Auditioning Additions to the Red

 OK, so (above) I have returned the gray handpainted gradation strip to the red.  I thought I could do better, so I kept messing around.

Below, you can see where I have auditioned some block printed pieces of black raw silk.  These block prints are all leftover from the Red Mandala group I did previously and there is already Mistyfuse on the back.  I added a lot of parts and pieces before I remembered to take a picture. 

 I started with the five squares on the left and added the one on the right, then added the strips above and below the square on the right.  Finally, I added the skinny strips to the five squares on the left.  Meanwhile, I folded the edges back to about the size I want after it is trimmed.  I felt like I had to do that to make sure I am getting the proportions right.  This piece is all about balance.   I am hoping to be able to enter this piece in a SAQA exhibition called "Text Messages" - which has a size limitation of 24" wide.

Today's recipe on the Adaptive Cooking Blog is for Minestrone Soup!

Gold Printing on Red Damask

 I decide to go forward with this piece in the spirit of the Red Mandala series rather than the Cottonwood Trees / bushes series.  I love it with all the gold printing!  I used mainly Asian symbols and text.

Today's recipe on my Adaptive Cooking Blog is for Gluten Free Muffins.

Red Organza?

 My hand dyeing RED day included not only the stained linen tablecloth, but also some organza.  I am contemplating how to incorporate this organza into my design process.  In past pieces, I have screenprinted trees and bushes onto organza, which I then fused over a block printed background.  I could also use the organza as a binding, or maybe something else.......

Food for thought.  I need to leave it hanging for a while and think.

More Red!

 I dyed this Damask linen tablecloth with red dye to hide the stains, hoping it would become a wallhanging someday.  After making the three red mandala foot squares I showed yesterday, I felt ready to tackle something larger in red.  I cut a 30" wide strip from the tablecloth and put it on my design wall for some pondering..........

I was putting away the scraps of hand painted gray/black leftover from the Winter's Eve series I showed last month, and I auditioned this scrap on the red.  I like the way this looks - with the gradation.  Hmmm.....

Pondering the direction this piece should go.  Stay tuned!

Today's recipe on my Adaptive Cooking Blog is for Mulligatawny - a curried chicken rice soup that is one of my favorites!   It has coconut milk and apples in it.

Three Red Mandalas

Here are the three pieces I did in the Red Mandala series.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am happy to announce my new blog:  Alternative Cooking.

I am sharing many recipes for gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free cooking.  I have been cooking this way for 15 years due to multiple food allergies.  Please take a look!  http://adaptivecooking.blogspot.com/  My daughter, Meshell Alyse has done the photography - really beautiful food photos!

Today's recipe is Tamale Pie!  

Red Orange Mandala - 12" Square

This one is more orange than the other two.  Same screens for printing.  The black "mandala" is a block print on raw silk.

Modern Rock Art near Rangely, Colorado

 This is rock art from what is known as the Crooks Brand site.  These horse petroglyphs bear the brand used by General Crook, dating them into more (relatively speaking) modern times. 

 The petroglyphs are just around the corner from this dramatic sandstone hoodoo rock formation.

A Year of Art Fundraiser to Fight Cancer!

This is my donation to "A Year of Art"

Tomorrow our 2013 fiber fundraiser to fight cancer, "A Year of Art," opens
at 10 a.m. Central.

There are two ways you can join the fun:
1.  Donate any amount and be entered in a drawing with one grand prize worth
more than $1550.

 http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/AYearofArt2013InspirationDrawing.html

2.  Bid on eleven artworks donated by Pamela Allen, Pokey Bolton, Linda
Colsh, Jane Davila, Vivika DeNegre, Jane Dunnewold, Jamie Fingal, Laura
Wasilowski, Yvonne Porcella, Karen Stiehl Osborn, and me.

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/AYearofArtArtwork.html

Our goal is $8000 in just 8 hours.  It's crazy, I know.  But I believe we
can do it.  We have donated over $220,000 to the American Cancer Society to
fight cancer.  I know with your generous support that our total will grow to
nearly $230,000 on February 12 and 13.

Many thanks in advance,

Dark Red Mandala Foot Square

 Here is the next one in the group - it is a bit darker shade of red (I used multiple colors of red dyed when I dyed a very large piece of fabric - giving me a lot of nice variation).

The binding is fused - made of silk organza that was in the same dye batch of red dye.

Red Mandala Revisited

 I had a request for my Red Mandala 12" square, but it was already gone, so I needed to make another.

I had some of the red hand dyed fabric from a big RED dyeing day last winter - and actually, there was enough to make a group of three, so that's what I opted to do.

Here is the first of the group.  Each one in the group is a slightly different shade of red (even though it was the same strip of hand dyed fabric).  I just could not resist making a group of three!

 Sorry the full image is a bit darker than the detail, shown below.  The black Chinese screenprint is the five elements.  There is a gold colored print of an onion here, as well.

Starry Cottonwoods is Finished!

 Starry Cottonwoods is now finished.  Bound, with hanging sleeve and even a label!

