TWELVE BY TWELVE

Code Pink

2009-11-24T22:19:00.001-08:00

I am having fun working on my pink piece. In the last few days, I have been thinking about these women who work tirelessly for peace, and I wish I had thought of doing my quilt about them.

Another pink again

2009-11-24T03:20:00.000-08:00

This is the kind of pink I am working with. Do you think it is pink enough?

Bid-4A-Cause: Roseus Goddessii

2009-11-22T21:46:00.000-08:00

There have been several pink textile works in my life over recent months but it's all been for a good cause. The Bid-4A-Cause reverse auction commences on Friday, 27 November 2009 (Australian time) to raise funds for the [Australian] National Breast Cancer Foundation. Amongst the 14 A4-sized pieces that are up for grabs is Roseus Goddessii:

Roseus Goddessii by Brenda Gael Smith

"Roseus Goddessii" comes in all shapes and sizes. This piece includes eleven fine lines – ten pale pink and one deep pink – to represent that one in eleven women in Australia will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 75.

The one I didn't do

2009-11-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

I have had such a hard time getting inspired to do a pink quilt. Sorry, but I just don't like pink, except in small doses. Last week when our STASH group visited quilt shops I bought this fat quarter.

It is a subdued pink—not too bubblegum or Barbie. I told Gerrie I was going to take it home and stare at it until something came to me. Then a few days later I drove up to meet some friends in North Portland (you may have read about it on my blog. It was the tour of Mississippi street) and I had to park a couple blocks off the main drag in a, shall we say, "transitional" neighborhood. Right across the street from where I parked was this sad, pink house.

My photo doesn't really show the full extent of it's peeliness and patchiness and sagginess, though if you look closely I think you can see that the address plaque on the door hangs at an angle. It was obviously many years ago that someone had the inspiration to paint it a precious combo of pink with aqua trim. Its grodiness really appealed to me and I got right to work drawing up a plan for it when I got home. But as I worked I could see that it was going to end up in fabric being "cute"—exactly what I did not want. Hmmmm. What to do?

I got sick the same day I was humming on where to go with this darn pink challenge and went to bed with a slight fever that night. I slept fitfully and dreamt, crazily, about making a pink quilt. At one point an old friend, an angel really, appeared in my dream, waving scissors and pointing me in an altogether different direction. When I awoke I had my new idea, goofy as it is. And I have to tell you that subdued pink is not going to work at all. Yesterday I went out and bought a nice garish bubblegum pink fabric. I have gone over to the pink side...

Exciting News!

2009-11-20T10:34:00.000-08:00

The Twelve by Twelve artists are excited twelve times over to announce that:

(drum roll, please.... )

Sterling Publications/Lark Books will be publishing a book on our Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt project!

We are thrilled beyond words to have this wonderful opportunity, and so happy that our art endeavors and friendships are turning us into authors, too. We know that Lark was impressed by the loyal folks who follow our blogs and website, so thanks to all of you friends-of-Twelves for your encouraging words through our explorations!
We'll keep you posted as we know publication dates.

We are lifting a virtual glass of champagne to each other and to all of you for your support!

Done

2009-11-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

This is all you get until December 12 -- reveal day.

In the mood

2009-11-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get into the pink spirit here!

Nearly Done

2009-11-16T19:06:00.000-08:00

This is going on my Pink quilt. My inspiration is the pink I see twice a week, but know is a part of all of us. And as I'm working on this, I keep hearing Stella from Project Runway in my ear saying, "leathah!" Any guesses?

Four Twelves or One Third!!

2009-11-07T16:19:00.000-08:00

Four of us together at Diane's home yesterday!! Helen and I in the back and Karen and Diane in the front. Thank you Diane for a really wonderful day. And thank you Karen for making the trek from Thousand Oaks for the day. And most of all thank you, Helen, for giving us an excuse for the rendezvous.

2x12s Together!

