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Packing up an Art Studio

August 28, 2014 / Nancy Smeltzer / No comments

Studio full of buttons and beads for art quilts

Packing up an art studio is hard! Who would have thought that a “few” jars of buttons and beads would be so time consuming?

When I first began writing this blog about my beaded art quilts and the other forms of art that I indulge in, I had quite a full room. As you can see in the photo on the left that the plastic shelves were bent from the weight of the treasures that I had from which to choose for embellishments. A lot was hidden, behind other jars and assorted containers, and many were balancing at a precarious angle.To get to some of those back ones, I would have to take down maybe 5 or 6 jars to get to the one that I wanted. I so wanted a neater studio!

Studio – Waiting for the house to sell

Well be careful what you wish for. A few weeks back on my Facebook page, I posted a photo of all of those materials in boxes. Here’s what the left hand corner of the above picture looks like now after the stagers got through with it for the move. In all of those bins are my business materials. I just looked around the room, and the only sewing supplies are my sewing machine on the desk where I’m writing this blog, and a pin cushion.In the closet is a collage that I want to work on for a Christmas present, and that’s it regarding sewing. The Ansel Adams print on the wall was put there by the stagers. They kept asking me if I didn’t have more of my work to display. However, I had been told to make the place as bare as possible, so most of my art quilts are in a storage unit with most of my clothes and furniture. It sounds kind of hollow in this room.

Nancy’s sewing chair

In the same blog where I wrote about my studio, I showed the chair where I actually do the sewing. I still have that same chair where I sit and watch TV where I add on the beads one by one. However, what you can’t see in this photo is that at my feet were many big jars of beads. The small wicker trash can in the lower left hand corner was sitting on a large plastic tub filled with other jars of beads that I needed at at the time. Sometimes, I had to climb up and over the fort that I had built, just to get out of the chair. Well, that’s not a problem any more!

Downstairs chair waiting for buyers to come

This last photo shows my chair after the stagers emptied out the room,and I donated a lot of the furniture to a charity. A lot of the tools that I need are in the sunflower box to the left of the chair. In that box are also the little containers for the beads that I’m using at the time. Everything has to be ready to be put away within an hour’s time, as I can’t be in the house while the potential buyers are there with their realtor. Before I sent my buttons, beads, and fabric away for storage, I cut out three art quilts, and put the buttons and the big beads on them. I figured that that many would last me a year. I then selected the seed beads that were needed for each quilt, and they’re in a closet behind and to the right of the chair, along with a rack of quilting thread. The house has only officially been on the market for two weeks now, but it already seems like a long time.

The house that I’ve picked out (after selling this place) would have a room about the same size as where I’ve worked for 30 years.I’ve been using a small bedroom that was dedicated from day 1 to making my art work. The new one will be a little more interesting, in that it has more angles than just a rectangle. Unpacking all of those jars, fabric, and frou-frou will take quite a bit of time. Should be ,,, interesting!

Have you ever moved a studio? Got any tips for me to make it easier?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write because encouragement helps the words flow!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my spiritual healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies), and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Category: History of my Art /

Another Quilt from my Unknown Grandmother

June 18, 2013 / Nancy Smeltzer / No comments

Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

I think that I had been pulling out stuff from my mother’s linen closet for about two hours at the point where I made this discovery. My mother had countless boxes of soap and light bulbs on the upper shelves, along with brand new sheets and towels that had never been used. Now, however, I was down on the floor. I tugged and tugged on what I thought was a wadded up old stained blanket stuck way back in the corner. Fortunately, instead of automatically throwing it into the Goodwill pile for donations, I unfolded it. I was quite pleased to find an antique summer coverlet that had been quilted.

In a previous posting I wrote about a quilt that my aunt had given me that had been made by a grandmother that I never knew. That one, with its simple butterflies, had been made for a child’s bed and had been made for a children’s orphanage. This new one, that I found, quite a bit bigger. It measures 84″ (213 cm) square, so it’s quite a bit larger, although two or more children often slept in the same bed. There are 16 pre-printed panels (each 16.5″ or 42 cm square) that were stamped in blue ink, one of which is shown here. A medium blue embroidery floss of split down to three threads instead of the usual six, was used to go over the printed design, using a straight stitch. There wasn’t much care taken to disguise the blue thread under the white fabric, as shown where I added a red arrow in the middle of the picture above.

