Friday Art Romp in Anacostia

Cappy and Molly Ruppert who make it all happen

Look for the colorfully decorated tree smiling at passers by

Last night was my first show of the new Orange Explains It quilt hung on a gallery wall. It's big and orange with an impact that was as bold as the colors are bright and the response was very enthusiastic. There were dozens of art works on display all different and interesting in their own ways which is always the case at an ART ROMP. Lots of artists from the Warehouse gallery scene on 7th St. NW where Molly Ruppert, with help from her big family, hosted a couple dozen art romp parties over the last 20 years. I was delighted to see so many artist friends and their new work and meet lots of new art admirers. 

The new Anacostia Arts Center is such a great space. Clean white walls, beautiful light hardwood floors without a scratch or a bump, it seems to be brand new but is housed in what appears to be an old dime store front. Located on Good Hope Road in SE right off the 11th St. bridge over the river. I was inspired by the director Kate Taylor Davis to begin thinking about all the things we can do in a new artist center. Figure drawing has been mentioned as something they would like to have there. However there are lots of ideas that come to mind when I think of ways to use empty rooms in such a cool building. What would you do with a big building full of these lovely rooms? 

I must admit I was reluctant to go to Anacostia in SE when I first heard about the show's location but I was harboring old fears and prejudices about Anacostia. Clearly these were unfair and will soon be history. Hope you can find your way there soon and drop in to see the show. 

This Art Romp Exhibition is open through Sept. 15th 2013. 

Anacostia Arts Center 1231 Good Hope Road, SE 

Washington DC 20020 more information here:

www.anacostiaartscenter.org

Orange Explains It, quilt on the wall. 

wider view of the front doors

Long deep corridor with railings around skylights to the floor below where business meets 

Caught the amazing artist Ruth Trevarrow coming through one of the gallery doors

 families are always part of the gallery scene

Glass artist Sean talking to collectors Christina & Nora

 

Molly explaining something to her grand kids 

Keith and Matt discussing the art

Washington DC Modern Quilt Guild

Elle Irby gets a first look at her new baby quilt made of members donated blocks and assembled in this modern design by Jessie Aller

Yesterday was the beginning of our new international modern quilt guild in the local chapter for Washington DC.  We have been meeting under the name DC Modern Quilt Guild for a number of years but the official dues taking for our non profit group began this month. From now on we have to add Washington to the DC to distinguish it to the people who don't know that locals just call the city DC for District of Columbia. We welcome new members anytime and next month will be charity quilt month where we spend all day making quilts to give to 100 Quilts for Kids and other groups who need bedding at the meeting in Arlington VA.

Since I joined this big group of quilters as the only guy last September, I find I always learn something and have a great time visiting and sharing my work with this young group of very talented quilters. Yesterday's meeting was no exception only we got an extra treat when former president Elle brought along her latest project to show which she and her husband started about 11 months ago named Miles. What a tiny package of sweetness! She got a nice surprise too when the group quilt that current president Jessie gave her the gift from the group she organized only weeks before the birth of Miles. It's a very modern aqua and chocolate brown baby quilt.

Miles still sleepy grabbing a golden lock of hair to hold on to as mommy jostles him about. 

Proud Mother let everyone who wanted to, hold and play with her new baby. 

the quilt back got a lovely block worked in.

Elle taking in all the great blocks 

Touched by the love, moisture welled up in Elle's eyes with a big smile. 

Sure was nice to see Elle after a few months away working on the baby. I was so impressed with the quilting as usual and I wish we had a better way to document these quilts at our meetings. Snapshots help to remember but some formal quilt portfolio portraits would be really nice to have for Wash. DC Modern Quilt Guild archives and for future shows.
I am happy to announce that my Orange Explains It quilt will be in an art exhibition opening Friday August 23rd 5-9 PM continuing until September 15th, 2013. Its a big group show called ART ROMP curated by Molly Ruppert at the Anacostia Arts Center 1231 Good Hope Road. SE, Washington, DC.  A host of Washington DC area artists are in the show and it should be a great good time and site to see. $5 Parking in the garage across the street.

detail: Orange Explains It quilt

Rose Star quilt finished, at last.