2009-11-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

I am headed out shortly to meet up with Helen! Helen and her husband Dennis have been in San Francisco for the last several days, and we are meeting up in Berkeley to do a tour of a few fabric shops (Stone Mountain and Daughter, New Pieces, The Cotton Patch) and then Helen and Dennis will come back to Healdsburg to stay with me and my family for a few nights!

I can hardly wait to meet her, and I SO SO SO wish all of you could join us!

We'll be thinking of all of you!

Tickled pink...

2009-10-31T04:41:00.001-07:00

... that I have finished my pink quilt as I had images of me toting it around world with me. Of course I cannot show it you but I will assure you that I have not abandoned my penchance for stitching odd things on to my quilts. Nor am I ashamed to embarrass myself in the name of art. Which is how come I went to the local pharmacy.

"I need some over the counter medication please."

"Of course, what is it for?"

"It doesn't matter as long as it is pink. Its for sewing onto a quilt."

She did not, to give her credit, bat an eylid. She searched and opened packets and found me pink pills. She sold them to me, she smiled and, as I was walking out of the shop with my back turned I heard her say,

"Well, that's the oddest one yet."

I took it as a compliment :)

Think Fuschia

2009-10-29T17:21:00.001-07:00

Guess what I've been doing today?!

Another pink

2009-10-27T06:50:00.001-07:00

Into the Pink

2009-10-26T00:59:00.000-07:00

When I snapped these photos on my morning walk towards the end of our Twelve challenge, little did I know that "pink" would be our first colourplay palette:

I have an idea (and it doesn't involve flowers) but need a break in my calendar to explore it more.

Postcards to South Australia

2009-10-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all our readers who left a comment on our Celebration Awards. It's been a heart warming and eye-opening experience to revisit the significant body of work that has been created over the past two years. I collated the comments, allocated a number to each and then applied a random generator to draw Jennifer Loveder from South Australia as the winner of some freshly minted Twelve by Twelve postcards. Jennifer is a longstanding follower of the Twelve by Twelve blog and is keen to see if she can attend the WORLD PREMIERE of our exhibition at the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne, 29 April to 2 May 2010.

Kirsty and I will both be accompanying the 144 art quilts from our first Theme series to the AQC exhibition and will be giving floor talks. In additon, I will be teaching four, one day workshops ranging from Scrap Queen Odyssey to Stacks of Improvisation. The full tutor list and workshop program for the Australasian Quilt Convention 2010 can now be viewed at online and bookings open at 9am on Monday, 26 October 2009.

Most Surprising

2009-10-23T04:00:00.000-07:00

Honestly, the first thing that comes to my mind is how surprising this whole experience has been. When Diane invited me to participate more than two years ago, I just thought it sounded fun. Sure, it's been fun. But, it's been much much more.

I have grown to know, respect, appreciate and completely enjoy every moment with the eleven other artists. A delightful surprise.

Also, I've created a body of work with my 12 pieces that I am very proud of and is a great representation of me as an artist. Who knew I was essentially creating a portfolio for myself? I would guess several of the other 12s would say the same thing. A delightful surprise.

As far as surprising quilts, where to begin?

Surprisingly similar: Chocolate quilts by me, Brenda and Nikki.
Surprisingly realistic: Diane's Shelter quilt
There are other quilts with lots of realism, but several of them include image transfer of photographs (which is wonderful!). I love this image that Diane created exclusively with fabric and thread!

Surprisingly candid: Terry's Chair quilt
Terry shared a lovely story about spending time with her granddaughter and her cousin. This quilt is so evocative of those experiences.

Surprisingly moving: Kristin's Twelve quilt
Surprisingly educational: Helen's Illumination quilt
I was totally unaware of Blackpool or Blackpool rock candy. Helen's original blog post was so interesting and I did quite a bit of internet surfing, "research" and reading about it after seeing this quilt.

I can't wait to see what surprises will come with the next round of "colorplay" quilts!

