WHEELS again, at last!!! And Back to Quilting, too!

After two weeks without a car, I finally have the freedom to travel once again. Not that I was stuck at home all that time - the time was filled with the Vermont contingency on two separate occasions, physical therapy (still - next week is my last week!), and the necessary evils of car shopping... Car shopping is bad enough when one knows ahead of time that a new car is needed - then one is thinking about potentialities, at least. A surprise car hunting expedition has much less forethought, or so it seems to me.

I knew I wanted a car that would be relatively kind to the environment and very kind to my body - thus said car needed to provide very good lumbar support, to be well designed for someone of short proportions (not reaching the pedals or having the steering wheel in my chest or lap is NOT allowed), a good audio system (!!!), great handling on the road, and decent or above gas mileage.

We eventually found the 'perfect for me' car - after 5 grueling days of driving the Route 9 corridor in central NJ - through constructions zones - on too many test drives to recall. We chose one vehicle pretty much by default - when we felt totally overwhelmed by the daunting task and overly pressured by a salesman! That car was returned the next day... just driving it home made me realize I couldn't begin to contemplate 10 years with said car. It was a nice car, very popular model, super comfy - but did NOT fit my body.

We settled on a 2005 VW Jetta - which fills all my requirements plus has so many bells and whistles that I'll be trying to figure them out for the next month or two! I've had it not quite two full days now, and I LOVE it! After my Sable - which suited me perfectly - I didn't know if I could find another perfect fit. But I did.

So now I'm back to a somewhat 'normal' life - the laundry is swishing along upstairs and my studio is finally clean enough to work in, my jpegs are sent to the Incredible Spirit quilt competition & the actual quilts should arrive in CA today. I've caught up on some of the grocery shopping, the house - well, let's just say housework is lowest on the totem pole of my list of "things to do."

The Houston Quilt Festival is fast approaching and I haven't yet begun my cancer fund-raiser postcards... I have been honored by Virginia Spiegel in being asked to contribute one 'special' 4 x 6" fiber art card for the special Silent Auction to be held during Quilt Market (a trade show prior to the quilt fest). See the following website for more info:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSMarketInvitational.html

Aside from the postcard-making fun ahead, there are 3 art/quilt competition deadlines for me this month, followed by several more in October... I have my one large quilt (see "Flames" below - July 29th entry) nearing completion, plus a plethora of ideas in my mind for upcoming pieces. All I need is TIME... plus persistence, dedication, focus, etc.

My Sunday Visitor...

The Red-Spotted Purple Admiral Butterfly – top of wings looking very BLUE to me!
While the bottom of the wings definitely reveals the red spots and a touch of purple – which looks totally black on top.

This lovely creature brightened my day – and she was especially meaningful to me because I’ve recently completed a butterfly quilt which I have now titled “Life Cycle.” This particular quilt was started many years ago – with a series of layering of various types of fabrics in random widths on a ground fabric, then placing nylon netting over the entire top, and finally randomly quilting it enough to tack down all the various strips. It began as an underwater image in my minds eye, and evolved slowly over the years – mostly remaining hidden in a bottom drawer far from view.

I took it out after hearing about “The Incredible Spirit” quilt competition, thinking it was an appropriately subdued quilt to reveal my many journeys through depression. For a long time I called it “Undercurrents.” It seemed to represent the undercurrents of emotions that raged beneath the surface of my life – often pulling me beneath a healthy surface into the darkness of despair.


Life Cycle c2005

In taking it out this spring, however, I also saw in it the iridescence of hope layered in with everything else. Slowly I added more elements to create a compositional form – which now is something like a lazy S curve on its side! On the left is a puckered flowery form within which is hidden a silk cocoon that I have lightly painted with iridescent paints. Trailing downward from the cocoon are wool rovings, twisted silken taffeta, gathered, and flower petals leading the eye to a well-disguised furry black caterpillar munching his way through life. The trail now moves across the bottom of the quilt and slightly upward to reveal an open silk cocoon from which the emerging blue feather butterfly has emerged.


Life Cycle – detail of caterpillar c2005

This is a very subtle quilt – mainly blues and lavenders, very muted and very quiet. The glistening Angelina Fibers add the spiritual dimension I hoped to create with the help of some buried-beneath-the-netting Tinzle. Two sides of the quilt are bordered in lavender while the remaining two sides are bordered with a deep blue beaded fringe. The many layers of fibers and fabrics, the many dimensions of sizes and shapes, the illusions of movement, the sparkle beneath the dull, the somewhat monochromatic palette all work together to create a piece of mystery, beauty and life.

Tonight, “Life Cycle” is photographed, labeled, rod pocketed and readied for mailing in to the quilt challenge. I hope you find some beauty herein…

Full Moon - Crazy Week!

