Road Trip to Ashtabula Art Center

Today my book group took a road trip to Ashtabula where we went to see the quilt exhibit that one of our members was having at the Ashtabula Art Center.  The art center was a beautiful setting for Karen Hinkle's quilts.  It was a solo exhibit and showed the great variety of techniques and materials that Karen works with.

The piece to the left is a quilt in two layers.  The back layer is a photograph Karen took printed on cotton sateen and is machine quilted.  The front layer is the same print on silk but it has been reversed.  There is no quilting on this layer and it hangs about a foot away from the quilted layer.

There is so much depth in the piece.  This picture does not do it justice.  The silk layer gently swayed in the air as we walked by it.

Karen Hinkle

We were fortunate to have Karen with us to give us a personal guided tour of her work.  She gave us insights into her working process and generously shared her techniques with us.

Of course, any road trip includes a stop for lunch.  The BBQ restaurant we chose was across the street from a small chocolate shop, so we found dessert there and snacks for the trip home.

Thanks for the tour, Karen!
Thanks also to my very diverse and interesting book club for the great trip on a cold January day!