Crowning Glory Quilts

urban beauty

2011-09-05T20:19:00.000-04:00

When I meet friends who live in the country, they always seem to feel sorry for me because I live in a big city. Certainly the earth is beautiful and I enjoy visiting less developed areas. I grew up in a place of great beauty and never got tired of soaking it into my eyes. I did get tired of being stuck in the mud or not having easy access to big cultural events. I love living in a big city and find beauty everywhere. Here is one of my favorite Montreal urban spaces.

Place de la cathedrale

Terrasse du restaurant Apollo

Tears of the Mother

2011-08-21T06:36:00.000-04:00

The death of a young person is such a tragedy. My children (thank the goddess) are safe right now but so many are not. It was heart wrenching to hear Amy Winehouse's father say good night to his angel daughter. In the heart of a parent, whatever the child does in life, we remember the purity of our child's soul and the gifts they have to offer the world. I listened to that amazing voice of hers over and over during the weeks following her death and cried.
Besides being flooded with images of children starving and suffering in Somalia, I have been watching a dear friend being confronted with suicide attempts of her grown daughter. Her anguish and desperation are terrible to see. All I can do is offer her shelter. And most recently, I received the news that a childhood friend of mine had lost her oldest son. No mother wants to imagine this and yet in our darkest hours we do. I was immersed in sadness and robbed of words of comfort. How could there be any comfort left in the world when your child dies?

I took my sadness into the studio. This allowed me to spend some quiet days being with all my feelings and memories. I started with printing onto fabric a photo I have of the moon above a white lotus.

The darkness was rich and the light luminous. As it seems to always happen, the shapes, fabrics, stitching all made themselves known as I went along. It was finished and photographed and I was still wondering what to call it. The tear drop shape comes back in the stitching and the moon appears to be crying. I think that when ever a child dies, every mother, the moon and the earth cry. The tears water the lotus of compassion in the heart. Tears of the Mother.

It had been storming, thundering and pouring rain. As I was sewing the last inch of the label on the back, it was suddenly quiet. I looked up to see this magical scene.

This is how it is to move through the storm of grief.

studio advances

2011-07-01T17:17:00.000-04:00

Here is a little update on what I am calling for now Seventh Heaven or Septième Ciel. First order of business was to create a clean cozy space for my biodynamic cranial practice. I had clients scheduled in a week! My lovely thanka of White Tara to guide and inspire, a screen to hide the ugly electrical box, a soft rug, Ikea white curtains and... Voila! Zen space. I was concerned clients would be put off by the industrial building. Once up there all seem to love it. It is like being in the sky.

A peek around the curtains...And NOT so zen space

When I got a long arm quilting machine, I chose the 18 inch INNOVA on a 10 foot frame. That was all that would fit in my ex-dining room. She looks so small in the new studio!

The window washer didn't quite believe me over the phone when I said it was a 2 day job. 32 horrendously dirty double windows later he was convinced. What a difference! Thank you G. Foam puzzle tiles save my back and legs from the hard cement floors. Found a long cutting table and some industrial shelving from someone going out of business downstairs.

I tried duct taping a piece of batting to the wall for design wall. It has since blown down after a windy day with windows open. Will have to think of another idea.

Amazing J is putting in plumbing and fixtures for a kitchen and a dying area

It is finally summer in Montreal. Here is the view from behind my INNOVA.

The plants and I love being in our big sunny space.

SPACE, the final frontier

2011-06-11T08:22:00.000-04:00

OK, I am a bad blogger. Haven't posted since winter on the beach and now it is almost summer solstice. Well, I haven't been doing much sewing. The rest of winter and spring was taken up with the business of my husband and I purchasing our apartment and me renting a studio.
It may seem odd to be buying a home and starting a new career in my late 50s. And of course there is some fear and trepidation around it all. Isn't there always? The twin dreams of owning my own home and having my own professional studio space are manifesting as our twin daughters are taking flight. On to new projects and new horizons.
When I rented it in March, the studio was a big white empty space, lots of very dirty windows and an amazing view of the city. It is big enough to have an ample corner for my bodywork practice as well be a studio/gallery space for my textile art.
Being in the empty space reminded me of the joy of being in the vastness.
May we all remember to take some time to be with the emptiness that waits for creation.

blogging from the beach

2011-01-30T12:40:00.000-05:00

A friend has been asking what our strategies are for beating the winter blues. I have many but this year I am fortunate to do the best one....escape to a warm beach for 3 weeks.

Now, one can not spend ALL day basking and reading and swimming in clear turquoise waters can one? No, one needs a project.