Most Bling

2009-10-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Most Bling. This one was a hard one for me, not because I couldn't think of any quilts with bling, but because they were all mine. I seem to be the one who doesn't quite know when to stop when it comes to embellishment. The other members of the group are much more sophisticated and reserved. Their designs rely upon other strengths. The challenge of finding the most bling did lead me through another wonderful walk through all 144 quilts. And guess what I found, Bling!, and a beautiful, elegant example of it.

Karen's "Enlightenment" from August 2008.

Karen used beautiful sequined Indian fabrics and beads to illustrate the eastern religious idea of illumination signifying enlightenment. The sequins and beads make the piece sparkle!

Twelve Theme Postcards

2009-10-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

We hope our readers are enjoying our Celebration Awards. Don't forget, if you leave a comment on one of our Celebration Awards posts, your name will go into a draw to win some Twelve theme postcards:

Most Humorous

2009-10-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

The Most Humorous

I found it very difficult to choose the most humorous quilt out of all 144 (actually 132, because I wasn’t counting mine). Mainly because all of the quilts were created by such talented artists and each quilt exudes the artist’s creativity, thought processes, and inspiration.

I’ve chosen two for this award. One of those is Helen’s Blackpool Rocks quilt. Just looking at this quilt in action puts a smile on your face. Who would have thought to put a swirling, twirling, illuminated light wand onto a quilt? Why Helen, of course! But once you read Helen’s thoughts and history on her quilt, you soon find that humor replaced with reality.

The other quilt I’ve given this award to is Gerrie’s Passion quilt, Satin Sheets. With Gerrie’s quilt, you actually have to get the story behind the quilt to understand the humor. On first glimpse of the quilt you may not realize exactly what she is trying to say, therefore, the description and quilt must work together.

I Would Never Have Guessed

2009-10-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

Since I was allocated the task of selecting the recipient of the I Would Never Have Guessed (Biggest Departure of Style) Award, I've been reviewing the individual Artist Gallery pages on the Twelve by Twelve website and playing a version of that Sesame Street favourite - one of these things is not like the others.

If you had asked me to play this game two years ago, pretty much all of the 144 works in the first series would have been eligible for this award. Not because any Twelve has necessarily departed from her trademark style but because back in 2007 (doesn't that sound a long time ago!) I didn't know some of my fellow Twelves and, even if I'd admired their work on their blogs, I wasn't at all familiar with their personal motifs and preferred media and techniques.

Fast forward two years and I think we all know a lot more about each other and our art. In the case of Nikki, I associate her creations with mixed-media exuberance - colourful yarns; a sprinkling of bling; beads, buttons and embellishments; layers of paint and colour; often enhanced by intensely machine-quilted texture. And just when I thought I had my new friend all figured out, she presented us with "something new" - Mom's Hideout, a gentle, restrained, contemplative piece with the image created entirely by hand stitching. I would never have guessed but I'm very glad Nikki shared this with us.

Which Twelve by Twelve quilt do you think is the Biggest Departure from Style?

Most Colorful

2009-10-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

This should be easy, just look at the mosaic of all 144 quilts and pick out the one that stands out as using the most color, right? Not so easy.

I set about circling all the ones I thought used a lot of different colors, and came up with 34! OK, maybe I'm looking at this from the wrong direction. I thought about it for a while and came up with 2 new "subcategories" within most colorful.

The first award is "The Twelve that uses the most color in her quilts", and that award goes to Diane. Although everyone of us had at least one piece with a rainbow of colors, Diane had several, including "All Togehter Now" in the Community theme, and the wonderful "All Hands" in our "Twelve" theme.

The second category is "Most Colorful Theme", and that award goes to "Twelve". This was really a judgement call on my part, as several themes used a lot of color, but on this theme the variety of colors really stood out, including Gerrie's "The Twelves", Kirsten's "Midway", Terri's "12x12 The Board Game", Deborah's "Seven Houses, 5 Trees", Terry's "Twelfth of Twelve", and Nikki's "The Kissing Number".

