Portfolio of Textile Art

Haiku III

Posted on August 31, 2016May 2, 2023 by Mary Vaneecke

Haiku III

The silk remembers

The loom, the folds, the needle,

The thread, and the flame.

Shibori is a Japanese word for creating pattern on fabric. In the shibori process, many items can be used–folds, clamps, string, needle and thread. Haiku III is a visual interpretation of the poetic literary art form. Translucent silk fabrics were dyed using the itajime and machine-stitched Katano shibori. They were layered and machine stitched with burned raw edges. While the four complexly dyed fabrics relate to one another, each is beautiful in its own right. Photo by Jack Kulawik.

Haiku III, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke, 38'' x 46'' — Haiku III, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke, 38” x 46”

Haiku I

Posted on August 30, 2016September 3, 2018 by Mary Vaneecke

Haiku I became a study of sorts for a larger work (Haiku II) and launches a new series. Both feature hand-dyed sheer silk fabrics over-layed with synthetic sheers, and machine stitched. This allows for a fascinating interplay between colors, values, and repeating shapes. Haiku I is more intense, and reminds me of a Rorschach test, if you had double vision. The namesake poetry, and the dyeing technique, shibori, are both Japanese.

Of course, I had to write a haiku to celebrate this new series.

Haiku I

Two colors: red, black

Layered to affect the mood–

Simple yet complex.

Frozen in Time II

Posted on August 29, 2016September 3, 2018 by Mary Vaneecke

Frozen in Time II is a translucent art quilt that incorporates many hand-worked and underappreciated vintage crochet pieces layered between hand-dyed sheer fabrics. It hangs away from the wall to allow for shadow play behind the piece. Rust-dyed and machine stitched. This was included in the Visions Art Museum show, Iterpretations: Conversations exhibition. Photo by Jack Kulawik.

Frozen in Time II is perhaps an elegy for lost arts and loved ones.

Frozen in Time II, 50'' x 34'' by Mary Vaneecke — Frozen in Time II, 50” x 34” by Mary Vaneecke

Frozen in Time I

Posted on August 27, 2016August 28, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

Frozen in Time I, with detail. (Photo by Jack Kulawik). This new art quilt combines new hand-dyed silk fabrics with vintage handworked crochet (makers unknown). Rust dyed, layered and stitched on eco-felt.

This piece continues a new series utilizing under-appreciated handwork of unknown makers.

Frozen in Time I by Mary Vaneecke. 43.5'' x 34.5'' 2016. — *Frozen in Time I* by Mary Vaneecke. 43.5” x 34.5” 2016.

Frozen in Time I by Mary Vaneecke detail — Frozen in Time I, detail. By Mary Vaneecke

Frozen in Time III

Posted on August 23, 2016September 3, 2018 by Mary Vaneecke

This art quilt, Frozen in Time III, is hand-dyed, rust-dyed silk fabrics, layered with vintage hand-worked textiles and stitched. 24” x 33”

Northern Lights

Posted on August 23, 2016September 3, 2018 by Mary Vaneecke

Northern Lights, a vintage linen napkin (maker unknown), has been painstakingly folded, stitched, and hand-dyed in a mandala-type design.

Northern Lights, by Mary Vaneecke. 18'' x 18'' Hand-dyed vintage linen napkin, layered and stitched. Stretched on a frame. — Northern Lights, by Mary Vaneecke. 18” x 18” Hand-dyed vintage linen napkin, layered and stitched. Stretched on a frame.

Revisions at Tohono Chul

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

The Revisions/Outside Looking In show runs August 25 – November 9, 2016 at Tohono Chul Park (near Ina and Oracle).

Opening Reception is Thursday, August 25, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. Free and open to the public.

E-vite

I will have 2 works in the show.

Reflections and the Golden Hour for SAQA

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

Reflections and the Golden Hour

So the Studio Art Quilts Associates is working with Andover Fabrics to create designs for their second fabric line, to be juried by Luana Rubin. The line will be titled The Golden Hour, that hour of dusk or dawn when the interplay between warm light and cool shadows is most fascinating for artists. SAQA members may create any patterns using any means for submission. ‘They’ get to choose the color ways, so the designer is really just putting forth patterns for consideration. It is free to enter, and so I took some time to develop some samples.

