Wandering Wednesday - SF MOMA

 Time for a Wandering Wednesday, this time to SFMOMA. I really enjoyed my visit, going to see art in person, especially when it is so much larger than on one's computer screen or in a book is always a big part of the excitement. 

I've always loved Yayoi Kusama's work, especially her love of pumpkins and polka dots. Getting to see her enormous, exciting, Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart    in person was so great. 

Couldn't get the whole piece in my picture, because it's rather wide and there were a lot of people.

Finally got to experience one of the infinity rooms by Yayoi Kusama.  Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love (2023)  All I can say is wow! And that the pictures truly do not do this justice.

You get let into the cube with a small group, and you have exactly two minutes. It's completely worth the wait in line.

Glad I remembered to "always look up".

The Alexander Calder exhibit with many of his mobiles is always so peaceful. I just love watching the movement of the shadows.

Ended my visit with a late lunch at the museum cafe, including this lovely mocktail with butterfly pea blossom powder.

Final Day of the Retreat

Home again, home again, jiggityy-jig. I had to get all the way back home from SF to be able to post about what I did on the final day of the retreat. I hadn't unpacked and taken any pictures of what I sewed in those final hours. I guess I was working too hard at it to stop and take in-process pictures. 

Soooo....I worked on making the last possible four-patch blocks for the Old Town mystery quilt that I could assemble with the fabric strips that I had with me. These are assembled in groups of 10 so that it's easier for me to count them up. They're all made in such a way as to be fairly scrappy although there are many that match. 

There are only "some more" left to make, instead of "lots and lots". So it feels like overall, I made great progress on getting nearly all of the units done to start making blocks for this quilt...emphasis on almost. 

I was very inspired by watching friend Jaye’s progress on block assembly for the Old Town mystery quilt over the course of the retreat. She gave me lots of tips to keep in mind once I get to that stage which will no doubt be very helpful. 

Then for the last little bit of time I had left, I worked on the Y.E.S. Coat, cutting various widths of strips of the grey fabrics to then sew into strip sets. These will all be cut up and re-sewn again or used as is, to fill in the coat assembly between all the other Seminole piecing and paper pieced blocks.

Here's a great group picture of almost all of the attendees of the retreat. It sure was a great time, that extra day was almost too much for my stamina but I made it through and feel great about what I got done. Most of all I’m very pleased at the time I got to spend getting to know more of the guild members who were attending. I worked on 6 of the 7 projects that I brought along with me, so I feel like I packed just the right amount of stuff so that I had lots of choices and types of work to do. I did make a list for myself again of things to remember to bring to retreat next time (like a table lamp of some kind) so I'm already looking forward to that next time.

Stained Glass

 

I’m enjoying seeing my Uncle Chris’ stained glass art in their house.

We had a sudden blast of bright sunlight so I quickly snapped some pictures.

Really lovely designs. He gave a tour of his glass studio as well, and it’s a great space to do art. He’s not doing too much with it now and he has a big quantity of older blown-glass sheets. He’s trying to find someone to gift them to. I hope there’s an art program or artist who can use them. 

Others at PIQF

 

I didn't take too many pictures at PIQF, but here a few of them. First up in the New Quilts of Northern California exhibit is "Mixed Box" by Karen Bolan. The transparency effect is so great in this one, achieved by using a jelly roll. The pattern is available here and I think I have just the jelly roll waiting around to be used for something like this.

Next in the same exhibit, "A Traditional Block Revisited" by Susan Dague, quilted by Sue Fox. Why this isn't a picture of the complete quilt I'm not sure, but I hope you get the general idea. I really liked the colors in this one and the super interesting and vibrant composition. It reminded me of my Kitchen Sink Quilt, and yep, she'd also taken a class with Maria Shell.

This is a detail of a quilt that used word fabrics and I think selvedges with phrases on them as a sort of sashing in-between QST blocks. I didn't get the name of the quilt or maker for this one. A very fun idea.

This very excellent use of ombré fabric is "Mobius Meets Ombre" by Helen Klee, quilted by Martine Zaun . It was made with a paper piecing technique taught by Audrey Esarey (Cotton&Bourbon on Instagram). 

I thought the choice to use an ombrê fabric on the border also was just perfect. Great visual impact.

I was happy to see Therese May had a quilt in the NQNC exhibit too. This is a detail of one of her digital sketches that she's had printed on fabric and then made into a quilt, "One Hundred Twenty Cat Faces." It's a very different look, but still instantly recognizable as hers.

I really liked this interesting block, I think it was EPP? Great maximalist colors and patterns in the fabric choices.

Here's "Getting Pickled" by Suzan Lynne Peterson, from an interesting group exhibit, Talk Ten Travels, based on a vintage household magazine from the 1940's, Household & Poetry in Cloth. I loved the vibrant mustard yellow to go with the Coleman's label and the energetic hand-stitching. This one just made me laugh with delight, I guess I was surprised at a perfect giant pickle.

I noticed that there was a whole lot of allover matchstick quilting happening on many of the quilts. It's kind of like the new version of allover stippling. Matchstick quilting gives a flatter surface with a very different texture. It almost becomes like an overlay of a not-so sheer fabric. There were some quilts with even more dense stitching than this quilt. I really like the spacing between groups of close together three lines of stitching on this quilt.

A New Vessel

 I hardly ever showcase other people's artwork on my blog, but I had to make an exception in this case.

 This beautiful vessel was made for me by my son, Alex.

 It is the first ceramic vessel he's ever constructed.

 I'm so impressed with his natural abilities in a form that's so foreign to me.

I feel really lucky to have been given this as a gift on Mother's Day. Thanks Alex.