The Challenge Quilts are being offered on eBay. Please see below for details.

Fifteen talented quilt/fiber artists agreed to participate in the Museum’s Capital Campaign “Innovation/ Restoration” Quilt Challenge, and the stunning results are the works of art you see here. 100% of the funds raised through sale of these pieces will benefit the restoration.

All the remaining quilts are being offered on eBay, at the Museum’s eBay page.  The quilts may also be purchased through the Museum Store and are currently on display at the Museum.

We thank the following artists for taking part in the Innovation/Restoration Challenge:  Thom Atkins, Jo Baner, Teri Bever, Opal Cocke & Amy Cowan, Karin Franzen, Anne Gillihan, Sonia Grasvik, Geoff Hamada, Louise Harris, Trisha Hassler, Luke Haynes, Marjorie Horton, Vivian Kapusta, Helen Remick, and Lorraine Torrence.

Photos by Mary Cairns Photography.

Please select a thumbnail below to see a larger view, details, the back of the piece, title and artist label, and pricing . . .

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The Restoration of the La Conner Quilt Museum SOLD

by Thom Atkins

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Rising from the Ashes…       SOLD

by Jo Baner

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Leftovers       SOLD

by Teri Bever

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Layered…From the Ground Up   SOLD

by Opal Cocke & Amy Cowan

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Still Life with Tulle

by Karin Franzen. Click on this photo for more photos and to read more…

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Fragment

by Anne Gillihan

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Brown Round-A-Bout       SOLD

by Sonia Grasvik

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by Geoff Hamada

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Floral Maze

by Louise Harris

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I Thought You Had the Key   SOLD

by Trisha Hassler

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Untitled

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Untitled    SOLD

by Majorie Horton

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Renovation Project Manager    SOLD

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Starburst (Yoyo 12)

by Helen Remick

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Reconstruction I

by Lorraine Torrence

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The first floor of the Gaches Mansion will be covered with Embroidered Beauties:  Old & New, a look at embroidered quilts over the past 200 years. We will have many examples of hand embroidery on hand but we will also feature a few fine examples of work done by artists in the computer age.

On display will be a white-work technique known as Candlewicking. This was a popular embroidery technique during Colonial times in America. Candlewicking derives its name from the thread used for the design work–the thread was braided and used as a wick in candle making. The design is composed of knots, satin stitches and running stitches, this embroidery decorated all types of fabric surfaces.

We will also have embroidered Crazy Quilts on display. The Crazy Quilt fad ran wild from about 1880 through the late 1920′s. The earlier quilts are often made of silk fabrics and are highly embellished with a wide variety of embroidery stitches.

The embroidery phase continued in the 1930′s when a large variety of patterns were available through newspapers, magazines, and by mail order. Newspapers carried patterns that could be used for appliqué; at times this pattern would be adapted for embroidery. One of our quilt tops is embroidered using designs by Nancy Page. Early transfer patterns were “printed” by piercing the paper and applying black powder for transferring the pattern. Later, hot-iron transfer became popular; red was usually a multi-stamp pattern, while blue, green or yellow was often a one-time use pattern.

We will also feature some embroidered quilts from post WWII. The 1950′s saw the rise of the pre-stamped cross stitch kit. Available through a number of magazines, these embroidered quilt kits can still ordered today.

Some contemporary quilters are still doing their embroidery work by hand. Susanne Staton (exhibit on the 3rd floor) is just such a quilter; making most of her wonderful crazy quilt vests with hand stitches. Other quilters might use computerized sewing machines to embroider a pattern. We will have a machine-stitched embroidery quilt made by John James on display. If you are a fan of embroidered work, this is a wonderful exhibit for ideas and inspiration.

]]> http://www.laconnerquilts.com/exhibits/current-exhibits/crazy-quilts-other-fancies/feed/ 0 http://www.laconnerquilts.com/exhibits/current-exhibits/variations-on-a-theme-wearables-quilts http://www.laconnerquilts.com/exhibits/current-exhibits/variations-on-a-theme-wearables-quilts#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:48:47 +0000 Liz Theaker, Director http://www.laconnerquilts.com/?p=4989

Susanne Staton creates all her Wearable Art vests using one pattern, altered to fit, that has become her “canvas.” Each class, book, and color technique inspiration has found its way into a variation of this pattern. Initially using piecing techniques, she now works mostly doing hand appliqué. Her work is not limited to fabric; she also makes vests using felting techniques. Although she has a felting machine, she prefers nuno felting on wool pre-felt.

Susanne enjoys the entire creative process and hand-dyes most of the fabrics she uses. She also creates the buttons for her garments using polymer clay, hand painting wood or fusing glass to match the theme of each piece. Garment construction techniques are varied and include: hand-dyeing, bleaching and over-dyeing, shibori, silk-steaming, nuno felting, appliqué, broderie perse, piecing, crazy patch, beading, embroidery, needle-lace, and free-motion quilting.

Susanne’s quilts are often original designs. Again, she uses a variety of techniques, including:  hand-dyeing, painting with inks, broderie perse, embroidery, beading, and 3-dimensional elements. Sometimes using free motion quilting to finish her quilts but most often her quilts are hand-quilted. Susanne is a member of the Fidalgo Island Quilters and the DIVAS, a Wearable Arts group in Anacortes,Washington.

Above, left:  Leaves, a vest by Susanne Staton. Above, right:  Pear Cubism, a quilt by Susanne Staton.

Thom’s journey into beaded quilts began after a car accident made it impossible to work using clay to create his bronze sculptures. Finding he could still use a needle and thread, Thom began with a series of bead-embellished quilts, looking for a balance between the fabric and beads. To begin with, they were small art quilt, heavily encrusted with beads. Some became quite sculptural in nature, with pieces extensively embroidered, stuffed, and then appliquéd onto the quilt. Eventually Thom turned to landscapes and freeform abstracts. New techniques called for new piece. He added dyeing, painting with textile paints, using tulle as shadow or as a way to hold down small pieces of cloth. Photoshop opened a whole new world of printed images on fabric. New ideas kept coming and new fabrics called out to him. When he had added the three dimensional sculptural forms in fabric with bead embellishment, he felt he had come full circle, back to sculpture, in a new media. His fingers still itch for clay every now and then and someday he may go back but for the time being, he is happy. Beads and fabric have given him back the color that he was missing in the bronze. To him, beads and fabric seem much more vibrant and immediate.

Thom lives and works in Santa Cruz, Ca, and travels nationwide to teach. One of his pieces was used on the 2006 invitation for the International Quilt Market in Houston. His published work can be found in Lark Publishing’s books 500 Beaded Objects, and The Art of Beaded Beads; Interweave Press’ book Beaded Embellishment; in Margie Deeb’s book The Beader’s Color Palette; and now, in a new book by C&T Publishing called innovative Fabric imagery for Quilts.

Above, Coral by Thom Atkins.

At right:  American Indian meets Australian Aboriginal by Thom Atkins.