It’s been a very crazy week with all sorts of odd + atypical occurrences – some good, some less so. Quilting time has been at a premium, however I have been doing some quilting on “Flames.” This weekend I’ll be setting up the studio to photograph “Flaming Feathers” and a few other completed projects. Then I can send “Flaming Feathers” off to the Indelible Spirit competition just in the nick of time.

Family matters were at the forefront this week. Our son and his family have had a number of extremely difficult situations happening in the past week or so, including the demise of one of their cars in Manhattan this week. Try to picture this: a couple from Vermont, with one of their 3 teens in tow, plus their Russian Foreign Exchange student – whom they have just picked up for the first time – all stranded in NYC with their car dying on the Hudson Parkway. Now picture this same group, having been towed to an automotive dealership, standing in the service department of said dealership on the 4th floor of a skyscraper, no less – learning their car is a total loss… Fortunately, we live in central Jersey and were a phone call away.

So we got to meet Maria, from Russia, at tad earlier than we had anticipated. She is a bright and lively 15 year old who loves sports – especially basketball. Her English is excellent – which is a good thing since none of us knows any Russian! We’re all learning to speak more slowly so she can understand us. Maria has a delightful presence and I’m sure we all will benefit immensely from knowing one another over the course of the next 9 months. Just imagine being a 15 year old in a new country where you’ll be living with perfect strangers in rural Vermont – and before you even get to their home, you are stranded in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world with this new family, without any transportation to go anywhere! Talk about an immersion experience!

One funny aspect in this saga is that Maria’s father owns an automotive parts store in a large city (the name of which I can neither spell nor pronounce) in Eastern Russia.

SO after a couple of days of frenetic activity, and by full the light of the full moon, I’m finally back to sewing, tranquility and calm. Next week the excitement will all return – the Vermonters are on vacation and will be returning my car, on their way to introducing Maria to Philadelphia and the Jersey shore for some history, sun and fun. All 6 will be here at some point making our little townhouse bustle with activity once again. I’m enjoying the present state of calm and look forward with happy anticipation to all the excitement when they return!

Oh, one more funny tidbit: the very first thing our youngest granddaughter showed Maria after they entered our home was my fabric stash!!! Granted, my studio is the living room of our townhouse, so it is the first room people enter. But my fabric stash??? Maybe Alyssa is on her way to becoming a fiber/fabric artist! She certainly knows what’s important in life!

I'm QUILTING Again!!!

Oh, happy day! I'm back at the sewing machine and loving it. It's only been a week that I've been too busy to do anything much in the studio, but it seems like an age! I've started quilting "Flames" and this quilt continues to speak very powerfully to me. It speaks to me of choices - options - new ways to see the 'old' and recreate the 'new.' And I love the bright colors against the black.

This quilt nearly twice the size of my usual quilts, so I'm finding it awkward to handle that much 'stuff' both in the machine and on my table. It's not like I haven't made queen sized quilts before, but it's been a long, LONG time! And I'm in no rush to make another anytime soon! Granddaughter #2 has asked for an Irish Chain quilt - actually, she asked me to make it last Thanksgiving and give it to her for Christmas. Well, that did NOT happen. Nor did I make it in time for her July birthday. (Twenty lashes with a wet noodle!) Maybe she'll get it THIS Christmas, who knows? Not I, that's for sure!

Meanwhile, granddaughter #1 is celebrating her 17th birthday today. How is it I can possibly have a 17 year old grandchild?! I guess she comes along with our almost-39-year-old son , her father... and 15 her year old brother, 14 year old sister - and their marvelous mom! Time passes...

There is finally some evidence that the physical therapy is 'working.' Today was the first day I could go for a walk without experiencing muscle sprain, muscle spasm, and limited strength/movement. The internal spiritual work relating to the injuries has taken me just as long to decipher and accomplish as the physical recovery time. Not that I'm done 'recovering' in either arena, but I'm now confident that I will make a complete recovery and actually be better off physically (not to mention spiritually!) than I was before the injury.

As this day ends with cooler temps (just as humid, but not as hot!) and crickets cricking out back, I'm one happy gal. It's been a good summer so far, and I expect it will continue to be so. May yours be wonderful, too.

Nothing. Everything. Kything...

What Have I Been Doing??? Not quilting, that’s for sure…

It’s been a busy week, but quilting hasn’t really been a part of it. I did wash yards + yards of new fabrics, however, purchased from several of the quilt fabric web sites that were recommended in our QuiltArt mailing list. So all is not lost, it’s just not what I had hoped to be doing this week. I think I’m ready to quilt “Flames,” but since I’ve not had the time available, it’s obviously not the right time!

The week was full, in every sense of the word. Between physical therapy three times per week and DH’s follow-up doctor appointment following last week’s surgery, plus a trip to pick up a quilt I accidentally left behind last weekend at the home of our Art Lunatics hostess, plus the usual, mundane routine stuff…I was exhausted by last night. So today was spent leisurely reading a sci-fi novel, first read 14 years ago, by Madeleine L’Engle entitled, “A Wind in the Door.” It’s actually written for young adults, but has much to say to everyone about prayer and/or energy healing.