This panel is another one of the four different panels. Zoo animals are depicted here, while there was another design showing native birds and animals and another one of storybook characters. After the 16 panels were completed, (4 of each design), they were attached in columns of four with a plain white piece of fabric between, or a “sashing”. The entire quilt doesn’t seem to have any batting in the middle, so is probably what I knew as a “summer coverlet” when I was growing up. Those were much lighter weight than the thicker ones for winter.

In the middle of each design was the number of the quilt bock design and the company that made it. It looks like “VOGUEL”, but is probably Vogue-Vogart, a company that made pre-stamped panels to be embroidered and made into quilts. My guess is that the quilt was made in the mid 1920s, as the photo of my Dad from that time period, below (whose side the quilt came from) shows him and his brother dressed like the little boy giving the cat milk in the lower left of the first photo above. The straight cut bobbed hair and the big collars were definitely from that time period.

The embroidered panels were seamed together and then a backing fabric was added. The entire piece was quilted in a simple running stitch using white thread. Most of the quilting was done in a simple grid pattern to keep the two layers from slipping, In a few places, there was a diagonal lined added for a little more interest.

Basically, this quilt was quickly done to make a utilitarian bed covering. However, I’d like to think that perhaps impromptu bedtime stories were told over it, using the animals and characters as the focus of the story. The quilt has suffered through the ages, as there are the usual signs of body fluids that are usually found on children’s quilts. I have no idea how long my mother had had the quilt stuffed on the floor of her linen closet, so I imagine that some of the stains are from tannin in the wood of the molding along the floor. My brother has claimed this quilt, so I’m hoping that it gets a much kinder treatment in the future.

For more information on the history of pre-printed quilt panels, check out this link.

Did you have a favorite blanket or “binky” that you carried around? Perhaps it was a favorite sweater or a stuffed animal that you carried around for comfort. Why not tell us a tale of your childhood treasure.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Category: History of my Art / Tags: antique quilts, art quilt blogs, art quilts, family quilting history, Nancy Smeltzer

Learning to Sew in the Girl Scouts

May 15, 2013 / Nancy Smeltzer / 2 comments

Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

A lot of my sewing skills I learned in the Girl Scouts, and you can see from my sash, I earned a lot of merit badges. The troop I belonged to was an arts troup, and many of my badges were from textile skills, such as embroidery, knitting, basketry, dressmaking, and other related domestic talents that women were supposed to have. In school, I belonged to Future Homemakers of America, where we made aprons and learned to cook simple things. I liked Scouting better, as there were badges to reflect your accomplishments. There wasn’t a quilting or beading merit badge in my scouting experiences, but I’m sure I would have done one if there had been. I went over and beyond the requirements in whatever I attempted.

While cleaning out one of the closets after my mother’s death, a nephew found a notebook I had made of different kinds of leaves for a tree merit badge. I was rather proud that it was quite thick, well documented, and had withstood the test of about 50 years time. Even then, I put a LOT of effort into my endeavors, so I guess that it’s no surprise that I would pour hours into my art work later in life.

Here is a picture taken in the early 60s of me in my Girl Scout uniform (on the left) and my sister on the right in her Brownie uniform. Notice the prim and proper gloves I was wearing, which at that time, we still wore downtown when we went shopping. I inherited quite a collection of dress gloves, from day length like these, to luncheon, which went to the mid-forearm and a few opera length, which go over the elbow. I remember when I went off to college, I had co-ordinating gloves and a hat for each dressy outfit. The girl’s college that I went to required them for Sunday lunch.

Meanwhile, it was my mother who drove me around town to get all of the fabric I needed for my projects, take me to knitting lessons, and the countless other places so that I could earn all of those merit badges. We lived out in the country, so it was often quite a drive to go and get supplies.Fortunately, I was one of those people who got right on an assignment, so I don’t think that there were too many last minute runs for materials. I imagine that my mother would tell a different story.

It was fun looking back at my old Girl Scout sash and to think of the hours that I poured into collecting merit badges. I think that some important skills such as finishing a project that you’ve started, and setting priorities to get something completed by a deadline were learned. I certainly apply those skills these days in getting a piece ready for a show or a magazine submission. Thanks, Mama, for getting me involved in the Girl Scouts.

