Tag Archives: cloth company

Sanctuary IV — Steve Irwin Tribute Quilt

Leave a reply

Busy day. Photographing quilts. A new nail makes this wall of brick a possible site for pictures. I have to wait till the morning sun has gone.

This quilt was made in 2006 after the sudden death of Steve Irwin, better known as the Crocodile Hunter. With young boys in the house, we of course had enjoyed his enthusiastic interactions with animals.

I have made several quilts in the Sanctuary series, most with a central house or door. In this one, the door represents the opening into the mystery of death. The color, to my eye anyway, suggests comfort, coolness, reprieve — sanctuary.

Fabric notes — the aqua palm on black, upper right, was cut from an incredibly well-made gathered 50’s style skirt. It was made in Indonesia. The purple shell spiral is batik and was the second purchase I ever made on ebay. The aqua-dotted print with orange sea creatures seemed especially appropriate for such a nature lover.

spring light

8 Replies

The spring light flooded our family room late this afternoon.  I don’t remember it ever being lit up like this before.  By the time I got my camera out, it was the shadows that interested me, so I haven’t captured the golden warm moment at all, really.  I share the photo of our kitchen TV and dinner clutter only because it DOES capture the light a bit better.

When I look at this picture and I don’t think, “Gee, cool, there I am in the reflection.”  No, I think, “Why was that light on?!”

Soon, our neighbor’s 200 year old copper beech will leaf out, and the light will be dappled and less intense (and that’s nice too).

With the poppy pillow commission finished, I can finally get back to my big-big quilt.

Recycled shirts and tiny pieces of Most Favored Fabrics (like a trading status!) are turning into huts and villages, here and there.


I took so much time to piece these big sections, that it would be a shame if I hid all the evidence of that work (i.e., the SEAMS), but that is the temptation right now…

That blue spade fabric (a roof of rain?) is cotton that K. brought back from India last month.  It was hard to cut, because it was such soft cotton, but cut I did. It is one of many fabrics that translates into “RAIN” in this piece.

Felt House, Day 10

2 Replies

This photo is ten days after I ‘planted’ the fabric house outdoors.  I used fowl pins like little tent stakes to hold it in place.  A wicker planter that was in the process of decomposing provided some roof twigs, which were disturbed by two days of rain.  Now, just peeking over the edge, you can see one of the fern fronds!


Shadows make a lovely pattern in this picture.

And here are two new brooches:


As soon as I can figure out why etsy wasn’t uploading my pictures yesterday, I’ll add these to my shop.

Grace

7 Replies

In recent musings* about synchronicity, I am re-committing to paying attention.  In my journal, I will now mark noted repetitions, no matter how odd or seemingly unimportant, in the margins.

To pay attention, is to enlarge the energy field, is to create deeper connections.

So, here’s a recent example (I am considering a threesome of ‘hits’ to be a hint that maybe there is something worth mining):

#1 — FRINGE episode this week, where the WHITE TULIP is a very important part of the story, and (without spoiling anything) a symbol of Forgiveness, or as I see it, Grace (come to think of it, are forgiveness and grace all that different?  HOW are they different?)

#2 — Coffee with K. in ‘our seats’ near the windows overlooking the backyard the next morning, I look out and lo and behold the ONLY flower visible in our long perennial bed is a single WHITE TULIP (you see it above in its petal-drooping phase).

#3 — Dinner with family and friends the next evening, the first thing I see upon arriving is a large bouquet of silk flowers — a half dozen WHITE TULIPS.

So, I don’t care how ridiculous I might seem in asserting this — I am taking this to mean that I am forgiven, as the crazy scientist in Fringe was forgiven, as we all are forgiven, really, but perhaps forget, and need reminded, sometimes, by WHITE TULIPS.

************************************

* Recent reading — skipping through sections of Brugh Joy‘s book, “Joy’s Way”, re-reading Deepak Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and continuing to slog through the CDs Bill Harris provides when you buy Holosync materials.

Lining up

16 Replies

lower right section of Global Warming 7-footer

I keep going back and forth on this project.  Should I complete it as intended (roughly 7′ x 4′), or break it into sections and move the thing along?

This little section (photo above) floated upstairs today and looks complete to me.

But I’m not quite willing to give up the big design yet.


Because I am not a planner, at this stage of production I often find ‘log jams’, or areas where the rectangular pieced sections are not lining up and where I am not willing to chop or add to accommodate completing a rectangle.


Once I pinned up some green grosgrain to divide sections, it suddenly seemed (seamed?) do-able.  Note to self: remember that this is a visual process and that you have a visual sensibility (“DOH”).

There have been quilts that undergo enormous changes at this phase… quilts where I find myself swapping out some of the larger chunks.  This has been partially in service of making the rectangles fit (think “Tetris”) and partially  because it can be fun to see how things look when the design is a little less conscious.

This particular piece, however, has been in formation for well over a year and I am eager to get to the final stretch.  And, I am feeling a strange loyalty to the design as I have constructed it.

The edges will pose problems.  My plan is to use some of the cool-toned patterns (the Anna Maria Horner large blue floral and a shimmery green near-solid) to fill in and frame the edges where I need another inch or two.  I will TRY to avoid the temptation to keep piecing/adding complexity.

What will be fun is to create a slide show of the quilt in its many phases and see how it has changed over four seasons.

For the finish — instead of using a whole cloth back and pinning the entire thing up and shoving it through my Bernina with a great deal of cussing, I think I’ll quilt it in sections.  I plan to use some overlays on the back, perhaps even with raw edges, to connect up.

Given that one of the problems with this piece is its scale — I really don’t love working this large — then it is obvious that if I want to continue producing pieces of this size, I have to figure out how to do it in a way that works with my style, studio space, equipment, and temperament.

Which reminds me that my word for 2010 is ‘congruence’.

I am so, so eager to find both the style of working and the subjects & images that really line up with who it is that stands with the needle in her hand, with the scissors at her side, and with her particular demons at her back.