Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

Kit Stafford :: White on White

The Owl and the Pussycat by Kit Stafford

I was sorting through my recently uploaded photos this morning and found this set that I had forgotten about.  These photos were taken on Fiber Arts Stroll day.  Sarah and I got in to Sisters at about 11:00 so that I could get set up.  First thing we did was to stop somewhere for coffee and, lucky for both of us, it was Navigator News that we chose.  I had no idea there would be such a special exhibit there!  I was blown away by these lovely artworks by Kit Stafford.  Kit is the daughter of the famous poet William Stafford.  My quilt, Longing for Connection, was inspired by one of his poems.  I had not known much about Kit, except as his daughter, but she is a longtime Sisters resident who is very much a part of the art, music and poetry scene. 

When we got there, the labels weren't up on these art pieces, and Kit wasn't there.  I got to chat with one of the employees who was preparing the labels and I mentioned that it was too bad Kit wasn't there, because I'd love to meet her.  As it turned out, she stopped by my booth later and said hi and I got to say how much I loved her work.  She said that her one and only "quilt" class had been with Janet Bolton a few years ago and she made these pieces after that.  She doesn't do much sewing nowadays.  Boy, that makes these pieces even more special.  You'll note that these illustrate fairy tales and nursery rhymes and are made so inventively with vintage textiles.  I consider myself lucky to have seen them.  Most were framed under glass and I only had my cell phone with me so I did the best I could with Photoshop to crop and enhance the photos.

Kit Stafford (no label, so I'm not sure which story this is)

The Three Little Pigs by Kit Stafford (note the bbw)

Kit Stafford (no label, so I'm not sure which story this is)

The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe by Kit Stafford

Little Red Riding Hood by Kit Stafford (sorry for the reflection, but this was my favorite!)

Tiny Red Riding Hood detail

This last piece was the only one with color.  It's a fantastic map quilt all sewn by hand. It reminds me of the work of Valerie Goodwin, but I'm not sure if that was the influence.  I really love the detail!  So, are you inspired to get out your old linens and work some magic?  I know I am!

The Snow Child Exhibit Opens Today!

This very nice article appeared in the Go! Magazine this morning.  I am so excited to see this exhibit.  If you are local, tonight's reception is from 5-7.  Tomorrow, QuiltWorks is having an open house all day and artists are coming throughout the day for an hour or two to meet anyone who stops by.

Dave and Marilyn are the owners of QuiltWorks.  They are great supporters of the quilting community.  I am so pleased to see two of my quilts with them in this photo!  My Snow Child quilt, called The Spirit of the Wood (being held by Marilyn), and my monochromatic quilt, the pink one on the right, called Not Your Grandma's Hanky.  The March exhibit came down yesterday and the gallery is now filled with about 60 Snow Child artworks.  There are quilts and other types of needlework and fiber art.  It's sure to be a great evening!

The Spirit of the Wood

My Novel Idea quilt is done!  The Spirit of the Wood was inspired by The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, which was chosen as the Deschutes Public Library Novel Idea Book this year.  This fabulous story was itself inspired by the Russian folktale of The Snow Child or The Snow Maiden.  It is set in Alaska in the 1920's and tells the story of a childless couple who somehow come to know a small girl who survives in the Alaskan winters in the company of a red fox.  Previous posts are here and here.

I read this book during the snowiest part of our winter, just after Christmas, and it was magical.  There are so many passages that are evocative of the time and place, so many opportunities to be creatively inspired.  I took notes and could have made a dozen different quilts.  It was very hard to pare it down to the things I most wanted to have in my quilt.  In fact, if I had the time I have two other ideas I'd love to make into quilts!

The fox was the very first thing I wanted to have here and it was a bit of a challenge to try to get an approximation of the colors and the eyes.  Faces are always a challenge for me, but in the folk art tradition, eyes do not have to be symmetrical and perfect.  In this quilt, the Spirit of the Wood may be the fox, the owl, or even the trees.  I needed a title that wasn't just "The Snow Child" and spent a 1/2 hour browsing the pages to find something that would fit.  How perfect is this name given that embroidered "S"!  