Madeleine L’Engle (1918- ) - author of 60+ books, lecturer, mystic, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, widow, philanthropist, and spiritual director - happened into my life for a brief moment in time about a decade ago… We shared morning prayer together, nothing more…or less. She was ‘plain’ in many ways, yet seemed extraordinary as well. For more, visit her website at http://www.madeleinelengle.com/

The book, “A Wind in the Door,” was recommended during a 6-week intensive course on prayer. The prof advised us to pay special attention to all that is written with regard to “kything.” Mind you, this professor (Louis M. Savary) co-authored an entire BOOK on kything, yet he referred us to Madeleine L’Engle’s young adult book! I read it then, and I reread it today, with an even stronger appreciation for it now than I had then…

L’Engle teaches about paradox - the power of balance, the rhythm of opposites, the importance of ‘naming’ lest the truth be lost. And she does it masterfully. According to L’Engle’s novel, mental telepathy is the first stage of kything. It is communication without talking, without words – perhaps more akin to communion, a union of mind/thought/being. From another perspective, it is the Oneness we all share – and in which we can all commune (hence communicate) with each and every part thereof.

Paraphrasing Savary + Berne’s book, “Kything: the Art of Spiritual Presence,” when dealing with the physical realm, kything can be used to facilitate healing. On the psychological level, kything can deepen our experience of caring and support. Spiritually, kything can facilitate the release of the energies of creativity, self-affirmation, forgiveness, compassion and commitment. Kything and the sacred explores the movements of indwelling and communion between Great Spirit and the individual.

Thanks to physical therapy, I’ve met two young adults who just happen to be interested in learning more about energy medicine. One has just completed Reiki Level II and the other is accomplished in the art of cranial sacral therapy. Having quit my formal teaching position at a local university, new ‘students’ are now finding me – just about anywhere at anytime! There is an old saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” Well, it almost seems the reverse is true as well… Perhaps kything will be the topic of the next few sessions together, Come to think if it, both Reiki and cranial sacral therapy use a form of kything to connect with the person seeking healing for the purpose of facilitating the healing process…

But kything is ever so much more than that…or so it seems to me. Yes, it’s part mental telepathy. It’s a form of presence, a very deep type of connection, a psycho-spiritual state of being…and I’m discovering that I’m not very good at explaining what seems somewhat beyond verbal explanations!

Thank You for Your Responses to "Flames"

FLAMES - c2005 Pat Dolan

I don’t normally ‘expose myself’ quite so publicly, however this quilt ("Flames") is so powerful and so ‘speaking’ that I was willing to describe it’s origins on my blog… and I’m glad now that I did so. I have heard from many others, like yourself, that have identified with the drama contained in this quilt and the old dramas from which it arose.

"Flames" is now waiting for the arrival of some black YLI Jeans Stitch (heavy-duty, thick) thread to use in quilting much of the background – I want the quilting to be as strong as the design but complementing it, now out-doing it. I’ll also use lots of shiny rayon threads in & around the flames & such, but the background will mostly remain black in high contrast to the foreground.

Our history is precisely that – history. It has contributed to who we have become, but it need not DEFINE who we are. Discovering the authentic self beneath all the ‘family lies,’ is a major part of life’s journey – at least for many of us. I have found it to be the most fascinating, painful, beautiful, and exhilarating journey – through some very long, very dark times. I know I am a better woman for having lived my story and then chosen to relive it differently with the help of loving, caring others.

“Flames” is growing directly out of my personal experience – as authentic a piece of art as I have ever made. For 20 years or so I worked at creating beautiful watercolors – nostalgic paintings of cats, flowers, antiques and lace doilies. I also did commission work – usually in the same theme, but sometimes of wild-life plants, animals or birds.

HUMMINGBIRD NESTING - watercolor - cPat Dolan
(Collection of Elaine Dube)
Wildlife actually spurred me into changing my own life. Wildlife is beautiful – exquisitely so…but it is also dark, dangerous, and deadly. I’ve learned that I need to balance both light and darkness in life, not ignore or bury the darkness in fear of its truth. That only empowers the darkness to become stronger – all the more is needed to get our attention and to invite us into truth. Or so it seems to me…


HAWK SOARING - watercolor cPat Dolan
(Collection of Don Simmons)

Blessings to all of us as we journey into authenticity and personal truth!
Pat

Another Quilt in Progress...

“ANGELINA GOES TO TOWN” 18”w x 29”h c Pat Dolan

The base of this quilt began with a piece of hand-dyed cotton I did several summers ago, and then set aside for the ‘perfect project.’ Last summer, I was playing with Angelina hot mix fibers and I fused numerous sheets of it – some of which were layered with various types of yarns, cording, feathers, and one even had a string of hand-crocheted copper embedded in the fibers. I made a large file folder full of these decorative Angelina sheets for later use in various art projects.