I just happened to watch a video of Susan Carlson (www.susancarlson.com/) on The Quilt Show (www.thequiltshow.com) demonstrating her collage technique using glue. Perfect. This could also be an exercise in working with value for me. I DO have bags and bags full of tiny scraps from all my projects. I wanted to take my whole studio. What if I needed that one scrap of silver or that purple with the gold bee? How could I leave all those precious pieces behind? I decided it would be an exercise in working with what I have at hand and brought some packets of batik jelly rolls and 5 inch squares I have been collecting. So here is the work in progress.

I am finding not enough contrast in value and colour in the batiks. Colour and value are not absolutes. Both depend on what they are next to. It seems to me the batiks are too similar. We'll see. I am however having a lot of fun. Stay tuned and please send your comments and advice.

The Dweller Within

2011-01-09T07:08:00.000-05:00

Finished this a while ago and am just now getting around to having it photographed. The central figure is a photo I played around with and printed on fabric. The photo is of rock formations in the Arizona desert. I thought it looked like a spirit appearing. It felt to me like that radiant presence that is always waiting within. I have to be very still and quiet to hear the guidance of this inner self. There is always a feeling of homecoming and deep joy when I come in contact with this presence. In the depths of darkness there is a radiance. I am fascinated with the oval shape and the "oriental" doorway shapes and want to play around more with them. It is a female shape. a mysterious opening to another world.

Of course there is some shiney too...more holographic gold thread and joy of joys, HOLOGRAPHIC GOLD RICK RACK donated from my dear daughter from her stint as circus wardrobe mistress. ( or QWEEN OF WAR DROBE as she prefers to be called.)

Lace

2010-08-15T08:11:00.000-04:00

Not only do I love fabric, I am fascinated by the making of fabric throughout history: spinning, weaving, dying. In doing genealogical research, I came across the lace makers of northern France and Belgium. I am impressed with the detail, beauty and delicacy of the pieces, and I always think of the women who made them in the days before machine made lace. When people who are not quilters look at my work common comments are, " I would never have the patience!", "How many hours did that take?". For me it is not a question of patience for that implies that I would rather be doing something else, or that the goal is the final product. Frankly,the result is very often a surprise as the threads seem to lead me down a path of their own design. Making art is more of a meditation. Today's expression might be "being in the zone". I imagine the lace makers of France and Belgium being in the zone with their work. Here is a piece of Antique Valenciennes lace I purchased from Em's Heart: www.emsheart.com

This lace was hand made in the town where many of my ancestors are from. It is made from very finely spun linen. Lace making became a lucrative industry for the region and there was much competition to make the finest, most intricate designs. The lace makers of Valenciennes claimed that it was the unique climate of the town that kept the flax at just the right texture to allow the lace makers to achieve such fine detail. Hmmmm. Stay tuned to see how I work this into a new art piece.

For more information on lace and lace making, check out the Lace Fairy: lace.lacefairy.com/

for Madeleine

2010-08-08T17:29:00.000-04:00

A friend visiting my art show in May told me she would be turning 50 in September and would love to have a small piece of my work. This was an uncharacteristically bold request on her part and I gladly agreed to make something for her newly redecorated house. She even gave me a paint chip

Somehow I can't make something until it feels ready to be born. I spent some months letting the idea be there and bringing to mind how I feel in her presence. A while ago I collected some photos of lotuses. Two of the pink ones floated to the surface of my mind when I thought about her so I began with that. It took a while to get them printed to my satisfaction. I think I now have about 20 pink lotuses of various sizes and shades printed on various kinds of fabric. NEW PROJECT! Egg shape or ovals seem like a comfortable space to work in so I started with the lotus printed on silk in an egg shape and added other shapes and colours to fill the space. I loved the way this piece of hand dyed turquoise and yellow silk looked with the lotus.
It took a while before the right shapes and colours found themselves together and there was of course the moment when I hated it.

After a day or 2 the moment passed as it always does and I started to enjoy myself again. As you can tell, I am not a fast worker. It all needs to simmer for whatever time it takes. The finished piece is 12"X16", photo printed on silk, hand dyed silk, lamé, commercial and hand dyed and batik cotton. I haven't thought of a name for this piece yet. Any ideas?

Being a foodie in Montreal

2010-07-28T18:14:00.000-04:00

I was over 50 when I realized I am a foodie. I didn't really know there was such a thing. I thought everyone loved beautiful yummy food. I assumed that when traveling, the first place everyone wanted to go was the local food market to, fondle, sniff and ogle all the local fare. Also that trying a new recipe,or ingredient was everyone's idea of adventure or that everyone's idea of the most luxurious splurge was a good restaurant meal. Not so. Sadly, some just eat to live.

