Featured artist: Cindy Grisdela

Many of our members lecture or teach workshops related to their fiber art expertise. Cindy Grisdela gave a presentation to the Vienna, Virginia chapter of Quilters Unlimited recently. She shared insights into how she become an art quilter, and how the special look of her quilts evolved.

Cindy (standing on the right in the image below; gallery member Betty Ladd is the assistant in the center) has always loved color. Her first quilts were inspired by traditional quilt block patterns, and tended toward monochromatic color choices. She said that some of her very early quilts were given to "unsuspecting babies." Lucky babies!

She soon started to explore more dynamic color combinations, and a more contemporary style, but continues to love saturated colors. She claims to be a "recovering perfectionist" when it comes to composing and stitching the quilt blocks.

Here are three quilts using similar block styles, but very different color choices. Which do you like best?

Not all of Cindy's quilts use prints (patterned fabric). She also enjoys the challenge of using all solid fabrics. This is a highly improvisational quilt.

Here's a close-up of a quilt with solid fabrics (you really need to click on the image for a closer view). Cindy is truly a master of machine quilting! All of the stitching is done free-hand, using a domestic (non-fancy) sewing machine. She prefers variegated threads for quilting. Isn't this gorgeous?!

One of Cindy's quilts is currently hanging in our gallery, shown in the top image of our Sept 20 post. Can you pick out which wall hanging is hers?