Artwork for Art in Embassies

 I am honored once again to lend artwork for the Art in Embassies program. Two of my art quilts have been picked up and are on their way to Astana, Kazakhstan. They were chosen, with the assistance of a curator, by Ambassador Julie M. Stufft. See the full exhibit here. I am grateful to the ambassador for her interest in my work. This is my third time participating in the program.

Included are In Dreams I Went Fishing. Imagery in this quilt reflects my thoughts on the past use of the resources of the three rivers in Pittsburgh PA by indigenous peoples, changes wrought by industrialization, and post-industrialization restoration efforts.

Materials: wool, silk and mylar fabrics; cotton, silk and wool fabric. Techniques: wet process cyanotype/solar dye, needlefelting, hand embroidery, beadwork, hand stitched patchwork.

Size: 49”h x 77”w

In Dreams I Went Fishing

In Dreams I Went Fishing - detail

Also traveling to Kazakhstan is Late Summer Roses. This work was begun plein air in the garden of the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg PA. I was inspired by the late blooming roses and the mellow brick pathways. 

Wool and silk fibers, wool and silk fabrics, hand painted and commercial fabrics, needlefelting, stitching, hand beadwork.

Size: 54”h x 47”w

Late Summer Roses

Late Summer Roses - detail

When the art truck was here for the pickup, they also dropped off my quilts, On the Verge and The Organic Garden, returning from their time at the Embassy in Papua New Guinea. I appreciate the care that goes into transporting the works.

On the Verge

The Organic Landscape

As always, thanks for reading and for your support. Pick your platform to find and follow my content: 

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Art Quilting Studio Article

 I'm honored that my work is featured in the current issue, Autumn 2019, of Art Quilting Studio Magazine. The article, Stitching the Natural World, shows three of my large art quilts, and includes a basic tutorial on some of the techniques I used to create them.

It's a large, quality publication, packed full of beautiful quilts and engaging commentary. I am very pleased to be able to share my work with their readership.

New Work - Late Summer Roses

Late Summer Roses

 I'm pleased to share with you another newly completed work, Late Summer Roses.

Late Summer Roses, detail 1

 It was begun plein air in the garden of the Governor's Residence in Harrisburg, PA. At the previous year's event, I focused on the wonderful Magnolia tree. This time, I was enticed by the prolific late summer blooms on the rose bushes, and the way they complemented the mellow brick of the walkways.

Late Summer Roses, detail 2

 The center panel is needlefelted with wool and silk, heavily stitched, and has a sparkly seed bead sewn onto on each individual rose. The supporting quilt is made of cotton and silk patchwork, including my own hand painted fabrics.  It measures 54"h x 47"w. You can track back the creation of this work by clicking here, or on Late Summer Roses in the right sidebar.

Late Summer Roses, detail 3

Late Summer Roses and its companion piece Magnolia made their exhibit debut at Life Along the River: Narrative art quilts depicting the Susquehanna River and its environs, at the Pennsylvania Arts Experience Gallery, Marketview Arts, York, PA, March 3 – 31, 2017.   I will be giving an artist talk on Saturday, March 25th at 11:00 a.m.

As always, thanks for reading and commenting.

Late Summer Roses - update 5

I finished the felting and the stitching on the center panel..I clean-finished the edges by adding a backing.  I could have called it done at the point, but I decided to add beadwork to the panel.  I like the way beads add texture and detail, and I enjoy the meditative quality of sewing on the beads one at a time.  It's slow work, but that's ok.  I've begun by stitching tiny glass seed beads to each rose.

I like my for my work to grab your attention from a distance, then reward you for coming in to take a closer look.

I also made good progress on designing and piecing the background quilt that the panel will eventually be mounted onto, using the patchwork strips I put together earlier.

I don't like measuring things.  I can do it well if required, if the finished work needs to be a certain size or there are other considerations.  But the act of measuring and turning the dimensions into numbers, and then working with those numbers instead of directly with the materials, feels unnecessary and intrusive.  I've been doing this a long time.  I started out as a semi-traditional quilter (I never had the patience to follow a pattern), so I have a good innate sense of what's needed and how it will all fit together.  I square up and measure it all at the end.

And I am approaching the end of the design work, I'm soon ready to layer it and begin quilting.  I'm having a lot of fun with this one.

You can track this work back by clicking on Late Summer Roses in the right sidebar, or go here.

Late Summer Roses - update 4

I'm making steady progress on Late Summer Roses.  I've just added the roses.  They are little balls of wool roving, felted into place.  I may add beadwork or more detailing to them, I'm still contemplating my next move, but for now I am very happy with how things look.

I've also pieced the strips of silk and cotton into long strip sets, that will be sliced up and pieced further for the background quilt.  

There's a lot of work that goes into the preparatory part of quilt assembly.  Soon it will all be all fun and games as I put these elements together.  Stay tuned!

Late Summer Roses - update 3

My plan for Late Summer Roses is to mount the needlefelted and quilted panel onto a supporting quilt. I use this technique often. I feel it's very effective in framing and highlighting the panel, and adding context to the imagery. Examples include Magnolia:

Magnolia

 Ice Jam:

Ice Jam

And If I Woke at Dawn: 

If I Woke at Dawn

Towards that end, I've pulled fabrics in two colorways and cut strips as a first step towards strip piecing.  The strips will then be cut and reassembled. 

Work continues on the center panel. I've added in the background for the rosebushes:

And thread painted them. Now all it needs is the roses. I've carefully built up the background and am excited to finally add them.

Late Summer Roses - update 2

 I'm working on a new project, Late Summer Roses, that I began plein air in the garden of the PA Governor's Residence.  (Read the first installment here.) Back in the studio, I started with a good hard look at what I had made on site.

I was pleased with it, but there were some obvious corrections to be made, so I made them.

I then began building on the foundation, detailing the mulch beds and the brickwork, with needlefelting and with stitching. I also added the clouds in the sky.

Next, I added the first layer of foliage to the trees.

Stay tuned! Lots more to come, including the rosebushes.

Late Summer Roses - New Work in Progress

A few weeks ago I was one of the plein air artists working at the PA Governor's Residence, as detailed in my previous blog post here.  The weather was on the warm side but otherwise lovely, and I set up my workstation in the shade of the arches near the rose garden. 

I was particularly intrigued by the contrast between the hard geometric shapes of the brick pathways, and the roses enjoying one last full flush of bloom. 

Here's a panorama view showing more of the roses, and the side entrance to the Residence.  On the left is the large magnolia tree that was the focus of my plein air work there last year, resulting in the eponymous Magnolia art quilt:

Magnolia, by Sue Reno

(You can track back blog post about the creation of Magnolia here.)

This time around I knew where to set my expectations.  A lot of the pleasure of working in this kind of setting is talking to and interacting with the public, so my focus was on that and on getting the basics of the scene blocked out.

I talked a lot about fiber art, and needlefelting, and had my needlefelting flip book there to show how my typical work-in-progress proceeds.  I gave out samples of roving to children, and let interested visitors take a stab at using the needlefelting tool.  

By the end of the afternoon I had blocked out the path and the large trees, and had a firm vision in my head of where I wanted to take this piece when I got back into the studio.  It was a good day.