I was inspired by the thought of sunlight glinting off water. SAQA and Andover want designs that will work well as textures, blenders, and backgrounds. Think complementary colors. I also was inspired by a recent class with Cas Holmes, where we crumpled paper before painting it (I didn’t even have to dye fabric!). The textural effect reminded me a lot of light reflecting off water.

Some Sample “Reflections”

I called my submissions Reflections I, II, and III. Carson McCullers, a favorite southern gothic author of mine, wrote a novel called Reflections in a Golden Eye. No relation. Here are some of the samples I worked up:

A low contrast version with lights and darks on a medium value background.

saqa golden hour 001 — Light, mediums, and darks on a white background.

Light and dark paints on white ground, in a larger scale.

Light and dark paint on a background that goes from light to medium to dark.

Light on dark, with a larger scale, more random pattern.

I did some more samples, but I could only submit three for consideration, so I won’t post my least favorites here. Which ones do you like? Can you see them as fabric in your stash in your favorite colorway? Wouldn’t it be cool to say you had designed a fabric line? Keep your fingers crossed for me!

A Mind of Winter

Posted on May 17, 2016October 11, 2018 by Mary Vaneecke

A Mind of Winter

This small art quilt (12” x 12”) is my submission for the Studio Art Quilt Associates auction, which starts online in September. All proceeds go to SAQA, which works to promote the art quilt. SAQA supports what I do, so I like to reciprocate!

The small work is made of layered, sheer fabrics, including hand-dyed silk organzas and lace scraps from a wedding dress, layered on felt and commercial cotton fabric and machine stitched. The title comes from a Wallace Stevens poem, The Snowman. I think about the opening line of the poem–One must have a mind of winter–often as temperatures get into the 100s here at home. I grew up in Michigan, where winters are long, and I wonder about the Nothing that is not there, and the nothing that is. Makes you stop and think, doesn’t it?

I am considering making a larger version, so perhaps I will call this Mind of Winter I.

A Mind of Winter small art quilt — “A Mind of Winter” 12” x 12” 2016.

Below is the complete text of the poem.

The Snowman

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

When Your Quilt Travels to Australia without You

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

When Your Quilt Travels to Australia without You….

So my quilt Chopsticks and Edamame has been travelling the world without me since it was accepted into Studio Art Quilt Associates Food for Thought show. It was in Dublin and the UK last fall, and is spending the spring at 3 venues in Australia. This morning my email inbox contained some photos of a spectacular venue, the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne (yeah, I didn’t know there was such a thing, either).

But look at the natural light coming through the windows here:

The 2016 Australasian Quiilt Festival venue for SAQA's Food for Thought exhibition. — The 2016 Australasian Quilt Festival venue for SAQA’s Food for Thought exhibition.

My quilt is in the center of the top photo below. Unfortunately, the black background didn’t do much for it, I am afraid.

food for thought in Australia food for thought Australia 3

Chopsticks and Edamame will be in Michigan at the Gerald Ford Presidential Library this summer, and I am excited to be able to check it out there. I will have my posse with me. It is not often that my parents get to see my work, so that will be cool.

Dining Destinations: Chopsticks and Edamame, 2014, 45'' x 35'' — Chopsticks and Edamame, 2014, 45” x 35”

Another good day to dye…

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

So I have been in the dye studio for a few days and have some pieces to share. These are all various forms of shibori, the Japanese word for putting pattern on fabric by applying pressure with dye. Most of these are silk fabrics, procion dyes are used on each.

Itajime circles under a chevron. — Itajime shibori circles under a chevron pattern.

This sekka shibori with blueberry and raspberry dye is making me hungry!

More itajime, this time with zig zag stripes and navy and red dyes. This fabric was dyed, discharged and over-dyed. This method brings out a lot of subtle complexity in the final product.

Admittedly, this chevron piece is kinda ugly. But I have learned that this is merely an opportunity to throw it into another dye bath or discharge it to get something spectacular. Stay tuned.

Now comes one of my favorite parts of the art-making process: auditioning fabrics to put them all together….

Poisoning Flint

Posted on April 9, 2016March 6, 2017 by Mary Vaneecke

Cas Holmes Tea Party

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

Cas Holmes Tea Party

So this weekend I spent a delightful couple of days with mixed media artist Cas Holmes and seven other artists to learn her techniques altering the surfaces of paper and fabric with color, collage, and stitch.

