Thursday, June 10, 2010

Divorce Quilts: Share your stories and your 'therapy' projects....

Fabric artists and quilters stitch up alot more than fabric with their needles and thread. In the article featuring Judy Coates Perez, Kathy York, and Katharine Brainard that I wrote for HandEye Magazine, these women made quilts as a form of therapy to get them through one of the most traumatic of times -- divorce.

I know these three women are members of an army of women and men who have used quilts and fabric to get them through to the other side of a life crisis, health crisis, loss or passage. I do hope you will share your stories with us and the quilts and projects you made to get through a rough time. It is important in this quilting and art network to be able to share the tough times as well as the good. You all know about my tough times. And I know I am not alone.

Please send your stories and photos to subversivestitchers@gmail.com or send a suggestion of someone you know and I'll contact them. I will post them all here. I'll be glad to link to your blogs and websites or relevant urls.

The photo here is Judy Coates Perez's "Take These Broken Wings" which didn't start out as a divorce quilt, but the message that evolved proved cathartic. It is one of two of her quilts featured in the article at HandEye Magazine.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of the members of PAQA did just this same thing and showed us the quilt she made after her dog had passed a few weeks ago.. The quilt had the most beautiful photos of her dog. We all had tears in her eyes as she told the story and showed her quilt.

Juanita said...

Wow! Your article in HandEye brought me right back! I wasn't a quilter back then but I poured my heart into poetry-writing at the time. I have often thought about introducing bits of my poetry into my art quilts.....you've given me ideas.

Great interviews! Brave women.

cmquilts said...

Well, I didn't make a divorce quilt, but I did make a widow's quilt. Two years after my husband died, our guild challenge was to make a self portrait. I made one quilt that was intensely black and pink and smiling - the face I show the world. The alter ego is the same fabrics overlaid with dark sheers. It includes a puddle of tears (free form dark pearls wire crocheted together) That was the me on the inside that i hid from everyone. http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2577719630029470863QPESnW.

Karen said...

Thank you for this focus on healing through quilting. I am requesting permission to include the image of Judy Coates Perez's "Broken Wing" divorce quilt in a book that I am writing entitled Peace Fibres: Stitching a Soulful World. I would use the photo in a chapter on resilience discussing quilting as an avenue for healing.

May I use the image? I would need a high resolution version. I would, of course, cite the artist and your website as source. Please advise of any fees involved.

Peace Fibres will be self-published in early 2011. I anticipate an initial run of 2500.

Thank you for considering my request. I look forward to your response.

Respectfully,
Karen Lohn