with Show and Tell and 
shared recent projects.
Artist: Kari Bauer

Artist: Kathy Orsburn
Kathy used several thrift store shirts to make a different shirt, intending to enter it in the State Fair Upcycle category. It was rejected, because shirts were used to make a shirt. We all liked it though!

Artist: Sheila Green
Sheila shared two collages she had matted and framed with the intent to enter them in a juried art show.

Artist: Sheila Green

BJ showed us a Temari ball, a Japanese String Ornament, that a friend made and gave her. This photo does not capture the exquisite design of the ornament.

Artist: BJ Bailey
BJ drew this rose by hand using various graphite pencils, and estimated that she spent over 80 hours on it.

Helen Burke shared some pear appliques she made at a workshop made using a crayon technique.

Artist: Linda Bergman
Dogwoods
This photo does not show the woodgrain quilting design that Linda used. Crystals embellish the centers of the flowers.

Artist: Lori Wisheropp
Lori shared an acrylic painting she made years ago of a portrait of a woman. The painting was done using only two colors: the dark blue in the upper left corner, and the bright green in the lower right corner, and various shades of the two colors in between. She did this before digital photography and image manipulation programs were available.

Artist: Cindy Minoli
Cindy's current work in progress

Close-up of Cindy's work

After Show and Tell, we shared our "homework", 9"x 12" vertical quiltlets using our chosen theme, and one or more of the design concepts explained in chapter 2 of the "Art Quilt Workbook" by Jane Dávila and Elin Waterston.

Artist: Kari Bauer
Kari's theme is "Southwest", and she didn't like the first one (left), so she made another one.

Artists: Lori Wisheropp (left) and Susan Spicer
Lori experimented with acrylic decoupage glue painted on the front and back of the fabrics to seal the fibers, allowing such thin pieces. Her theme is "Art Deco Florals".
Susan's theme is "Abstract".

Artist: Willie Beaudet
Willie's theme is "Pachyderms", and she created this with crayon, embroidery floss and fabric scraps.

Artists: Sheila Green and Elizabeth McInnis
Sheila's theme is "Shells" and Elizabeth's is "Figs".  Both tried to show perspective through placement and color.

Artists: Helen Burke and BJ Bailey
Helen's theme is "Mushrooms", and hers includes a snippet of text taken from a cookbook.
BJ's theme is "Text", and each of the fabrics and coin embellishments have Asian text on them.

Artists: Kim Sikes and Linda Bergman
Kim's theme is "Leaves", and she started with her favorites, ginko leaves. She explained how she made the design and then thread painted it.
Linda's theme is "Flowers" and her design is taken from a photograph of Easter Lilies.
Both artists tried showing perspective through
placement and size.

Our homework for July will be a similar quiltlet using design concepts and techniques in Chapter 3 of the workbook.

Upcoming Challenge: Due in August
"Fences", 12" x 18" vertical or horizontal
Any kind of fence can be anywhere across the image, with no borders (edge to edge image).