It measures 36 x 45"

It is always great to finish a piece!  I really enjoyed working with color again after the previous five were very muted and colorless!

Printing the Fused Binding

 I had hand dyed blue fabric left over from the collage that I was able to use for the binding.  Above - the binding (note the mitered corner) has been fused in place and I have applied masking tape to protect the quilt.  Because of the pronounced, high contrast swirls of the block printing - I will be using the middle of the printing blocks to do the binding - I try to match it up so it looks like the binding is actually part of the quilt (which it is, I guess).

 Above, the block printing spills over onto the tape (again, note the mitered corner on the binding).  Tape removal reveals the freshly printed binding that blends nicely with the quilt.

 

  

Above, you can see how the tape saved the quilt from the paint as I printed the binding.  I carefully selected the part of the printing block I would use in each section.  I was really wanting the swirls to look right.  Below - removing the tape after block printing and screen printing are dry.

Machine Quilting the Starry Cottonwoods

 I've ended up using a couple different blues for the sky quilting.  I want the blue thread to really contrast with the fused yellow "stars".  Notice the safety pins.  I layer my backing, batting, and top - then pin all layers together so things stay in place for the quilting.

Thread Selections

 Time to make thread selections for the quilting.  I don't really have much blue quilting thread on hand!  I have a big spool of yellow, but I don't want to quilt the entire sky in yellow.  I do think maybe the moon needs to be quilted with yellow thread.  I will start with that.

Carrot People - Rock Art

 I just love these Carrot People.  I saw a picture of these and just HAD to find them - it took a bit of exploration.  They are on BLM land - a long ways down a gravel road south of Rangely, Colorado and then you turn off onto a dirt road.  Then there is a bit of a hike.  No signage. 

I will be doing some art with these carrot people someday.  I cannot really say why they excite me so much - but they do.  I guess the lack of feet / legs gives them an especially ethereal quality.

Cottonwood Screenprinted on Blue

I have now added the third layer of printing - the cottonwood trees.  I am bothered by the blue "sky" below the cottonwood grove in the center.  I will overprint this with the black and use that foreground block.

Yellow Stars and Moon

 Well, it's back home and back to the studio again!  Our drive home was uneventful (the drive to Denver was problematic - slow - on account of weather and bad roads and required an alternate, longer route of travel).  It was a great trip, nevertheless.  It is nice to be able to walk back into the studio and pick up where I left off with my work!

I've cut the yellow hand dyed organza into various sized circles and have fused them in scattered locations around the surface of the quilt.  I am happier now and feel I can move forward with the next phase of screen printing.

As before, I take some time to audition placement of the screen printing.  I toyed with making some new screens - I felt this piece might really benefit from something taller.  I also contemplated fusing a raw edge applique tree or something ...... but then I ended up deciding to stick with the tree screens - keeping with my series. I hope the proportions come out OK.  We'll see . . . .

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum Show Opening

 The opening reception was last evening and it was a lovely affair.  I was gifted with a corsage!  I was showered with attention and my work seemed to interest the crowd.  There was a good turnout.  The food was wonderful.  Five pieces sold already!  I am not able to get more pictures up - the Internet connection at my hotel is very poor.  Maybe more will come later.  31 pieces were hung and they did a great job making it look smashing.  Many thanks to all the staff and volunteers at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum!

Opening Reception at Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum tonight!

Tonight is the Opening Reception for my solo show at Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado!

January 28 through April 27, 2013

Surface Explorations: Cynthia St. Charles
Evolutions Featured Artist
Billings, Montana quilt artist Cynthia St. Charles won first prize in the RMQM 2012 Evolutions juried quilt challenge.
Her solo exhibition features art quilts made with her own hand-dyed, discharged, hand-painted and hand-stamped fabrics.

Link to RMQM here.

Print 528.0 at Redline Gallery, Denver

 Cottonwood Moon Showing at Redline Gallery!

 Opening Reception tonight!

Print 528.0

A Regional Juried Exhibit of Contemporary Fine Art Prints
Presented by the Invisible Museum and RedLine
Exhibition Dates: February 1 - 24, 2012
Reception: Friday, February 1, 6-9 pm

528.0 refers to the length of the radius in miles of a circle with its center in Denver that approximately delineates the region involved.
The entire states include Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
Partial states include Northeast Arizona, Texas west of Wichita Falls and North of Lubbock, Oklahoma west of Tulsa, A 30 mile strip of Iowa immediately east of the Missouri River, southwest North Dakota, Southeast Montana and South East Idaho.
Jurors include: Yvar Zeile, Director of Plus Gallery in Denver; Mark Mazuoka, former Director of the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha; Jill Dawsey, Curator at the San Diego Art Museum (formerly head cfurator of the Utah Museum of Art); Barbara O’Brien, Chief Curator and Director of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City; Shaurya Kumar, faculty member of the Art Institute in Chicago, formerly at NMU in Albuquerque and Viviane Le Courtois, Denver artist/printmaker, as the selectee of RedLine.

Link to Redline Gallery here.