Road Trip Quilt

Last week’s journal quilt has not yet been quilted, but here are two shots of it, in progress.

All of the really cool narrative fabrics are former shirts — the topo map, the Japanese subway map and the blue and white cafe scenes.

It is the biggest weekly quilt yet, and almost feels too big to be a journal quilt, measuring in at about 17″ square.  But it has spawned a number of smaller ones, which I could ‘count’ instead.  Pictures of those to follow.

Read Full Post »

Blessings, Angels, and Re-alignments!

On the  LEFT, I’m pleased to introduce the Blessing Doll that just found its way into my life yesterday, when 2 friends and I drove to Amherst and then Greenfield to meet the artist, Terry Jenoure (more on that later).

The white head with waxed linen hair on the RIGHT used to live on the Angel’s body (MIDDLE), but I have recently given myself permission to consider a number of dolls ‘unfinished’ and re-work them.  Could be I just never went through that phase of de-facing my Barbie dolls as a girl… more likely, it is the artistic process of revision.

This head was a Dover copyright-free face that I printed onto fabric, gessoed, sandpapered and then drew on, not to good effect.  Here’s what the head looks like in its ‘pure’ version.

Reading  “Outliers” this weekend, and taking to heart the whole idea that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master at anything, I am viewing this head as a failed attempt at surface treatment. But! I have not given up on him, entirely, and why should I?  Look at him… he has some dignity, I believe, and deserves another chance.

Kitchen Angel

This Kitchen Angel’s vegetable-printed torso has been flopping around the studio for quite some time.  It looks good on the Primitive Man’s former olive, black and brown geometric base.  A shirt cuff, complete with button, wraps around her waist.  She will get those petals for wings, and her hands will be sewn, rather than pierced with a pin.  Her upper body features cabbages and peas, which make her ideal as a purveyor of things fresh and tasty in the kitchen!

I’m not sure she will ultimately be holding these objects, but for now there is a found rubber ring, a found smushed piece of tin, and a charm, that says, “Made with Love” on it.

Later, I will devote a post to our visit to the dollmaker in Greenfield, Terry Jenoure. But for now, I’ll leave you with this picture and I’m sure you can see why I wanted to take this “Blessing” home with me!

doll by Terry Jenoure

Read Full Post »

Faith in Simple Things

12" x 13"

I have faith in simple things — the turning of the seasons, the growth that follows dormancy, that I will be fed.  The self talk that went:  ‘I have no faith and therefore I cannot finish a quilt on the topic’ was refreshingly updated and reframed as I worked on this piece.

fabric/paper collage photo-transferred onto fabric, collaged again

Here is the doorway image that evokes passage & transformation, for me.  The lettuces tempted me to make a stupid visual pun about “lettuce pray”, but that did not quite materialize.  Instead, the lettuce leaves represent fresh bounty that is simple and wholesome and nourishing.

There were other issues with finishing this little quilt.  As a puruser of all kinds of craft magazines and blogs, I am disdainful of certain words that have been used to death.  For a long time, I couldn’t bring myself to join the legions of crafters who insert one of THOSE words (e.g., BELIEVE, DREAM, INSPIRE) (the cynic asks, ‘how about VOMIT, DOUBT, CRUSHED HOPE’?!!).  But, here is mine.

Also, after transferring a fabric/paper collage back onto fabric, quilting it, embellishing it with onion nets and fabric chips, I ‘ruined’ it with sharpie.  One of the challenges was how to cover up enough of the sharpie without losing all the previous detailing.

This figure sowing seedlings, cut from a weird, upcycled (and giant) blouse, is an answer of sorts to the Journal Quilt I made where the harvesting figure on some decorator toile turned into the Grim Reaper.  It took me a long time to ‘correct’ the way the bar of white from the blouse upset the design of the quilt… a little aqua sheer (also an upcycled item from a thrift store) helped.  You can just see some of the yellow onion netting peeking out from under.

Also resonating with an earlier quilt (in this case, the Journal Quilt “Worm Moon”), the lower edge depicts swirls and fertile-looking circles, all busily preparing the soil for the growth that is to come.  In this case, the frayed silk edges, the raw-edged applique, and rough zig-zag stitching go a long way to reference a ‘messy’, seemingly chaotic, but productive environment (SOIL!).

Read Full Post »

Quilting about the body

Ann Merrell is the quilt artist I wanted to cite the other day when I shared my mammogram Journal Quilt.   Her “Celtic Cross” pieces are an exploration of a very simplified shape, which was, in part, a response to a diagnosis of breast cancer.  Though she didn’t say so on her website, the circular forms also, of course, are breast-shaped.

Ms. Merrell died in 1999.

Read Full Post »

Fabric Giveaway

There is still a bin of fabric up for grabs on my porch, but this post is about a blog giveaway….

hop on over to turning*turning –

an interesting and provocative blog written by an art therapist who draws and quilts and writes eloquently about family and who ASKS a lot of questions (which I like!)

she is hosting a fabric giveaway…

Read Full Post »