Studio Series: Stripy Log Cabin quilt

Stripy Log Cabin quilt ©Karen Thiessen 2012

Stripy Log Cabin quilt detail ©Karen Thiessen 2012

Stripy Log Cabin was just installed in a local space, adjacent to Fire 2. I've only seen these quilts up one at a time, so I am pleased to see them hung together. Stripy Log Cabin, Tangents, and Fire 2 are part of my Tangents series and I pieced the squares and subsequent quilts improvisationally. Improvisational piecing is equal parts fun, intense, and its opposite, relaxing. Once I am into the flow of piecing, I lose track of time and have difficulty stopping for any sort of break. It's like reading a mystery novel and not being able to put it down. If you have difficulty meditating, try improvisational piecing. Stripy Log Cabin is 69” wide X 91” long (175 cm X 231 cm).

Sandra Brownlee Interview 2005

April 22, 2005 interview with Sandra Brownlee for the Senior Artists Initiative and Oral History Project by Hannah Ratzlaff, intern at University of the Arts, Philadelphia. The videographer was Rosalie Kenny.


I've meant to add this video to my blog for a year now. I have a more recent video from her Departures and Returns show that Sandra has given me permission to upload, but alas I haven't yet figured out how to do it.

Quotes: Wendell Berry

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings." – Wendell Berry
Have you ever had a difficult day that got better thanks to an unexpected gift? This quote presented itself to me on one of those days. The right quote on the wrong day made all the difference.

Week 17: Adobe Illustrator

Ziggy Zag ©Karen Thiessen 2012

Do you remember my goal of creating a starburst pattern in Adobe Illustrator (AI)? Ziggy Zag is the reason behind it. A few years ago I created a version of this pattern in Photoshop from a section of this postcard. Photoshop is a memory pig, and Ziggy Zag is a vector-based pattern, so why not learn to recreate it in a more efficient program? Right. One of the frustrating aspects of AI is that unlike Photoshop, there is no obvious cropping tool. If there is, I haven't learned it yet. The Divide Objects Below tool is the closest thing to a marquee or cropping tool that I've found and I'm still figuring out how to use it effectively. I have more ideas for this pattern, but Rome was't built in a day. 

Garden Dreams

Photo credit: Doug Porter

With spring comes thoughts of the garden. Last year we expanded our front garden into part of our driveway and now I'm thinking about plants and funky garden structures such as these red and yellow bamboo sticks. I've read that it takes five to eight years for a garden to mature, so it will take a while to get it right and see how the plants adapt and get along with each other. The new space is one of only two areas on the property that get sun and boy am I excited. The other area is now garden too. Last summer we tore down an old shed in the backyard where raccoons, cats, and birds went underneath to die and over this burial ground my husband built four raised planters where we will attempt to grow vegetables. I'm a country gal and never encountered a shade garden until we bought the fixer-upper that we now call home. I have learned to work with the gazillion trees on and around our yard, but secretly I yearned for a space to plant sunflowers, butterfly bushes, zinnias, vegetables, and a whole host of other sun-loving plants. Last autumn, I planted a few perennials in the front sun garden and in three weeks I'll head to the garden centre for annuals and vegetable plants. Whee!!

Studio Series: Fire 2 quilt

Fire 2 quilt ©Karen Thiessen 2012

Fire 2 is quiet compared to last week's featured quilt Tangents. The golden sashing is made up of onion-skin dyed fabrics, probably with Ted Hutten's onion skins from Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley and Halifax tap water. Although I fleshed out the quilt with some commercial fabrics, many fabrics I dyed, printed, and over-dyed myself. Let's just say I was a little too productive when I was a Sheridan student and I still have bins of dyed and printed fabrics waiting to be used. The very bottom magenta sash is an old faded studio curtain that I over-dyed while I was a resident in the Harbourfront studio. Fire 2, is 82.5” W X 91.25” H or 210 cm X 232 cm. One day I'll show you Fire 1 and Fire 3.

Postcards: Fausta Facciponte

Fausta Facciponte Emma for $1.15, 2007

Have you seen Fausta Facciponte's show of doll portraits yet? I saw this at Hamilton's McMaster Museum of Art in 2009 and I was blown away. The digital photographs mounted on plexiglass are 40 x 48 inches, much larger than doll size. The dolls are in various stages of "lovedness" and many of the photos are creepy-cute. A few of the dolls appear to be possessed by demons as they stare the viewer down – the stuff of nightmares. Other dolls evoke pity or sympathy. In a previous life, they were loved by their young owners, only to be discarded later to the thrift store or garage sale. I still have two of my well-loved childhood dolls garbed in dresses that my great-grandmother made for them.