Time flies

Okay, my last post was over a year ago. Where the heck did the year go? Actually, I'd rather not think about that in great detail, since it hasn't been one of my finest years. My mother, who was not only my mom but a good friend and one of my biggest cheerleaders, passed away unexpectedly. A couple of months later, I got divorced. My oldest child started college (10 years before the youngest one leaves, so at least I don't have to worry about 'empty nest' for quite some time). At any rate, the grief and change killed my creative side, and I produced very little in the way of any fiber art.

However, I'm starting to feel the first stirrings of creativity again, which I see as a very good sign. And in order to encourage those stirrings, I needed to reorganize and neaten up my studio (a/k/a part of my basement and laundry room). For my fellow quilt artists on the QuiltArt mailing list, where a question was recently posed about 'where is your studio?,' here are some pix:


This one is my far wall and cutting table.

This next one is another wall near the stairs:

Here are some works in progress on my design wall (a/k/a curtain that covers a closet that holds my out of season clothes):

And finally, here's the trusty sewing machine:

A couple of months ago, I made reservations to go to the IQF in Houston. It would have been my first trip ever, but some things have since happened that have made it impossible for me to go, and I sadly cancelled my flight and hotel reservations. Oh well, there's always next year...

Finally!!!

Well, it's been a long time in coming, but I finally managed to get inspired and create some fiber art over the weekend/this week. Ironically, even though I have literally hundreds of yards (if not more--seriously) of fabric in my stash, I ended up using scraps for this piece. Don't ask me why--I did, and regardless of how silly that is, I was inspired and made something beautiful (at least I think it is) and I'm glad I did.

It's been so long since I've made anything that I had forgotten how wonderful I feel when I'm doing it--how relaxing it is, and how I feel such a sense of accomplishment when it's done. And the nice part of this piece is that it immediately has a home. My mom needed something for over her fireplace in her new house, and this one fits perfectly (it's about 16" x 22"). The funny thing is that I brought it over today, and she had just put out some pillows on her sofa that matched perfectly (a lovely shade of turquoise), and had also put out a quilted throw I made her last year, which also goes really well.

Given all of the colors in this, I suppose it would be hard for her to have something that didn't go with it! Anyhow, it's lots of different fabrics, randomly pieced and then cut into curves and free motion quilted. I added some Angelina fiber accents, and sewed on some fabric flowers with beads as centers, and then last night, while watching the Red Sox lose, I sewed some very cool trim on the border. Here's a close up of one of the corners:

Is it the most beautiful thing I've ever made? Not by a long shot. But it's bright and cheerful and chaotic, and given that my life has been chaotic, but not particularly bright or cheerful in the past few months, I think it's a good sign that I made this (it could have been black or angry-looking, and it's not either of these). I'm hoping that this is just the beginninng of a new phase of me making art and making myself happy at the same time. I think I'm ready for a new chapter of my life, and this seems like a good start.

Oh my.

I cannot believe that it's already July. And it's been such a cold and rainy spring/summer. Sadly, I have no new fiber art to show off. I've been uninspired and overwhelmed by life. I'm hoping/sensing that things will present themselvs to me (in the form of inspiration) soon. Things are a bit chaotic/crazy; I'm in a place I wouldn't have imagined myself for a long, long time (i.e., 20+ years ago). And yes, I do miss Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry.

Collage Mania/FiberArt for a Cause

A wonderful woman I found out about on the QuiltArts mailing list, Virginia Spiegel, organized and holds an ongoing fundraising effort for the American Cancer Society called FiberArt for a Cause. To date, the organization has raised over $170,000! One of the events held by FiberArt for a Cause is 'Collage Mania,' an online auction of donated collages that include fiber. Last year's Collage Mania raised over $13,000 in two days. There is a minimum donation of $40 for any piece, but my guess is that people often donate much more than that.

This year's Collage Mania will be held May 5-7, and I donated the following piece:

It's a 10" x 8" collage of fabric and fiber, with a couple of metal accents, and it's mounted on a canvas. I call it 'No Time Like the Present' and I made it in memory of my dad, Richard MacLaren, who passed away many years ago from cancer. I honestly believe that the present really is a gift, and there is no time like now to celebrate life. I juxtapose stark black, white & gray with bright red flowers and green 'swishes' in an attempt to graphically represent how one can celebrate and appreciate the beauty in life even in the midst of something as bleak as a cancer diagnosis.

To learn more about Collage Mania 2009 and see the list of participating artists, go to:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CollageMania2009.html

Flowers for Emily

As mentioned below, a few days before my friend, Emily, passed away, I made her a pillow. Before that, I had been having a bit of a creative 'dry spell' and hadn't really made anything in a month or so. However, after I made and brought Emily the pillow, I felt inspired. After visiting with her in the hospital, I had a rare afternoon and evening to myself, and I came home and started working on an art quilt (i.e., wallhanging). I worked on it during the week, and I finished it up a little over a week later, after Emily's death.

