Old Baldy #2

Old Baldy #2
12.5 x 21"

 

This piece is based on a photo I took many summers ago on a family vacation to Bald Head Island. 

The brick structure is called “the oil house.”Here is information about it from the Old Baldy Foundation’s website:

“The federal government built the oil house to store kerosene when lighthouse fuel changed from the noncombustible whale oil to the highly explosive kerosene. The exact date of when this structure was built is unknown. Our educated guess is that it was built after 1879, as at that time, funds were allocated to the United States Lighthouse Service to build oil houses. When Old Baldy was deactivated in 1935, the Coast Guard repurposed this structure as a radio house in WWII. This was the last time this structure has an official use, except when they were repurposed in the 1970s as a restroom for lighthouse visitors.”

The lighthouse, built in 1817, is nicknamed “Old Baldy.” It has 108 stairs, and the base is 36 feet wide. The top is 14 feet wide. It is constructed of brick and painted with plaster on the exterior; maintenance over the years has given it a patchy look. The “lantern room,” the structure at the very top that once held the light, is offset from the center of the tower.

 

Fuchsia

My first piece of 2025. I threw myself into this one last week to help deal with my distress over the state of my country. Painting is always an escape for me, and the heavy quilting on the gray siding behind the flowers was very repetitive and meditative. This piece is based on a photo I took several years ago, while teaching in the Pacific Northwest.

“Fuchsia” (© Susan Brubaker Knapp 2025) 16.25 x 21". White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, interfacing, cotton batting, cotton thread. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted. 

Have questions? There's lots of info on my technique and materials here:
https://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/2014/01/faqs-wholecloth-painting.html

Work continues on "Friends of Baltimore"

About 8 years ago, I started working on Susan Garman's “Friends of Baltimore” quilt.  

You can see the whole quilt, and purchase the patterns, here: https://www.comequilt.com/shop/c/p/Friends-of-Baltimore-Complete-Pattern-Set-x1942297.htm

When I’m upset and severely stressed, I often find it difficult to produce original art, so I turn to other people’s patterns. And applique keeps my brain and my fingers VERY busy. I finished the first five blocks during the early years of the first Trump administration.

The news is very upsetting again, so I got out my materials and have already finished two more blocks this month, and started another. They are 15" blocks. I appliquéd so much that several of my fingers have been ragged and bleeding.

Crows!

 

I love crows (I feed a small family group that lives in my neighborhood, and they now recognize me and come to my house sometimes to ask for a snack!)

I’ve made several crows using a pattern by a wonderful artist named Ann Wood. Her website is https://www.annwoodhandmade.com/ This past weekend, I helped a friend make her first crow. She also purchased Ann’s darling owl pattern, which I want to try, too.

I love how they turned out. The most recent one has an open beak, which I carved from a forked oak branch. I used some purple feathers to imitate the iridescence of crows’ wings. They are stuffed with wool, and you make the legs with floral wire. Each crow has taken me about 10 hours to construct.

I’ve also purchased and made a robin (using her Songbird pattern) and a mushroom. You can download PDFs of the patterns, or purchase paper patterns. The patterns have a lot of photos as well as written instructions, and they are very easy to follow.

Bluesky

Have you heard about Bluesky? It’s a new social media platform, and if you are looking to avoid support of Elon Musk (Twitter/X) and/or Mark Zukerberg (Meta/Facebook/Instagram/Threads), or to avoid the numerous problems on those sites, it’s the place to be. You can use it on your desktop computer or on your mobile phone. You can post photos and videos. Check it out here: https://bsky.app/

You can find me there under the handle @susanbrubakerknapp.bsky.social

I’ve disabled my Facebook page (and may delete it permanently), and will be posting mostly on Bluesky (and still on Instagram, for the time being) I’m also going to be blogging and sending out my e-newsletter more often.

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/oH4sgMP/SusanBrubakerKnapp

“Say Gay” commission delivered

 

Just delivered this commission piece to its new owners. It’s a wholecloth painted art quilt, free-motion quilted, then stitched to a mat and ready to frame in a shadowbox.

Want to learn how to stitch an art quilt to a mat so you can frame it? You can download my instructions “How to Frame Fiber Art” – for free! – on my website here: https://susanbrubakerknapp.com/tutorials

In 2023, I made six small “Say Gay” quilts in response to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' bills restricting LGBTQ rights, including his “Don't Say Gay Bill.” I raffled them off to raise money for The Trevor Project.

The Trevor Project is the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people. I believe in their vision to build a world where every LGBTQ young person feels safe, loved, and celebrated. Trevor’s research has found that having at least one accepting adult can reduce an LGBTQ young person’s risk of suicide by 40%.

