Open House for EASEL exhibit including "Fly Away with a Book"

The SELCO traveling exhibit, "Experience Art in Southeastern Libraries" is currently in Rushford/Peterson High School Library through April 8, 2015.  An open house to celebrate the exhibit is scheduled for Tuesday, March 31, 6:30-7:30pm.

The art that I created for the exhibit, Fly Away with a Book will be on display.  I'm excited to see the other pieces in the exhibit.  I've seen the images of the art in the EASEL book but seeing the actual work up close is very exciting.

Fly Away with a Book
12" x 12"

See the process of creating Fly Away with a Book

The exhibit will be traveling through June 2015.  To learn more and see the full exhibit schedule.

Hope you get a chance to view the art.

Fly Away with a Book

The Southeastern Minnesota Libraries invite artists to submit one piece of artwork that depicts books or libraries for a traveling art show in libraries called Experience Art in Southeastern Libraries, EASEL.   I was honored to be part of that show with a piece called Library Paradise as it traveled for 2012-2013.  I've had a love affair with libraries and books since I was a girl.  Just going in to find a new book or research a project is a wonderful thing to me.

The submission date for the 12" x 12" artwork was last week and I submitted "Fly Away with a Book."  It is a fiber art quilt with layers of fabric and hand writing and stitching about books.
Here's a peek into the process of creating the piece through photographs.

I began with some drawings and fabric selection.  Then I started to lay the fabric pieces on the 12" x 12" format.  

 

 

 Pinning all the fabric bits to ready for stitching.

 

 

Hand stitching the letters.

 

Maybe you'll see Fly Away with a Book in a library near you.  See you at the library!

Easel Project is coming to LaCrescent

Experience Art in South East Libraries, EASEL is coming to the La Crescent Public Library – June 7-July 19, 2012.  La Crescent Public Library is located at 321 Main Street La Crescent, MN 55947. Phone: 507.895.4047 That's a hop, skip, and a dance from Winona, Minnesota and LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

What fun to check out the show and to check out another library!  Have fun!!!  To see the action of creating Library Paradise.

Library Paradise

Some new classic quilts  added to the gallery today too.

Library Paradise

Musings on creating a book quilt

I’ve been thinking about how to create a book quilt for awhile.  I’d made some sketches of a soft chair with a cat and a book.  “No,” I decided, “too much emphasis on chairs and cats.”  And one day when I was looking for images of open books, I had the idea to photograph an old dictionary. Open book, to the page of a loon and I took several pictures.  Then I wanted the vantage point of the pages of the book on its side as it lies open.  Oh, nice pictures due to the soft green wall in the background showing.  Oh good, some interesting pictures of the stitching to hold the book together.  Creating books fascinates me almost as much as working with mixed media.

I played with the images and put some fabric and book images together.  I did this playing with the images on my computer.  I cut 5 pieces of fabric into rectangles 8.5” x 11” and then treated the fabric and hung it up on a drying rack to dry.  When the fabric was dry, I ironed it flat and placed freezer paper on the wrong side of the fabric.  And then I taped the edge that would feed into the printer to allow it to flow through and print without jamming.  I printed 3 sheets of lovely book images.

 

I thought I was complete and then I decided to add brads, and a bookmark.  That took a few more tools.

I enjoy adding interesting ephemera to my quilts.  In this quilt there are 3 brads, one braided embroidery floss bookmark, and one saying.

 When I felt complete, I added my signature and date.  I like the sepia color for the signature.

 Library Paradise, 12" x 12".