What early training to you feel contributed to what you do now? Is there someone to thank for helping make those early lessons possible?

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Category: History of my Art / Tags: art quilt blogs, art quilts, Girl Scouts, Nancy Smeltzer, sewing skills

A Eulogy for my Mother

April 16, 2013 / Nancy Smeltzer / No comments

Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

This is the eulogy that I read today at my Mother’s funeral. What a hard piece of writing to do as I wanted to say so much, yet keep it short. I’m rather proud of what I wrote

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On behalf of my mother’s family, I want to thank all of the people who have shown her kindness over the years. We knew that she had a lot of friends, but didn’t realize how blessed she was with how many people knew and loved and “Miss Milly”. I also want to thank all of the families that were part of her and for all that you’ve done for her over the years and the love that you showed her.

My reflections are those of a daughter looking back on the 62 years she was my mother. Growing up, I don’t remember when she didn’t tell me several times a day how special I was and how loved and wanted l was. It would get to the point where as a teenager, I would push her away and say “Mom, knock it off!” as only that age group can do. It wasn’t until later in life that I began to realize that not everyone’s childhood was filled with love like that. As a result, it made it very easy for me to love others as I went on through life.

My mother often said that she only ever wanted to be a wife and a mother, and she certainly accomplished that. The sacrifices she made for her family were countless. Dance lessons, driving us around to sell Girl Scout cookies and baseball practice are just some of the daily tasks she took on willingly before there was even the concept of a soccer mom. She did without so that her children would be able to do the things that she thought were important for us and spoke to the values she wanted for us to have.

She taught me how to keep a house, as she was very proud of her own. In fact, she was proud of every new thing that she got. “I’m proud of the new woodpile”;…… “I’m proud of the new air conditioner”… I think you get the picture. Having grown up during the Great Depression, she never met a sale she didn’t like, and my brother, his wife, and I have been cleaning out some of her vast treasures this past year. She had a lot of treasures, having lived in the same house for over 50 years.

If you’ve ever been in her house, you know of her extensive collection of books. It started when her mother would have a box of books delivered from one of the downtown department stores for $5. We all three children had our own library cards when we were little, and were expected to finish out the summer reading program each year. To her credit, she never censored what we read, and we were exposed to the breadth of knowledge that was to be had in the 60s and 70s.

She taught me to “Do things right. If you’re going to do something, then do it right!”, she would say. So, she taught me to use good materials when I sew, and not to stop on one of my pieces of art work until “it looked right.” She was very proud of the framed art quilt that I gave her for Christmas and it hung across from her bed in the nursing home. The last good conversation that I had with her over the phone two weeks ago, I reminded her that all she had to do, when she was ready, was to go through the window square in the art quilt, and the column of Light was on the other side that she could use it to cross over. I taught her a prayer to say when she looked at it, and could hear her voice relax over the phone. Her last words were….”I’m so proud of you.” My brother and sister-in-law who were with her that next to the last morning, when she was still lucid, said that she kept saying, “I have to look at the picture; I have to look at the picture!”. I’m glad that it gave her something to focus on at the end which was my intent.

We picked out the dress she wanted to be buried in at back at Christmas, but it had short sleeves, and she didn’t want her “old lady arms to show”. I promised I would make her a stole she could be buried in and showed her the fabric only three weeks ago. She loved it, but wanted some beading on it. I agreed and went back home, thinking I would have more time to work on it. 20 yards of hemming later and one side of buttons and beads finished, she has something really pretty to wear to dance around on the floors of heaven.

One of Mama’s favorite comments was “Everything is going to turn out all right”. She would say this even sometimes when I don’t think she had a clue as to how things would evolve, but she would plunge forward anyway. Another she got from her mother… “Keep your thinking straight” which for her meant that don’t get distracted from your goals or be led astray by the unimportant.

The day she died, as I sat by her bedside, still sewing on the shawl, many of the staff came in to see her. They all talked about how proud she was of all 3 of her children. She told them many times that we were her proudest accomplishments. Well, I’m proud of you, Mama, and honored to be your daughter. When she found out only a week before she died that she had pancreatic cancer, she said on the phone that she was tired of fighting, and then said, “I fought a good fight” almost asking me if I thought that she had done so, too. Yes, you did Mama. You fought a good fight and died with a smile on your face, holding the hand of a minister, and your heart filled with the Love of the Lord. May you rest in peace, or dance in heaven, or whatever suits you, because this is your time now. We love you so much, Mama as we turn you over to the Lord!