I had fun reviewing all of our themes once more, and it made me so proud to be a part of this group.

How DID She Do That?

2009-10-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty good at "backwards engineering" things that I see. I can look at rather complex traditional quilts and find the repeating blocks. I can spot Photoshop jobs from a mile away. I can figure out how most art quilts I see have been constructed -- even if I have no clue what was going on in their maker's head when they were conceived.

But I can't separate the layers on Karen's shelter quilt, and I definitely couldn't have visualized what she did.

Karen's subtle layers of hand dyed cotton, painted sheers, and screen printing all blend masterfully to create a believable atmosphere. If only I could step into my computer screen I know I could walk up those steps and feel the misty air. This is one quilt that I long to see in person so it may unlock it's secrets to me.

Biggest Stretch of the Theme

2009-10-17T05:30:00.000-07:00

The award goes to... Kristin's water quilt - Sustainer & Destroyer!
Not only did Kristin choose to make a quilt about the destroying power of water, but she actually did use materials that can be destroyed by water. Soluble thread and interfacing, basting glue, watercolours...
And, can you imagine that she's planning to, one day, pour water on her quilt to ruin it? Such a lovely piece of work!
Kristin, if you really do this, I want to be present that day. And I guess all the other twelves will want to be there too... (Hawaii would be the perfect place, after our exhibitions of course.)

Most Likely to Get Pulled Over by the Quilt Police

2009-10-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury:

You have now seen all 144 examples of the art created by the 12x12 quilt artists. I submit to you: they are a rowdy bunch, undisciplined and even messy in their studios, unpredictable and unrestrained in their choices of colors and materials. They are not an orderly group. (To be fair, they do meet their deadlines.)

With what infractions can they charged? Imperfect points? Haphazard stitching? Uneven edging? No! Such petty rules do not apply to these artistic conspirators. Instead, I offer for your consideration the following indictments:

Identity Theft: Terri
For using faces so beautifully in her quilts

Inflaming the Emotions of the Jury: Helen
For capturing our attention with moving stories behind her quilts

Embellishing her testimony: Nikki
For including wonderful beadwork, stitching and other marvelous detail work in her quilts

Speeding: Gerrie
For making the most amazing quilts at the last minute

Repeat Offender: Francoise
For creating a set of work with a consistency of style and color resulting in elegant cohesion

Walking the line: Terry
For using line so wonderfully as a strong design element in her pieces

Conspiracy: Kristin
For incorporating such thoughtful and complex layers of meaning in her quilts

Carrying concealed weapons: Deborah
For consistent and inspirational use of a personal symbology and color palette in her pieces

Trafficking: Kirsten
... in COLOR that is, for her delightful use of a multitude of color in her pieces

Caught red handed: Karen
That's paint and ink, I hope... For using such impressive surface design techniques in her pieces (Gerrie qualifies as an accessory to this, as well)

Double Jeopdardy and Murder: Brenda
For producing so many alternative entries in the challenge rounds AND for causing so much fabric to DYE (undoubtedly qualifying for the Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity defense)

Jury, what say you?

Creative Use of Materials

2009-10-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

When I learned that my assignment was awarding "The Most Creative Use of Materials" award, I had to think for—oh—about a half a second! Helen, of course. No contest.

Helen sewed and quilted real maps. Helen used real coins. Helen used rolled paper documents. But I think Helen really blew us away when she revealed her "Illumination" piece and it was really illuminated. With real light—that moved—and changed.

Here is what it looks like in daylight. That's a party wand gizmo attached to the front of the piece.

Now, turn out the lights, turn on the wand, and this is what you see.

Pure magic!

Go to her original post here to see more, including a short video of this piece in action, and read what it all means. It is not all sweetness and light.

Helen never fails to surprise, delight, inform and make us think. I am so happy that the 12 x 12 project has brought her into my life!