Good Mail!

Make that great mail. Seriously, I feel so lucky!

Terri gave away two packages of amazing goodies recently. She gave the first package to the person who correctly identified a photo and the second to a random lucky person. (That was me!)

There is paste paper, fabrics, fibers, hand painted this and that, sequin waste, two fantastic wool pouches and an original 4x6 piece of Terri's whimsical garden art. (See the blue circular flowers on the right?) I love every little piece. Thank You, Terri!

The art when directly up on my inspiration board. Can you see it above the door next to the pinky/purply/greeny art (made by Benjamin in preschool)?
Oh, there's Lincoln, too. Good dog. There is also artwork by Terrie, Joanne, Hannah, Kate, Melly, my mom, Claire, Sonji, Kathie, Deb, Sarah, Lesley and Rice. Wow, such good company.

I have already begun playing with some of Terri's wonderful generosity. I'll show you that soon.

Labryrinth

Gerrie mentioned on her blog that she walked a labyrinth recently. So did we!

We found a wonderful labyrinth at the Episcopal Church in Jackson Hole, WY on our summer road trip.
The kids loved racing to the middle and out again. That's not the traditional way to "walk" a labyrinth, but... you know, they're kids! And sometimes it's good to pray fast and furious.

Labyrinths have become very popular lately, particularly in Episcopal Churches. They are wonderful tools for prayer and meditation. Though they look like a maze, there are no dead ends, simply winding path that leads to the center and out again.

It was a lovely church. The labyrinth was right in the middle of the church yard, just steps from the main drag in Jackson Hole. I bet lots of people are drawn in.
While I'm posting pictures inspired by what others have posted on their blogs, I have this to share with you.


It reminds me of this picture on Sonji's blog of two people acting silly at a gallery. I guess art show openings and cameras make people act silly. I'm not sure who the silly bearded guy is, but I like him. The laughing gal is Lynn Cox, president of the Visual Arts Society of Texas.

The picture is from the VAST 125-Mile Show. That's my quilt, Home Grown, over Lynne's shoulder.

In Print!

I am thrilled to have a small art quilt published in the latest issue of Somerset Studio. Several months ago, they issued a Call for Submissions based on the first few lines of Emily Dickinson's Hope is the Thing with Feathers. I've always really loved that poem, and I love the word "hope" and all that it means... including the fact that it is my middle name. So, I had to respond with some art, of course.

I thought it would be fun to take a different spin on the word "feather," so I used a somewhat traditional feathered quilting motif on my little quilt. I added little birds in case the average viewer didn't get my visual pun.

It's got some of my other staples: hand writing, circles stamped in paint, square sequins.

There are some other fantastic pieces that were published in this "hope" article. Surely there is tons of other good stuff in the whole magazine... I haven't had a chance to read through it yet.

Here is the poem in it's entirety for your pleasure and pondering.
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chilliest land And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.

Now that you've read the poem, did you notice the typo I made on my quilt? In the first line I wrote "hope is a thing" rather than "the thing." Sigh. I'm sorry, Emily.

Studio Peek

A few artist friends are coming over on Tuesday, so of course, I had to clean the studio. I've been wanting to make better use of the high ceilings, so I finally bought some taller shelves and it feels like a huge improvement.

Ah, organized. That's my wonderful spirit doll from Kathy on the top of the shelf and one of Sonji's bundles hanging on the wall.

Another set of the same shelves (from Ikea) on the other side of the room.

Raggedy Ann made by my grandmother on the top shelf next to a big broken bowl. I keep thinking that I should make a mosaic out of it. Or at least glue it back together. On the side of the shelf are three small prints I just got from etsy. It's the Comfy Chair series by J. Mullin.

This area hasn't changed much. But, I love seeing the 12x12 series develop. On the left is a cross stitch by my great grandmother done to commemorate my birth.

It won't be long before it's all messy again. In a good way, of course.

Fun

I've been working on a project for the Dallas Area Fiber Artists. We like to have a little "mini workshop" in the time before the meeting. This gives the members an opportunity to work more closely with the artist who is presenting the program that evening, or just a time for us to be together and create! This month, one of our members is giving a program about her trip to India. She wasn't able to develop a project for the mini workshop time period, so I offered to come up with something.