While there were many different animals mentioned in the book (I made a list of over 30), I didn't notice owls.  However, this one just begged to be included and adds the touch of color I wanted up there by the moon.

The "S" could signify snow child, snow, snowflakes, snow angels, stars, swan feathers, spirit or even Shields.  I think it looks a bit like a cloud in the sky.  

Subtle elements I included are the snow angels and swan feathers, both important to the story.  In addition to the wonderful plot of this book, there are many references to hand sewing and embroidery.  I tried to emulate Mabel's hand stitched snowflakes.

The book title is couched to the bottom of the panel with some of my hand spun yarn and embroidery floss.

The panel itself is made from a vintage table runner that already had the crocheted edging.  I cut it in half and dyed it in indigo last summer, before I knew about the book project.  I love reusing vintage textiles this way.  In fact, the "S" fabric is an indigo dyed vintage hanky, the snow is made from two different vintage (and well used) kitchen linen towels.  The edging at the top is an indigo overdyed linen table cloth.  It's the only part that was machine sewed because I was running out of time and my fingers were too sore to contemplate hand sewing it down.  The trees and fox were hand dyed by me (except the trunks which are a commercial batik).

I hope you enjoyed this mini tour of The Spirit of the Wood.  This piece will hang in the QuiltWorks gallery for the whole month of April.  The reception is Friday, April 5, 5-7 pm and there will be 50-60 quilts in this Snow Child exhibit.  I've seen many of them and it's going to be amazing!  We hope the author will have a chance to see the quilts when she comes for her lectures the first weekend of May.

Fabrications Exhibit

Here's some exciting news that I just realized I never mentioned.  I have my first acceptance to a juried art exhibit!  Autumn in New York is my Novel Idea quilt from last year.  It is inspired by Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  This small slow cloth piece was a joy to make and I'm so pleased it has another venue for showing! 

From the Fabrications website:

The second Annual “Fabrications – the Art of Quilting” exhibit will open with a First Friday reception on March 1 from 5 – 8 pm.  Join us at Franklin Crossing, on the corner of Franklin & Bond in downtown Bend for the opening or stop by any day to view the juried show of art and contemporary quilts. 

Fabrications is the only juried exhibit of art and contemporary quilts in Central Oregon.  Quilts were submitted from Oregon, Washington, California and Arizona for consideration.  Jurors selected quilts that represent original design, excellent composition, and unique surface and finishing techniques.

I am so thrilled to have this quilt included.  If you are local I'd love to see you at the reception tonight at 5pm!

The Snow Child Applique

Things are coming along with my Snow Child piece, though not quite as fast as I would like.  I have most of the applique done, but haven't been able to work on it very much this week due to other obligations and a nagging neck pain.  This pain is exacerbated by looking down as I always do when I'm hand sewing.  I am seeing a chiropracter tomorrow and hope for some relief soon.  

I have lots of ideas for embellishing this piece.  We are leaving on Saturday for a vacation somewhere warm and wonderful and I thought I might bring this for something to do on the airplane.  I have done a mixture of turned and raw edge applique. I'm also taking advantage of the edgings that some of the vintage linens came with.  I love working with these old linens.  They are so soft and pliable, so interesting to look at and it feels great to breathe new life into an old kitchen towel!

I've used harem cloth as a base layer and this will end up being the "batting" for this piece.  This is a technique I learned from Jude Hill.  It's lovely and light to work with, but really adds a nice bit of dimension to the stitching. It's also tames some of the squirrely linens and silk I like to use.  

I just sent in my entry form to participate in the Around the Block Fiber Arts Stroll on July 7.  I plan to demonstrate using vintage linens in small textile art pieces.  I did a demo on slow cloth last year and this will be somewhat similar, but I plan to have a lot of my newer pieces made with vintage linens. 

I will be back here in two weeks, unless I do a mini post while on the beach.  Aloha!

Blue and Orange

Blue and orange seem to be taking over the studio.  I was just standing in my studio, looking at my table and realized that this is quite a coincidence.

First there was the liberated cat quilt that I got out and started making more blocks for over the weekend.  

