Quilting on the Edge

LaPorte Indiana: The Movie

This is a photo taken in Fox Park, in LaPorte, Indiana. I remember playing on the swings there as a child, having family reunions and school picnics there, breaking up with a high school boyfriend there, walking the trails there with a longtime friend, and just going there for a sit and a bit of relief from life's ups and downs.  You don't grow up in LaPorte without knowing and using Fox Park.  Recently our town became the subject of a documentary about LaPorte, created by Director Joe Beshenkovsky  and Producer Jason Bitner. It's an interesting story about how this came to be, having to do with finding boxes and boxes of photos taken by a LaPorte photographer long ago.  LaPorte is the place I was born, grew up, and still live much of the time.  It's changed a lot over the years, but there's still the small town flavor and feeling it always had.  It's not unusual to hear or say "that's a LaPorte name".   As we did, many in the community donated to help bring this project to fruition.  If you're interested in this window on small town America, you can see a trailer of this documentary and more information about it here: http://laportemovie.com/    If you're from a small town too, you'll enjoy what's there so far. 

Artist Trading Cards

If you're not familiar with artist trading cards, they are small pieces of quilt art, 2 1/2 by 31/2 inches.  I joined a group this year that will make and trade these cards.  Our first theme was to use the color red on our cards.  Six people participated in this first exhange.  These are the five I made to send to the others.  I used recycled art quilt pieces for the backgrounds, adding the images from my photo collection.  The walking man is from a quilt I made, I cropped out his image and printed it on lutrador, then applied it to the card. Layer with batting,and  timtex or another rigid item.  Edges are bound with satin stich, the back is card stock paper.  They're about the size of a baseball card when done.  When I receive mine, I'll post a photo of the ones I was given.  I've heard of these before, but often wondered why I would bother to make such a small item.  Then, a friend asked me to join the group, so I said why not?  Guess what?  It's really fun to make them.....and fun to create art in such a small space.  Looking forward to next month's theme.  maybe something you would like to try......save those bits of quilted fabric you may trim off your other projects........they could be perfect for this!  Or, create an ATC (artist trading card) from the scraps of the quilt you made, then leave it with the quilt to write info about your quilt on the back.  Or as a gift card if you give it away.........ideas!!!

The Work of Christmas by Howard Thurman

I received this poem in the mail today and thought you may like it as much as I did:

The Work of Christmas by Howard Thurman

When the song of the angel is stilled

When the star in the sky is gone

When the kings and princes are home

When the shepherds are back with their flock

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost

To heal the broken

To feed the hungry

To release the prisoner

To rebuild the nations

To bring peace among others, To make music in the heart.  

Nice thoughts for a New Year, right?

Tuesday's Two Cents: Inner Child Art Quilt Progress

So here's where I am on the Inner Child quilt I've started within the past ten days or so.  I added two more images.......the clearest one is in the 'cave', or dark area, and the other two lose their focus as they proceed out away from the dark area.  Maybe I should call it a closet.    I like it so far, altho I am not finished.   As I've worked on it, I began to understand that I was thinking about our childlike tendencies in creative work......and how as we get older, we often become judgmental of our work, and more restrictive in what we do and try creatively.  We no longer work with a child's mind of freedom, and let ourselves just create.  Instead, we analyze, over study, and sometimes fear that we'll make a mistake.   I know I'm not the first one to talk about this, as I've read about it many times. And I know I'm not the first one to experience this phenomenon.  My piece here is showing that the inner child is like a ghost outside of the confines of our inner space, wanting to get out but just really invisible around us as we work. Food for thought anyway.  This piece is resting on my design wall now as I figure out what to do next.  I have to admit, this has taken a turn I did not expect.  Isn't that the fun part about creativity?  You never know what it will end up being, until you finish making it. 

Winter Planting on Anna Maria Island January 2010

We decided to plant vegetables in our earthboxes, and picked up some nice tomato plants, peppers, one each of red and yellow, and two green peppers, and a few spinach plants.   Altho the weather is still cool by Florida standards, it is not too cool at night, usually staying in the fifties or sixties.  This is always a fun thing for us to do as in our northern Indiana life, this could not occur until late May.  Here's a few photos of our earthboxes planted. 

Art Quilt: Threaded Petals

I finished another one of the projects I left hanging on my design wall when I left for the holidays.  The final size is 16.5 inches tall, 21.5 inches wide.  The background is collage, free motion quilted with vines and leaf patterns. The flowers are extensively quilted with threads for the petals.  I added the white centers to the flowers for added attraction.   I wanted to create a lot of movement in the background, and use fabrics with interesting motifs for exploration by the viewer.  This quilt is available  on my website, click on http://www.christinepreddquiltart.com/for further information.   

