It’s been quite a while since I sat down to try to capture some thoughts. That indicates that either I haven’t been thinking or that everything has been a muddle in my head. Although some might try to tell you that it’s the first, I assure you it’s been the later! The climate in the world has had me reeling.

I’m focusing right now on finishing up three projects. I’m working on a button mosaic piece for some lovely people living in Arizona. Truly excited by how it’s coming out! I have a due date set for May 31st but I’m hoping to get it done earlier as this year seems to be getting busier by the day. I’ve signed up for a class in how to make my own buttons and beads but that doesn’t happen until September. I need it now!!!! Certain colors are illuding me!!

While working on this quilt I’ve been working on two other quilts as well and the  smallest piece is now complete! A dear friend of mine (Amy) is a librarian at a local elementary school and once a year arranges for several authors to come and speak to the students. As a part of these Author Days, she has a 12″ x 15″ work of art created surrounding an author’s particular book title. Historically, these are quilts but some have worked into other artistic expressions. Each author signs a three inch strip at the bottom of the artwork representing their book and Amy then has these beautifully framed and hung around the library. I was lucky enough to create one several years ago for a book by Mac Barnett and I was so honored to have her ask me to again create a piece this year for Wendelin Van Draanen’s The Secret Life of Lincoln Jones. This is truly one of the best books I’ve ever read. I simply love it. I’ll deliver the piece to Amy this week and then get to meet the author and hear her speak on April 23rd. Very excited!

The second piece I’m working on is a larger digital piece that I’m working on for the Threads of Resistance challenge. I have all the work done on Photoshop and just received the fabric, etc. that I’ll use for printing. I think it will come out! That’s the best I can say at this point!

In the rest of my spare time, I’m preparing for our local quilt association’s quilt show on April 1st and 2nd at the Santa Clara Convention Center. If you’re in the bay area, I hope you will stop in! Mel Beach (a brilliant quilter/teacher/lecturer and I are both the featured artists for the show. Check out the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association website for information. Also, please click on the link to Mel’s blog as she does such a good job of promoting it and giving important details! Hope to see you there!

I’m feeling overwhelmed, excited and very inspired! So many good things happened over the past week!

First (and most important), on Wednesday we celebrated my incredible son’s 26^th birthday! They keep coming fast and furious!

The Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) started on Thursday. I had one day to see it all! As I mentioned before, two of my quilts made it into the show. High Voltage Birds won an Honorable Mention in the Innovative category. So much fun! After walking every aisle (sometimes more than once), looking at every exhibit, at every quilt, and perusing almost every vendor, I made it home and put my feet up. A friend emailed me about an hour later asking, “Did you realize your Albuquerque Sky quilt was used as the backdrop for all the PIQF special exhibit signs!” I looked at all those signs and never noticed! How ridiculous!

Now for the part that has me still giddy! We drove down to San Diego to attend the Visions Quilt Museum opening reception, breakfast, walk through, and juror talk on Saturday and Sunday for Breakout: Quilt Visions 2016. I’m so honored to have been selected to be part of this show. Walking around and looking at the other pieces, I’m overwhelmed. I wanted every single piece being displayed. Oh, for unlimited funds and wall space! Add to all that eye candy the opportunity to talk to some of the most amazing artists and my weekend was almost complete! Other than being some truly lovely people, I learned quite a bit as well – lots of great information was shared!

I was pretty nervous the first evening not knowing anyone other than my lovely husband who doubles as a great security blanket! I managed to talk to a few people when I first got there and then spotted a friendly face – an amazing artist I’ve met at PIQF once a year for the past three years was at the opening! Marty Ornich is a fiber artist that has created some amazing wearable art some of you may be familiar with. This is one of her creations that was at PIQF in 2014. She is also having a special exhibit at the Houston show coming up in November. If you’re there, be sure to check it out! It was so lovely to see her again and spend some time catching up! Funny how just that little familiarity can give you the confidence to reach out to more people! She is such a generous, vibrant person!

I was one of the award winners as well and was thrilled to meet the artist that the award was given in honor of – Rita Zerull. She’s a funny, charming, spunky 80+ year old San Diego artist and very generous with her time and conversation! (How could I not love a woman who said she would send me some buttons!) The photo is Marty on the left, Rita in the middle with me on the right.