The Trevor Project provides free, accessible, 24/7 crisis counseling services via phone (TrevorLifeline), instant messenger (TrevorChat), and text (TrevorText) to young LGBTQ people in crisis.

“Cauldron Bubble”

 

“Cauldron Bubble”
9.5" x 16.5"

 

“Cauldron Bubble” (copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp) 14.5" square. White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, Lutradur, cotton thread, cotton batting. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted. 

This is the fourth piece in my series on Shakespeare’s Song of the Witches from MacBeth. (The others are “Double Double,” “Toil and Trouble,” and “Fire Burn.”

“Resurrection Fern 1”

 

Resurrection Fern 1
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2024
9x10"

 

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton batting, interfacing, cotton thread, cotton backing. Wholecloth painted, stenciled, free-motion machine quilted.

“Unintelligible”

“Unintelligible”
Copyright 2024 by Susan Brubaker Knapp
32.5" x 58.5"

Striped cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, pigment ink, cotton thread, cotton batting, cotton backing. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted

 

Maybe it’s just that I’m getting older, but it seems like everyone is speaking in cryptic languages I can’t understand. What is true? What is right? What is real? What is logical? If we can’t understand each other, how can we live together on this planet?

 

“Double Double”

“Double Double”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2024
42" x 70.5"

 

White fabric, acrylic textile paint, Lutradur, cotton thread, cotton batting, cotton backing. Hand painted, free-motion machine stitched.

 

“Double Double” is a large piece I made this summer to explore ways to use different weights of Lutradur. First, I hand painted white fabric, smearing on orange and yellow paint with my hands and Bondo scrapers. Then I hand cut hundreds of circles out of Lutradur, and paint-dyed them before stitching them down to the fabric. After adding backing and batting, I free-motion stitched and quilted. 

 

The name comes from Shakespeare’s Song of the Witches in Macbeth (1606):

 

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good. 

“Beloved Blue Ridge”

“Beloved Blue Ridge” (19” x 9”)
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2024

 

Want to win this piece, “Beloved Blue Ridge” (19” x 9”)?

Please help me raise money for Asheville and western North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helene. Rob and I love this area, and our elder daughter lives and works there. The organization I trust most right now to provide for immediate needs and longer-term issues like affordable housing, poverty and food insecurity is BeLoved Asheville. You may have already seen them featured on national news sources. If not, check out their Instagram and Facebook pages to see them in action. It is inspiring. 

 

The other organization I am supporting is the NC Arts Disaster Relief Fund. It is providing funding and assistance to artists and arts organizations affected by Hurricane Helene. Artists are a huge part of what makes this region so special. They help bring tourists (the area’s financial lifeblood), and enrich the culture and weird/wonderfulness of the area. Hundreds of artists lost their studios, as well as their work, materials and equipment, during this storm. Many were not well-off to start with, and need help getting back on their feet. 

 

Here's what to do:

1. Go to BeLoved Asheville’s website: https://www.belovedasheville.com/

and click on the yellow DONATE button.

OR

Go to NC Arts Disaster Relief Fund’s website: https://www.ncartsfoundation.org/donate-nc-disaster-relief

and choose a way to donate. Enter the word “RELIEF” in the description for your gift.

2. Donate any amount that is $10 or more.

3. When you get an e-mail receipt for your donation, forward that e-mail to me at susanbrubakerknapp7@gmail.com

4. For every $10 you donate, I’ll put one ticket in the hat for you. (Donate $100 and get 10 tickets.)

5. At 5 p.m. Eastern time on Nov. 15, I’ll pull one name out of the hat, and send the winner “Beloved Blue Ridge.”

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

“Fire Burn (Orange Study)”

 

"Fire Burn (Orange Study)"
Copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp
5.5 x 17.25"

 

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, Lutradur, cotton thread, cotton batting. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted.

“Toil and Trouble”

 

"Toil and Trouble"
Copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp
14.5" square

“Toil and Trouble” (copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp) 14.5" square. White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, Lutradur, cotton thread, cotton batting. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted.

“What Remains” is juried into Quilt National 2025!

“What Remains”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2024
33" x 45"

White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, acrylic ink, cotton thread, cotton batting, interfacing, cotton backing. Digitally-altered photo, thread sketched, free-motion machine quilted.  

Artist's statement: Withering and decay are a natural part of the changing of the seasons and the cycle of life, and they are as inspiring to me as the lovely blooms that emerge in springtime. What remains can be beautiful, too. 

I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that this piece has been juried into Quilt National 2025! 85 pieces were selected from 659 entries by LUKE Haynes, Ellen Blalock, and Martha Sielman. (Thanks!)

The opening weekend is May 23-25. The quilts will be exhibited at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, through Sept. 1, 2025, and many will tour through October 2027.