Then there were the piles of fabric I just pulled for a liberated star quilt for Ryan.  You see, his graduation is coming up and I just realized that he'd be due a quilt!  Hurray, another quilt to add to the growing list.  Fortunately, I know I will love to make this one and I think it will do double duty and be in the show this July too.

For the past two days I've been obsessed with trying to make a plan for my next Novel Idea piece.  This year the book that has been chosen is The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.  If you haven't read it, you must!  It is a marvelous book, universally liked by everyone I've talked to and very quilt friendly.  After two days of poring over books, illustrations and re-reading passages in the book, I've chosen a simple folk arty design with a fox, some trees, and a hand dyed moon.  Nearly all the fabrics are ones that I hand dyed and they also include several vintage linens, including the marvelous background piece with the attached lace.  I'm looking forward to this one!

So, I guess I'm all about the blue and orange.  I just looked back at some older posts and realized this is not a first for me.  Both of my quilts in the Sisters Quilt Show flyer are blue and orange and that January AAQI quilt, Dandy Lion, is blue and orange.  Hmmmmm..  Wonder what that says about me?

AAQI for January

This is an oldie, but a goodie, called Dandy Lion.  I decided to send it in to AAQI this month to get my last Quilt-A-Month club check.  That would be 2 years of making a quilt every month, except for a few where I bought one.  I am proud to say that my little quilts have made nearly $1500 for the AAQI!  

However, just the other day I got early news that the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative will be shutting down at the end of 2013.  This is because they hope to reach the 1 million dollar mark by the end of the year!  That is amazing.  Can you imagine all the little quilts you need to sell to make that much money!  Over 13,000 so far.  So, anyway, I just can't see quitting the QAMC when they are so close to the end, so I will continue right up until July.  For all the details about this year's deadlines see the AAQI blog post:  Sprint to the Finish.  

If you have not made an AAQI quilt yet, there's no time like the present!  Get in your studio and get to work making a little gem.  The last day to register quilts will be August 1, 2013.  While you are on the website, check out the hundreds of quilts for sale right now.  It's truly an amazing grass roots effort and Ami Simms and her dedicated volunteer team deserve all the credit for making it all happen.  

Freshening Up & Looking Ahead

Well, after a good two weeks of near total sloth, I am ready to start the new year!  I spent my holiday reading, drinking tea (and occasionally wine, beer and spirits too!), going to the movies, skiing (a little), enjoying a beautiful white Christmas, spinning, knitting and generally staying far from the studio and my computer.  It was really nice to take time away.  

Now, I have lots of new plans and projects, new ideas and a fresh perspective.  That all starts with a new look to the blog.  Below are some glimpses of new projects in the works.

A little something for the Inauguration.  Do I have time to finish it?

A project for the Modern Quilt Guild's 2013 challenge.

A brand new idea for the Novel Idea Quilt challenge for 2013, based on the book, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

Finally, the most amazing thing arrived in the mail- the brochure for the 2013 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  Even though I knew it was coming, it was still a surprise to turn the page and see me there!  I've got a lot to do in the next 6 months and I'll be sharing the behind the scenes here as I go along.  Wow- what a year this will be!

Christmas Tree Lighting & Owls

A bit of Holiday bokeh for you.  I went up to the Christmas tree lighting tonight, but mostly walked around downtown taking photos as I went and trying lots of different camera settings.  There was even a Santa sighting outside of Starbucks.  Sorry for the blur~ Santa moves fast!

Oh, and a few more owls moved into the shop.

Etsy Update for the Holidays

I've added some new ornaments to my Etsy shop and there will be more to come.  The owl design is a new one for this year and the birds are something I'm trying out.  They have been made in several shapes now.  These are made in the slow cloth style, but the base is a vintage quilt from the antique shop.  The quilt is blue and white, which you can see in the belly and tail of the bird above.  The owls are cut just from the white part.  I am also working on a stuffed Santa based on a Santa I bought many years ago.  It's a lot more work and may not be cost effective, but it's fun to try!

I also made my first Etsy Treasury today.  That was fun!  You can check it out here: Red Bird Treasury.