I wanted to do something associated with India to try to keep the program somewhat cohesive. First I considered doing a project inspired by the 108 beads on a Japa Mala, a set of beads commonly used by Hindus. I loved what Elizabeth Gilbert wrote about this concept in Eat, Pray, Love. I actually did a little collage with 108 circles punched out of decorative paper and glued onto a 5x7 postcard. Yeah... very tedious. I considered using circle stickers from the office supply store (you can see Benjamin's circle sticker piece at the top of the picture below), but that was also somewhat tedious and dull.

Finally I decided to make paper star lanterns. I was really inspired by these at Divine Planet. They are made in India and used to celebrate Diwali, a major Indian festival. Many legends are associated with Diwali. Today it is celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs across the globe as the "Festival of Light," where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within every human being.

I took the basic idea from this set of videos on Expert Village.

Here are my test pieces. Hmmmm looks very Christmasy. I didn't intend that. I should make another sample in a different color. Drafting the pattern was interesting. I rarely use precise angles, specific measurements and straight edges.

I hope it's fun and the members enjoy it. If you're in the area, feel free to join us. Monday, August 25 at the CC Young Retirement Center in their beautiful new arts building. The mini workshop will be from 6 to 7 pm and the meeting starts at 7 pm.

Learning

School starts a week from tomorrow and the kids will go back to a predictable "academic" schedule. Spelling tests, reading logs and coloring sheets. The first couple of weeks will be spent reviewing to make sure they know what they need to know -- like letters, shapes and colors. Can you tell I'm being sarcastic? There are things I love about the public school Claire and Benjamin attend. But for now, I'm thinking about all the things I loved about the experiential learning we did this summer. 

Namely, the Junior Ranger programs at the National Parks. Here are Claire and Benjamin reporting their findings to the ranger at Yellowstone.

All the parks have Junior Ranger programs. From our experience, they usually consist of an age-appropriate workbook with several choices of activities. There were fill in the blank questions, cross word puzzles, places to draw what you saw, wild life check lists, true and false questions, etc. If the did a specific number of activities, including attending a Ranger-led talk or tour, they would receive a Junior Ranger badge or patch (that Mom and Dad paid for).

Claire and Benjamin did the Junior Ranger programs at Teton, Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Wind Cave and Mt. Rushmore. We learned so much. Really, there is just no substitute.

Yellowstone also has a Junior Scientist program. We got to check out a mini-backpack full of scientific tools including a thermometer that read with a laser pointer. (How cool is that?!) We took the three mile hike around the Geyser Basin at Yellowstone and studied thermal pools, bacteria, geysers, dirt, foot prints, plant life, sounds, sights and smells the whole way. We even got to see Castle Geyser erupt. It only goes off every 18 hours, so you really have to plan your schedule or be lucky. (We were lucky.)

It's a challenge, but Jeff and I really try to find these opportunities for learning in our regular lives. Even the grocery store has huge potential. 

As an aside, I must say what interesting people the Park Rangers are. Some of them are like cartoon characters with their unbelievable enthusiastic descriptions of the parks. Others are a bit crusty having spent many summers (and/or winters) in the park. I liked them very much.

Magazines

I saw a new magazine at Barnes and Noble yesterday. I didn't buy it, because I've got a stack of unread magazines on my nightstand. It was called BoHo. The subtitle was "a new american spirit." It was full of green fashion, eco stuff and diy projects. Very trendy, but cool.

I also was interested to see that the Quilting Arts folks have a new publication coming out called Stitch. It looks like it's just a special issue for now. I believe it's targeted at all the new young crafty types -- especially those that sew. Interesting.

Speaking of Quilting Arts... I was organizing my magazines yesterday and I am so annoyed that both QA and CPS no longer list the issue date on the top of the spine. So, when I put them in my magazine file boxes I can't tell if they are in chronological order. Does that make me sound like a control freak? Why would they do that? I'd take a picture of my magazine files, but I'm too lazy and that would be kind of boring any way. So, no picture with this post. Sorry.