If you are in the area, it is really a beautiful museum and a beautiful show! There’s even a book! Many other galleries and museums are right in the same area and some pretty amazing restaurants! Go!!!

A busy week coming up and full of fun stuff!

A friend is getting married this weekend and was lovely enough to trust me to make her bouquet. It is a lovely collaboration but now I’m having day-mares that it is going to die and fall apart before the wedding tonight! Hold a good thought!

On Monday, I’m dropping off my quilts for the Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) opening this Thursday. If you’re anywhere near the south bay, stop in at the Santa Clara Convention Center and check it out! I have two quilts that were accepted this year – Beacon and High Voltage Birds. You’ve heard the story behind High Voltage Birds but now I’ll tell you a bit about Beacon.

Beacon is my impression of an antique lighthouse prism. I tried to capture some of the feeling of refracted light and some of the depth while looking into the prism and then played around with designing the border mimicking the circles and the prisms. It’s funny, but I’m still trying to decide how I feel about this piece. It was a departure from what I’ve done in the past in some ways and pushed me in different directions, which can be a good thing sometimes. I’ll let you know when I’ve come to a conclusion!

PIQF is always a fun show and I love wandering through the quilts and seeing how many of the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association members have quilts hanging in the show! We are a mighty group! One year I think we should make it a member game to see who can find all the member quilts hanging in the show. The first one to find them all to win…??? Suggestions?

The same weekend (of course because it never rains but pours) is the opening of Breakout: Quilt Visions 2016 in San Diego. I’m lucky enough to be one of 41 artists chosen to display a piece in this show. Very exciting! The quilt in the show is Stonecrop Tapestry. The only slightly terrifying thing about the opening weekend is that I have to give a two minute talk about the quilt. I have no idea what to say so I’m procrastinating preparing! Feeling slightly intimidated speaking in front of some truly amazing artists!!! Help! Hopefully I’ll pull it together and prepare something that will sound fairly coherent other than, “Yeah. I made this. I used buttons and beads. It came out kind of pretty.” Somehow, I don’t think that will cut it.

 

A true blogger I’m not as evidenced by my total lack of writing since … oh, let me see… since July. Yep, that just about says it all!

Things have been strange and chaotic recently in the world and with friends. I’m certainly reflecting that personally. I find that I’m bouncing between being absorbed in our strange political situation and escaping a lot into nonsense fiction and TV. However, I have found time to work on some projects.

I’ve finished two small button/bead quilts. The first is called Be Well. As it’s a coneflower, I decided to go with a name that reflected it’s meaning in the language of flowers. I know it’s fairly archaic, but I really do wish people did the research and gave flowers with intent, embracing the meanings. (Although, I think I could do without sending or receiving a withered bouquet to tell someone that the relationship was over.) In any case, I love coneflowers and now love them a little bit more knowing their message is so gently hopeful – just be well.

The second little piece Basement Light was inspired by some beautifully colored glass bricks set in the ground to allow light into the basement (the servants’ quarters) of the Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon. I fell in love with the colors. I’m thinking about doing an expanded version of this one. Just toying with the idea!

My main project over the last month was a painting project. I made my husband a Lazy Susan cribbage board for his birthday. That took up far more time than I anticipated, but it was fun and, more importantly, it’s finished! It’s not epic, but it will get a lot of use! Side note, I used an old tracing of our son’s hand for the center design. Managed to find some great wooden pegs online and hopefully they’ll last longer than the usual plastic ones!

I’ve spent the rest of my time working on several sewing projects that will go out to various parts of the world hopefully making some people I don’t know happy.

All of this while mulling over my next project – so far I’ve spent 6 days on trying to decide on the orientation – landscape or portrait. Is it any wonder I don’t get more done!

I hope you are staying happy and productive!

I recently finished and entered a new digital piece that was accepted into the upcoming Houston quilt show. While finishing up the quilting with some friends, someone asked me how I came up with the idea of fracturing this image and reassembling it. My response was to shrug and say, “I have no idea. It just seemed right.”

I came home and the question kept nagging me. I had been thinking about it for a few days and had one of those head-slapping moments while yelling a big “Duh!!!” Even though my piece is not close to the beauties she produces, evidently I was channeling the quilter Sandra Bruce and didn’t even realize it until that moment!! Two inch squares, who would have thought! I can’t believe I truly didn’t realize how much Sandra had influenced the construction of this piece!