Well, if you ARE a foodie, Montreal is a great place to live. Of course there are wonderful restaurants of every variety and price all over the city and you can get breakfast, lunch or dinner pretty much any time of day or night. Another side of the food experience of the city is the markets, especially this time of year. Strolling among the flowers, fruits and vegies, sampling the produits de terroir, is one of my greatest pleasures.

Yesterday's journey resulted in a Mediterranean salad with merguez from the Halal butcher, prosciutto, Greek feta, kalamata olives from the Itallian store, juicy sweet melon, greens, garlic, mint, fresh basil, 3 colours of tomatoes and edible flowers from the farmers stalls. JOY in the summer.

And PLEASE never buy bottled salad dressing. It takes 5 minutes to make fresh and so easy and good. The key is high quality ingredients.

Best Basic Salad Dressing recipe
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic crushed
pinch or more of fines herbes
salt and pepper to taste
MAKING IT
Start with the vinegar. Dissolve the salt completely in it. Add the olive oil and other ingredients wisk with a fork or shake in a jar. Blending is all. Voila.

collage finished

2010-07-27T08:17:00.000-04:00

YAY, finally finished the collage from the show! I embellished the fused piece with holographic threads on my domestic sewing machine then put it on the long arm to quilt and stitch the edges to a purple backing.

What a treat delivering it to Carina. She had the perfect spot for it in her loft. And she gave me a pair of her wonderful feather earnings!

My art is my church

2010-07-07T09:52:00.013-04:00

I was so surprised to get a call from designer Katrin Leblond telling me the large crazy quilt piece displayed in her store just sold. Of course it is beautiful so why should I be surprised? Well, it is a fully hand embellished piece and largish. ( 47"X 47" X 47") I wasn't sure there was anyone out there besides me who gets such a thrill out of purple and hand embellishment.

I worked on this piece when I was between hip replacement surgeries. Obviously not very mobile but with still lots of energy and desire to be busy. What a pleasure to spread out all my beauties...
beads, silk ribbons, hand dyed laces I made years ago, embroidery thread...

and some Milagros from Mexico. The tin work done in Mexico is really spectacular and this is only a mini example. Outside churches they sell these small replicas of different parts of the body tied with a colourful ribbon. If you have an ailment you can buy a milagro for that part and bring it with your prayers for healing to the altar in the church. Well, my church is my art, so there are several legs sewn into this piece and well as a heart or 2 just in case.

I enjoyed working with the silks, satins, sequins that don't usually go into a quilt. And, yes, I admit it, thanks to my dancing friend who makes her own costumes, I came home from a trip with an entire suitcase full of fabric scraps, some no larger than a few inches. This is an obsession that must be controlled, but I digress.

Every bead is sewn on by hand. I learned many embroidery stitches as well as silk ribbon embroidery. Tiny silk roses...very fun. This piece is a lot to look at all at once and so interesting to explore all the little details. I have had it with me for a while now and am happy it has found a new home. It is wonderful to know there are people out there who still appreciate craft and hand made beauty. A big thank you to Katrin Leblond, queen of colourful fashion and her wonderful staff. See all the beauty she creates on her blog: katrinleblondblog.com.

Tequila Sunrise

2010-07-02T10:01:00.006-04:00

Can you tell it is summer?

I know I have been absent from this blog for a while. It is my style to connect intensely and then retreat inside for a while. After the show in Montréal, I traveled to British Columbia where I assisted the final seminar in a training in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. This is the very deep and gentle form of body work I practice. It was profoundly moving to see the students complete this part of the journey. I also took some time to be with colleagues explore the astounding beauty of Vancouver Island. I am a slow mover and one who likes to take time and space. It was an intense and deeply nourishing journey.
And it is good to be back in my home studio making things again. Here are some photos of a piece I just finished. I have been working on finishing the collage from the show here in Montréal. I am embellishing it with metallic threads. There is a lot of fusible and the needle kept getting gunked up. I changed needles a lot. I was trying to figure out if I could quilt through all those thicknesses. I had another UFO here that is also fused so I went ahead and put it on DEEP ( my INNOVA quilting machine that is purple, hence the name) NO PROBLEM. So here is the new piece, Tequila Sunrise. I will get the collage on the frame today and post some photos when it is done so stay tuned...

Nature inspiration from Beautiful BC

2010-07-02T09:39:00.012-04:00

Inner Path? outer Path?