Now, let's talk about Fiber Arts. Blah. I really want to like it. I know there are lots of amazing artists profiled in that magazine plus news about museums, shows, new products, etc, but the layout is so dull that it just doesn't draw me in. It feels like an academic journal.

I also saw a new issue of Artful Blogging at B&N yesterday. I didn't buy it because it's $14.99 and I'll hope to find a copy at Michaels or Joann's when I have a coupon burning a hole in my pocket.

I'm thrilled to report that I had some artwork accepted for the upcoming issue of Sew Somerset. They even asked me to write a technique article. Very exciting!

This and That

Two weeks of summer left. We've had an amazing summer. I am really going to try to make the most of these last days before school starts. The kids and I will go out on some adventures -- though they won't be like this.We will also try to get back on a regular schedule in addition to gearing up for some actual school work.

I put up new Ikea shelves in my studio. They are taller and make better use of the high ceiling. Since I don't have any pressing projects right now, it's a perfect time to organize. (Next 12x12 isn't due until October 1. I do have a couple of articles to write, but that's a different type of work.)

I am also working on putting together a picture book from our road trip. I use Shutterfly and I just upload our photos, choose a layout for each page of the book, add captions and voila! It's simple, but it still takes a lot of time.

We're going shopping for school supplies tomorrow. I just might have to pick up some Sharpies or something for myself.

The Fourth Day - Illumination

I hope that you already discovered that our 12x12 blog was unlocked on Saturday and all of us have posted our illumination quilts. Here is my contribution.

You can read about its development in my entry on the 12x12 blog. I'll add a few tidbits here that I forgot as I was writing the other entry.

I got a crazy itch to do some monoprinting a few weeks ago. After we returned from our trip to California, I actually pulled out the paints one evening at about 10:30pm. (I was still on California time.) I had intended to use yellow paint on white fabric. Blah. When I switched to gold and silver on the black, I was pretty excited. I just used a plate of glass from an old picture frame. I don't remember how big it was, but it was smaller than 12 inches on either sides, which is why the background is pieced. That was not a completely planned design decision. But think it worked out well.

I also discovered that a very smooth, clean brayer is essential. See those black dots in this close up? Brayer glitches.

After I completed the main composition, I began embellishing. I thought it was going to need something to tie the collage area in with the background. So I added a beaded swirl. Hundreds of beads. I worked on it while we were in NY. I was never happy with the shape of the swirl, but I didn't have my chalk pencil to draw a graceful guideline. Eventually, I hated both the shape of the swirl and the beads themselves. I took this picture in very bad light just before I ripped out all the beads. (I knew you'd want to see the "before" picture, so I hope a bad lighting is tolerable.)

I didn't decide to rip out the beads until it was all sandwiched together -- with fusible! That meant I had to yank out all the little threads with tweezers. Arg.

It was the right choice. Don't you agree?

If you read my 12x12 entry, you'll know this piece is inspired by the creation of "the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night" on the fourth day in the creation story in the Book of Genesis.

I'll just add very briefly that I am saddened and frustrated by Christians who have put a strangle-hold on the story of creation in Genesis. (There are actually two stories and they don't even match up, but that's another discussion.)  I feel like they insist that they know exactly what it means and how it relates to our world. It boils down to front page news, curriculum battles and political manipulation. Creationism vs Evolution. Or Intelligent Design. It doesn't matter what you call it.

When I create art that is inspired by the story of creation in the Book of Genesis, (and this is not the first or the last piece I will make that is inspired by scripture) I feel like I take a bit of a risk in letting people assume that I believe a certain way. I am willing to take that risk and I don't feel obligated to explain myself. But, I believe God is a whole lot bigger than seven days or 6,000 years.

I am thankful to God for the gift of creativity and for creation.

12x12 Black Out!

Oh No! Our Twelve by 12 blog has been (WRONGLY) identified as a potential spamblog by the (INACCURATE) BloggerBots. We have been locked out of our collaborative blog. What a bummer.... and on the actual day of our Illumination reveal. Ah, the irony. We have decided to wait until our blog is "unlocked" and post our new quilts all together as usual. Hopefully that will be in the next couple of day. I'll keep you posted.