I belong to a quilt association that was lucky enough to have her come to speak and teach at the end of last year. I absolutely love her matrix quilts that break down photos into two inch square segments. They are just fabulous! Thank you, Sandra for the inspiration whether I was initially aware of it or not! If you’d like to see her amazing quilts, check out her Facebook page or her website. (You really should!) She also has a quilt (make that two) hanging in the Houston show!

My quilt is called Cynara. This is only a portion of the quilt. I’ll post a picture of the whole thing soon. Here’s the story: While visiting his brother Poseidon, Zeus fell in love with Cynara, a beautiful young mortal woman. He took her to Olympus and made her a goddess so that he could have his bit on the side while Hera was out of town. Sadly, Cynara missed her home and would sneak back to earth to visit her family. Discovering this so angered Zeus he sent her back to earth and turned her into an artichoke – the very first artichoke.

So, this is Cynara complete with her checkered past.

It’s a fact of life that when you start entering your artwork into challenges and shows you are inviting rejection as well as some potential good stuff. Well, I invited it and got rejected twice within a week! Now, the good news is I did get one quilt into the Houston quilt show and that does feel good but back to rejection.

I know clearly that rejection is part of the process. It does make the times you are accepted more worthy of note. It’s a chance for mulling over the piece, examining how you really feel about the work, and an opportunity to ask yourself those questions that include could I or would I have done anything differently?

My first rejection of the week came from the Lion King challenge put on by Cherrywood Fabrics. I have to admit I knew that it wouldn’t make the cut pretty much from the beginning but decided not to let that stop me. This really was an exercise in completion. I’m not sure why I made some of the decisions I did, but this quilt does not play to my strengths at all and really reflects very little of who I am as a quilter and artist. I chose to let it push me in different directions and, perhaps, that’s why I like it – I know what a struggle I had getting to this point! It was my problem child!

I also discovered that playing in this kind of challenge is not so much in my wheelhouse. I was given the four fabrics, the size, and subject matter and I reacted the way I did back in my past when I accepted a few jobs to make clothing for hire – I was given the fabric and the pattern and then dug in my heels and just felt resentful. It was now a chore. Resentful sewing is not fun! Also, the fact that I liked the back more than the front was probably a good indication of how I felt about the quilt!

The rejected quilt is called I See You. Growing up is difficult under the best of circumstances. The West African symbols quilted into the rays from the top to the center mean: persistently attempting the impossible, learning to listen and understand, having courage, learning from the past to fix mistakes, a lot of good luck, aiming high, and embracing change. Who we are, who we become is influenced by all these things. They lead us to our own personal greatness where we can see how we fit in the world and where others can see us for who we truly are.

Am I sorry I entered this? Absolutely not! What would I do differently? I would think a lot more and wait for some inspiration that felt right to me instead of forcing it as much as I did. Would I entertain the idea of participating again? You bet! I suppose the biggest question would be, would I let rejection stop me from quilting? The answer is a big, resounding no! As a dear friend said, “On to the next quilting adventure!”

 

The new exhibits are up at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles!

Over the last month or so, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to put in some volunteer hours at the museum helping with some behind the scenes work on preparing the exhibits. I got to see and participate in a small part of what it takes to accomplish the astonishing amount of work the curators and volunteers put in every time a museum exhibit changes. All I can say is how filled with awe and admiration I am for the people who consistently do this work! Such generosity of time given and such hard working individuals! I was so privileged to be part of this team!!! (Quite frankly, I’m not sure how they put up with me half the time.)

If you get the chance and are in the area, you really should get to the museum. The primary exhibit is Wedding Dress: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. There is clothing from the 1800s on, wedding clothing from other countries as well as some unconventional wedding items.

There is also a tremendous exhibit of Mike McNamara’s very different wedding ring quilts and the stories behind them along with his mom’s wedding dress (gorgeous).

The other exhibit opening is Jazz Impressions that is running in conjunction with the San Jose Jazz Festival. The jazz inspired quilts on display were made by members of the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association. I’m lucky enough to have two quilts in this exhibit.

This color block digitally printed quilt is called Zawinul’s Birdland. Manhattan Transfer performed the song “Birdland” the first time I heard it. Once married, my husband introduced me to the original Weather Report version. Joe Zawinul wrote it as a tribute to the New York jazz club of the same name. “That club made such an impact on me,” he said. “I met Miles there, and Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong; I met my wife Maxine there. Everyone I worshipped I met at Birdland.”