View from Oyster Bay

Blue and Yellow

Grandfather

Eagle Mountain

Who says orange and purple are not nature colours?

Low tide

Collage Winner!

2010-05-12T08:04:00.016-04:00

Well, first ever art show was taken down yesterday. What a journey it was bringing the inside out. I loved the quiet times in the gallery simply being with the pieces in light. Friends and strangers wandered in. The weekend was very grey..SNOW even... and people loved coming in and being with all the colour. It was refreshing, inspiring and uplifting.

AND the collage was a lot of fun. Some people just placed one thing and walked away. Some spent a longer time creating a motif.

The children who came in had a great time.

SO (drumroll please!)The winner of the collage is......Carina Rose

I will sew it all together, probably add some lace, yarn, beads...we'll see. It will be finished and ready to deliver by July 1.

I am off to British Columbia for the last seminar of Biodynamic Craniosacral training I am assisting. The group has been together for 2 1/2 years. These are always bittersweet moments. I look forward to being in that beautiful land and filling my eyes and heart with all those blues and greens. I will post photos of the process of finishing this piece and delivering it to Carina Rose so stay tuned.

Opening like a lotus

2010-05-07T13:19:00.035-04:00

I hope you had a wonderful OPENING....last night....as might a lotus !!!!!

A poetic friend of mine sent this message this morning. The gallery opening was indeed like a flowering for me. The first time my creations came out of my house/studio into the world.

Friends and family came from near and far. One friend took a 2 hour bus ride from the country to be there with me. People I know from very different times and areas of my life and some who wandered in off the street all were together enjoying themselves.
The evening started with a family coming in. At that point the
collaborative collage was blank. The 2 little boys went right for it adding and building. It is amazing how creativity is so natural for children. They broke the ice for all the grown ups who were too shy to play in public. Just as the energy slowed down, someone would come in with a child and things got going again.
My daughters invited their friends so the 20s crowd was well represented in all their fabulousness. Thanks girls!
There were a few university students of textile arts in attendance. One young woman told me about struggling with an assignment to let the work build itself. She was looking at Purple triangles which is crazy quilted and HIGHLY embellished. She said I would get an A in that class.
I had a long discussion with an artist (painter) about how the designs were created. Most people wanted to know how long it took me to make each piece. I don't know how to answer that. How long did it sit on my design wall while I worked on other stuff until just the right fabric came into my hands?How long did I hide it from myself because I was in the hating it stage? Does time frogging count? ( for those of you who don't sew, frogging is when you have to un do stitches with a seam ripper; rip it rip it rip it) Another comment is,"boy that must take a lot of patience!" Again I don't really understand this one. Raising kids, now THAT takes patience. Driving through city traffic takes patience.
Spending the hours it takes to produce a piece I feel is a luxury. Placing colours next to each other, drawing a design and stitching, stitching, stitching are all deeply satisfying experiences.
Many people told me about their experience with sewing or creating. They felt inspired to get back to painting or embroidering or making jeweley
This stage of life is bringing deep changes for me; some long term projects are coming to an end, some doors have been closed. So I have been wondering what it is that life is wanting of me next. This experience has reconnected me to my mission: Helping humans to recognize their inner beauty.

collaborative collage

2010-04-30T16:09:00.006-04:00

On my walk on the mountain today, I finally got an idea for the interactive piece I want to create during my upcoming show. Remember the felt board from kinder garden? Well, this will be the same idea. I am going to put up a design wall and visitors to the show can create a fabric collage. I will have different shapes, colours and textures of fabric, including some photos printed on fabric. Visitors can stick them on the design wall and make their own design. If you don't like what is already up there, you can change it. There will be an incentive to make it beautiful; the finished piece could be yours! Whatever is up there at the end of the show at noon on May 11, I will sew together, quilt and bind. The names of all who participated will go into a magic sack and I will draw a name. This person will win the piece. I can't wait to see what you make.

Friends and family have told me that my name is not big enough on the poster I made for my upcoming show. So I made this:It will hang in the window. Lots of gold holographic thread and some crystals. Very satisfying. The shiny does not show up so well here. Drat!

