Journal to a Muse

Two Days of Artist's Dates

The DH and I had the best time yesterday, driving through the rain (!) and looking at the fabulous array of quilts and quilting vendor's wares. It really made me wish I had even MORE free time, focus and "supplies." I eavesdropped and discovered what "fat quarters" are. I talked to a vendor and have some idea about how people use their machines, frames, and computers to finish quilts. I was so overwhelmed by automated, cam or CD disk driven machines that made 1600 stitches per minute, I forgot that lots of people (and the women of Gee's Bend) used a needle and thread. Period.

Some were trapunto (i.e. the stitching made a design by itself)



The Penquins were appliqued so far as I could tell, and then the snow/ice was stitched in curvy whorls to make the texture of all that white interesting. This quilt, and the brilliant crimson flower are available in kits from Carol Morrissey. She dyes her own fabrics which are also for sale by by the yard.






The quilter who made the quilt below is as much a fan of Laurel Burch and Cats as I am. Each panel of a Laurel Burch cat is stitched along the lines of the design,pieced with complimentary tie dyed strips of fabric and then finished with a border. Although the show did name the artists who made each quilt, they were no where to be found, so I hope I don't end up in the doghouse for posting them.


















This small quilt was part of a live auction. I never would have thought of a quilt with holes in it! Although other sorts of fiber art is big on holes. Notice the wavy binding edge, too.
















The brilliant flower below is another of Carol Morrissey's creations. Her's were so painterly. I should have photographed the huge warty toad she did out of batiked fabric with multiple greens. The used circular stitches to emphasize the froggy skin texture. I'd love to have three or four of these hanging over the fireplace.














Some were pieced with NO stitching that wasn't along the lines of the pieces.
The classic purple one below would please my mother in law, who loves violet.
In person, the dark indigos and white's seem to jump back and forth in a pop-art sort of way.

















The categories of entries were different than the State Fair, or other art exhibits I've been to. There were judged categories by size--they seemed to be under 20 inches square; there were quilts on which one person did the piecing and another person did the stitching; there was a category for those over 65, and another for "first" quilts. There were all-white quilts! There were "artisan quilts" which tended to have more applique and be more avant garde.

The "firewheels" below were on the cover of the local paper's Friday Guide. Some portions were pieced and others appliqued. I especially loved the curly pink stitching that went from the yellow petal tips to the centers of the flowers.





This quilt used straight and curved edges and lots of them. As I recall the "only" stitching was that which held the quilt top together and stitching in the ditch to keep top, batting and backing together.

The median age of attendees looked to be in the late 50's. Mostly women, but there was a whole section of quilts done by men. For some reason their quilts were all on Biblical Themes.

I'll get to it.

But this afternoon I went to a meeting of Art Therapists who were doing altered books. I haven't gotten very far on mine.

But for this former librarian to use an Xacto knife and cut into the pages and then glue (!) pages together and glue things ON to the pages was about the same as the guards at Fort Knox stealing gold.

I'm going to have spots and stripes on the outside cover. Probably braid and buttons and other "stuff" too, but I don't know what, yet.

The title page has a copies photo of me when I was apparently as happy crawling (in the dirt, even) as walking upright. So maybe geting anyplace in a hurry is only a recent problem!

Just applying paste and paint to a book allowed me to discover the freedom in breaking all sorts of rules about what I'd been trained NOT TO DO!


There will be pages on which to put copies of my paintings (re-sized to fit) about body image, love, nature and art.

And this quote will probably find its way in:
Every man is a quotation from all of his ancestors. (Emerson)

Interesting that I spent yesterday looking at pieces of fabric combined to make whole art works. Today I was piecing paper, pages and "stuff.

There's going to be a surprise niche in the book. After I've glued the last 150 pages or so together, I'll either use DH's router, or my knife to smooth the edges; then I'll tuck something "precious" in there. don't know what yet.

Bottom line? My book is going to be all about YES!