First RPE Quilts: Finished

Last week I blogged about my new printing and quilting projects based on the retinal pigment epithelium and choroid and today I'm back to share the first three small quilts I made from those printed fabrics.

This first one was a piece of painted silk, and finished 20" x 20".  After painting and markering the back RPE layer, I quilted around all the cells.  Then I fused down the orange choriocapillaris layer, quilted it, then painted it some more, then quilted some more.  This one was made to enter the Vision 2020 exhibition being curated by Brenda Gael Smith. 

RPE #3: Age-related Macular Degeneration. 20" x 20" c. Shannon Conley, 2020, Photo by Mike Cox

The second and third ones were made out of a scrap of polyester crushed velvet.  I painted the back since I thought it would give me a crisper print, but then you couldn't really see it on the front.  However, I think the thickness of the fabric mean more paint was absorbed, so the colors turned out very vibrant.  These two are both donations for SAQA, one for the annual 12x12 SAQA auction, and one for the SAQA spotlight auction at the annual SAQA conference in Toronto.  The spotlight auction quilts are really small, and not finished on the edges.  They're 6"x8" and then matted so that the final part that shows is 4.5" x 6".  That's why it looks so unfinished here, all that edge will be cropped out with the mat.

RPE #1, 8" x 6", c. Shannon Conley, 2020

This one is showing for the month of March at the Shirley Stiles Gallery in Westwood, MO  and for the month of May at the InterUrban Art House (IUAH) in Overland Park, KS, so if you happen to be in the area, stop in and see the exhibition.  It'll be a collection of these 12x12 quilts from SAQA members in our region.

RPE #2, 12"x12", c. Shannon Conley, 2020

These three were all in the same colorway, but I painted several others, so there will probably be some more coming with a similar theme.  It was certainly fun to experiment!

SAQA Auction Quilt 2021 etc.

 In going through my files this week I found a couple of small projects from the last couple of months that I don't think I blogged about.  Apologies if I've shared them and just don't remember, I'm not always great at tagging or finding things on the blog.  

The first thing is my annual 12 x 12 donation quilt for the SAQA auction.  SAQA is a really great organization; I'd encourage any of you who are art quilters to think about joining.  They have a wonderful array of educational materials for members, a phenomenal global exhibition program and exciting regional programming and exhibitions amid much else.  The annual fundraising auction isn't until the fall, but I made my 12" square quilt for it a month or so ago.  

Sometimes I have a clear idea what I'm going to do, or sometimes it's a smaller exploratory version of something larger I'm working on.  It's always fun to go back and look at previous 12 x 12s, some of them really stand out to me and some I can hardly remember.  Here are some if you want to take a peek: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013.      This year I didn't have any strong feelings but I made it when I was feeling stuck on something else and I just wanted to get out all my bright and colorful fabric scraps.  I started by making a big swoosh on a piece of light background and then just laying out rainbow colored swooshy bits cut from my stash of fabric that already had fusible.  It was so much fun digging through those bins.  Some are hand-dyed, some are old ties or prom dresses that were cut up, some are just other silks and brocades and weird things from my stash.

After fusing down all the little bits, I put a layer of tulle over it and then quilted.  The binding is a favorite rainbow galaxy sort of print from an old Caryl Fallert collection.  It was all chunked up, so I loved being able to extract enough long pieces for the binding.

I had a lot of fun making this, and it really lifted my spirits.  I'll probably circle back around to it when the auction nears, but it's nice to work on some small discrete projects occasionally.

One of the other small projects from this spring was this clutch wallet I made for my mom for mother's day.  The pattern is from Sew Sweetness, it's from the Greenbacks Wallet Trio.  I love her patterns, they're really fun.  I made one for me a few years ago and gave it to my sister, and not too long ago my mom saw it and asked for one for herself.  She's always loved hippos and yellow which is probably why I bought this fabric many years ago, but I've never done anything with it.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity!!

Assembling always feels like it will be tricky, but is fairly straightforward as long as you take your time and go slow!

Aren't those hippos adorable!  

2022 Wrap-Up

It's time for a look back a 2022.  These are mostly for myself-  creatively 2022 feels like a really off year.  Blogging wise it's about the same as 2021 and 2019 (2020 was an uptick), and the majority of posts were I like posts, thanks to LeeAnna's wonderful community.   Where it really feels off is in the amount of time I was able to dedicate to art-making.  That also feels like a continuation from 2021, again down from a pretty productive (artistically) year in 2020.

I lost Bentley this year, and my mom lost both her dog Jordy and her dog Shooter who'd lived with me for several years before going to my mom, so it was a tough year on the dog front.  It was a good year for flowers, lots of dahlias on these pages, and a hard year for work.  I'm here though and doing just fine.  Really really grateful for my family and friends.  Another good thing this year were travels with my family, and on the art side, I sold a few older art quilts.  It always makes me feel better about making when old pieces find new homes!

This came from my 2021 wrap-up post:

"My goal for 2022 is not necessarily to make more, but to hopefully just spend more time working on things (like my art quilts) that are positives in my life, rather than running around constantly feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and negative.  My goal for 2022, articulated by LeeAnna, but resonating so much with me I decided to adopt it, is to promote goodness.  I feel in need of an attitude adjustment, of reframing to not necessarily always see the bright side, but to work toward something good.  I'll try!"

I don't feel like I really succeeded on any of that, but I still like the goal, so I'm going to hold to it for 2023.  I'm starting the year optimistic which is a step in the right direction.  We'll see if I can translate it into action.  

A few other goals for 2023, not all craft focused but I'm writing them here so that they can be written somewhere:

1. Use up some of the miscellaneous crafty bits.  I don't tend to accumulate UFOs in the traditional sense, but I do accumulate little crafty and artsy bits here and there.  They pile up in my studio just waiting for the day I will use them in something.  They all tend to be put away, and some might be suitable for art quilts while others maybe should just be pieced into baby or charity quilts.  In any case I want to use some of them!  I think I'm going to write a post cataloging some of them just to bring them to my own attention.  

2.  Visit 12 National Park Service Sites in 2023.  I want to challenge myself to visit 12 new NPS sites this year.  I got off to a great start with Alibates NM, but it will be challenging to hit 11 more (there aren't that many around here) but I figure maybe I can get to an average of one per month if I make a point of visiting ones near where I'm traveling.

Since part of the reason I like to do these wrap-ups is to remind myself I really did make things, here's a quick list of art and other makes for 2022.

For the first year in a long time I didn't complete any large (by my definition, which is less about piece size and more about the overall magnitude of the project) work.  I did make several medium sized art quilts, many of which I really liked. 

I Will be Grateful

Ice #2

Phase Diagram: Ice

Alleluia, Alleluia

Boxelder Bugs

Finally, this is a 3D sculptural piece I made this year,  I hated it so much (all the color washed out in an unhappy way) that I never even blogged about it, but I'm determined to make it into something I like better in 2023.  I like the shape and form, but the colors make me want to curl up into a ball.

Smaller Things:

SAQA Auction Donation

Embroidered Pincushion

Cash!

Ribosome Sweater

Black Flame Candle Socks

So here's to a good 2023!