This spring, I put together several quilt sandwiches using my hand-dyed fabrics. For this particular piece, I decided to place several of those ‘stuff-embedded’ sheets of Angelina on the quilt top moving them around until I found a pleasing arrangement. Then, using 505 basting adhesive, I affixed the fused Angelina sheets to the cotton base in preparation for quilting.

This week I decided to quilt away – with no quilting pattern in mind at the outset - and see what would happen to all those Angelina sheets with free-motion quilting. The first step was to very broadly quilt a swirling single line across the entire quilt top – partly to ‘set’ the placement more firmly to the cotton, and partly to get a feel for how I would eventually quilt the top. I found myself responding to the pieces of embedded decorative yarns for some of the quilting, and eventually I realized I was creating something similar to topographical mapping across the surface of the quilt. Do you know of those maps that show the elevation of an area? The closer together the lines are, the more abruptly the land surface rises and/or falls. It provides a symbolic ‘birds-eye view’ of the land elevation formations and I’ve always liked those particular types of maps for that reason. And this quilt has taken on the feeling of those topographical maps in some way.


“ANGELINA GOES TO TOWN” – approximately 8” x 10” detail c Pat Dolan

Above you get a glimpse of the shiny Angelina atop the hand-dyed cotton. You can see two different kinds of decorative yarns embedded in the Angelina, and you can see the quilting, done with numerous colored threads.

I doubt that this piece is ‘done…’ and rather suspect it will sit around awhile before I decide what’s next for it. Or maybe I’m really waiting for IT to tell me what is next… In any case, the over-all experimentation went rather well. The Angelina fused sheets stayed where I placed them with very little shifting. Occasionally some of the looser fibers got entangled with the darning foot, but that was easy to fix.

What do you think, so far? Any ideas for what might be next? If worse comes to worse, I can always cut it up into fiber art cards for next years American Cancer Society fund raising event on Virginia Spiegel’s web-site!

My Latest Quilt...

"FLAMES" 36"x65" before quilting c Pat Dolan

Well, here it is, fused and ready to be quilted. It's larger than most of the things I've been working on and way more powerfully designed than any previous piece. I couldn't sleep the on Monday night & felt rage/grief burning in my soul. So I got up at 1:30am to do some written or art journaling but was too stubborn to do either. Instead, I went to the studio, pulled out my recently received Kona black, some black batting, and all the reds I could find in my stash. Mind you, I've ordered more red fabrics in the past week than I've ever ordered...none of which have yet arrived! I guess that anger has been working its way up for at least the past week, if not longer!

Anyway, I designed this piece on all black that night between 1:30am and 4:30am. As I was finally going to bed at 5 as the sun was lightening the skies, I 'knew' that the background would need some stripes. On Tuesday, I made the striped background that you saw in last nights posting. Then I fused down the design, adding to it and subtracting from it as I went. Mostly adding, I might add...

This piece for me is about the anger + grief at the loss of my authentic self in my early childhood. As my artist/muse has been coming to life throughout the past year or so, I'm rediscovering those aspects of myself that have long been negatively judged by others. As the family 'scapegoat,' I've been accustomed to accepting guilt/responsibility for all sorts of things - whether or not it was appropriate. And now, as I step out from behind the masks of "victim, scapegoat, the problem child, the burden, the difficult one, the spoiled brat, the embarrassment, the weird one," I am discovering my authenticity, my power, my voice, and my art. I am embracing my personal truth, reframing my life story, and moving on...joyfully!

I wonder what the quilt will dictate insofar as the quilting goes... I'm hoping to be able to quilt it next week - I'm busy through Sunday so it will have to wait until Monday. I'll post the progress as it moves along.

This piece for me is about the anger + grief at the loss of my authentic self in my early childhood. As my artist/muse has been coming to life throughout the past year or so, I'm rediscovering those aspects of myself that have long been negatively judged by others. As the family 'scapegoat,' I've been accustomed to accepting guilt/responsibility for all sorts of things - whether or not it was appropriate. And now, as I step out from behind the masks of "victim, scapegoat, the problem child, the burden, the difficult one, the spoiled brat, the embarrassment, the wierd one," I am discovering my authenticity, my power, my voice, and my art. I am embracing my personal truth, reframing my life story, and moving on...joyfully!

I wonder what the quilt will dictate insofar as the quilting goes... I'm hoping to be able to quilt it next week - I'm busy through Sunday so it will have to wait until Monday. I'll post the progress as it moves along.

