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.