Rose Star quilt features red binding, white backing and two red triangle boarders. 88 x 87 inches with angled corners. 

It took 8 months to complete the top using the nineteenth century hand sewing technique called English paper piecing. The final quilt top required 54 blocks and unknown number background white hexagons with wings to fill in between the colors. Once the top was completed, next came the gruesome two day work of hand basting together three layers of fibers (pieced top, cotton batting, and backing fabric) on hands and knees.  I sore after that work out in places I don't normally get sore.  Finally 10 more months hand quilting the layers together and at last binding all the edges. I began in Jan. 2012 and I am finishing in August 2013. Fast for an all hand made quilt.

Rose Star embroidered label on the back and corner detail 

close up of my label 

two sides have long red triangles running to finish the edges. 

folded view

Special Thanks to Jessica blogging at Life Under Quilts who pointed me to Clare's blog: Selfsewn, tutorial, and Flickr. group: RoseStar Block Party for the inspiration and instructions how to do this project that was so much fun I couldn't stop at six block and went on toe make many more. Once I began English paper piecing it was like eating candy I kept wanting to make more so I determined I had to make a bed sized quilt. I also thank my Mom for all her support and encouragement. Each new block was an excellent adventure. It was thrilling anew each time I chose new fabric fat quarters or old shirts or remnants to combine in a number of ways for colored stars. Then the fun kept coming when I began combining the rose stars on my design wall. It was a wonder to lay away afternoons and nights dreaming and rearranging their order. Keith and many friends, who saw my blocks as they came together, were so enthusiastic about the results it drove me right through to the finish. Thank you all for your encouragement and supporting comments. Now who wants to see it up close and personal?

home alone, what to do...

cut glass crystals actually refract the morning sunlight! 

After a nice Saturday which began with gay poets at the Out Write conference, I discovered I was in the midst of Dog Days on 14th St. which is a weekend when the stores and shops put up sidewalk tables and do summer sales.  I wondered down the street and enjoyed a stop at Miss Pixies second hand shop where I discovered a great strand of cut chandalier crystals I couldn't resist. My neighbor Dan Vera invited me to come here him read from his prize winning book of poems on a panel of three prize wining poets.

 Keith left for a visit with his family on Friday so I just wandered and enjoyed the great weather. I took my sketch book and got one victim on the metro for a sketch on my way down town.

 Earlier I drew some pretty flowers Keith left for me.  Feeling a little rusty with my drawing skills but they just need some exercising.

all sorts of things from the garden in a cut crystal glass. 

I ended up at Plan B Gallery on 14th and Q.Street. Where director David Kalamar asked about my quilts. He brought up the Rose Star quilt I had posted on Facebook last year. I didn't know which one he was talking about at first, since he didn't know the name. He reminded me by referring to my quest to choose a background fabric on Facebook. Black or white was the question, the answer as it turned out was off white with a printed bright white flower design. The Rose-Star quilt has been laying around for some time now and he made me realize that was a project I wanted to finish up soon. 

trimming the uneven edges of the rose star on the porch table  to prepare it for binding 

sewing on the red and white micro dot binding tape on the straight edges of Rose-Star quilt 

Having the place to myself I intend to spread out another quilt to baste it together for hand quilting in the coming weeks. This top is white and blue Dresden plates laid out in diamond format. I decided to add a white border on three sides to finish it out to a full bed size. 

lay up of off white top piece and white on white side piece for Dresden diamonds. 

Sides added and pressed and ready to lay on the floor for basting 

The garden is doing well and looking great with our new landlord's weekly lawn mower coming round to keep it looking tidy. I was surprised to find a kind of hard seed in the cotton plants flowers and a red freckling on the hydrangeas that normally turn red in fall.

cotton plant flowering 

pods forming at the bottom have a hard nut inside soon to be full of cotton balls

Lace cap Hydrangea is blushing 

Ironweed flowers are so purple this year it's looking great standing at six feet tall

Swamp milkweed flowers were pink now they are pointed pods spewing little fairies 

Lavender summer phlox and a little black and blue salvia

Jessie's Jasmine Tea, Quilt revealed

I finished a second quilt recently. It was inspired by Jessie Aller's Jasmine Tea fabric line for In The Beginning 2012 from a bundle of 8 fat quarters she put together for a DC Modern Quilt Guild prize I won last February.