Quilt projects

"Flaming Feathers" 22"w x 46" c2005


"Flaming Feathers" detail c2005

Aside from all the wildlife that abounds nearby, I've been creating up a veritable storm myself. I'm not sure just where all these ideas are coming from or how I earned so much enthusiasm for my work, but things are humming along beautifully. Maybe having bunnies and cats reproducing at my front and back doors is the inspiration for my own creativity. Who knows? All I know is that I'm having a ball and loving every moment of it!

Above is the almost-completed "Flaming Feathers" quilt - a full shot and a detail of the machine quilting. It still needs a binding and rod pocket...

Below is the background for a brand new quilt - maybe tomorrow I'll post the top as it is evolving in the studio. But for now, the background is bold enough to command attention... I took this photo from the balcony overlooking the studio so it's not a straight-on shot, but you get the drift from the photo.

Bunnies and such...

A mommy bunny has lived behind the house for several years. Last year she hollowed out a shallow nest for her young in the front garden by the street - where it was quickly ravaged, much to our dismay. This year, she has chosen the edge of forest for her nesting spot and it has seen some death as well as new life. Last week a single baby bunny was tentatively hopping beneath the leaves of my hosta - which tells you something of its size! I've taken a few photos of mom and of her solitary offspring - they are sitting in the side yard, about 20 feet from the house and at least that far from one another. I took the pictures from inside the front door.





New life has also appeared out back - in the form of kittens. The momma cat is a wild one, probably abandoned by someone leaving a townhouse in our community. She is well groomed, very clean, and very, very shy. She has had several litters of young under our next door neighbor's deck. Odd how the neighbor is never home, thus the deck is a perfect hiding place for the young ones - both from weather and from fox, coons, and other predators.

Several weeks ago Momma cat allowed her 4 young ones to come out of hiding - I heard them playing on our neighbors deck, jumping from chair to chair, and generally having a gay old time. Soft touch that I am, I immediately went out and bought some kitten food and proceeded to put food out each day. The Momma cat enjoyed her share, as did the kittens, when Daddy let them near the bowl!!! Daddy is a tame cat, comes calling at our back door now when he's in the neighborhood. He loves to be petted, but don't go near his tail or under-belly unless you want to be attacked! Mom cat is all black while Daddy has a white bib + under-belly and 4 white paws. The kittens are a mix of the two, nearly all are black with various small amounts of white on them.

I was surprised this weekend when a totally NEW batch of young kits came out from hiding - these must have been born while the other batch was still there, probably from a daughter of the aforementioned parents. These kittens all look just like the others. Pretty soon we'll have a whole herd of black cats prowling around! I'm not quite as enthusiastic today about that prospect as I was a few weeks ago with only 4 kittens showing up. They have since totally disappeared - replaced by their cousins or step-siblings or whatever! But they sure are cut... aren't they?

Virginia's Fundraiser! An Inspiration...

Wow!

I just checked Virginia Spiegel's American Cancer Society fundraiser site (http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html) and the fiber-art post card sales alone have raised $10,800.00!!!

It's quite likely that Virginia would be the LAST person to have thought this effort of hers would reach out and touch so many hearts, minds, souls, and spirits across the world. To Virginia and all those who donated art or money to the American Cancer Society fundraiser, may I offer you my heartfelt "THANK YOU!"

This is exactly the kind of inspiration that is needed by all of us - especially those who live in dread fear of cancer, terrorists, abuse, or anything else. Humanity is not represented in its worst and is much better than its best - and Virginia has offered us proof of that. She has given us a wonderful example of "the best" in humankind. And, just as important, she offers us a new model of HOPE for humankind. Virginia has proven that each individual CAN do something for the good of all, that we can do something that will result in positive major change(s). Her web-site has demonstrated that it's even easier to create the changes we most desire when other individuals join us in love to bring the dream to life.

Congratulations and blessings to us all. We have good reason to celebrate! Thanks, Virginia!!!

Noticing - the Artists Block...

Being somewhat confined to home (although not totally, by any means), I find myself with more time to create, play, mess around, have fun - and get stuck... As the deadline nears for the PA National Quilt Extravaganza show, I have just realized that I do not have a new piece large enough to enter either category. Last year, "Going In Circles" was juried into this show and I had hoped to enter "Flaming Feathers" this year - at least until I realized it is too small! It's amazing what an extra few inches means at times like this!

But that deadline, aside from calling my attention to size difficulties, also did something strange to my sense of fun in the studio. I was surprised to notice that I was "afraid" to start quilting “Flaming Feathers” – especially so since I really like the machine-drawing-quilting best of all the processes in the art of quilt-making! Somehow or other, the deadline/jury syndrome entered my being and all of the sudden, my art work became just that – WORK. I avoided the quilt for 3 full days before today when I finally decided to quilt SOMEthing on it, anything – just to get it going. That worked, of course, and the quilting has proceeded relatively smoothly since then.