It's probably around 20" x 30", and it includes fused fabric, and handsewn fibers, Swarovski crystals and Angelina fiber as accents. It's free motion quilted, and there's some scallop stitching around the bouquet of flowers. The border, which you can't really see in this picture, is a gorgeous shade of purple with small black script on it. The colors are really vibrant and lovely, and I think Emily would have approved. Our local library is going to have an art show in March and is looking for submissions at the end of February. I think that I am going to submit this. It is, of course, called Flowers for Emily.

Thanks for the inspiration, Em!

In Memory of Emily Klein - January 29, 2009

Several months ago, I joined a 'Called to Care' ministry at my church, where I was matched with an elderly parishoner and visited with her once a week. The woman I was matched with was an engaging woman named Emily Klein. Emily was 85 years old and a pistol. She had lived on Long Island in NY most of her life, but moved to western MA last year at the request of her only living relative, her nephew. I found it inspiring/amazing that an 84 year old woman was willing to leave her home for the unknown, but once I met Emily, I understood.



Emily was a single, never married woman, who had, to say the least, a full life. She was a Navy WAVE, a high school algebra teacher, Sunday school teacher, tennis coach, world traveller, actress (she played a part in a local production of 'Arsenic & Old Lace', not because she was an actress, but because someone asked her and she could never say no), bowler, roller skater, football and baseball fan, avid bingo player/gambler, and active churchgoer.

I say that Emily only had one living relative, her nephew, but that's not entirely true: She also had his family, which includes his wife and four children. Emily adored her nephew and told me many stories about him. I think to her, he was the son she never had. And his children, in turn, were her surrogate grandchildren. She always showed me pictures of them and proudly recounted their many accomplishments. It's funny: I've yet to meet either her nephew or his children, and yet, I feel as though I know them. I'm looking forward to meeting them soon.



Emily was sharp as a whip, but her body was not as agreeable: She had diabetes, a pacemaker, high blood pressure, and other issues that rendered her unable to drive and forced her to use a walker to get around. She loved food and food shopping (which made us a good match), and she loved to talk and socialize (another good match). We rather quickly became good friends, and it was not a one-sided friendship: I enjoyed the time I spent with her as much as I think she enjoyed the time she spent with me.



Last week, Emily had a couple of falls, the second of which broke her arm. She ended up in the hospital, and a week later, after a bit of a rollercoaster of 'she's doing well'--'she's not doing well', I got a call from her nephew telling me that she wasn't doing well at all.



I spent most of the day with Emily. Much of the time she was unresponsive, but I stayed by her side, holding her hand and occasionally talking to her. I am convinced that she knew I was there, and I'm definitely convinced that she knew I was there and she wasn't alone when she passed. It was, mercifully, a peaceful passing. I think she was ready, and the wonderful doctors and nurses at the hospital helped to ease her way with palliative care/drugs. It was, I think, a blessing for both of us.



At Christmas this year, I made Emily one of my Caring Quilts. I honestly don't think she ever used it--just showed it off to people who came to visit. That makes me a little sad because my quilts are meant to be used and give comfort, but perhaps that is the way she got comfort from it--by showing it to others. At any rate, she chose the fabrics, and here's a close up of what I made for her:




I also made her a pillow this past weekend, which I think she really liked when I gave it to her. She didn't get to enjoy it very long, but I do think it made her happy for the short time she had it. It was a bright and cheerful pillow, with flowers and butterflies and birds, and an abbreviated/paraphrased verse from Matthew: "Watch the birds of the sky, for they do not sow or reap or store in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow."

I have a desk calendar that contains daily sayings. Interestingly enough, the saying on January 29 was "The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend." God bless you, Emily. And thank you for being my friend.

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

There is this really wonderful grass-roots, totally volunteer organization, The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (www.alzquilts.org ), that raises awareness and funds Alzheimer's research through art. One of their main fundraising efforts is the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt Project. People submit small art quilts to the woman who runs the whole thing, Ami Simms, who auctions them off on the first of each month or sells them on the Internet or at the Houston International Quilt Festival every year.

I participated in a challenge put on by members of the QuiltArts mailing list for people who weren't going to Houston this year (I've never been, but it's one of my goals to make it there one of these years, preferably with something in the show--yeah, right) and made 3 Priority Quilts that I donated to this organization. I was blown away by some of the other quilts that people from the list made. I am clearly a novice, but as usual, my work was made with much love. Here's what I made:

1. 'Crazy Love': A crazy quilt made up of scraps from other quilts, with a cool heart-shaped applique in the middle. I dedicated this one to my friend's mom, who is currently suffering from Alzheimer's.