Beauty creates health

2010-04-19T15:06:00.016-04:00

Is it art? or is it craft? or...is it BEAUTIFUL? The art quilt organization of which I am a member (Studio Art Quilt Association http://www.saqa.com/) has just been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Congratulations to all who worked on making this happen. This is a step for textile work to be recognized as art.
Ok, what about all those women through the centuries spinning, weaving, sewing for the home? Is it art? Why not? What is this urge we have to fill our environment with beauty? Many of the traditional Amish designs look quite modern. Some quilters like traditional patterns and make quilts to be used on a bed. Some of us improvise with those patterns. At the top of the page is a quilt I made as a wedding present for a designer friend. Who says you can't have red in the bedroom? Having colour and beauty in the environment is the antidote to all the ugliness we encounter in life. Beauty uplifts the spirit. Our bodies and minds are affected by it all. I am sure the very cells of our bodies resonate with harmony of form and colour. Beauty creates health!
These are Roman shades I made for our bedroom. I love the way the light comes through the fabric making it look like stained glass. Brings me a smile each day.

In the beginning

2010-03-31T15:48:00.015-04:00

Somewhere around 1996 quilts began coming into my dreams and demanding to be made. Did I know how to quilt? No. Still, they kept appearing, geometric forms and colour. This was exciting and I really wanted to make them. I signed up for a quilting class at a near by gift shop. The teacher insisted that this was a TRADITIONAL quilting class. No evil art quilts. All sewing was by hand. I had never heard of art quilts and thought traditional quilts were beautiful art. ( There is a rant here. I will save it for another post) Naturally, I bought fabric in many shades of purple and, voila, my first sampler was born.
I was then dealing with a hyperactive thyroid condition that made me irritable and nervous all the time. The healing process included complementary as well as traditional medical approaches. Quilting however was the most healing thing I did for myself at that time. I found hand sewing to be very soothing; something about that needle rhythmically moving in and out of the fabric, the texture and colour flowing through my hands. I know it had a calming effect on my nervous system. I had 2 young children and being able to pack up the work take it with me was wonderful. Instead of grinding my teeth while my brain was buzzing with"How long can it possibly take to put on a pair of boots?", I was happily making something beautiful.
After that sampler, the wall quilts demanded to be born. Our living room wall was covered with a large piece of white felt and I began playing with squares and triangles of colour. This was so much fun! Just like kindergarden. I remembered the joy and creativity I had as a young child.
Somehow with quilting ,unlike many other areas of my life, I was not at all attached to outcome. I didn't care when I finished a project. As long as I had something to work on, I was happy. I didn't feel worried about making a mistake since I didn't know how it was supposed to be done anyway. I was making it up as I went along. Seeing that this often resulted in beauty helped me bring this childlike quality of play and creativity into more of my life.
There were always obstacles. The colour in my mind did not show up in fabric. My daughter will tell you of the time I went after her nightgown with scissors because it was the perfect shade of blue. It was getting too small for her anyway, I said. Each idea I had seemed to need a technique I didn't know or materials I had never worked with. This sent me off on the long and continuing journey of learning and creating. This involved books, magazines, online classes, machines, tools and of course lots of FABRIC. I look forward to sharing more and would love to hear about others creative journeys.

The Green Place

2010-03-31T15:24:00.005-04:00

This is one of the first quilts I made. It is
50" X 72" and is hand pieced and hand quilted with metallic thread. When I was growing up we lived on the edge of Arroyo Hondo outside of Santa Fe. My Dad and I used to ride our horses down into the arroyo. There was a place with a small patch of grass that was always green in all seasons. Maybe it was a spring. We would get off the horses, let them graze while we rested in the coolness. It was our special place. Today that place is under a highway, my dad has passed on and after 2 hip replacements, I no longer ride. The vibrancy of that green place lives forever within me. This piece hangs in my home to remind me of the eternal wellspring within.

Vernisage

2010-03-31T08:08:00.014-04:00

I am organizing the first showing of my textile pieces here in Montreal. Galerie Espace is a small gallery space that artists can rent and organize their own show. This is a "getting my feet wet" event where I can see my work hanging and see people's reactions. Hopefully lots will sell and I will have room in my studio to make more. (Can you feel me visualizing?)

I like the idea of creating my own event. In the quilting world, a lot seems to happen at National shows that are juried and judged. I have been to only one of these and was amazed at the creativity and talent. When I browse the web or look at quilt magazines I am astounded by the number of people, mostly women, making textile art. I read that there are so many beautiful works entered in these shows now that judges award ribbons based on the neatest bindings. Being the queen of wavy borders, I don't think this route is for me. I am definitely open to improving my technique, but perfection isn't for me. Too much stress. I am choosing to create other ways to show and sell work.
You can see most of the pieces in the show on my Picasa site:
http://picasaweb.google.com/crownquilt/TextileArtForSale#
Please email me if you are interested: crownquilt@gmail.com