MIX: Art Quilt Portfolio

Inspiration of a Female Artist

2025

Each work was inspired by a female artist of the makers choice. Read how each artist was inspired and take a closer look.

These first two by Lynn Anderson were based on the work of Billie Buford. Lynn especially likes the color tints that she works with and the movement of color across a piece. Her use of line as another intersecting point of interest appeals to her as well. She found it fun, though challenging, to produce a work with these details. The pieces use shapes to mix the colors and stitch to depict the lines.

Annette chose Lucinda Parker, who is a local Portland artist known for her big works displayed at the Convention Center and hotel lobbies around town. She has always enjoyed her abstract representational work of the landscapes in the Pacific Northwest. Her current fascinations are the mountains and volcanoes, most of which she has climbed. Annette also enjoys hiking in the mountains of the PNW which connects her to this beautiful work.

These pieces, A Single Moon over Many Landscapes 1 & 2, were inspired by Danish photography artist Inge Schuster. Hilde has always been drawn to her early architectural work. Her images are full of emotion, with a moody atmosphere, simple compositions, and faded colors that she finds very moving. Small touches—like a lamppost, a bench, a cat’s silhouette, or a few tree branches—give her work a quiet human presence. She often includes a super moon too, which adds to the magic. Hilde worked to bring in some of these same elements.

Georgia O’Keefe was an American painter who spent part of her life living in the southwest and also New York City—quite a contrast. Deb began to appreciate her art while living in New Mexico. This New York piece Nightscape inspired her with it’s monochromatic tones and simple lines. She wanted to elongate it and create it in fabric

Huguette Caland was a painter, sculptor and fashion designer but it was her paintings that Elaine admired most and wanted to interpret in Fiber. She tends to use bright, pure color and often applies paint with a grungy, muted texture. Her use of layers is most intriguing. She adds little elements such as checkerboards, stripes, dots and houses over the top of the base layer. These tiny elements are not a part of the focal image but make you want to get up close to notice. It is this level of detail Elaine tried to capture in Tickled Pink.

Leonora Carrington was one of the very few women Surrealist painters during the 20^th Century. She used symbols to express her feelings as a woman. Kat's work, Sliding into Spring, reflects her own perspectives as a woman in the 21^st Century. More than in the past, girls are encouraged to be brave and strong as they slide through childhood into womanhood. They can fear the journey, but also embrace the adventure, looking forward to the possibilities that life can bring, just like how spring brings daisies to show us the possibilities of a new season.

Ruth Aiko Asawa was an American modernist artist known primarily for her abstract looped-wire sculptures inspired by natural and organic forms. Betty has always enjoyed both the simplicity of the shapes and the complexity of the work to form them. The neutral colors and the depth of layering have also intrigued her. She wanted to capture this 3-D work in 2 dimensions and in fiber rather than metal.

Ripped

2023

Mixed media lends itself well to fiber art. Actually, paper is a fiber too. For this challenge, each artist was to incorporate paper in the work. It was a nice change of process. Searching for the paper in each piece is a fun viewer experience. The size is a repeat at 18 inches wide by 40 inches long.

Lynn Anderson

So Many Recitals

Kathy Blondell

It's Not Easy Being Green

Betty Daggett

Add a Little Rip to the Mix

Annette McFarlane

Postcards from Italy

Elaine Millar

Making Connections

Hilde Morin

Rolling Surf

As I See It

2021

In an attempt to give each artist as much creative “room” as possible, we chose a very general theme which is open to personal interpretation: “As I See It”. The size stipulation was 18” wide by 40” long, but otherwise, the subject matter was up to the artist, and boy did we have fun with this one!

Log Cabin by Lynn Anderson

To Dye For by Kathy Blondell

Who's Watching by Valri Chiappetta

My Path by Betty Daggett

My Fall Maple by Diane Losli-Britt

As I See Lincoln City by Annette McFarlane

Rhetoric...A Ripple Effect by Elaine Millar

2020 As I See it by Hilde Morin

THE WRITINGS ON THE WALL

2020

MIX chose “Text” as the subject for our 2020 Show. This choice and nearly all the work done on our pieces occurred before Covid-19 became the center of everyone’s life in the spring of 2020. Even without consideration of the impact of the virus, “text” is an interesting choice for a quilt group.
Does the meaning of the text itself receive the major emphasis, or is it more a celebration of various kinds of calligraphy and ways of representing language? And because letters in their curvy, varied, gorgeous shapes do not lend themselves to piecing, what method does each artist choose to get the text into her work?
There is everything from precisely cut out shapes to printed words to hand-lettered bits, showing strong links to each artist’s way of expression.

Enjoy the show!

DISAGREE AGREEABLY by Lynn Anderson

WE by Kathy Blondell

THE CITY SPEAKS by Valri Chiappetta

BROKEN/FRACTURED; HEALING/MENDING by Betty Daggett

OPEN THE DOORS OF OUR WORLD by Diane Losli-Britt

RED STATE BLUE STATE by Annette McFarlane

A JOYFUL NOISE

JOY COMES WITH THE MORNING

JOY IT SEEMS

by Elaine Millar

PLEASE REMOVE BOOTS AND GUNS by Hilde Morin

WHAT GOES AROUND ...

2019

Circles and Cycles! Our lives are full of these two things from marbles to polka dots to peas to the seasons and even a life itself. Our group decided to take on these two concepts and “What goes Around…” was born.

It was decided that either or both ideas could be used, and so there is a piece about the moon which can be round at one point in its phase, or many other shapes throughout its cycle. And then there is a tongue-in-cheek bicycle because after all, you can’t cycle if you don’t have circles! Some abstracted tulips show their life cycle with dramatic changes of color, and tiny soap bubbles become something else entirely when enlarged. And that’s just the beginning. We hope you enjoy this theme and the ways we have chosen to express it.

Blowing Bubbles
by Annette McFarlane

Moon Cycles
by Betty Daggett

Gear Up
by Diane Losli-Britt

Round Pegs - Square Hole
By Elaine Millar

Seeing Red
by Kathy Blondell

Merry Go Round
by Lynn Anderson

Graffitti
by Valri Chiappetta

Tulip Envy
by Hilde Morin

WEATHER

2018

In choosing this year's theme, we made a list of possibilities. When weather was suggested, it seemed at once innocuous and yet so broad and full of possibilities.

Today it seems that the weather all over our globe is in the news more than ever. The wild swings in climate, whatever their cause, gives us continual headlines: Flooding, Drought, Monster Storms, etc. No part of our world has escaped these extremes and when these occurrences affect the food supply, results are of even more consequence, often in the "catastrophic" category.

In the end, instead of asking ourselves "What on earth will I do with this subject?", it became "How should I limit my portrayal to deliver the subject with the most punch?" Living in the northwest brought many thoughts naturally to rain, some for drama and some for it's soothing and sometimes playful aspect.Others illustrated the consequences of weather occurrences or pondered the often unknowable weather we all live with; even if we listen to the weather report every evening, we are still sometimes caught without our umbrellas.