Cas invited us to submit at small piece (mine was about 5” by 3”) for her Tea Flora Tales installation at Visions Gallery in San Diego this spring. Tea Flora Tales is comprised of many of these small works suspended from the ceiling. Click here for a short video of the installation at the 20th European Patchwork Meeting.

Cas is fearless in her use of found papers and materials. Used tea bags, old magazine papers, and flour sacks are just a few of the ephemera that can be found in her work. I am sure to incorporate some of these techniques into future work.

If you are going to San Diego, look for my submission :

Celebrating Tucson at the Cas Holmes Tea Flora Party. Made from Joss paper, tulle, lace and stitch.

Join Me and my Fiber Artists of Southern Arizona Friends

Posted on March 10, 2016March 10, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

TMA_SpringArtisansMarket_mailer_front Fiber Artists of Southern Arizona will have our first-ever booth at the Tucson Museum of Art’s Spring Artisans Market on Friday-Saturday-Sunday, March 18-19-20. We will have lots of new fine fiber art and crafts available, including note cards, rugs, oven mits, hand-dyed clothing, as well as fine fiber art! Be sure to stop at Booth 109 to say ‘hello.’

FASA is: Barbara Hall, Patricia Hasting-Sargent, Joanne Krawchuk, Sharon Nemirov, Ruth Sharpe, Aimee Smythe, Peggie Thomas, Mary Vaneecke, Kathryn Wild, and Janet Windsor. Hope to see you there!

Elegy for the Beautiful Son

Posted on March 9, 2016May 14, 2017 by Mary Vaneecke

The Beautiful Son, hand-dyed, hand-worked liturgical linen (maker unknown), layered and quilted with the names of African American boys and men killed at the hands of police, and burned. — Elegy for the Beautiful Son, hand-dyed, hand-worked liturgical linen (maker unknown), layered and quilted with the names of African American boys and men killed at the hands of police, then burned. 36” x 33”. It is part of the Sacred Threads 2017 exhibition.

Elegy for the Beautiful Son by Mary Vaneecke. — Elegy for the Beautiful Son by Mary Vaneecke, detail.

Ready for the Quilt Show!

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

Yay! It’s finally quilt show time! The Tucson Quilters’ Guild Quilt Fiesta will be held this weekend, Friday February 19-Sunday February 21. I will have lots of new goodies in my booth (with Trish Hastings-Sargent), including my latest 3-D work, Dark Desert Skies.

Dark Desert Skies, 2016, 30.5'' x 41'' Bleached, overdyed shot cotton with paint and 3-D elements, layered and stitched. — Dark Desert Skies, 2016, 30.5” x 41” Bleached, overdyed shot cotton with paint and 3-D elements, layered and stitched.

I will also be selling fabric and embellishment kits for projects from my book, Wild and Wonderful 3-D Quilts.

I will be selling my book, along with the great jungle fabric used to make a leafy 3-D quilt.

Aaaand, last but not least, some hand-dyed vintage table linens I have been having lots of fun with….

44'' hand-dyed Karimatsu round tablecloth. — 44” hand-dyed Karimatsu round tablecloth.

Stop by booth #22 and see what’s new!

Dark Desert Skies

Posted on February 16, 2016July 10, 2018 by Mary Vaneecke

Abuela Reads the Headlines

Posted on November 5, 2015July 10, 2018 by Mary Vaneecke

Abuela Reads the Headlines , 2015

Abuela is Spanish for grandmother. I imagine her in her barrio (neighborhood) garden in my hometown, Tucson, surrounded by an ocotillo (a living, cactus-type) fence. She has her handwork and the blessed Virgin of Guadalupe nearby, with a grandchild at her knee. Abuela scans the headlines about America’s current immigration policy, and weeps.

Materials: vintage handworked textiles (makers unknown), felted wool, embellishing (480 jewelry spikes), cotton and cotton-silk fabric, dyeing, discharging, silk sari ‘yarn,’ window screen, acrylic felt, embellishments (milagros and crystal rosary), synthetic organza.

Techniques: dyeing, heat and chemical burning, wet felting, hand stitching, couching, machine stitch, discharging, devore, dyeing, cutting.