While I’m in the creative mode, I rarely consider anyone or anything else other than the piece with which I am playing. Often, I have many such pieces in various stages of beginning, middling, and ending – although one piece usually has my major attention. When I get stuck on that one, or have only a little time to sew, I’ll pick up one of the other pieces laying around and play with it to see what will happen if I try this or that or something else.

But the prospect of entering a show with a piece that has yet to be completed makes me freeze up like a cars’ locked brakes as it skids across a frozen lake. As long as I forget about showing my work, entering competitions, having the judges look at the back (!!!), and/or other such nonsense, I create happily, freely, and lovingly. I experiment, play, mess around and have a great time. But when the ‘judge’ comes to visit inside my brain, I falter and hesitate, stop, read, do errands or (heaven forbid!) housework – anything to avoid completing my budding creation. You’d think I’d know by now that even if I ‘mess up,’ it’s OK – life goes on and I’ll make more art, some of it good, some of it less so. And even the presumed ‘failures’ have given me something in return – I’ve learned what not to do, or that I moved too quickly without listening to the quilt and its movement, or that part of it can be salvaged and used in other projects, yada, yada, yada.

Well, now that I’ve given myself this little pep talk, maybe I’ll go back and sew. Thanks for being here…

One More Postcard Donation to Cancer Fund Drive

"Ice Blue"
4x6" fiberart card
SOLD




Available for a purchase via your donation to the American Cancer Society at the following web address: Fiber Art Postcards
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html

Two More Cancer Fundraiser Post Cards Donated Tonight

"Owl" 4x6" art card c2005
SOLD to Karey Bresenhan for the Collection of the International Quilt Festival-
Houston and Chicago
















"Fall Feather Foliage" 4x6" artcard c2005
SOLD





To purchase either of these cards as a way of donating to the American Cancer Society, please go to the following website:
Fiber Art Postcards
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html
Thanks!

Hummingbird Insect???

Sitting on my deck on a sunny afternoon with my good friend, we happened to see what she thought was a Hummingbird and what I thought was an insect. It was zipping around much like a Hummingbird, and going from petunia blossom to petunia blossom as the hummers do. And it did have a hummers long beak sort of thing… along with a pair of long black antennae! And it was brown – a hummer color we do not have on the East coast… It was really too small for a Hummingbird, despite the fact that hummers are very tiny - about 4 1/2" long. In a way, it looked like a large brown moth – with a bright orange rump spot! Then again, it had dragonfly-like wings! What on earth was it???

My dear friend looked it up on-line under: hummingbird+insect. Duh! She discovered that it was a Clearwing Hummingbird Insect – also known as a copycat! Well, goes to show that we both were right, as per usual!

Hope you enjoy the photos! We had a great time with it...playing around as much with the symbolism of everything involved. We especially liked the 'copycat' image - maybe we should both pretend to be like a Hummingbird - in true copycat fashion - on our way to authentically becoming like Hummingbird...

Fiber Art Cards for Cancer

MIXED BAG 4x6" Cottons with painted paper, chiffon and foiling, machine quilted. c2005 SOLD

ORANGE SWIRL 4x6" cotton + painted paper, machine quilted SOLD

I'm donating two more post cards to Virginia Spiegel's website for Cancer donations at http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html. I'll post them here since they aren't even in the mail yet to Virginia! Thanks to all who have purchased the 5 cards already donated. Glad to have the opportunity to contribute to such a good cause.

My Quiet Holiday Play-Time Weekend!

Bundles

Fabric Bundles a la Sonji - made last week while resting the sprained knee.
copyright Pat Dolan

Beads

Fabric Beads a la Somerset Studio-Sharilyn Miller, made this weekend. There are over 120 beads in that little bowl!
copyright Pat Dolan

This was one fun weekend – my husband was dear enough to offer to do the cooking for most of the meals, which is a real vacation for me! After almost 40 years of meal preparations, I’m bored silly with meal planning. And, of course, I’d much rather be creating in the studio than cooking in the kitchen!

And what did I do with all this time? After following Sonji’s lead and making bundles last week, I decided the most obvious choice of all was to make fabric/fiber beads… This was a weekend to remember, a weekend of remembering, a weekend of bundling up old memories and repackaging them into delightful little beads + bundles – recycled for use in new art projects.

I also completed (except for framing or a border of some sort) two of the memory mini-quilts I began after Rayna Gillman’s class on various forms of printing on fabric. There are photos in the Blog entry for June 12, showing the placement of various items I planned to attach to each piece. Well, the objects are attached, and others have joined them. I went digging into boxes of old paraphernalia to locate some of the stuff. And I dug into my three antique button jars to locate a few more buttons.

Here is “Remembering Grandma” 13 ½”w x 11”h


"REMEMBERING GRANDMA" c2005 now complete - except for framing/hanging device. 13 1/2"w x 11"h
copyright Pat Dolan

All that digging through stuff is somehow an appropriate way to honor the 20th anniversary of my parents’ deaths. They died 8 days apart from totally separate causes…leaving us with a 3 story home with 45 years worth of miscellanea ad nauseum. Being the quilter that I am and was, I saved all the 100% cotton clothing that remained from our childhoods in the attic. I made 4 separate wall quilts from those clothes – one for each of us three sisters and one for my daughter. I also saved some of the vintage greeting cards – both my mom and HER mom saved every greeting card they ever received! I saved Dad’s old love letters to Mom prior to their marriage in 1937. Buttons, of course. A few treasured kitchen utensils. Dad’s old watch. Mom’s special porcelain jewelry box with roses on top. Old stamps. Etc. We three girls split up the jewelry, the furniture, the special china and silver, etc. Yet somehow it is all the littlest things that remind me of my folks, my childhood, times past.

As for my bundles, I didn’t bother digging out old fabric – I have plenty of scraps I’ve been saving for just such projects as these! Scraps of fabric, yarns, threads, cording, crochet threads, feathered yarns, fluffy stuff and simple stuff. Sounds just like my parent’s attic, doesn’t it. But my scraps are mostly less than 15 years old – purchased after our move to NJ. And so I began wrapping small strips of fabric. Sealing them with Gluestic. Then adding another slightly narrower strip of fabric, going perpendicular to the first, and gluing it down. There is a rhythm in doing such a mundane project, and the rhythm suited my mood rather well. When I had made 50 or so bundles, I quit making them and decided to tie some of them up like gift packages. So most of my little bundles have become mini-gift-bundles with little string ties dangling off them.

The bead came next – somehow it seemed like a perfect project to follow the bundles! I first saw them in one of Somerset Studio’s magazines. Last week I purchased their latest book: “HandCrafter-50 of Our Favorite Crafting Projects” at my local bookstore. And I found the fabric beads once again. This time, I immediately got all my supplies out and ready – after all, the house is already a huge mess. It’s been 6 weeks since I twisted my knee and there’s been no house cleaning in the interim. Perhaps in another week or two, after physical therapy is over, I may decide to resume cleaning. Meanwhile, my stuff is everywhere and all I needed were drinking straws to begin this latest endeavor. It took me one day to make the beads and a second day to decorate them. By the time I was done with something over 125 beads, I think I’ve figured out all the steps, especially the wiring & beading part, to my satisfaction.

Both bundles and beads have already found their way into one previously incomplete art quilt. I’ve titled it: “Gifts From the Sea” and have little beads & packages floating upward along with sea shells, beading, paint, Angelina fibers, etc. And I found the perfect embellishment to finish this piece – a machine embroidered blue dragonfly! Dragonflies hover above the water so I figured it was the perfect adornment to complete this piece.

And finally, “Gifts From the Sea” 10”w x 18”h

"GIFTS from the SEA" c2005 10"w x 16"h The addition of bundles and a bead or two was just what this piece needed for completion..
copyright Pat Dolan

So there you have my quiet weekend in word and pictures.

Art Cards - Happiness!

Wow! Who knew so many folks liked these little Art Cards so much?! Thank you! Virginia actually put up the photos from a digital I sent her because she hasn’t even received my cards in the mail yet – and two are already sold within hours of going up on her web-site!

Please visit: Virginia A. Spiegel
Until July 31 - American Cancer Society Fundraiser - Fiber Art Postcards at: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html

With all this positive feedback, I have continued making the Art Cards and have even made a few more Trading Cards – although I find that small format rather challenging. Here are some of my latest efforts – all machine quilted on my hand-dyed chiffon:


Top: GO WITH THE FLOW - 2 ½” x 3 ½”
Bottom: SPRING SPROUTS - 2 ½” x 3 ½”


Top: SUMMER SUN - 2 ½” x 3 ½”
Middle: OCEAN WAVES - 2 ½” x 3 ½”
Bottom: FUNKY BANANAS - 2 ½” x 3 ½”

And here is another piece done on the left-over scraps of the hand-dyed chiffon. So far, it has no titles. Suggestions are welcome! This piece measures 5 ½” wide by 10 ½” long.



I’ve also done some quilting on a piece that I put up last month that I’m calling FLIGHTS OF FANCY. It measures 10” x 14” and began with hand-painting Lutradur. After the paint dried, I decided to try painting fusible webbing, to which I added some feathers, Angelina Fibers and some fancy funky yarn. The quilting does not show up as well as I would have liked so I may go back into it and add more quilting with darker threads.

Several of you have asked about Lutradur. I first read about it in CLOTH, PAPER, SCISSORS, Winter 2004. Lutradur is the name of a polyester/fiber/fabric that is made + sold in 60” widths. It is sold by the yard and can be quite expensive to have shipped – unless you stipulate that it’s OK for the shipper to fold + box it. It is similar to a heavy weight interfacing and I like to use it as the base to support other items from paint to Angelina Fibers to bits of thread and yarn to transfer prints, stamping, etc. I suspect it is nasty to use for hand-sewing or hand-beading simply because of its heavy consistency.

Anyway, here is FLIGHTS OF FANCY (10” x 14”):


As with the other images, you can click on any photo to get a closer view. All pieces are 'for sale,' just in case anyone is interested!

FIBER ART CARDS - A New Convert!

These are the 5 cards going to Virginia’s ACS fundraising site. All are now SOLD

The American Cancer Society fund-raising event sponsored by Virginia Spiegel on her web-site is totally responsible for getting me hooked on Fiber Art Cards. Or maybe it’s Virginia herself who offered an opportunity for anyone to purchase her FACs for $30.00 with the proceeds from this sale, continuing through July 31, going to the ACS. Either way, I am most grateful for the guiding impetus to begin such a wonder-filled and playful journey into a new dimension (for me) of art. (See the Fiber Art Cards for sale with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society through July 31, 2005 at: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html)


Today’s completed art cards!

I have totally fallen in love with the 4x6” format and find that size the perfect inducement for me to experiment with techniques, colors, and materials in my work. As noted in the last posting, I’ve even taken to cutting apart unsatisfactory quilts and creating new Art Cards from them. Here are a few I made last night from a small quilt-let – what had already been bound, but not really living up to my satisfaction. I created 4 Art Cards (4x6”) and 4 Artist Trading Cards (2 ½” x 3 ½”).

Mini-cards – which I find much more difficult to do than the 4x6 format cards.


One thing that I notice occurring is my leanings toward including paper in my work. I suppose that could signal my expansion into mixed media art from fiber art… yet they are very closely aligned in my work at this time. Still, I can see a time when there may be very little fabric in my work, but lots of different kinds of fibers embedded with any number of other objects, found or otherwise.


SOMBER 4x6” Copyright: Pat Dolan
Here I’ve sewn hand-dyed paper into the mini-quilt. The paper is the pale yellow gold in the upper-center. I also have layered sheers + cottons on the surface.

Needless to say, I’m having a wonderful time living in the state of high-intensity creativity/productivity. Time totally disappears. Meals are forgotten. Housekeeping is unheard of! Only physical therapy takes me out of the creative mode and into physical time-space reality. The creative mode, next to meditation, is where both time and space seem to vanish in favor of imagination, insight, inspiration, and total absorption. Neither creating or meditation is ‘better’ than the other – they seem more like sisterly states of being. Both step outside the confines of physical reality and into the realm of essence… Both call for total immersion in the “now” moment. And both provide a new sense of joy following that immersion.

Transforming Old Art Into New Art!

OWL 4x6” Fiber Art Postcard
SOLD to Karey Bresenhan for the Collection of Quilt Festival - Houston and Chicago

Allison Schwabe was absolutely right when she wrote on our QuiltArt mailing list that not every piece we create is worthy of being exhibited. In MHO, some are not even worthy of being completed! Yet all do have some redeeming characteristics, along with their flaws - just like people.

In 2003, I made an art quilt entitled "Autumn Owl" and was 28”w x 32”l. I had attempted to depict an owl partially hidden in the autumn foliage, peeking out as though to say, “See me now. See me not.” He is heavily machine embroidered over my hand-painting, and was reverse appliquéd to the foreground. Various other fabrics dance across the surface of the quilt to mimic the leaves dancing in the breeze at sunset. The dark evening sky was also reverse appliquéd. Alas, the quilt never really lived up to my hopes, vision, or expectation. Part of it were very pleasing, but the whole of it was simply NOT working for me. It’s been in the bottom of the bottom drawer ever since. Until now.



CREATION 4x6” Fiber Art Postcard
SOLD to benefit the American Cancer Society





This week an unsatisfactory quilt was cut it apart to become a marvelous set of Fiber Art Postcards plus a couple of ACTs. First, I cut a mat with a 4 x 6" opening so I could locate the best composition and create the maximum number of Fiber Art Postcards as possible. Using a white chalk pencil, I marked the best placement for the creation of each 4x6. And then I whacked away with my rotary cutter to form a total of 13 Fiber Art Postcards and 1 Artist Trading Card – with very little extra that was discarded.


ANCIENT MAPPING… 4x6” Fiber Art Postcard

Then began the work of making sure each card was appropriately quilted within the much smaller format, and creating tension and balance in each card with stitching, color, form, shape and harmony. So far, only one card is actually fully completed, while the others all need the zig-zag edging applied. A few might benefit from just a tiny touch of foil, as well.

It's been great fun experimenting with the smaller scale required for Artist's Trading Cards (ATCs which are 2.5" x 3.5") and Fiber Art Postcards (which are 4" x 6"). More tomorrow! Now that I’m into cutting up the old to create the new, I sliced one UFO into several ACTs and Fiber Art Postcards. Tomorrow!