Work in Progress

I have a friend who is in the last week(s) of pregnancy, and she's at that point where she's feeling physically and emotionally at the breaking point. I remember from my own pregnancies how she feels, and I also know that sometimes, when you're at that point, it feels as though you're in a downward spiral. I've been working on a large fiber art piece this week that, for some reason, reminds me of my friend. However, instead of it being a downward spiral into despair, the piece feels like it's leading up and out of the darkness--an upward spiral, if you will. In fact, that's what I think I'm going to call it: The Upward Spiral.

Here are a couple of pictures of this work in progress. This first picture is of the entire thing. In person, it's probably about 34" wide by 40" long. I primarily created this by piecing (sewing) the fabrics, then cutting and repiecing them. The circles, though, are fused on and have an extra layer of batting in them, so they are raised up a little. I added some fiber embellishments, and did free motion quilting using a beautiful variegated thread that picked up the colors in the quilt (red, yellow, purple).

This next picture is a close up of the spiral in the center. I spent a solid 2-1/2 hours last night hand beading it, and I really like the way it came out. I still think this piece needs something else other than just binding, but I'm not sure what at this point.

Water Works

For some reason, I gravitate towards creating pieces that have to do with water/the sea/the ocean. It's probably because I've always found water, be it a bath or hot tub or lake or stream or ocean, to be incredibly relaxing and rejuvenating. One of my goals/dreams is to live by the ocean some day. The following piece was something I created for the 2008 IQF Journal challenge. It was a juried exhibit, and unfortunately, this one didn't make the cut. However, I was happy that I got motivated enough to make it and submit it, and I didn't really expect it to be accepted, so I wasn't all that disappointed that it didn't get in. I call it 'Storm at Sea'. I did some things that were a first for me with it: Fusing some of the fabric instead of just sewing it together, hand beading some accents, and putting a funky ribbon border on it, instead of a traditional binding.

I took the next piece, 'Fabriquarium', to an open market in the Berkshires (creatively known as 'The Berkshire Open Market') a few weeks ago along with most of my other quilts, and it garnered a lot of attention. I think it stood out from the rest because of the eye catching color and the fact that the background fabric is shiny. I like the assymetrical shape and the fibers and beads that I added as embellishment.

Life is strange

You know, if someone had told me 10 years ago that I'd be who/where I am now, I don't think I would have believed it. Actually, even if someone had told me a year ago that I'd be doing what I'm doing right now, I don't think I would have believed it. I think that's what I like about life: One never knows what's going to happen. Even when things seem really bleak, that can change in an instant. Go to bed in one state of mind, and wake up to a whole new reality. I know that I must come across as nauseatingly cheerful/optimistic to a lot of people, but my feeling about life is that there's really no point in pissing and moaning about how terrible things are--it's better to look on the bright side and/or laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

But enough about life. Onto art. This wall hanging came about after I started playing around sewing together some leftover strips from other things I've made recently. Before I knew it, it turned into a really cool thing. I still need to do some work on it (the binding, as usual, is being difficult), but I think that for the most part, it's done. I'm still not sure what to call it. For some reason 'Water Garden' comes to mind when I look at it, so that may very well end up being it's name.

More Art!

I'd say that I'm an extremely productive person, in my personal life, my work life, and my 'aspiring artist' life too. I have made a ton (okay, not literally a ton, but you get the idea) of quilts and/or quilted items and/or fiber art pieces in the last 6 or so months. One of them, shown here, is a small piece I created for Art for Autism Now, a great organization that periodically calls for donations of art to be auctioned off, with all proceeds going to Autism Speaks. I creatively named this piece "Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This." Believe me, I am intimately acquainted with that saying. However, my take on it is that even though there are days in life that are chaotic/crazy busy, most often they also have small gems scattered throughout them, so that 'days like this' aren't all bad after all.

Flushed with Success, I Post More Pictures

When I proudly showed my 16 year old daughter this blog, she rolled her eyes (well, okay, maybe she didn't actually roll her eyes, but her tone of voice implied eye rolling) and said "Oh my gosh, mom. You have a blog?!" Evidently, it is not cool for one's middle-aged mother to have a blog. Oh well, I've never aspired to be cool. Here, however, are more of my relatively recent fiber art projects.

The first one is called 'Radiance' and the second (which is one of my personal favorites) is called 'Crosscurrents.' Both are fused fabric that I free motion quilted and embellished with fibers (Angelina, which is the shiny stuff, as well as other fibers I had lying around.) They're quite nice in person, if I do say so myself.

Okay, Now What?

So, I now have a blog. What to do with it is the question. I'm not keen on the idea of using this as a public journal of my relatively mundane day-to-day existence. I'm thinking that I should 'showcase' my new quilting/fiber art efforts. The problem with that is that I'm not sure how to do it, but I shall try.

Well, will wonders never cease! Turns out that it's as easy as a click of the button to post pix. Welcome to the 21st century, Janet. Here is one of my latest landscape quilts, which I made for a friend's birthday. I call it 'Southwest Sunset', and I was pretty pleased with it.

Day 1 - I become a blogger

Today is September 11, 2008. It, of course, marks the 7th anniversary of a day that no one in the U.S., myself included, will ever forget. At the time, I was pregnant with my youngest child, and I can remember going into my office and hearing someone say that a terrible plane crash had happened in NY. I remember crowding around someone's computer screen and all of us slowly realizing that it wasn't an accident after all.