Taste of Tidewater and The Extinction Event

Summer is nearly over but there is still time to catch some artwork! Here are two events that I contributed artwork to:

Scarlet Macaw, Ara Macao
Rana O'Connor 

First up, The Taste of Tidewater 10 x 10 exhibit and sale is Online Only until September 15. About 30 pieces in all media from stained glass to clay are available for purchase. Each piece measures just 10" x 10", and a portion of the proceeds benefits the University of Maine Gardens at Tidewater Farm. These are the last few pieces left from their gala benefit evening and they are going fast! Here's the LINK.

Spindleworks' seventh annual exhibit runs through September 29 at Frontier Cafe in Brunswick. This year's exhibit, titled The Extinction Event, is meant to both celebrate and raise awareness of the diversity of species on our planet, all of which are affected by our actions and in-actions. 30% of each art sale supports Maine Audubon's continuing efforts to protect Maine wildlife.

Check it out!

Working the Thread of Life

Watercolor sketch

Art Quilts Maine issues an annual challenge to the members. The challenge is chosen from a list of themes, prompts and ideas members contribute. This year's challenge was titled, "The Power of Three." Discussion centered on the many references to the number 3, culturally, mathematically, mystically.

I knew I wanted to work with the human form. My mind wandered to the three fates and I started researching that thought. The three fates, from Greek mythology, are Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, three sisters who spin, measure and cut the thread of life.

An image from my research stuck with me: "The Three Fates," one of 54 drawings completed in 1884 by the American artist, Elihu Vedder as an accompaniment to the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet. It seemed like Kismet.

Detail, Clotho

Using Vedder's figures, I painted a watercolor sketch of each woman, scanned the watercolor then printed it on muslin. I enhanced the printed images with thread paint and colored pencil. Once satisfied, I cut each figure out and fused it to my starry background fabric. A scrap of brown and gold marbled fabric proved just large enough, with some judicious cutting and arranging, to give the Fates a promontory on which to stand. Swirls of sparkly purple organza provided a sense of the Fates gathering the very fabric of the universe. In a nod to Omar Khayyam, I printed out the verse, "The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on; nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all they tears wash out a word of it." 

We revealed our work at the Art Quilts Maine meeting in June, and exhibited the art quilts publicly at Maine Quilts in July. Mine is one of 10 pieces that will go on tour in Maine for the year. Among the venues are Kimball St. Studios in Lewiston from the September 30 Art Walk through the end of October, and the Children's Room at Portland Public Library during December and January. There are some great pieces in the show--hope you get a to see it!

Working the Thread of Life, 21" x 33" 

Picture This!

So proud of the students in the Picture This! class last weekend. In spite of challenges with the fusible web on Friday, they persevered and produced the truly marvelous parade of chairs seen above! 

The second day we worked on creating a landscape for the chairs and boats to live in. Everyone learned several new techniques, including the most fun way to make trees from Tree Bits! I didn't get a chance to snap a photo of anyone's tree, so take my word for it, they look amazing.

It is really cool to see how the fabric choices affect the mood of the scene. Even before any stitching is done, the pieces begin taking on perspective and dimension. I sure hope some of the students will send along pictures of their finished pieces (or works in progress!) Here are some photos taken around mid-day.

Lisa's scene with curly grass and swirly water

Sandrea played pattern on pattern to great effect

Pat's luscious fabric choice for her ground really wowed us

Missed the fun? Linda and I will be teaching Baker's Dozen Improv on Saturday, May 14. Sign up with Tyler at the Sewing Machine Exchange. It will be a blast! 

Hope Blooms

Hope Blooms 2015 Rana O'Connor

A small tribute to a long time colleague in the world of foster/adoptive care. We worked together for many years on a collaborative team designed to raise awareness of the need for foster/adoptive parents and to support families who work with Maine's treatment foster care agencies and the Office of Child and Family Services.

Jo recently retired. I hoped to recover a banner we once created for a fundraiser with the statement, "Hope Blooms in Foster Care." The banner was long gone, though, so I set about to make Jo her very own memento.

Pulling scraps of fabric for the petals, I found a green swirled fabric in my stash for the flower center and applique letters. The girl with balloons came from fabric we used in a more recent banner. The muslin background seemed plain, but a set of alphabet stamps came to the rescue, and I stamped h-o-p-e randomly across the field. Thread paint for the petals and quilting in the flower center and background complete this roughly 15" square wall hanging.

After years of tireless advocacy on the part of Maine's children and foster/adoptive families, I wish Jo many years of happiness ahead. Cheers!

One Done!

One more student quilt from the Voila class! Lisa completed her quilt with binding to match the brown and green polka-dot flower centers and first time free-motion quilting throughout the green background. Although she nearly changed her mind on the orange petals, they make a bright, sunny quilt. Way to go! She sent along this photo with her comment, which says it all--"love it, love it, love it!!!" 

Lisa's finished quilt

Voila!

Voila!

I am teaching a two-day class at Sew Portland (part 2 is this Saturday.) We are working on raw-edge fusible applique. I designed an easy baby size quilt to learn on.

Last Saturday we spent time choosing fabrics--each student had her own unique vision. Fabric shopping is so much fun! We could have spent the whole day playing with fabrics but eventually we got to work cutting and stitching the backgrounds and learning to use fusible web. The product we used in class is Steam-a-Seam II Lite. My personal favorite is an oldie but goodie, Wonder Under. I love that stuff. But Steam-a-Seam has the advantage of acting like a Post-It note until you are ready to hit it with the iron, so the applique pieces go on the design wall, get moved around until you love it, then set with the iron, no pinning involved! A huge advantage in a classroom situation or for working on the large-sized petals in this pattern.

With tops done, students headed home to spray-baste the quilts in preparation for this week's completion session. If all goes according to plan, they will secure the fused applique with a variety of stitches, add some quilting in the background (free motion here we come!) and finally, apply the binding entirely by machine.

I couldn't resist showing off Victoria's completed top--she chose prints for her flower petals and added a border to make the quilt a little bigger. Flower Power!

Victoria's top