Quilt National 2007 :: Quilt National

Noriko Endo
Sylvan Ambience #2 , ©NE
60 by 49 inches.
Cotton, polyester, tulle, Angelina fibers, small pieces covered with tulle, machine quilted, machine embroidery.

Artist's statement:This piece is part of a recent series of work that deals with landscapes. While walking in the woods, I have discovered a place chased by the light where pretty pink flowers are blooming. I felt nature kept some of her hidden secret. I am totally absorbed and fascinated by the beauty of nature.

Regina Benson
Surround sound , ©RB
50 by 38 inches.
Black viscose rayon discharged 4 times with thiox using resists, masking and folding, whole cloth construction with an inner layer of felt captured by wrapping the front piece around to the back and appliquéd to the backing rayon, stitched with rayon and cotton variegated threads.

Artist's statement: There are times when sound and images envelop me; swelling, receding, growing, and diminishing. This work communicates that embrace, through the colorations, shirring, stitching, and dimensional construction, I am coaxing the viewers to share this space and feel their inner music.

Julie John Upshaw
Utility Quilting Series: Ironing Board, ©JJU
55 by 16 inches.
Ironing board, commercial utility fabric (silver, non-stick, heat resistant), whole cloth, painted, machine quilted.

Artist's statement: I feel ambivalent about quilting. Does creative expression in cloth and stitch bring freedom or constraint?

Kathy Weaver
Robo Sapien, Agent 1 , ©KW
43 by 44 inches.
Naugahyde, buttons, airbrushed, machine quilted, embellished.

Artist's statement: My work addresses aspects of the intersection between technology and art. By using the labor-intensive quilt medium, nostalgic materials, and the robot persona, the pieces have layers of meaning about time, personal and political conflict, and memory. The robot represents scientific and technological improvement resulting in change to the status quo. The Robo Sapien Agents series constitute a pantheon of characters questioning the direction of events pertinent to our environment and body politic.

Denise Labadie
Dun Aengus Stone Fort , ©DL
63 by 71 inches.
100 % cotton, hand painted 100% cotton, tulle, machine appliqué, machine quilting, additional paint as needed.

Artist's statement: My quilts are most typically images of Irish megalithic stones and landscapes -- dolmens, cairens, stone circles, standing stones, ancient stone forts, old stone churches, and the like. I love the mystery of the stones -- their textures and weathered age -- and all the associated questions of why they were built and what stories they were meant to tell. I find these landscapes to be the most spiritual places I have ever been.

Tammie Bowser
Song , ©TB
27 by 58 inches.
Cotton batik, hand dyed fabrics, Angelina fiber and variegated thread, pieced and fused, quilted image to add texture, direction and interest.

Artist's statement: I love people and am trying to convey their passion and emotion. I also really am inspired by color. Color seems to make my quilts come alive.

Barb Wills
Layered Structures #64 , ©BW
38 by 52 inches.
Silk printed with original relief plates in multiple layers, linear elements created with various bamboo sticks that were inked and printed numerous times, back is sheer fabric printed with inked bamboo sticks, hand stitching with perle cotton.

Artist's statement: My work as an engineer has prepared me for printmaking and fiber art in a unique way. My art begins with natural 100% silk or fine cotton, inks, dyes, paints, advanced intaglio and lithographic printmaking plates and processes. All of my materials are original and created specifically for expressing a feeling, time, or place within the context of my imagery and Buddhist philosophical beliefs. Maintaining simplicity in color choices and design creates a multi-layered surface that allows the viewer to see, and to feel, the beauty of a quiet, peaceful moment of discovery.

Rita Steffenson
Mindscapes - Enthusiasm , ©RS
66 by 48 inches.
Cotton hand dyed gradations, airbrushed with black pigment in transparent medium, appliquéd, textures with dense machine quilting.

Artist's statement: The Mindscape series represents the fascinating progression of ideas and how they draw us in, until we're lost in the depths of our minds. The rhythm and flow of daydreams spring forth unexpectedly..how many are forgotten if not immediately captured? How do we hold on to all these inspirations of an active mind? Only a few are remembered..are they the ones that make the strongest impressions or only the most familiar or just a recurring theme?

Judith Plotner
Are We Safer Now? , ©JP
40 by 46 inches.
Cotton, machine pieced and appliquéd, monoprint dyed, painted discharged, lethocoal, black commercial fabric, hand and machine quilted.

Artist's statement: Are We Safer Now? Is my response to the ongoing war in Iraq and its effect on terrorism. On monoprinted black fabric, I discharge printed text and then overprinted in black, names of the dead. Bright red shapes, again with both type and script, portray the bloody images without being literally graphic. Red splatters of dye, and hand stitching representing razor wire, complete the shredded, bloodied and bullet-ridden imagery conveying the horrors of war.

Robin Schwalb
Chinese Characters ©RS
93 by 67 inches.
Commercial cotton; stenciled, silkscreened, hand and machine qppliquéd, machine pieced, hand quilted.

Artist's statement: That suit, that hair, that mole; you immediately recognize Chairman Mao. But who--or what--are those pouty women, with their Western features, retro hairdos, and dead-eyed stares? They're store mannequins, manufactured in China for the Chinese market, never appearing solo, but always arrayed in chorus lines. Perhaps the discordantly comical images have a darker point--if you have that system of government, you get this kind of dehumanized citizen.

Barbara J. Schneider
Reflections, Var. 8: Brushy Creek, Kansas, Missouri ©BS
53 by 37 inches.
Hand-dyed cotton; fused, machine stitched.

Artist's statement: This art quilt is part of a series based on photographs of moving water. The series explores the concept of reflection and how to capture the essence of images that are not physically there, images made of light and movement, images that are infinitely variable. What does the eye see? And lastly, reflection is what I do throughout my work process, as well as what I hope the viewers do as they look at the completed work.

Margaret Anderson
Refracted Light ©MA
49 by 45 inches.
Silk, polyester batting, cotton backing; hand painted, appliquéd, and quilted.

Artist's statement: The natural environment informs much of my work, and Refracted Light is no exception. This piece illustrates how sunlight is affected when it passes through natural phenomena. As it penetrates water or clouds, the light bends, breaks apart, and scatters.

Mary Anne Jordan
Dotted Four Patch ©MAJ
85 by 85 inches.
Pima cotton, fiber-reactive dyes, cotton batting, cotton backing; hand-dyed, pieced and machine quilted.

Artist's statement: The fabrics and quilts I produce often allude to domesticity and domestic life. Using my eyes as the only measure, I am careful to show marks made by hand. I am not concerned with literal narratives; therefore, many "stories" can be layered, one on top of another. I am interested in magnifying everday life, using fabric, color, and pattern as a metaphor for the structure of our culture, our lives, and our bodies.

Denise Labadie
Dun Aengus Stone Fort , ©DL