Tuesday's Two Cents: Crayolas and Living Simply

So I bought a box of 64 crayons while Christmas shopping.....I was at Keeton's, an  art supply store in Bradenton, and I was attracted to the display and I guess my inner child started salivating. Yesterday I finally had the chance to open the box and look inside.  I was surprised at my reaction......you see, all my childhood I usually had the box of 8 crayons, sometimes 16, and rarely, the box of 24.  I must have been thrilled with the 24 I imagine, and here I was a half century later with a brand new box of 64 crayons. I smiled to myself and just took a second to view all those wonderful colors!  Where was my coloring book????  Anyway, I was planning to color out a quilt pattern I was thinking about, so I reached for red.  First I picked brick red.  Then I picked strawberry red.  All I wanted was plain ole red.  I settled for something and went to find blue.  Same experience, only now I chose coneflower blue first.  I found the regular blue on the second try.  Same thing happened when I wanted yellow.  I decided I would have to find a container to put all the crayons into so I could more easily find what color I wanted, but I didn't do it then, nor yet.  I don't want to disturb the lovely presentation of all those colors.  It occurred to me that maybe I was happier with fewer crayons.  Not so many choices to make.  Maybe not.  I realized this was more than about crayons though.  It was about having more than I needed.  Kind of like having the bungalow, or the apartment, versus the McMansion.  Or a closet full of clothes, most of which hang there waiting, because we usually select our favorites over and over again.  Then this thought morphed into the "grass is always greener" story.  A box of crayons, most wished for as a  child, no longer holds the magic I assigned to it back then.  Maybe it never did.  Maybe it was more of a symbol of being better off.......having more than I needed?  Maybe I thought as a child it would somehow improve me, or my image to others?  Maybe I would feel like I "belonged" with all the others I knew who usually had the 64 crayon box.  Maybe I just coveted more for the sake of more.  A lot to think about.  I'm relieved to say, though, that a half century later I'm well past it,have been for some time,  and I don't mean just with crayons.  A simpler life is fine.........but maybe, for me and for some of you too, you have to have the bigger and better, before you realize all you really wanted was the simple. Simple makes you free to be the person you want to be, the one you already are.  Simple opens up avenues you never imagined, because things are not keeping you.   It's funny how a box of crayons can remind us of the value of simplicity.  Today I'll find a plastic little container, and dump out the crayons so I can really use them.  I guess I won't be tempted to get the bigger box again anytime soon.  I am reminded of the wonder of simplicity.  How about you?  

Selected Shorts: NPR Podcasts

Do you listen to podcasts?  I've become interested in doing so since I first bought an ipod, and now an iphone.  One of my favorites is Selected Shorts, short stories you can listen to on your device, from NPR.  They are read by actors or other authors to a live audience, then recorded, and that's where I come in.  I download them from itunes, they are free, and often listen to them while I take my daily walk.  This does two things:  makes my walks go faster, and allows me to hear some great stories.  I've been doing this on and off for a few years now and I am compelled to write about it today since I just heard two of the best stories as I walked today, and wanted to share them in case you have not heard about this program.  Today I listened to two stories, each about 30 minutes or less in length, that's the usual time for a story, sometimes 20 minutes.  The theme for this edition was Displaced Persons, and the first story was called The Briefcase by Rebecca Makkai, and the second was called Diem Perdidi, by Julie Otsuka.  Both were compelling and emotional to me, especially the second one Diem Perdidi, which translated means "I Lost the Day".  The entire story is a series of statements of what is remembered and what is forgotten by a women as she is becoming a victim of dementia, as told by her daughter.This simple series of recollections brought me to tears, seeing what a person remembers as dear events or thoughts from a lifetime, and mourning what is no longer remembered.  That's powerful writing if such emotion can be evoked while hearing the spoken word.  I suppose you could just download the stories to your computer and listen to them that way if you don't have a portable device like an ipod or something.  Anyway, it's my recommendation for the day!  I believe new stories are released weekly, or biweekly.   By the way, the photo at the top of this writing is not related, I just posted it for interest.  I had sunprinted fabric with rocks a LOOOOOOONG time ago, cut the fabric in strips and then sewed the strips back together, then altered the photo of that to black and white only.  Just another creative trip I took one day.   Try the podcasts!
 

Beach Walk on Anna Maria Island: Dead Stingrays

I finally walked the beach  yesterday, it was in the fifties and not too cold, but I quickly saw some of the results of the cold weather.  In about a 3/4 mile section that I walked, there were 15 dead stingrays, one small shark, and lots of small fish that apparently succumbed to the cold temperatures in the Gulf.  Here's a few photos I took to share, you can click on them to enlarge them if you'd like.    

Link for Monoprinting Instructions from Quilt Art Magazine

http://quiltingarts.com/media/p/13878.aspx Here's the link to Quilting arts magazine instructions on monoprinting fabric.......if you join their site, you can download instruction of surface design techniques.  These are the instructions I followed to do monoprinting as described in the previous post.