eBook for American Cancer Society 10-06-07

Need some inspiration? Virginia Spiegel, who has spearheaded the campaign within the quilting community to raise money for the American Cancer Society, has an eBook coming out with all the proceeds going to the ACS.

All of the details are on Virginia's website: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html

From Virginia's press release:"My eBook "Art, Nature, Creativity, Life" will be released on Monday, October 8 with all proceeds going directly to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause."Art, Nature, Creativity, Life" is an expanded version of the best of my e-newsletters. There are 19 chapters stuffed with essays, art, photos, annotated book recommendations, and poetry.Make a cup of tea, settle into your favorite chair and wander through the issues at your leisure. You can spend ten minutes and be refreshed or spend several hours enjoying art, nature, poetry, photography and my take on the life of an artist. Enjoy and be inspired.My goal is to raise $30,000 to join the more than $130,000 that Fiberart For A Cause has already raised for the American Cancer Society."

From my picture files 10-05-07

I' m not sure my life is interesting enough to have a daily Blog! I don't like to show work-in-progress and I don't finish enough quilts to fill 365 days a year. So, I will dip into my Picasa II files.

When I was in Seattle in August 2004 I visited the Air Museum, because they had an exhibit of art quilts and I had an afternoon free. The art quilts were nice, but seemed very much out of place on one long wall in a hanger filled with airplanes. It was very clean and they were nicely displayed, but...! Also showing were a number of these sculptures (I think that is what they would be called) made of scissors suspended in resin (?). The scissors were taken from passengers at preboarding scanning and sold as surplus in large lots. Other sculptures included just about anything that could possibly be used as a weapon - knives, screwdrivers, guns, box cutters, ice picks, files, a button hook (surely a collector, eh?), even a small rectangular omelet pan, handle and all. I had not flown since 9/11 and though I seen the reports and heard about the difficulties from friends, I had no idea the variety of things confiscated. I was amazed that someone would make art from these forbidden items.

Flowers + Colored pencils Oct 04,2007

I've been thinking how much I enjoyed using the colored pencil on photos printed on fabric. I am going to experiment with several flower photos that I pulled from my files. The first is Jacaranda tree blossoms, something I have long thought of using as a design source for a quilt. The color is true in this picture, but if it is printed out it turns to the red-violet range. I am told this is a factor of the colors of ink. Being standard there isn't much I can do about that with my simple Epson printer, but maybe color pencil will correct that problem.

I am also going to work on this lovely peony picture. We don't grow peonies here, but I remember them fondly from my growing up years in Portland, Oregon, and sometimes in the Spring I buy a few at the florist, or Trader Joe's, to enjoy. The pink on this one was very subtle, but pinker than the picture. I will see what I can do to enhance the color with pencils.

When I have success I will post some pictures, if not... well,

maybe I'll try again!

More eucalyptus flowers Oct 03,2007

Here is a better detail shot of the eucalyptus flowers.

Eucalyptus color Oct 03,2007

Driving home this afternoon on a street that I have probably driven a thousand times I saw a tree that I have never noticed before. I was struck by the red stems on the grey leaves and the bright red fruit. I turned around when I could and went back for a better look. I know it is a eucalyptus of some kind, but it was so colorful. So, I stopped for some pictures. It is quite a large tree so all these were taken pointing the camera pretty much straight up. The tree has gorgeous color, but the sidewalk was covered with sticky red 'peels' from the top of the fruit. Messy!

I checked on Google Images, which gave me 68,000 hits and found a picture showing leaves, flowers, fruits, but the caption is simply "Eucalyptus tree".

Inspired by the work of other quiltmakers Oct 2, 2007

There are so many talented quiltmakers around the world who create fabulous art quilts. You all know that I am a great admirer Ruth McDowell's quilts and own quite a few of them. http://www.ruthbmcdowell.com/clients/rbm/catalog.cfm

But along the way to creating the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection I have found others who also inspire me.
Pamela Allen's work is so imaginative, her quilts need a close look at the details. http://pamelart2.homestead.com/newquilts.html

June Underwood also has a unique 'voice', very different from anyone else I have run across. http://www.juneunderwood.com

The Collection also includes multiple quilts by several artists:

Dijanne Cevaal of Australia doesn't update her pictures very often, but has a great Blog where she posts her work in progress http://origidij.blogspot.com/ Her pictures are at: http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=6&uid=541176&

Elizabeth Barton, living in Athens, Georgia, whose quilts are mostly reflections of her growing up years in England. Oh, those chimneys! http://www.arches.uga.edu/~ebarton/index.html

Linda Colsh, an American living in Belgium, uses photographs in her work and has interested me in also doing so. But not in a way that imitates. http://www.quiltart.org.uk/lindacolsh.html

Even though my quilts are different than the work of these, and other, quiltmakers, they have all influenced me in some way. I thank them.

Flowers & a quilt connection 01 Oct 2007

Summer and fall are overlapping seasons here. The blossoms linger on the crape myrtle trees, but the leaves have begun to turn. Of course, a lot of leaves here just turn brown and fall off! But if we have a drop in early morning temperature the crape myrtle leaves are a gorgeous blend of dark red/bright red/orange/ yellow. I think they have one of the prettiest shows of fall color. This image includes blossoms, leaves and seed pods left from the previous year. It is a common street tree in Orange County, CA.


Every month I receive an e-mail from the Quilt Study Center at Uof Nebraska alerting me to the quilt of the month. I enjoy seeing antique quilts even though I don't actively collect them and the QSC has some fabulous quilts in their collection. They sometimes select quilts by contemporary artists -
Dec 06 Michael James, Feb 07 Emily Richardson,
Apr 07 shows Elizabeth Brimelow's "Low Meadow" which simply takes my breath away every time I see it. Look in the archives to find other quilts from recent years.

http://www.quiltstudy.org/quilts/quilt_of_the_month.html


Instructions for subscribing are here:
http://www.quiltstudy.org/quilts/quilt_of_the_month/join.html

The touch of the past Sep 29, 2007

Not long ago I was talking with a friend about the things we treasure that come from a parent or relative. Since then I have thought about what I have that most evokes my mother for me. This was her grater. I took it from the her kitchen after her funeral, before I returned to California. That was 35 years ago, but the grater is probably 60 or maybe 70 years old. I threw my box grater in the Goodwill box and have used this one ever since. And I think of Mom every time I use it.

When I count up the years that I lived 'at home' they are very few, only about twelve! It took her many years to forgive me for moving away from Portland after high school, however we eventually got on good terms. But, good times or bad, that mother connection is always there, isn't it? You are always part of her and she is always part of you. Regardless of the miles or years that separate you.

How amazing that some people have their mother in their lives for sixty or seventy years!