"People and Portraits": The "I Can't Remember a Thing" Blog Give-away

 

While being holed up at home recovering from a cold, the postman brightened my day by delivering my copy of Martha Sielman's new book Art Quilt Portfolio: People and Portraits. You may recall that her first book in this series was "Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World", which I was a featured artist in.

Well OK, to be quite frank, the postman actually brought me TWO copies of People and Portraits. Why? Because I pre-ordered a copy at two different times and forgot that I had done so. Therefore, today I'm having a "I Can't Remember a Thing" blog give-away!!  Everyone who leaves a message before midnight EST on Thursday, March 28 will be entered in a draw to win this book. Some of my favorite artists are featured. Here is just a small sampling of what you will find in the book. It truly is a beautiful and inspiring book!

Jenny Bowker is an Australian artist, who has lived for periods of time in various locations in the Middle East. Her portraiture captures the personalities of honest and hard-working muslim men at work, chipping away at often biased westerm understanding of them. She shoots thousands of photographs in her travels for inspiration for her work. Her blog is filled with amazing stories of her adventures in the Middle East, and she has been instrumental in bringing attention to the works of the Tentmakers of Cairo. You will find many videos here featuring the Tentmakers. Jenny also teaches around the world.

"Abu Ali and the Gilded Chairs" by Jenny Bowker

Margot Lovinger is an artist from Eugene, Oregon, who does amazing figurative work using layers of sheers. While she graduated from art school in 1994, it was only after her father died of AIDS that she started working with textiles when she made a panel in his honour for the AIDS Memorial Quilt. I have been a huge fan of Margot's work for a long time. As many of you know I've been trying to come up with ways of using my hand-dyed organza in my work, and find it a challenge. I am in awe of her use of sheer materials, and of course love the highlights and shadows. Margot photographs all her models herself, and recounts in the book how she sometimes meets someone in a social situation that she finds facinating to look at and will invite them to model for her.

"Night" by Margot Lovinger

Margot and fellow members of the group Material Artistry also happened to be the jurors for the 2012 Fiber Art Show at Infinity Art Gallery. When my entry won Second Place, Margot was the one to write the beautiful tribute to my piece In the Act.

Joan Sowada is an artist from Wyoming, who I have featured on my blog on a previous occasion. Her compositions are masterful and full of movement, showing people engaged in life, and including just enough detail of faces without making them overdone.

"Busy" by Joan Sowada, 2012

Just as in The Natural World, there are 21 artists featured in People and Portraits. There are more amazing ones that I didn't even know existed until reading this book. 

Good luck in the blog give-away. The good news is that you can purchase a copy of People and Portraits for less than $20 at amazon.ca.

Winner of Blog Give Away: "Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World"

Congratulations to Josée, who is the name drawn to win a copy of "Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World". I only know one Josée, so it must be Josée Dambois from Ottawa. Josée, please email me to let me know if I am correct and how we might arrange to get the book to you.  Often I am unable to respond to blog posts as my responses go to "no-reply" and there is no last name associated with the comment.  The next blog give away will be announced on Monday.

It appears that there is overwhelming support for business card #2, followed by #6, and then 9, 4 and 1.  I am going to give another try to using Photoshop to cut out the irregular red stool quilt used in #2 and placing it on a green background.  If anyone has tips on how to do that I'm all ears.  I've tried a few times unsuccessfully.  I did use Gloria Hansen's wonderful "Digital Essentials" book, but couldn't find some of her prompts in my version of Photoshop?.  Heather suggested using red text instead of green in #2, which I did try, and found it drew too much attention from the quilt. I will keep comments about font type and size in mind.

Thank you all for your help!

I Need Your Help Blog Give Away

Thanks to everyone who stopped by with comments during the last blog give-away. The next celebratory blog give-away is a copy of the book "Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World". 

To be eligible to win this book I need a little bit of your help.  I've been experimenting with new business card designs.  I've updated my old design (Design One) below, and created ten additional designs.  Please vote on your favorite of the eleven designs.  Those who cast a vote by midnight EST on Friday, January 18 will have their names entered in a draw to win this book. Also, don't hesitate to make suggestions to improve your favorite design.

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4

Design 5

Design 6

Design 7

Design 8

Design 9

Design 10

Design 11

"The Natural World" is in Quilting Arts

I returned from Haliburton last night and will be blogging shortly about my second week of teaching.  I suddenly realized yesterday that this is a long weekend, thanks to an email in which my sister mentioned it!!  I remember how I used to live for long weekends when I had a 9-5 job, but now that I do a job that I love, long weekends don't have the same meaning anymore.  I am very fortunate to be able to organize my own time the way I want, around my own commitments and deadlines.  While I was away, I learned from friends that there is a special feature article on pages 34-40 of the August/September issue of Quilting Arts about the "Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World" book.  You may recall that I am one of 19 featured artists in this book.  My piece, "Unfurling" appears in the Quilting Arts article.  "Unfurling" is now in the collection of Norma Schlager, who purchased it in the 2009 SAQA Auction.  I haven't seen the article yet myself, but hope to pick up a copy of the magazine soon.