I added a snow white Kona (from Elle)  for the sashing and a very pale warm gray solid background. Plus there are a few scraps of darker gray fabrics to work with Jessie's white fabric prints that got lost beside my pale background fabric. I tried to make this a very light and feminine quilt, considering the source of my materials, it seemed the right thing to do as a tribute to the lady I admire very much for her talents and kind personality.

 I chose to use a traditional pattern known as the Churn Dash block. I still wonder what a churn dash is, does anyone know? My guess is that the top of the butter churn had a frame to support the round wood and add stability to the part where the plunger handle which goes in and out, up and down... which may give it the shape and name. That is just a guess.

The delight of the google age for me is entering an obscure question and finding out the answers! I just looked up butter churn dash and discovered images of the part called the "dasher" which is what makes the cream into butter. Most of them are simple crosses attached to the end of the plunger. I am not sure how that became the design for my quilt block but it is interesting to consider. Now that I am happy about that new butter churn dasher information. Let's look at the new quilt.

My embroidery label on the white with gray dots selvage edge exposed to show the label on fabric

close up detail of the Perle yarn in rose pink hand quilting

81 x 58 inches finished measurement 

gray on white printed back with a beet red and hot pink print as the final binding frame.  

quilting pattern of diamonds and smaller squares to break up the grid

This was a very fun quilt to build hope you like it. 

here you can see some of the different gray background fabrics

Orange Explains it, quilt revealed

close detail of hand quilting with ecru pearle threads 

"Orange Explains It" queen size quilt finished 

 Since April 4th of this year I have been working, playing and enjoying the building of an abstract improvisational quilt top in orange with a few neutrals, mostly grays and browns. I was inspired by two things:
1. A visit in Washington DC with the Gee's Bend quilters of Alabama.
2. The scraps of orange and gray fabric that were given to me at a DC modern quilt guild meeting.

scraps of orange gray and brown first gift 

more orange from the scrap swap meet 

DCMQG members at the Gee's Bend event 

Gee's Bend quilt detail 

table view of Gee's Bend quilt 

close up of the quilting from Gee's Bend quilt 

Nice detail of Gee's Bend quilt 

Lady in purple suit with pearls and the younger one in Pink sweater set both from Gee's Bend who shared their quilting stories and songs with us. 

Elder Gees Bend quilter with the US Postage stamps commemorating her communities quilts 

my first try at using the orange gray and brown fabrics in an abstract improvisational block

At first I played with the fabrics on my design wall, not sure what I was going to do with them. Pretty quickly a block style began to emerge. It's all rectangles from strips of any fabric that was a little like orange. I chose many fabrics ranging from reds to yellows in the spectrum of orange.  It's interesting how colors that look a little orange alone when placed next to other oranges becomes a new hue, usually yellow or red. I used what I understood to be the Gee's Bend design formula of going with my natural inclinations to work up more and more new blocks until the whole was big enough for a queen sized bed.

blocks arranged on the design wall to try and find a way to assemble them into a solid quilt top

Soon after I added it all up with hand stitched quilting using a #8 pearle thread in ecru and bound the edges with a dark chocolate brown. It's bold and bright in the end a very unique piece.

orange quilt top takes up the whole living room spread out on the floor to baste

detail of hand quilting using pearle #8 ecru

adding a dark chocolate brown binding 

 Then I chose a pair of contrasting blue and white prints for the backing that I was saving because I loved the prints. I worked on a label at the summer meeting of DC Modern Quilt Guild in the Botanical Gardens on the national mall.

top with label turned up 

simple blue and white for the backing to cool off those hot oranges

This quilt was one of the must fun to make because I only had to follow my inner voice the whole way through from start to finish. No fussy cutting or pattern making was needed the biggest challenge was arranging all my blocks to fit together into one huge block. This artistic way of working is just one of many I plan to use in the future.