2. This one is 'Verbs to Live By': I tried some new techniques with this one: I used Shiva paintstiks on fabric (rubbed over a rubber stamp), and stamped words, then covered with organza and quilted it. The border fabric is some of my first hand-dyed fabric.

3. "Remembrance": My last piece used some rust-dyed fabric (Rust-Tex--www.rust-tex.com) from a woman named Lois Jarvis. Lois offered to donate $5 for each art quilt made with the fabric she sent people. I suspect that she ended up making a hefty donation! The fabric, which is part of the body of the quilt, and the border, is not in my color comfort zone, but I found some coordinating fabric that I think worked well with it.

I really hope that these pieces end up generating some money for Alzheimer's Research because the organization's goal 'making a difference, one quilt at a time', is such a cool concept.

Moved by the Spirit?

So, yesterday, I was helping out at church for a reception for a woman from our congregation who was being ordained. I don't know the woman personally, but know who she is/recognize her/have heard lots of wonderful things about her. For some reason, on Saturday night, the thought popped into my head that I should make her an art quilt to celebrate her ordination. I started it at 8 pm and finished it (yes, finished it) at 11 pm. It's about 17" x 30" and was the easiest quilt I have ever made. The colors came together with no effort, I encountered no snags with the sewing, and even the binding, which I typically loathe doing, went quickly. And I think it came out nice, too. While not the most elaborate piece of work I've ever done, it's got a simple and soothing quality. I honestly do think that sometimes Spirit moves people to do things, and I think this was one of those times. I never thought I'd be saying something like that, but there you have it, I am.

The funniest thing is that I realized that I needed to introduce myself to this woman, so that when she opened the gift, she'd know who it was from! I did so, and although I'm sure she's still wondering why someone she doesn't know made her something like this, at least she can put a face to the name!

Color Shift

So, I was messing around with a bunch of 4" squares of fabric over the weekend, and I ended up creating a really cool piece of fiber art with them. I took 48 different squares (i.e., unique, no repeats), sewed them together, then cut them apart,and resewed them together a couple of times to form this beautiful and colorful curvy pattern. I then put a border of this gorgeous wavy green fabric around it, but I purposely made it off kilter. I then added a layer of puffy polyester backing to this assemblage, and then added another border to the whole thing. I added cotton batting and backing, and sewed flowing lines of free motion quilting using a variety of threads. The result is shown to the right. Look what can be done with 50 different fabrics! You can't see the 3D effect that the extra layer of batting adds to it in this picture, but in person, it's quite cool (if I do say so myself).

It's around 30" x 20", and the name/title that came to mind was 'Elemental Color Shift.' My daughter, a fan of 2 word names, thinks that 'Color Shift' would be better. We shall see.

Streaming Consciousness

I did a lot of sewing this weekend. A friend commissioned me to make 2 long autumn-themed tablerunners for a memorial service. I had a ton of fun picking out the fabrics (yes, despite the fact that I have literally hundreds of yards of fabrics, I of course could not find everything I wanted in my stash). I also finished up a really interesting wall hanging that I think I'm going to call Streaming Consciousness. Here's a full view:

It's probably about 40" long by 20-something wide. The colors are, of course, my favorites (greens, blues, and purples). I also did a lot of hand embellishing with fibers and a few beautiful beads. Here's a close-up:

I also spent some time finishing up 'The Upward Spiral' which I showed in progress earlier. I've got to start selling some of this stuff because my 'studio' is getting awfully full!

Fall-My Favorite Season (well, other than maybe spring, winter, or summer!)

I love living in New England and experiencing the change of seasons. I do, however, wish that winter were 1 or 2 months shorter and spring was maybe 1 month longer. That aside, I love the 4 seasons. It's tough to say which is my favorite, but I do think that fall and spring are a tie. I love the way the trees look in the fall and the way the air smells. I love the cold mornings and evenings. I love the clear blue sky. In the spring, I love the smell too, which though different from fall air, is equally clean and pleasant smelling, and the color that replaces the grey of winter. The crocuses and tulips and daffodils make me so happy, as does the forsythia.


At any rate, it's fall, and as usual, I wish I were a painter so that I could capture the beauty of the trees and the season. I'm not a painter, but this year, I have been experimenting with some fiber art to try and approximate the beauty that surrounds us at this time of the year. Here's one attempt:



In person, the colors in this are pretty close to what you'd see in real life. The border is much brighter and more intense. In this work, I tried experimenting with a little acrylic paint on the tree and leaves, as well as some Angelina Fiber. I hand sewed some fibers on the border. In person, it's quite vibrant. I'm happy with it. Here's a close up:



I'm not sure what to call this. I'm thinking something like "That's Why They Call it Fall" or maybe "Swan Song for a Tree" or "The Beginning of the End of the Beginning" or "My Favorite Season" or ...I don't know. We'll see.

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.