April 2020 - Being Creative

Lots of changes have happened in our daily lives since our last meeting in March.  We also have new terms such as "social distancing" and "shelter in place." Talking about social distancing, we had our first virtual gathering ever.  Thanks to Annette who set up a Zoom meeting, we continued our business as usual - lets say almost-usual!

Our proposal to exhibit at the Chessman Gallery in Lincoln City was accepted for January 2022!  Since we have had a chance to exhibit there before, we know the gallery and we also know that it is a beautiful space with lots of walls.  In addition to our three or four collections which are ready for display, we brainstormed about other themes and parameters.  We settled on a few and since we all have more time than usual, we are ready to work. We know we will not be bored!

Our yearly exhibit has been cancelled because, well, you know. We are looking at alternatives and will most likely have an on-line exhibit. More on this as we work it out.

March 2020 - Photo Session and Stories - A strange feeling

We met on March 11 but a strange feeling was in the air, as the day before, the World Health Organization declared COVIT-19 a pandemic.  We kept a small distance between us and somehow knew that this could be perhaps the last in-person meeting for a long while.  We were right!

We enjoyed our meeting and each others company as we admired our almost completed works for our new exhibit "The Writings on the Wall".  We took photos, shared process, materials and most importantly, what inspired each of us to create what we created.  Everyone had an interesting or fun story to tell! Here is a little peek at some of our pieces.

Enjoy and Stay Well!

Annette's

Betty's

Diane's

Hilde's

Kathy's

Lynn's

Valri's

February 2020 - Circle Time

Today was a play day.  We gathered scraps and met at Hilde's studio to work on circles, just for fun!

We used Marie Joerger's brilliant technique documented in great detail on her blog:

http://mariescreativespace.blogspot.com/2014/05/nhmqg-bom-plus-circle-tutorial.html

Here are some of the circles we created:

2020 January - WISHING YOU a Happy New Year

From all of us here at MIX, our best wishes for a Happy New Year 2020!

2019 October - More Sharing and 2020 exhibit

So, the decision has been made, our 2020 theme is TEXT and we can use it in so many ways.  We came up with a tentative name for this collection, "The Writing is on the Wall" or something along those lines.

The brewing of ideas is starting and Kathy has even started playing with fonts, sizes, different inks and paints.  Here is what she showed us:

Kathy's text experiments

Diane showed us her scrap piece which is part of our MIX 18"x18" on-going challenge.  This Scrap challenge encourages us to work with only scraps from our MIX bins:

Diane's scrap piece

Since we were at Diane's house, we also got to peek in her studio and see what was on her design wall.  This is part of what we saw:

Diane's design wall

Hilde showed her latest 8x8 tile.  It represents a portion of one of her larger pieced quilts but this time using fusing techniques and then heavily stitched to disguise the raw edges.  It is faced and then mounted on to black painted stretched canvas:

Hilde's 8x8 tile

See you in November!

2019 September - Full Steam Ahead

September was a chance to review the decisions of our new body of work.

The color pallet was revisited and the decision to include one common color was decided. And the winner....was lime green. It could be just a smidgen or the whole enchilada. Each artist gets to choose. All other colors are also welcome.

We also decided to go bigger. the dimensions would grow by 10 inches to 40 x 40 inches. Each artists can use this space as they wish with one or more pieces but the height of each piece must be 40 inches.

On to shared work.

Betty showed some table runners that she has been working on.  She used some vibrant solids on one side that are picked up in the Guatemalan fabric she used on the back.  Her hand stitching matched beautifully with the native fabrics. She also had a long runner of a series of houses that had strong black lines on the roofs of the houses. This line made with a sharpie marker really popped the piece.

Valri showed some books she has made, some with commercial fabrics and one with a hand-dyed fabric. They are truly lovely and she offered to teach a workshop for us. 

Elaine showed painted canvas works that she has been doing.  She uses acrylic paint on flat canvas. This is a multi layered process beginning with a wash of pant and texturing with varying found objects. Then over painting until she get s the look she wants. And, finally adding a layer of  shapes that then become the focal point.

2019 July & August - Decision Time

Visiting the Sisters Outdoor quilt show was in lieu of a July meet up. Many of us were able to participate in this, as always, very fun day. The weather was delightful and our Weather themed quilts were on display.

August was decision time for our next body of work. Many ideas were thrown out but the one that most of us were smitten with, was the idea of Text. Is that text messaging or the zip codes where I've  lived or Dear Diary or a graffiti under the Burnside bridge.

We were also interested in choosing one or more colors from a predetermined color palette. A piece of art in Betty's home that appealed to all was selected and the palette then pulled from this work. It was the intention of the group that one or more of these colors, left up to the individual artist, would be used in the new work.

The last decision was dimension. We discussed the unifying effect a similar size brings to the exhibit. Our tendency is to stay with the 40 x 30 dimensions we have used in the past.