Abuela Reads the Headlines, 55''h x 84'' — Abuela Reads the Headlines, 55”h x 84”

We Came to America

Posted on November 4, 2015October 11, 2018 by Mary Vaneecke

We Came to America

My paternal grandparents, Firmin and Lucie VanEecke, lived the great American Dream. I have long let a quilt in their honor ‘percolate’ in the back of my mind. They met and married in Belgium between the World Wars and came here in 1923 by ship, as millions of immigrants have done throughout our history. World War I decimated Belgium, and they sought a better life here while feeling the separation and loss of loved ones left behind, most of whom they never saw again. Lucie and Firmin flourished in the US, had five children, nine grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren. This work features hand-dyed vintage lace textiles, copies of their last letters home (in Flemish), and their wedding portrait. The piece is quilted with the phrase We Came to America in the languages of many other immigrants who came to America. In a private collection.

Abuela’s Garden – SOLD

Posted on November 3, 2015December 9, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

Abuela’s Garden, 2015

The Barrio Viejo (old neighborhood) of my hometown is home to many Mexican immigrants. Their distinctive gardens are often surrounded by an ocotillo fence, a living fence made of a cactus-like plant. The gardens will contain flowers like marigolds and sunflowers, and foods that remind residents of home. Neighbors share seeds and cuttings, and other fruits of their labor. What a lovely metaphor for migration and transplantation.

Materials include hand-dyed and painted handmade textiles (makers unknown), felted wool ropes, new fabrics, silk sari ‘yarn,’ window screen, felt, and machine stitch. In a private collection. ABUELA'S GARDEN copy

Going to The Show

Posted on October 19, 2015December 4, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

My friend Lea McComas and I have been planning all year to take our books to Houston for the International Quilt Festival. It is the biggest quilt show in the world, with about 60,000 attendees. My quilt It’s a Jungle Out There will be in Houston as part of the Studio Art Quilt Associates’ Wild Fabrications show. Check us out at BOOTH 2014 if you are going to the show. We’ll be selling our books, and fabric kits.

Now, back to packing….

Fabric kits for Wild and Wonderful 3-D projects.

Weaving Traditions

Posted on August 26, 2015July 14, 2017 by Mary Vaneecke

Woven Traditions I (top) and II (bottom). 49” x 30”.

This piece is inspired by the basket weaving patterns of the indigenous peoples along the Santa Cruz river, where I live in Arizona. Techniques include katano shibori, discharge, dyeing, burning, trapunto, and machine stitch.

A Wild Winter Whirlwind

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Mary Vaneecke

It has been a busy winter in the studio and a lot has happened since Wild and Wonderful 3-D Quilts debuted at Houston Quilt Festival last fall.

For starters, Brewer Sewing is now distributing the book to quilt shops. Ask for it at your local quilt shop.
Individuals can buy the book from me at Amazon.com for the full $14.99 sticker price. (click here for more information) I want to support local quilt shops and won’t undercut their prices online.
The National Quilting Association’s Quilting Quarterly will publish its book review this spring.
I hope to bring my 3-D quilting classes online later this summer. Stay tuned for details.
My friend Lea McComas and I are making plans to promote our books at Houston Quilt Festival again this year. It’s a Jungle Out There will be touring with the Studio Art Quilt Associates Wild Fabrications show, and Houston will be the first stop on the tour.
The National Quilting Association’s Quilting Quarterly will review my book in its next issue. How cool is that?

Last but not least, I am going to the Chicago Quilt Festival this month to demonstrate my techniques at the free Open Studios booths on Thursday, March 26, and Saturday, March 28. Superior Threads will be selling Wild and Wonderful 3-D Quilts at the show, along with all their gorgeous threads.

Will I see you there?

Going to the Chicago Quilt Show…

Posted on February 20, 2015February 20, 2015 by Mary Vaneecke

I am delighted to be a part of the International Quilt Festival in Chicago next month. I will be demonstrating techniques from my book Wild and Wonderful 3-D Quilts on Thursday and Saturday, March 26 and 28 as part of the Open Studios events.

It’s going to be great fun, and in between, I get to see my sister and wish my dad happy 85th birthday! I just hope it warms up about 70* before then….