cindy grisdela

Virginia’s Cindy Grisdela says her contemporary quilt designs are improvised, a little like jazz music, where each decision about color and shape influences the next.

Artist: The Florida native was born and grew up in Gainesville. She went to William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, where she graduated with a BA in fine arts (art history). She also earned an MBA from George Washington University.

After college, she moved to the DC area, where she worked as a reporter and assistant bureau chief for Dow Jones News Service while experimenting with quilt making on the side before making it a full-time career.

In addition to creating her quilts, Grisdela is a teacher (of workshops across the country) and author of “Artful Improv” and “Adventures in Improv Quilts.”

Company/studio: Cindy Grisdela Art Quilts, began in December 2005, in Reston, VA. Grisdela works out of her home’s walkout basement, which overlooks a small lake. She also has permanent studio space with seven other artists at the Artists’ Atelier in Great Falls.

In the beginning: Though she learned to sew as a child and grew up making her clothes and exploring various art classes, Grisdela fell into quilting by accident after seeing an article in a women’s magazine in college.“I was intrigued by creating something beautiful and useful out of fabric and thread that didn’t wear out or go out of style, or at least not as quickly as clothing did–plus it didn’t have to fit,” said Grisdela.

She started making traditional quilts while working as a financial journalist and then raising two kids. Eventually, Grisdela started designing quilts and developing her own style.

Art & materials: Quilts, or textile paintings, sewn from solid cotton fabric or sometimes with a few prints thrown in for contrast. Stitching is added for texture. Work ranges from 12″ x 12″ pieces mounted on painted black canvas ($350) to large statement pieces in the 60″ x 70″ range ($7,500 and up).

Process:

Color is the first step. Putting colors together intuitively, she uses fabric the way a painter might use paint to create graphic compositions that engage the viewer from a distance yet invite a closer look.
Texture is the second step. The stitching lines provide contrast and dimension to the piece, integrating the elements into a cohesive whole.
Sews the elements together into a quilt top and sandwiches it with batting and fabric backing before stitching the texture (motifs or lines) with her sewing machine. There’s no computer program or marking ahead of time that does that part for her.

“It’s that tactile nature of quilts that drew me to creating in this way,” said Grisdela. “And keeps me excited about going into the studio every day.”

Must-have tools:

Sewing machines, including a Juki TL-2010q for piecing the tops and a Bernina Q20 midarm machine for stitching the texture.
A 60 mm rotary cutter. “It has a large blade that enables me to use it as a drawing tool to cut my shapes from fabric without patterns or templates,” said Grisdela.

Inspirations: Modern art, including: