What! Again? Another Hexie Quilt Started?!

If you're a Beadlust reader, you know I worked for three years (more than 1,300 hours) to hand piece, hand embroider, and hand quilt Mama's Garden, with 4,700 3/4-inch hexies, a true labor of love. A big push this spring got it finished in time to enter into the International Quilt Festival in La Conner, WA. Hooray, hooray, the judges accepted it into the show!!!!

This coming weekend, October 2-4, all you quilting enthusiasts will find it rewarding to make the effort and get to La Conner (WA) for the Festival, where you will see an excellent selection of quilts and fiber arts, plus a variety of interesting vendors! Here is the information. Head first for Maple Hall, a huge 2-story building, filled with quilts, at the corner of 1st Street (the main drag) and Douglas Street! Bring your camera, because photos are allowed (at least in the past they were).

What do you think? After all those hours, would it be crazy to even THINK about making another hexie quilt, another one with 3/4-inch hexies? Well, then I guess I'm crazy, because the irresistible call of the hexie hooked me again. And why not re-use the same paper pieces?

This one will not be traditional, and will definitely NOT be hand quilted. It will be hand pieced, using small left-over fabrics (I refuse to call them scraps), cotton prints (but not batiks). I have no idea how I will arrange them, how big it will be, or anything else about how this new project will develop.

The first step was to cut out sets of  2" x 2" squares (6 per set) to make flower petals. So far, I've cut about 130 sets. Here are 80 of them, ready to baste onto the 3/4" paper hexie pieces.

From very small pieces, I cut single 2"  x 2" squares to make flower centers. These I've already basted to the paper hexie pieces.

After basting some of the petals and centers, I started choosing centers for the petal sets. This part is fun! I enjoy "auditioning" various centers until one of them seems right. I'm avoiding high value contrast between petals and centers, because I might want to do a color study with them (no borders).

When the urge gets really strong, I allow myself to start stitching the hexies together to make flowers.

This quilt will probably have about 650 flowers! I've cut 130 so far, each different. I cut flower petals from all of my small pieces, every one. My preference is to have all 650 flowers different.

Sooooooo, if YOU have some small fabric pieces you'd be willing to donate, I'd love to have part of you in my quilt. This is what I need:

For petals - 2" x 12" strip, or 4" x 6" piece

For centers - 2" square (only one per fabric design)

Quilting weight cotton prints only, no batiks.

One petal set per fabric design (no duplicates).

Prefer small to medium scale prints.

Mail to:

Robin Atkins

1785 Douglas Road #4

Friday Harbor  WA  98250

THANK YOU!!!!!

Exhibition of my Beadwork!

Bringing my beadwork to the Museum

Many, many moons ago, when I first started beading, I made an important decision about my future beading career. I decided not to be in the business of selling my beadwork. That’s a huge and somewhat uncommon decision for an artist, because most feel that in order to justify the time it takes to do beadwork and the cost of materials, it has to be sold. Many also take sales of their work as a marker of their skill as an artist… “if it sells, then I am an artist; if I sell lots of it, then I am a successful artist; if a gallery takes my work, then my work is good,” etc.

Demonstration prior to the Opening on April 1st.

My dear friend, Liz, drove to La Conner for the opening!

Those are tempting thoughts, aren’t they?! However, I had previously been a metalsmith, making one-of-a-kind silver and gold jewelry for 5 years. During those years, I experimented with various methods of selling my jewelry – craft fairs, home shows, commissions, galleries – and found that I hated all of them. Marketing my work, talking about it, looking in people’s eyes as they walked by my booth without stopping, answering questions about how I made something, knowing the person asking was also a metalsmith and might copy my ideas – all of that was like a millstone around my neck, depressing, daunting, and no fun at all.