From www.dairybarn.org: “Quilt National aims to demonstrate the transformations taking place in the world of quilting. Its purpose is to carry the definition of quilting far beyond its traditional parameters and to promote quiltmaking as what it always has been — an art form. The works in Quilt National display a reverence for the lessons taught by the makers of the heritage quilts. Many of the works hold fast to the traditional methods of piecing and patching. At the same time, however, Quilt National is fueled by the challenge of expanding the boundaries of traditional quiltmaking by utilizing the newest materials and technologies. These innovative works generate strong emotional responses in the viewer while at the same time fulfilling the creative need of the artist to make a totally individual statement.”

“What Remains” (detail)

 

 

“What Remains” (detail)

Luna and the Moon

Luna and the Moon
Copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp
14" square

 

Cotton fabric, cotton thread, ink, cotton batting, interfacing. Raw-edge appliqué, free-motion machine threadsketched and quilted.

Amanita muscaria

 

“Amanita muscaria”
Copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp
19.5” square

Cotton fabric, ink, cotton thread, cotton batting, interfacing. Raw-edge appliqué, free-motion machine threadsketched and quilted.

This mushroom is commonly known as  fly agaric or fly amanita. It is usually red and white, but subspecies or variations are sometimes yellow or white. It has hallucinogenic properties, but is poisonous (although death from poisoning is rare).

This is the mushroom made famous in the Mario and Smurfs franchises!

Castle Hill

 

Castle Hill
Copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp
17.5 x 11"

I attended my godson’s wedding last weekend at a gorgeous venue outside of  Charlottesville, Virginia. We arrived early and sat in our car waiting until it was time to go to the ceremony, and I took a photo of the beautiful meadow, some in sunshine and some in shadow, with the lovely mountains and forests in the background. This piece is based on that photo, and I'm giving it to my godson and his new bride. 

Batik fabric, cotton thread, interfacing, cotton backing. Raw-edge applique, free-motion quilted.

Zinnias

Zinnias
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2024
8" x 10"

A beautiful bouquet from a friend inspired this piece.

Cotton fabric, cotton thread, ink, glue, interfacing, cotton batting.
Raw-edge appliqué, free-motion thread sketched and quilted.

Giant Leopard Moth

 

“Giant Leopard Moth”
17x19"
Copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp

This is the Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia). Cotton batik fabric, cotton batting, cotton backing fabric, cotton thread, glue, ink.

 

“Join the Chorus”

"Join the Chorus"
(Copyright 2024 by Susan Brubaker Knapp) 18x16

"Join the Chorus" (Copyright 2024 by Susan Brubaker Knapp) 18x16" Cotton fabric, ink, acrylic textile paint, cotton thread, cotton batting. Raw-edge applique, free-motion machine quilting. 

My periodical cicada obsession continues. I had already finished this piece, and sewn on the facing, when I decided it wasn't done yet. It just looked too simple, and the oak leaf design I'd quilted in the background was confusing, and not reading as leaves. So I pulled out my trusty paint and painted the background with a darker blue and some metallic gold/green.

Before

 

Cicada Dance 1

 

“Cicada Dance 1”
Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp (2024) 17.5" square.

My latest in a series of pieces I planning that celebrate the periodical cicadas in Brood XIX that emerged in our area this spring.

Cotton fabric, cotton batting, cotton thread, acrylic textile paint, interfacing. Wholecloth painted and free-motion quilted.

For information on my wholecloth painting technique and materials, please read my blog post here: https://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/2014/01/faqs-wholecloth-painting.html

 

“Crossroads”

 

Crossroads
9.5" x 11.75"
(Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2024)

Cotton, dupioni silk, linen, paint, cotton batting, cotton backing, interfacing. Improvisationally pieced, free-motion quilted.  

“Jubilee”

 

Jubilee
25.5 x 35" Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp

Commercial cotton fabrics, surface-designed fabrics, acrylic textile paint, dupioni silk, cotton thread, cotton batting. Improvisationally pieced, hand painted, free-motion quilted.

 

Brood XIX

“Brood XIX”
Copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp

 

The hatching of Brood XIX (the Great Southern Brood) cicadas was an extraordinary event for us here in Orange County, North Carolina, this year. These are periodical cicadas that only emerge every 13 years.

I was thrilled to watch these insects  – that look so different from our annual cicadas (smaller, with orange veining on their wings, and red eyes!) emerge from their exoskeletons, dry and unfold their wings. For the first time since 1803, when Thomas Jefferson was president, both Brood XIX and Brood XIII (the Northern Illinois Brood) emerged together, with overlapping areas in northern Illinois. “Nobody alive today will see it happen again,” said Floyd W. Shockley, an entomologist and collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. (New York Times)

18 x 10.5" White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton batting, cotton thread. Wholecloth painted and free-motion quilted.