Quilting on the Edge

Remembering and Celebrating

It's Memorial Day weekend and yesterday I took a large pot of red geraniums to my Dad's grave, with my mother.  Finally our weather here in northern Indiana has improved to be more seasonal, so it was a pleasant day to be outside.  He is a veteran and Purple Heart receiver from WW ll. Little flags decorated all the veterans' graves, and it's a sight to see all of them waving across the cemetery.  I'm pretty sure this experience is being carried out all across America, and that's good to know.  I still get teary when I hear our patriotic music played, really anywhere and at most any time.  For whatever reason, being patriotic has struck a chord deep within me and I feel a strong sense of love to this country.  I'm grateful for that, being moved by something so much bigger than myself.  I don't know how my children react to these same situations, perhaps I didn't teach them or impress upon them enough the value of love of country.   But that's not something I can change now, only serve as an example.  For them, I hope they reach that point in their lives, I know how it is to be young and carefree and invincible and not have time to think about such things as this.  I was there once too, but even in my youth, I recall being moved by the music and flag waving.  Who do I thank for this?  Probably my teachers and school experiences a long time ago.  Today I remember, and celebrate, and pray for our troops wherever they are, and hold tight to the belief that our way of life will prevail.  God Bless America.

Landside Journal 5: Inspired

Here's one of my latest projects.  I'm really into it.....I was inspired to make this art quilt, about a foot square, from an ad I saw in a magazine or newspaper that had an umbrella off to one side like I'm doing in the piece.  I kept that idea in my notebook and suddenly the time is right for me to pursue it.  I started with the sky and sidewalk and the legs.......gradually realized I needed more interesting negative space, and here's where I am today.  The pigeon's were the last element I added. Right now it's hanging on the design wall waiting for the mental "OKAY" to go ahead and add the quilting.  What strikes me about this piece is the energy and motion it conveys to me.  Going places.  If I did the same piece with a person sitting on a bench with an umbrella, I'd feel much less energy, perhaps almost none.  It would be meditative, at least to me.  I've been thinking about all the times I've had only partial information about something, yet I can figure out the big picture with some degree of accuracy.  Like in this art quilt. I don't know the details of the character's body and clothing, but I know they're walking on a city street on a rainy Spring day and moving at a pretty good pace.  In this case, I don't really want to know any more details, as I think that would make it too finished with nothing for the viewer to imagine.  As it is now, anybody looking at it has the chance to create their own story.  I don't suppose many people carry pink umbrellas, but maybe we should!

Landside Journal 4: Waiting

I seem to be in the midst of a lot of waiting time lately.  My husband recently had a few outpatient procedures, all went well, but I spent a couple of hours on each occasion waiting for him and then driving him home.  You take a book or magazine, get the coffee or snacks, but truthfully, waiting time is not easily filled with doing the things you think you might like to do.  Instead, I found myself just waiting.  Mostly watching the other people who also were waiting.  It's sort of a restless period.  I wasn't anxious, just antsy to get the show on the road so to speak.  I did a lot of random thinking I recall.  Nothing was decided or created,  I just waited.  I found it tiring as well. Now I'm waiting for a remodelling project to begin, seems like I have another month to wait.  I suppose in life there aren't many time when we're not waiting for someone or something.  I'd have to say that if nothing was pending at all, I'd be "all caught up" and just living.  On those occasions, when I have nothing ahead on my schedule, I too get a little restless. My mind wanders and thoughts of what I could or should be doing enter my consciousness.  It's obvious that what I need to be doing more of is living in the moment at hand.  Things will materialize in their own good time, but for right now, I should only be attending to this very moment.  Maybe the mind dislikes the emptiness of no expectations, so it seeks to fill itself with worries or thoughts so there is no void. I understand that the void though is the pleasant peace of right now.  And that me, and many others, don't know how to deal with it.  I'm working on that process.  I'm waiting for it to be an easier thing to do.  Maybe I should stop waiting for it to occur and just start doing it?   

The Voice Within: The Muse Comes Out to Play

This art quilt,called The Muse Comes Out to Play, was juried into the Voice Within exhibit sponsored by FiberArts connection of Southern California recently.

All of the fabrics in this piece were painted by me over the past year or so.  I thought that would be a good thing to use since the purpose of the exhibit is to demonstrate what makes us tick.........or how is our internal voice expressed in our quilt art. After I pieced the narrow sections, I added the triangles in the long curved pattern, with hand stitching with gold metallic thread to indicate my muse being sprinkled over the surface of the quilt. When I paint on fabric, I usually have nothing specific in mind and see what happens.  I am happy to be included in this exhibit!

More Windows

I went exploring through my photo library and came across this window photo.....it was taken outdoors at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota Florida, it caught my eye as an interesting sight.  Whenever I see something like this, I wonder are the bars keeping something in or keeping something out?    Or both?   Just by the presence of the bars alone a person is prone to want to know what is behind that window. I think there are interesting shadows in the photo, which I saved as a inspiration for a future art quilt. It's probably a long boarded up window, no longer functional, but it surely makes for interesting thoughts, doesn't it?

Art Quilts: Windows

Here are two art quilts I made recently, I call them Windows. Today the use of the term windows includes the  reference to windows on the computer, besides the usual reference to those in our buildings.   I've had windows on my mind recently because it's spring, and after winter, the windows in my home need washing.  I've been looking at them, and it seems just when I have the urge to go outside and clean them, we have a spring thunderstorm and I'm glad I didn't do them yet. Windows allow us to see all kinds of spaces and places we normally may not enter. Is there anything more welcoming than seeing a building with a light in the window when travelling at night?   I think,yes, there's someone else out here besides me.   If you're ever travelled a dark country road at night, there's security in seeing such a window.  Just as seeing homes or buildings without lit windows make the places seem desolate and lonely.  Take that same country road and pass by an abandoned home or barn, and the dark windows during the day also attract you to wonder what is inside.  Windows are openings to what could be.......in the external world and well as in the computer world, and also into our personal world.  Some say the eyes are the windows to the soul. And no matter what your external behavior, an astute observer can read your state of mind by looking into your eyes. It you look closely at the two quilts above, one has plain windows and the other has windows with electrifying lines in the fabric.  I'll leave it to you to wonder about their meanings.