So, when beadlust jumped in my heart, I almost immediately decided I would not sell my work. Instead, I would make my living by selling beads and beading supplies, teaching others how to bead, and writing books about beading. It’s been a great pathway for me, almost always fun, challenging, exciting – and, it has paid my bills and given me the means for many beady adventures. To be sure, I have sold some of my beadwork, especially jewelry, here and there. But it’s always when opportunity comes to me, not when I’ve struggled to be accepted for a show.

Twenty-seven years later, I am looking back down my beaded pathway with great satisfaction, pleased as punch about my initial decision. Twenty-seven years later, I also own a substantial stash of beaded objects that I’ve made over the years – beaded jewelry, bags, books, dolls, wall art, sculptures, and quilts. While many of them decorate my studio and home, some live in boxes, stored away in cabinets. I feel a bit guilty about those poor babies. Shouldn’t I get them out, brush the dust off, and sell them? Oh yeah, I forgot, I hate selling/promoting my beadwork.

All of the above is to introduce a fabulous and unexpected opportunity that came my way recently… The curator of the La Conner Quilt & TextileMuseum contacted me to ask if I would be willing to exhibit my beaded quilts and other beadwork in a one person show at the museum for the month of April, 2015. WOW! Would I be interested? You bet I would!!!!

Twenty-eight pieces! Once I cleared the pieces for the show out of my studio, the nearly empty walls and display counter was depressing. Guess what happened?  I opened up those boxes, and brought out things I hadn’t ever displayed, or at least hadn’t displayed for a long time. What great fun to see them every day this past month! I love it!

Two days ago the show closed (waaa), and my work is back home again. Here it is, all piled up on my studio tables. Nice to have it home; not so nice to decide which pieces go back into boxes.

Exhibition closed - beadwork back home again

And then there is the question of what is to become of it in the long run. I am 72 years old. It might be time to start thinking about that. Some will go to my beady friends, and some to my nieces and nephews (if they want it). And, I’d die happy if I knew that some of the best pieces were in the permanent collection of a museum or two. Rosie, The Uncaged Hen, for example should be in a museum, don’t you think?

Rosie, The Uncaged Hen

Having the show in La Conner, seeing my work so beautifully displayed there, gives me the energy to start thinking about the future of my beadwork, to make a list of my all the pieces, place an "insurance value" on them, and start talking to acquisition curators about it. Although the idea of this task seems a little like “selling my work,” the show in La Conner makes it worth the effort.

La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum

Exhibition of My Beadwork... April 1 - May 3!!!

Beadlust 

an exhibition of bead and fiber works by Robin Atkins

This is the first solo exhibition of my work! I am very pleased and honored that the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum offered me a show in their new Local Artist Exhibit Program's first-floor Landmarks Gallery.

There are 28 pieces in the exhibition, including beaded quilts, books, dolls, and framed art. Several of the pieces are new and have not been exhibited previously. Below is one of them, a beaded and embroidered collage using some of my hand-dyed, re-purposed fabrics.

Every Child Should Have Her Own Tree, hand-dyed, beaded, embroidered fabric collage

I hope some of you will be able to come see my work, as well as the work of the other two featured quilt artists in the upper floor galleries.

Exhibition Information:

• Where: La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum, 703 2nd Street, La Conner, WA 
• When: April 1 - May 3, 2015. Museum hours are 11-5 Wednesday through Sunday (closed Mon. & Tues.)
• Contact Museum: 360-466-4288; web www.laconnerquilts.org 
• Info about the exhibit: http://www.laconnerquilts.org/beadlust---robin-atkins.html 
• Other exhibits: The work of Denise Miller and Nancy Ryan is on the 2nd & 3rd floor of the museum; Robin’s work is on the 1st floor 

Exhibition Events: 

• Opening reception at the museum: April 1, 4 to 7 pm; all three artists will be there; free admission
• Demonstration at the museum: Robin demonstrates process and techniques of bead embroidery, April 1, 2-4 pmWorkshop: 
• Robin teaches Improvisational Bead Embroidery, May 2-3 in La Conner http://www.laconnerquilts.org/improvisational-bead-embroidery.html

A couple of readers have contacted me asking if the above work, or any of the other pieces will be for sale...  Nope, afraid not... exhibition only, although the museum's excellent gift shop does carry my books.