Unfurling, 2009 by Elaine Quehl

Update

The winner of last week's book give-away is Gail Segreto of Elizabeth, Colorado.  Your book was mailed this morning Gail.  I hope you enjoy it.  The book must be selling like hotcakes as I ordered a couple more copies from Amazon.ca, only to find they are now backordered. 
I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend.  I got to stay home with my husband and three geriatric cats.  My blind Johnnie was glued to my lap at every chance he got!  Here is the rear view of him sitting on my lap. 

Although the weekend was chilly, we enjoyed bright sunny days.  I spent some time in the backyard, accompanied by my three cats. It is amazing how well a blind cat does in his own backyard.  He always finds the backdoor when he is ready to come back in.

I checked out all the new life springing up, and yes, green is still my favorite colour!

On the weekend I drafted an article that is due soon for an on-line quilting magazine.  I will share more details when the article is published.  I also dyed 22 meters of multi-coloured fabric.  There is a class happening at the local guild where students will be making convergence quilts and I was asked if I could provide fabric.  Here is a photo of the convergence-type fabrics in my own stash because I haven't ironed the ones for sale yet.  They are very similar.

Last week I travelled up the Ottawa Valley and spent two days teaching for the Renfrew Quilters Guild.  On the first day I had 13 students in "Introduction to Machine Quilting", and on the second I had four students in "In Full Bloom".  You can see the four here working on their flowers.  It was a great experience teaching such a small class and being able to provide a lot more individual attention to each student.

Right now I'm preparing for my Resist Dyeing class at the Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild this Saturday.  I need to simplify and clarify everything because there will be a few students who are new to dyeing.  My Resist Dyeing class will include flour paste resist and soy wax batik.  I will report back later next week.  I ill be heading back up the Ottawa Valley next week to spend two days with the Pembroke Quilters Guild.  When I get back I have several local classes to deliver.



Oh, and I'm pleased to share that I've signed up for a drawing class through the Ottawa School of Art at the Shenkman Ars Centre.  I found one that will fit into my schedule fairly well, and I will only miss one or two classes because of teaching commitments.  Class starts April 25!

That's all the news in my world.  When the Spring teaching season settles down I hope to make some progress in my studio, and I will be sure to post pictures when I do!

Natural World: Blog Give-Away 2

The winner of the first book give-away was Jackie White of Manitowaning, Ontario.  Jackie, your book was shipped yesterday.

Since I'm heading out of town to teach for the next two days I thought I would do the second blog give-away of "Art Quilt Portfolio; The Natural World" today, since we are also heading into a long weekend.  The first person to post a message to my blog will win a copy.

Good luck!

Announcing "The Natural World" Book Give-away

I just returned last night after my 15 day teaching and lecturing trip to the Greater Toronto area. Waiting for me when I got home was a few copies of "Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World". You've heard me talk about this book for a while, and I can tell you it is gorgeous! Given that nature is my muse, of course I would find a book on the natural world gorgeous! However, this book contains works by some of my favorite artists! I am also one of the 19 artists featured in the book. The others are: Judith Trager, Paula Chung, Ginny Smith, Ginny Eckley, Sally Dillon, Karen Miller, Cassandra Williams, Betty Busby, Annie Helmericks-Louder, Dominie Nash, Katherine Allen, Annemieke Main, Melani Brewer, Ruth McDowell, Dottie Moore, Nancy G. Cook, Barbara Barick-McKie and Patricia Gould. Each artist has a 6-page spread, with photos and an interview. Martha Sielman interviewed each artist in depth, and it is clear she took the time to research the work of each artist as the questions are very specific to each individual.

I was also pleased to find two photos of my work on the back cover of the book (upper right and lower left)!

Here's a sneak peek at the first two pages of the section about me. Even though it isn't my favorite work, they really seem to have liked that tree, as they printed it large and used it on the back cover.

I will be blogging about my Toronto trip shortly. I do want to say thank you to a couple of readers who wrote to ask if I was OK, since I haven't written for so long. I am actually in better shape than when I left!

Today I am giving away a copy of "Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World" to the first person who posts a comment to my blog.

The Natural World Leads to Houston

This is the cover for the upcoming book "Art Quilt Portfolio: the Natural World". While I was away in Yellowknife, I received an email from Martha Sielman telling me that the book is due to be released very soon. I should receive my complementary copy in March. I see that it will be available from amazon.ca on April 3, 2012. You may recall me mentioning that I will be one of the featured artists in this new book. I also learned from the email I received this past week that Quilts Inc. plans to showcase a special exhibit of the work of artists who appear in the book at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall. I was also asked if I could be at Houston to spend a bit of time in the booth to help sell and autograph books. Miraculously, I am not booked to teach in the period October 31 - November 4 when the show takes place, so I'm putting these dates on my calendar in ink and will keep my eyes open for a good price on flights! It can get a bit dicey finding a hotel room near the show if you don't book immediately after the previous show. Fortunately my friend Betty Busby, who is also a featured artist in the book, secured her hotel room right after the last show, and she has invited me to share her double room. It's been a few years since I've been to the International Quilt Festival in Houston.

The quilt on the cover is by Barbara McKie.