In this new showcase I’m featuring four Modern Quilters that you will love!
Michael Stevenson
Quilting runs in my DNA. In fact, my modest collection of vintage quilts includes the work of my maternal great-grandmother and my paternal grandmother, as well as my favorite great aunt. As a newlywed, my mother made a “double-wedding ring” quilt that she still uses some 60 years later. Although my handiwork will never match theirs, I hope my art quilts bring a measure of pleasure, if not comfort, to the people whose lives they touch.
In my world, men didn’t sew or make art, for that matter. A male tailor might appear on TV, but farm families like mine didn’t have need for tailors and their aspirations for their sons rarely included perfecting the use of a needle and thread or other art media. Regardless, I grew up knowing the years of warmth and comfort a well-crafted quilt can provide and consequently developed a deep appreciation for the artistry and skill that goes into their creation.
Over the years, I have collected textiles from near and far and always hoped I could find a way to share this passion. A few years ago, I met an accomplished textile artist who lived nearby. While admiring her work, I wistfully mentioned my longstanding interest in learning the craft. Without hesitation, she said, “I’ll teach you!” The timing couldn’t have been better, as my retirement from university life neared. She helped me select an appropriate machine and the tutorials began.
Sometime later, she referred to me as her “best student.” A moniker that means a great deal to me, even knowing that it’s not so difficult to be the best when you are the only! Although we now live miles apart, we still consult on the phone on a regular basis.
Choosing a favorite color is difficult, though, an admirer of my work once said, “He isn’t afraid of color!” (a comment I took as high praise). I generally prefer improvisational piecing with la mixture of different prints. I might begin with a sense of the layout of a new piece, but once started, these things often go directions I hadn’t pre-planned! In some cases, I find ways to add texture to the surface. When I’m not using bits and pieces of cotton or silk that others have
offered as gifts, I really enjoy using batik and hand-dyed cottons, as the colors and patterns tend to be more saturated. I guess I really do love color.
Recently, I helped bring together a small group of like-minded, local fiber artists who arebanding together as FiberArts Florida. As a collective, we aspire to promote the fiber arts and to have fiber recognized, respected, and appreciated as a fine arts medium across Florida and beyond.
Delaney Conner
I am a New York City based artist, born and raised in the mountains of Colorado, USA. I currently live and work in New York City, practicing professionally in Residential Architecture & Interior Design as well as pursuing my passion for art.
Always exploring different creative outlets, I discovered and taught myself punch needle embroidery in 2019 and have been expanding my skill and subject matter in this medium for the past three and a half years. I primarily focus on female figuration and form as well as nuanced facial profiles in an effort to examine the idea of ‘beauty’ and how that idea of beauty often unwarrantedly becomes overtly sexualized.
The colors I work with most often are ranges of pinks, blues, purples and greens but I usually stick to a monochrome palette. I like to describe my embroidery works akin to “painting with textiles”.
Jamia Weir
I am a multimedia artist teacher playfully exploring the process of improvisational quilting in Los Angeles. I make art quilts, sometimes adding dimensionality or printing/painting on fabrics. I was drawn to sewing at a young age, perhaps because it is something multi-generational, as many women in my family were seamstresses and often engaged in the fiber arts. Throughout my life, I’ve worked in multiple art forms, but in recent years have returned to sewing. I love being able to combine many of my favorite art forms, like printmaking, drawing, collage and painting with fabric.
Right around the start of the pandemic, I turned away from “improv” upon the stage and turned toward “improv quilting,” which I discovered when a friend told me I might dig the work of Sherri Lynn Wood (@sherrilynnwood). I became very curious especially because of the intuitive nature of this art form, which Sherri shares so generously through her book/workshops and comes so naturally to me. I also found the painterly work/teaching of Irene Roderick (@hixsonir) inspiring, especially what she calls “dancing with the wall.” It is this quilt dance of sorts, moving between the design wall, to the ironing board to the sewing machine, to the cutting mat and back around again in no particular order, which allows me to access the “flow state” easily. My life is a quest to stay in the flow as much as possible! The virtual circles of support that both Sherri and Irene created, have been something positive to come out of the pandemic and have helped shape the current state of my artistic practice.
I enjoy imbuing my pieces with personality; watching faces and figures emerge in any medium was always exciting to me, so it’s no surprise that my attention has turned there…especially after completing a series of “plastic bag portraits” consisting of fused plastic bags and other recyclable materials. I try to be conscious of my waste and save all of my little fiber bits which I sometimes use as stuffing in fiber sculptures or do other kinds of “texture-cises” with. I enjoy word play and also like incorporating text into my work. Additionally, I am interested in fashion and like to turn my patchwork into wearable art.
My work as an elementary school art teacher (@lalalandkidart) intertwines with my personal art practice, even the exploration of a simple paper strip with a Kindergarten class can inspire the work I do in the studio, exploring ways in which I can play with a strip of fabric for example. Taking a “yes, and” approach and celebrating mistakes as opportunities is a part of the creative process that I consistently share with my students.
Nika
I started quilting around the time of the Great American Eclipse in 2017. At the time, it felt like a very significant thing to do, although I couldn’t tell you why and still can’t really. I had just bought a really old house and wanted to make art in it. But my artistic impulses are kind of, regimented, I guess you could say. An astrologer might say it’s because Virgo rules my 5th house – and both Saturn and Mars reside there. So, the only way I could justify making art in my new home was to make practical art, and quilting to me at the time, seemed like very practical art. My teachers were the generous quilters of youtube like Angela Walters and the late Melanie Ham. Theirs were the first tutorials I followed and the earliest guiding voices in my first days of quilting. Of course, once I began, as many new quilters can relate, I just couldn’t stop. I made 2 quilts before working out how to design my own, so my 3rd quilt was of my own design – and that’s where I found my passion – in design.
I find that I am most often inspired by things I see in nature: atmospheric elements like sand and fog, the ocean, a sunset, and flowers (oh how I love flowers). I have to work really hard to find balance and harmony in my color choices because ultimately, balance and harmony are what I want to create. I actually took about a year away from quilting a couple of years ago to do some watercolor painting so that I could really learn color theory and how to apply it. I’m still learning more about color with every quilt I make.
In terms of design elements, I am drawn to contrast – contrast in tone and contrast in space. Right now, I’m trying to work on striking the right balance between bold visual interest using negative space and form, while maintaining a softness or an effortlessness throughout my color palette. I want to create tension between masculine and feminie that gives the overall impression of a sort of dynamic harmony.
