In keeping with my “Unravelling” apron, I follow with another piece that could easily belong to the series.

“Absence” by Kristin La Flamme, 2012

I created this piece for possible inclusion in the invitational show curated by Dinner@Eight artists Jamie Fingal and Leslie Jameson. 2012 is the fourth year of the show and the first year I’ve been invited to submit a piece. There is always a theme and size limitation, and this year’s theme is Rituals.

Ah, the military life is filled with rituals. Interestingly, while I was working on this piece, I was also working on my Metamorphosis piece for Twelve by Twelve and they sort of dovetailed. Certainly the process a soldier goes through in Basic Training is a ritual made to initiate him or her into the Army society.

(click to enlarge)

For “Absence,” I decided to focus on the rituals missed while a soldier is deployed. So many center around the dining room tabel. Meals together, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Our family has certainly had it’s share of important moments without daddy present.

I’ve tried to convey a table with wood grain fabrics and vintage table linens. In addition, the traditional Dresden Plate quilt blocks represent the place settings, with stitched silhouettes of hands for each family member present. There’s a yellow ribbon for remembrance and stars and stripes for patriotism. Most obvious though is the hole showing the soldier’s absence. This is in honor of all the family rituals every soldier, sailor, airman and marine miss while they serve our country.

It’s Twelve by Twelve reveal day! After four years of challenges in the 12″ by 12″ format, we’ve changed things up a bit. For 2012, our format is 20″ by 12″ and fittingly, our first theme has been Metamorphosis. Check out my finished piece, plus what everyone has created over here on the Twelve by Twelve blog.

I received my catalog for Beyond Comfort last week. What a huge surprise to see my art quilt/apron “The Military Wife: Hanging on by a Thread” on the cover!

The exhibit premiered at Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England, and though that show has ended for the year, Beyond Comfort will continue on to the US at the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan from June to August, 2012; and then on to the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio from January to March, 2013. That’s a long way off, and I’m going to miss my aprons sorely, but hopefully they will be excellent ambassadors for the rest of the collection, which I continue to slowly work on.

I must give kudos to Eileen Doughty for curating the exhibit and to Diedre Adams for creating a top notch catalog (and that’s not just because she put my artwork on the cover).

I am pleased to share the news that my quilt “War Sucks” has been accepted into the show Art=Quilts=Art 2012 at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY!

This is a very well regarded show in a gallery setting so I couldn’t be happier. Well, I’d be happier if I could return to NY and see all the quilts in person. That would be cool.

On view November 30th, 20111 until January 8th, 2012.

If that sounds like an advertisement it is because it is. Orange crate labels were my inspiration for the 12th of the Twelve by Twelve Colorplay series quilts. Because my concept and imagery was pretty straightforward on this challenge, I decided to try some very new to me surface design techniques to bring it to fuition. It was definitely outside of my comfort zone, but also worth it as I am quite pleased with the final result. The process is here,  here, here and here, and be sure to check out the final art quilt here.

It’s reveal day on the Twelve by Twelve blog. Our color palette this time was “Grey.”

I had the pleasure a few weeks ago of attending the artist reception at the Common Threads exhibit at Prescott College Art Gallery at Sam Hill Warehouse.

The show runs from May 27 until June 15, 2011, so it’s pretty much over by now, but it really did look great.

The five artists included are Betty Busby, Jane Waggoner Deschner, Patricia Gould, Marjorie Durko Puryear, and me. That’s Marjorie’s framed collages to the right of mine.

The gallery itself is a beautiful space with good lighting, high ceilings and a rustic clean feel. (It looks much better in real life than in my iPhone photos.)

Curator Jen Chandler did a wonderful job of hanging the artwork not by artist, but mixed together in harmonious groups and pairs. Everything flowed so nicely. To the right above is Patricia Gould’s work. The very yellow one is my “Raps.”

Jane Descher’s stitched, altered photos are to the right of my “Am Rand des Omas Weizenfeld.” I am so pleased to have been a part of this show, and glad to have been able to see it in person.

I may have mentioned that I have a long-term vision for the Army Wife apron series. Maybe I didn’t. Eventually, I think they need to go in a gallery. With big, bed sized, quilts on the walls. One would be “War Sucks” from whence the aprons sprang.

Another would be this one I’ve been excitedly working on in the background. I wasn’t sure if I should share it with the general public, but the show I plan on entering it in doesn’t seem to mind, and I just can’t contain myself. It seems like Medallion quilts are everywhere. Maybe I’ve just been in tune with them because their traditional roots work so well with my military life theme. Anyway, I got caught up in medallion frenzy and this one just flowed from my hands (in my typically slow and wonky way).

“Medallion for an Army Family” Kristin La Flamme, 2011, 75″ x 80″

Over at Twelve by Twelve, I showed a mosaic of my progress on our most recent challenge (Eggplant, Burgundy and Emerald palette) which upon hindsight, was probably cryptic to everyone but me.

What I wanted to show was a peek into my process of auditioning fabrics. I was trying things out approximating their position in my composition (which is the top one in the photo of my drawings).

In all that moving around of fabrics, I learned a few things. One, I don’t have nearly as much eggplanty fabrics as I thought I did given my nice collection of purples. Two, I wasn’t getting the necessary foreground, middle ground, background distinction that I needed to make the composition work (due primarily to the fabrics I was using). And three, most Baltimore Album blocks, and definitely the ones with Kaffe Fasset fabrics, don’t have a foreground, middle ground, and background.

So, back to the drawing board. The composition on the lower right retains the cornucopia, the other to the left is less Baltimore Album. I was sort of thinking Cubist still life a la Picasso or Braque, but didn’t actually go that for for fear of losing the connection to the traditional quilt. If I were to take this idea into several pieces, I definitely think exploring a cubist-inspired option would be worthwhile. Alas, you can’t cram all your ideas into one piece and I had to prioritize.

Lucky me, my mom sent me some fabrics for Christmas that fit right into the eggplant and emerald them, and I went shopping for a few more. As much as I loved the white fabric with purple sprays of leaves (a great find in my stash), it just wasn’t working. Also, to keep with my “modern” theme I realized I needed some solids, both since they are very in vogue right now, but also to bring in the rich color I wasn’t getting through the print fabrics, and to provide a little rest.

Putting on the finishing touches, I had to use this embroidery floss from my mom. It’s got all our colors (plus a few more) and plays very nicely with my fabrics. I’ve had problems in the past with hand dyed flosses bleeding, but since I won’t be throwing this little piece in the wash, I think it’s the perfect place for the floss and I used it almost all up.

I’ll show one more step and the final piece on the twelfth. And as much as I like the color, and this little quilt, I am still not a fan of the vegetable eggplant.

Our latest Twelve by Twelve challenge was a rusty palette. I like rust and green. I had ideas. I let them simmer.

I pondered fabrics. I felt good about it all. I had time.

And then I didn’t! The last few days have been a marathon of stitching and beading. But, here it is, pretty much as I had envisioned it two weeks ago.

For the whole piece, it’s inspiration, and eleven other wonderful interpretations of the “rusty” them, go check out the Twelve by Twelve blog!