SAQA NEW YORK FEATURED ARTIST, ELIZABETH ROSENBERG

Each month, SAQA New York will be featuring an artist from the great state of New York. Our members come from all parts of this very large state and we hope to feature folks from north, south, east and west of New York. This month we are featuring Westchester Artist, Elizabeth Rosenberg.

Elizabeth Rosenberg uses her sewing machine to create art from fabric and thread. Her carefully crafted, award-winning pieces feature abstract images of flowing lines.

Elizabeth teaches and lectures about art quilting. Her schedule appears on her website, http://www.elizabethrosenberg.com. She is also presently a full-time college student, enrolled at SUNY Empire College, where she is pursuing a Bachelor degree in the Arts. Attending college as a returning adult student after a more than thirty-year break to raise two sons has been an exciting, fun and challenging experience.
She lives in White Plains, New York with her husband and her little chihuahua, Topolina (the Italian word for “Minnie Mouse”).

"I create art using fabric and thread.
I am fascinated by lines, especially flowing lines that meander and curve as they form organic, sensuous paths. I see beautiful lines everywhere in the world around me. It give me enormous pleasure to translate them into lines of thread that create dimension and cast shadows as they hold the layers of my pieces together. For me, it's all about that flowing line."

In Elizabeth's Own Words...
I have been sewing since I was a child, as soon as my legs were long enough to reach the pedal of the sewing machine. I learned to knit, crochet, embroider, macramé and bead-weave as a young child. I have wonderful memories of many enjoyable hours spent doing crafty things such as painting-on-velvet, baking “shrinky-dinks” and weaving pot holders out of knitted fabric strips. Those childhood endeavors led to a life filled with the love of making handmade items.
As a young mother, I wanted to make a quilt for my newborn son, so I signed up for a class at the local library. That was in the late 1980’s. I’ve been quilting non-stop since, and have never looked back! I joined the local quilting guild; over the next few years I signed up for just about every workshop the guild offered. I was lucky to begin my quilting journey by studying with nationally known quilters such as Roberta Horton, who taught me how to piece with plaids, and her sister, Mary Mashuta, from whom I learned to love stripes. Taking a workshop given by Ruth McDowell, I developed complex piecing skills; from instructors with styles as varied as Elly Sienkiewicz, and Jane Sassaman, I learned to appliqué. Traveling to quilt shows and seminars, I was able to study with great artists such as Melody Johnson, Michael James, Harriet Hargrave, Emily Richardson, Hollis Chatelain, Cynthia Corbin and Nancy Crow. Those fabulous instructors opened my eyes to the artistic possibilities in the world of textile art.

In 1995 I began to work in a local quilt shop (now closed) where I taught classes in free-motion machine quilting, couching by machine, free-motion machine embroidery, fusible appliqué, reverse appliqué, color/design classes, and even classes based on quilts from my own pattern line, Inventing Tradition, as well as many popular patterns and books.

I created my pattern business to fill a void for quilt shop customers who complained that although there were plenty of patterns available for Christmas quilts, there were no patterns available to celebrate Jewish traditions such as Hannukah and Passover. I designed a few such quilts and offered classes in the quilt shop. They proved popular, encouraging me to develop them into patterns. I marketed the patterns, selling them to quilt shops and distributors for a few years. In 2008, I sold the pattern company to 1-800-Dreidel, a Judaica distributor located in California.

About six years ago I was invited to give a slide presentation to my own guild, and then branched out, traveling to other guilds in the New England and Mid-Atlantic region. Recently, I travelled to the Washington D.C. area to present my “Goddess Project” lecture and workshop for the Friendship Star Quilters. The trip whet my appetite for travel-teaching, and I hope to repeat the experience again soon . .  if I am able to fit it into my busy school schedule!

In 2008, during a trip to Venice, Italy, I discovered the ancient art of lacemaking, still practiced today on the lagoon island of Burano. I was so fascinated by the beautiful, intricate lace that the following year I travelled back to Venice to take lessons from a master lacemaker for three weeks. The lace, and the experience of learning to form the stitches, has influenced my work and has led to a new series of quilts called “Venetian Lace.” In this series, I employ the use of both improvisational piecing and fused appliqué, along with a machine technique I call “free-motion-blanket-stitching.” Also new to this series is the use of hand-embroidered edgings. I am presently developing a Venetian Lace power-point presentation and a workshop.

My most recent endeavor is a book proposal that I am currently “shopping around” to publishers. The book will focus on the design element of the flowing line, how I use it in my own quilts, and the various techniques I employ to bring the flowing line to life. I’m excited about it . . . keep your fingers crossed for me!