Huge Challenge: Making a Whole from the Parts

In the previous posts, you've seen the individual blocks I've been making, 61 of them, for my Travel Diary 2014 quilt. Each block is quilted, bound, and embellished... each a mini-quilt. The difficult challenge was how to put them all together into a whole piece.

This is one of the 61 blocks.

My original thought was to stitch them together into a wall hanging, something like the arrangement below:

No way! As I played with the arrangement, it was obvious that the results were "muddy," confusing, and "busy" from close up... and boring from a distance.

So then, I spaced them apart, like in a photo album, not touching, something like this:

Nope. That didn't work either... still too busy, muddy, and boring from a distance. Akkk, what to do???? Sleep on it!

Next morning, the solution came to me upon waking! Sew them together in clusters, and mount the clusters on a back-quilt!

To see how the idea would work, I grouped the blocks on a piece of fabric from my stash, each cluster representing a whole (or segment of a) trip. This is how it looked:

The idea of clustering worked! Yay! Instead of 61 different things to view, there were now only a dozen or so. And from a distance, the shapes of the clusters against the pathway of background color made an interesting pattern.

What color would the back-quilt be, and how would the clusters be attached, I wondered? After stitching the clusters together, I took them to the quilt shops in Anacortes to find the a fabric for the back-quilt.  It had to be a read-as-solid print, one that wouldn't distract from the clusters, in a color  that contrasted in value with the over-all value of the clusters. I soon found that either too much or too little value contrast was not good. Two green prints and a light coral print came home with me as possibilities.

That evening, after trying all three of them, I decided to go with one of the green prints. The clusters seemed to "pop" nicely on it!

However, the next morning, when I viewed it in daylight, the green seemed just too cool. My travels were warm (at heart) and wonderful...  I wanted the quilt to have visual warmth. Back to the drawing board. I made a "help!" call to Lunnette, my quilting friend and travel companion on one of the trips, who came over and agreed that the green was good... except for the important consideration of "warmth." While trying various possible fabrics, she happened to mention that red is sometimes considered a neutral color, which made me look at the red/rose fabrics in my stash with a different eye. When we put the clusters on a piece of medium-rose batik, we both knew instantly we had found the back-quilt fabric!!! Whooo-hooo!

Next was the matter of how to construct the back-quilt and how to attach the clusters. I made all the mini-decisions on an "as needed" basis. Here they are in order:

1. quilt the names of the people I spent time with on these travels on the back-quilt (picture shows one quilted line, and two lines written in chalk to be quilted)
   
   
2. use the same color thread as the fabric to quilt the names, so they are there, but do not distract the viewer from the clusters of blocks
3. make the edges of the back-quilt irregular
4. bind the back-quilt edges, and then whip stitch the binding with pearl cotton, the same as the individual blocks
   
5. sew the clusters onto the back-quilt on the top edge only, allowing the cluster to be lifted to see the backs of the blocks (all different fabrics, carefully chosen for the subject of each block), and giving a place to sew a label identifying the location, people, etc. in the photos of that cluster
6. use a double row of hand-stitching along the top of each cluster to support the weight
7. make a small identifying label for each cluster
   
8. sew a small, and very personal, embellishment on the back of each cluster, something I know is there but that most people won't see (or know the meaning of if they did see it)

And here is the finished quilt. It's 37" wide by 43" tall. Even if you click-to-enlarge, this picture does not do the quilt justice... So, if you'd like to really SEE it, come to the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum during April (April 1 - May 3), when it and 29 other of my beaded objects and quilts will be exhibited!

What did I learned making this quilt? Whew... probably more than you'd want to read... The most important thing was a reinforcement of the "just do it" approach to original art, an approach that works so well for me with my bead embroidery. Not stressing over all the decisions, not needing to have all the answers in hand before starting, is a hugely enabling gift to the creative process!

Travel Diary Quilt - A Few Finished "Pillows"

I'm working like a madwoman to get this quilt finished in time for a show at the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum during the month of April (a one-room exhibition of my work)!!!

Fifty-seven "pillows" in all. Thought you might like to see a few of the ones I've finished in the past couple of days.

These are my favorite tigers at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, WA. Dumai (top) and Berani, raised together (as non-biological brothers) by zoo-keepers, are now just over 2 years old.

Roland, a knight of Bremen, Germany, is a central figure in the annual Freimaak (free market) celebration. The lucky penny was given to me by a very tall, handsome chimney sweep. I used thread embroidery to decorate the cookie and added threads to represent the strings on the balloons.

These two are both from my visit last June to Yellowstone National Park. The hiking and the animal sightings were fabulous at that time of year!

I had a wonderful time exploring the Bentheim Castle, a large, early medieval, hill-top castle in NW Germany, definitely recommended if you are ever in the area!

My bead-sister, Anna Fehér, in Hungary, took me to several really great bead shops in Budapest, including a shop that mostly sold beautiful, finished necklaces patterned after traditional folk designs. This was the window display at the shop. While there, I purchased a pattern for one of the necklaces, which I used to embellish this "pillow". The beads are size 15s.

By the way, looooong ago, Anna is the one who gave me the 2 tiger kitten, the peacock, and the 2 rucksack stamped-metal charms I used in three of the above "pillows." Thank you, Anna!!!


It's waaaaay fun to embellish each of these preserved memories. The embellishment part goes fairly quickly, taking about 2-3 hours each for most of them. Let me know if you like seeing them... If so, I'll post more as I go along.

Quilting + Beading = Fun!

As a fund-raiser, the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum issued a challenge last year at the Quilt Festival, offering the sale of a little kit containing 2 small pieces of fabric, one a Japanese silk print and the other a dark blue, indigo-dyed solid. I decided to "go for it" and bought a kit, thinking maybe I'd make a small quilt with it. Below are the two fabrics in my "kit," although the colors in this photo are a little "off."

All of the entered pieces will be displayed this year at the Quilt Festival in October, and the attendees can vote for the one they like best. The 2 pieces winning the most votes will be on display at the museum for 2 months. Each of us can decide if we want to donate the piece or keep it. If donated, the Museum will sell it either in the gift shop or at a fund-raising auction.

My quilting friend, Lunnette, went right to work with her kit, and soon produced a lovely mountain/water/full moon wall quilt, which we delivered to the Museum last week. Me? I couldn't think of a thing to do with my fabrics... blocked completely...

But at the Museum, the curator, when she took Lunnette's quilt, said to me, "You know, it doesn't HAVE to be a quilt... It COULD be beadwork..." And suddenly an idea popped into my mind.

What if I could make quilted fabrics into beads and put them together into a necklace? Ah-ha! Sounds like fun... quilting + beading! So I gave it a try.

First I pieced the fabrics together, adding one of my own Japanese indigo-dyed prints. Then I made little "sandwiches" of pieced fabrics + lightweight batting + backing fabric, and hand-quilted each unit. The picture above shows the flat, quilted units, and one that I've rolled and stitched into a tube. Below are two of the units.

Here is what the units look like on the back side, after quilting.

Then I started playing around with how to make the pendant and how to form the tubes into beads. Also I had to look, and look, and really LOOK through my stash to find beads that went with the Japanese theme, more-or-less matched the orange-indigo color scheme, AND had holes big enough to accommodate the large, cotton-covered cord I planned to use.

Above is the "playing around stage." About 20 hours later, below is the finished necklace.

And here is a detail.

The Museum wants a name for each of the pieces, which was tough for me... I finally decided to call it "A Crane in the Window." How do you like it?

If you want to have it and support the Museum,  you could get in touch with them about when and how they plan to sell it (and the other entered pieces).