Category: History of my Art / Tags: art quilt blogs, art quilts, beadwork, eulogies, grieving, Nancy Smeltzer

“Graffiti” – Another Early Art Quilt with Buttons”

February 5, 2013 / Nancy Smeltzer / No comments

Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

While I hate graffiti when it’s pasted all over walls and public places, when you make it yourself on an art quilt. well… maybe it’s not so bad. I had just come back from New York City when I started this piece back in 1989, and had been struck by the textures on many of the telephone poles. Back then, most of them were wooden, and posters had been staple gunned. pulled off, and new ones attached, over and over, so that the poles had thousands of staples and shreds of paper stuck on them. Their surfaces reminded me of Nkisi or African power statues, where nails or other metal objects were pounded into them as part of various rituals. Many of the construction site barricades also had posters applied, torn off, and new ones added, so I had lots of images of overlapping shapes floating around in my mind when I came back home.

To duplicate those advertising posters, I set about cutting out lots of rectangles out of fabric. Slightly off-center of the right in this second photo is a dark grey vertical rectangle that has some Asian looking writing on it. To the right of that piece, there a piece of white fabric with black Asian writing on it. Asian looking fabrics were very popular in the late 80s, and I apologize to any group that feels slandered, as I have no idea if the symbols even say anything or if I have them facing in the correct direction. I like that idea that because of their repetitive patterns and arrangement on the fabric, they look as if they had meaning to the creator, even if they were just interesting symbols for me. In a way, that’s perhaps what graffiti is when it’s approached as art, as it definitely seems to have meaning to the creator.

Here is a section of the quilt top that shows some larger pieces of the black print on a white background. The rectangle in the lower left reminds me of some Asian newspapers that I’ve seen. You can see one of the problems of using a print fabric in that rectangle, for while the fabric was cut straight, the lines of design weren’t printed on the fabric in straight lines. As often happens with inexpensive fabrics, the fabric wasn’t pulled taut when it was printed. That causes the motifs to not line up with the vertical warp threads, so if you make a small cut and then tear the fabric, the designs will be crooked.That fault doesn’t show as much on the smaller, horizontal black rectangle in the upper left. However, try as I might, the one in the lower left couldn’t be straightened. I finally gave up and decided that graffiti and advertising posters are rarely stapled gunned into place accurately. As I made more and more art quilts where straight lines were important, such as using ribbons as a decorative element, I leaned to use more and more overlapping elements, such as large buttons or other embellishments to distract the eye from a line that wasn’t straight.

This piece used several styles and colors of buttons to enhance the shapes of fabric, but no where near what I now use. I was also still using lots of hand quilting to fill in the background, as here you can see where I used black quilting thread on the white base fabric. I was playing off of the old childhood riddle “What’s black and white and “red” all over?” Answer = a newspaper, but I couldn’t restrict myself to just black, white and red. Some yellow, orange, and purple snuck into the composition somehow when I wasn’t looking!

Now there are whole web sites devoted to graffiti or “urban” art. The genre has evolved to so much more than just spray painting subway cars and bridges and has collectors who are constantly looking for new artists. My piece is so tame in its look and feel compared to what I make today. However, in the late 80s, I thought I was being pretty adventuresome in even having a piece of art work with a name like that.

Have you ever thought your art work to be really out there, only to find that it’s rather ordinary when you start researching what others are doing? For myself, because I find that most of what I make is created in a vacuum, with little feedback from others, I find blogging so important to me. You have no idea how important comments are to me and to others who are putting themselves out there for public scrutiny, so please write something!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies), and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Category: History of my Art / Tags: art quilt blogs, art quilts, graffiti art, Nancy Smeltzer, quilts embellished with buttons

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Buttons&Beads&Quilts!

Archive for History of my Art

Packing up an Art Studio

Another Quilt from my Unknown Grandmother

Learning to Sew in the Girl Scouts

A Eulogy for my Mother

“Graffiti” – Another Early Art Quilt with Buttons”

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