My second quilt is another digitally printed quilt that I talked about in my last post entitled God Is in the House.

 

Hope to see you at the museum!

 

 

Just finished my latest quilt! It’s one of two that I’m hoping will make it into the exhibit coming up in July at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. The exhibit is being run to coincide with the San Jose Jazz Festival and is called Jazz Impressions. The show will be jazz inspired quilts made by members of the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association, a group of 500+ quilt makers and enthusiasts.

The quilt is from a photograph taken by William Gottlieb of Art Tatum. Gottlieb was best known for his portraits of leading jazz musicians during the 1930’s and 1940’s taken during performances in various New York City jazz clubs. Upon his death, Gottlieb had his photographs put into the public domain. What a gift!

Art Tatum was born in 1909 and died at only 47 years of age in 1956. He is still considered to be one of the greatest jazz pianists to ever perform and his playing style is still studied and emulated.

The title of this piece comes from this story. “The great stride pianist Fats Waller famously announced one night when Tatum walked into the club where Waller was playing, ‘I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house.’” (John Burnett. “Art Tatum: A Talent Never to Be Duplicated”. NPR.) So, here it is – my newest, God Is in the House.

I’m going through a crazy phase right now, or maybe this is normal. I haven’t had much time to sew. Let’s rephrase that – I haven’t made time to sew. Instead, I keep starting new projects. Nine started in the last three months (I love the design phase) with only one finished. NOT a good batting average. (Oh, yes, and baseball season is starting today. Even more distractions!)

A friend of mine has been so good lately starting and completing one quilt at a time. Very inspiring! I know it won’t completely work for me as I like jumping from one project to the next, but I really do need to complete some of these! I keep hearing Maria Shell’s voice in my head discussing time management. I took a class with her last year on that topic and it’s taken me this long to attempt to process all I heard and see how it will work for me. It’s time to put some of these tips into practice!

I sat down yesterday and actually made a spreadsheet of what remains to be done on each of the quilts I’m currently working on with the drop-dead date for each of them. Ended up realizing that there were several ideas from last year that needed to be added to this year’s list. It’s now completely unrealistic, but I’ll focus on finishing the ones started recently and hope for the best!

What’s that? You think that I should have spent my time sewing instead of doing this? I’ll have you know I even managed to get some sewing time in as well as a very nice nap!

I’m curious, how do my fellow creative types prefer to work?

It has been a week for talking to family (biological and chosen), planning trips to see family, and thinking about family. All in all, not a bad occupation! Seems like the perfect time to tell you about a family quilting project.

In September of 2012, I sent my two sisters and my brother an email asking for each of their favorite colors (limit three) and 10-20 one to five word memories of our childhood. I did tell them I had an idea for a project and that it would probably take me about 20 years to complete. The fact that it only took me three years to complete I think of as a huge accomplishment! I made a spreadsheet to keep track of our memories and then started looking around online to see what fabrics were out there that represented some of them.

I ended up drawing some and having Spoonflower reproduce them on fabric, even ended up printing up some fabric of my own, and managed to find fabrics that represented just about all the other collected memories. Some of my favorite finds were vintage fabrics – two Disneyland fabrics and one commemorating the moon landing from an old set of curtains. Only three memories didn’t make it into the quilt. Cap guns (no matter how I drew it, it just looked like a gun), kick fights (yes, my older sister and I used to hold on to each other’s hair and kick away when angry – but only if Mom wasn’t watching), and some glorious, highly unsafe rocking horses my dad made for us that just didn’t translate well either. Trying to get those three included would have probably added two years to the project!

I had every intention of making four quilts inspired by either Mike McNamara or Joe Cunningham but in the end, I had too many fabrics to wrap my head around. I ended up going for quick and dirty and decided on a very large Disappearing 9-Patch so that my head wouldn’t explode. Each quilt consists of 20 blocks with four different fabrics in each block. I think I only ended up repeating about 4-5 fabrics in the quilt. It was VERY easy. I would make one 9-patch and cut it into fourths. There was one block for each quilt.

We were all together at the beginning of November last year and it was the perfect time to pass them on. Not gorgeous, but so much fun!