QUILTWEEK SPRING PADUCAH

CRAYONS 45" x 44" by Pam Beal---juried into the Lancaster and Spring Paducah show

Mark making in drawing, abstract art and on objects influenced the piecing. Now doesn't it look like a box of crayons? 

Machine pieced---hand quilted---that's how I roll.

AN INVITATION

trust the process

PAM BEAL---- QUILTMAKER

Workshops from The Liberated School of Design 2018


You are cordially invited to join me at one of two 5 day workshops.


June 5-9   WOODLAND RIDGE RETREAT  Minimalist Design Maximum Impact

October 1-5 MADELINE ISLAND SCHOOL OF THE ARTS Studio Hand Quilting 


I facilitate the classroom to promote independence and discovery. Students experience the affirming process of working without a pattern and create quilts rich in self-expression. I hope to see you in class.

do one thing

MINIMALISM in QUILTS

I woke up with my head filled with ideas about minimalist quilts! Is that a contradiction?
The winter landscape offered me a minimalist scene.

This tree could be the model for Gwen's tree, except I know a Beech provided the inspiration, and my tree is an Oak.

In six short months I will be in the thick of it. Maybe that doesn't rightly characterize simplicity, yet the process of a good challenge with focused rigor leading to enough is my experience of minimalism in quilts. Here is a link to the class I am offering in June 2018 woodland ridge

This miniature minimal basket will carry us through.... I'll add that the simple basket reflects one of my favorite quilts in Abstract Design in American Quilts: A Biography of an Exhibition, plate 39, Jonathan Holstein 1991. 

AQS 2018 LANCASTER

My quilt CRAYONS will be showing in the hand quilted category at the American Quilter's Society Lancaster show. It might also go to the Spring Paducah show, but the jury is still out. Stay tuned. Here is a fun shot of CRAYONS as if it has sprouted legs. Legs would make it easier to get out to the quilt shows. 

TIME MARCHES ON

81/2" x 10"

To conclude 2017, one more small study__ MARTIANS IN THE HOUSE__seems like the obvious title, unless you don't see them. Part of the fun of abstract design is giving the imagination free range to see and sew or sew and see, then loan the quilt to the viewer and let their imagination go!

Farewell 2017---Anticipate 2018

"discard the tendency to exclude things from possibility" words of e e cummings

May the future be filled with possibilities created in compassion, reason, class, hope, equality and persistence.

CHEERS

A DASH of RED

9" x 10 1/2"

On Dasher, Dancer

Six more reindeer with Rudolph

Who has the red nose

Living north of the 45th parallel north, places me closer to the North Pole than the Equator.  I can see Santa's sleigh from my back porch. 

8" x 10 1/2"

North country winter
Three dog night is not a crowd
Solstice brings the light

HAPPY HOLIDAYS one and all----------! 

hey, how did Santa's belt get in the middle of it?

Deck the Halls with BOOKS

Adding a couple of books to the library is a holiday tradition. This year I am returning to some classics that were not yet in my collection. I found, rather, Santa found good used books and I will act surprised when I open them, given from the dog with love.

hand carved by a friend

AMISH The Art of the Quilt by Robert Hughes and Julie Silber, 1990 promises stunning photos of the Espirit quilt collection with interpretation by Art Critic, Robert Hughes, and curator of the collection, Julie Silber. I will be lost in these pages for some time.

The Quilt Digest, Revised edition 1985, volumes 1-4 are in the sleigh. The Quilt Digest was an annual publication started by Michael Kyle and Roderick Kiracofe appealing to enthusiasts of antique and contemporary quilts. They weren't afraid to mix it up. Yes, that Roderick Kiracofe and he is well represented in my library.

In my search, I discovered a few copies of Quilting with Style by Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham, 1993. I have had this book for several years now, but it was difficult to find then. 

Now for a few more in my possession. This short stack, old friends now, document pieces of our vibrant and rich tradition, reporting on the acceptance of quilts as visual and expressive objects. Art. Consider how making art would be unintentional to many of these makers.

A Communion of the Spirits, African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories by Roland Freeman, 1996 is a gem. Mr. Freeman, an award winning photo-documentarian and field research photographer for the Smithsonian Institution, completed this national survey of African-American quilt makers. In these pages, the reader will meet Fannie Lee R. Chaney, the mother of James Chaney, Maya Angelou, Faith Ringgold, Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, Rosa Parks, Michigan quilter Carole Harris, and, and, and! This documentation continued for 20 years and covered thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia. 

Enjoy your holiday quilt traditions. Deck the halls. Gifts are in need of finishing stitches. The good books, old and new, will be waiting. 

WARM WISHES, Pam