Creativity Overload!

I decided to give myself a little pre-Christmas gift, and purchased a ticket for the “Paula Nadelstern: Kaleidoscopes and Quilts Tour with the Artist” at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts yesterday! I’ve admired her quilts for years, and I knew the moment I walked in the door that this was a great decision 😊. A small group was gathered around a snowflake quilt in the entryway, and Paula was chatting with them about it – before the tour even started! Just seeing that quilt up close was worth the trip. Then hearing what she learned about snowflakes in order to make it was very special.

It was hanging next to Paula’s first quilt. She said she was inspired to make it by a beautiful Liberty fabric back in the 80s. That is where her journey into rearranging portions of intricate fabrics into kaleidoscopes began.

This is the description of her exhibit:

I was lucky enough to find a seat before she began, and was fascinated to learn that she lives on the same block where she grew up in the Bronx. She currently lives in a two bedroom apartment on the ninth floor, and that’s where she creates her amazing quilts.

Paula said that she was grateful to have started out working in a series (since she was passionate about kaleidoscopes), because each quilt led her to a “what if?” that led her to the next quilt. She also shared that she is left handed and her labels are all tracings of her hand.

Soon she was moving from quilt to quilt with the group happily following after her. At this point I have to apologize. I was so overwhelmed by the intricacy and beauty of each piece that I forgot to take photos of the tags, and so I don’t have the names of the quilts to go with them. Sorry.

This one was inspired by a tree grate around a tree in New York city. She pointed out that the artisan who made the grate chose to make each of the circles surrounding the center different from each other, so she did too. Beautiful! And I love that Cedarburg has tree grates on it’s main street also.

This piece she designed while looking out of her ninth floor window in Spring. She could see the tops of the trees, with the color specks of the tulips below peeking through.

Paula also shared information about kaleidoscopes, and how the mirrors work inside of them. She said that many are based on 3 mirrors which give 45 degree triangle designs, thus many of her designs do too. But some use 4 mirrors which yield a rectangular pattern. This is one of those:

I think this was my favorite, and it was the one that the colors in my photograph don’t do justice to.

It’s actually behind Paula a few photos back and the brightness is much more accurate there. What intrigued me was the way the light centers in each kaleidoscope glow. And the detail knocked my socks off.

The matchstick quilting on some of her pieces surprised me. It worked so well.

The quilt behind Paula here has two mandalas, one much brighter than the other.

That’s because the one on the left was pieced with the fabrics “right sides together”, the usual way (and please note that she positions her fabric so well – it’s difficult to see the seams!).

And the one on the right was pieced with the same fabrics “wrong sides together” (which she said was incredibly difficult to do because it was “wrong” 😂).

Wow! And I have to share just one more. In this quilt she skipped the intricate piecing in some of the wedges in order to create linear designs.

Isn’t that striking! What a great “what if”. Here’s a detail shot that shows the “un-pieced” wedges:

The entire experience was wonderful. Paula’s quilts will be at the museum until the beginning of March – and I highly recommend seeing them all. But that’s not all. After soaking up the effects of Paula’s phenomenal piecing and designs. I headed over to the other side of the gallery to take in the fiber art of Shin-hee Chin in her exhibit entitled “Rootedness”. Her skill at stitching yarns, threads and other fibers to the top of her quilts provides the most amazing texture.

Chin makes geometric designs,

as well as landscapes. This was my favorite, with a detail to follow.

But I like this one almost as much.

The tiny light leaves are made with “eyelash” trim. How extremely creative!

I really hope many of you get the chance to visit the museum sometime soon. All of the pieces are so much better in person.

I think I’m on creative overload ~ and so grateful for our wonderful museum!