After spending months working on the writing and years creating the various quilts, I’ve finally put them into a book called “A Journey of 10,000 Stitches”. At this point, I’m waiting for the first copy to make sure it has no mistakes and then I can order copies and post it for publication and ordering on various venues. Stay tuned! It’s very exciting!! In a nutshell, it’s about expressing various journeys through fiber arts using fabrics, images, embellishments, assorted designs and more. Here’s the photo of the cover minus the lettering . . .
Somewhere around the middle of May, my poppy garden is in full bloom creating a gorgeous area of waving red orange petals outside my kitchen window. One of my favorite spring flowers, the poppy keeps me humble as a gardener. I never could grow a single one anywhere I lived yet when we moved to Port Byron, they just appeared one spring and kept coming back without any help from me. I just need to admire them and be in awe of their determination. Like in quilting, sometimes the most unexpected and unplanned combinations or designs work out and everything just feels right. This art quilt was originally made for the Cherrywood 2024 Challenge. It wasn’t accepted as a finalist yet is one of my absolute favorites in all 5 I’ve entered. “Remember Yesterday, Celebrate Today and Hope for the Future” is filled with dimensional flowers and stems/buds, drips with sparkling beads and crystals, is covered with hand dyed laces and secretly has the names of family and friends who have passed away listed on the backs of the “taggies”. Love this one!
As an artist, my work is a growing collection of the special moments that speak of the rhythm of my soul and the creative spirit that energizes me each day. Whether the artworks are formed from fibers and fabrics or canvas and paints, the inspiration for them tumbles through my brain like the rushing Lake Erie waters that crash against the rocky shore and drain back into itself generating another wave. How does one channel this energy into an artwork that speaks of that time and place? That’s what my blog site will share with you: How to take solitary moments and pull them into a kaleidoscope of color, beads, threads or paints that speak of that to you, the artist, and to you, the reader. Come join me on this journey. . .
The Cherrywood Challenge this year was “Graffiti” so research included checking out all the local and world wall art projects, online examples, graffiti alphabets, and more. Since it couldn’t be political and by nature, graffiti is often “making a political statement”, it was a challenge! “What is Art”, the name of my entry, has always been a question so I free motion quilted definitions on top of the sunflower-like splats that had been quilted and then painted over. Lots of fun techniques on this! I love the vibrancy of the colors and the final design so am just waiting to see if the fabric company also likes it and wants it included in the touring show.
After a number of requests, I held an art jacket making class this spring and found some wonderful ladies who created some very unique jackets. I expect each of them to enter theirs in the wearable art section of the September MVQG show this year. Mine will be entered too unless it is selected by Hoffman Fabrics to go on tour as part of their “Into the Meadow” Fabric Challenge. I’m waiting to hear about this at the moment but just finished the final beading of the buttons, creation of the appliqued dimensional flowers and painting portion.
Finished this beautiful all green quilt for Faith and Josh as they celebrated their wedding this spring. She graduated in landscaping and set the tone of their wedding for shades of green so . . . Figured she might like this! She did and even used it on the table going into the ceremony and reception. I loved all the greens going together in this modern wedding design. If you look closely, the free motion quilting overall is one of leaves, vines, small flowers and pebbles. I wanted to keep with a nature theme so tied this into the design.
It’s Wacky-Do Time for teachers, students and those of us with Fiber Arts challenges all due! No matter what, we all seem to gravitate to “school time” whether we are in it or not. So here goes:
___ Challenge for “Harmony” (Sacred Threads, Broadway gallery in northern Virginia on exhibit). Finished, submitted, juried in. (“It’s a Yin Yang Thing”)
This image was selected because balance as in Yin Yang just seems to go together with Harmony. Fabrics that were white with black and black with white were balanced within and circles were duplicated overall in the quilting pattern.
A friend just reminded me that she hadn’t seen any updates on my website for a while which means I’ve been really busy with quilt projects, Stitch Camp, grandkids and life! This month, I’ve been gearing up for a new class I’ll be teaching in April: Artistic Quilted Jackets. How many ways can one convert a basic jacket pattern into something that says a lot about themself. Whether it will be painted on denim, patched like the Dolce&Gabbana fashions, demos an explosion of free motion quilting or has a carefully integrated panel design with embellishments, it will be fun to see the results! This will be a trial preliminary set of workshops dealing with fitting the pattern to each participant with the sizes ranging from “Awesome, Bodacious, Curvaceous, to Diva and Fabulous”. After all, who wants to be known by their actual size? Most people will be using a mixture of sizes to create a final sloper that fits them perfectly with adjustments for length and ease. After the fitting, they will be designing the looks of the jacket and wrapping it all up with a third gathering at a restaurant for fun, food, and “show and tell”. (Saturday, April 2 from 9-12, Saturday April 9 from 9-12 and Saturday, April 23 from 11:00-?) Location TBD and Cost: $15.00 to cover supplies used to create pattern/base of jacket. After “tweaking” the class, it will be offered through the Mississippi Valley Quilt Guild later this year or early 2023. (Limit: 6 participants initially)
Artist Quilted Reversible Jacket using Kaffe Fassett Fabrics
Very exciting news this week! My Princess Diana artquilt was selected by Cherrywood Fabrics to be a finalist in their challenge. FYI: We had a selected group of various pink/white fabrics to create our piece focusing on the theme of Princess Diana. I added some sage/darker greens for accent in the corners and the leaves which was allowed. Using their beautiful white fabric, I was able to soak it in bubblejet, dry, and print various images of Diana at work helping others. Since my focus was on how she inspired others (like me) to help where and when needed, I created a mask out of the darkest pink and swirled the corded ties around the face of the piece (How many masks did I make during this pandemic? I lost count at 150). Heavily beaded to pick up on the glamour of Diana, there is also a dimensional center beaded rose in the right corner. Using the lightest pink fabric, I overdyed it with Darma’s Fushia Dye to create a unique batik look for the petals. I’m excited to see where it goes from here! We all find out towards the end of February, which of the selections are the big winners but I personally feel that I’ve already won by just being selected. The quilt will be on tour for a year and photographed for their book. Awesome!!! Cherrywood, you’re the best!!! What a great opportunity for a quilt artist. Thanks!!!
Normally I would be posting art quilt projects here but this year, to end out a most unusual time in our lives, I would like to share a video of our family. We love seeing all your photos in cards and thought a short clip of our crew including the wiggles and giggles might be fun as they each share their gift to you this Christmas. We had just finished Thanksgiving together when we made this and I think some were a bit preoccupied with foods. Ha ha. We’ve all been sticking pretty close to home base during this pandemic and, living really close to one another, we’ve been able to be with our kids and grandkids as they homeschool, work at home, etc. Jim and I continue to remodel this old River cottage and are enjoying getting lots accomplished. My art quilting is slowed down but should pick up after the holidays more so stay tuned!
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