Looking Forward with a Glance Back

What's your resolution, goal, wish for the New Year? 2010. Doesn't that sound like a promising number?

For me I have this plan of revisiting my too long abandoned sewing skills. It is hard to believe that there was a time when I won awards for my sewing. That seems like a lifetime ago. Now, I just want to get up to speed and while I'm at it have some fun!

One book that will help me toward this goal is The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff. If you don't have this in your reference library, think about getting it. It may just be the most difinitive work on fabric manipulation. It goes way beyond tucks and smocking to mixed manipulations and incorporating all of the different techniques into an art form. Pictured here is Plumage, by Colette Wolff.

I wanna do that!

Also in the year 2010, I want to focus more on Crazy Quilts. I like the form. I like the freedom of that form. And I like the embellishments. It seems like it would be a perfect way to increase my ability to make choices as to fabric, color, shape, balance, and also work on embellishments and embroidery and again, fabric manipulation. Anything goes in crazy quilting which is probably why it is referred to as 'crazy.' But also, it is therapy. So soothing not to meet anyone's expectations of what the finished product should look like -- except my own!

And I must add that Pamela Allen, one of my new dear friends (whether she knows it or not) has set my life on its ear with her way of looking at the world. The way she thinks, they way she embraces everything with such joy and abandon. Her crazy quilt always makes me smile. Crazy About Quilts -- is that a self portrait? It could be my own image she's captured because I am crazy about quilts!

I also like the idea of a crazy quilt as a timeline of a life well lived. My great grandmother made such a quilt and it is exciting to see dates embroidered on the blocks of a time long before my own. She lived through the American Civil War. Maybe I'll do a timeline of my mother's life -- born the year the Titanic sank, lived through the Great Depression, saw the first automobiles, World War I, World War 2, Man Walking on the Moon. Well, I can just see so many possibilities for a crazy quilt.

Susan Lenz has so inspired me with her quilts. If there is anyone who puts her whole heart and soul into her quilts -- it is Susan. Her Grave Rubbings series is just one of the directions she has taken her art! Everytime I see what she's working on, I just gaze speechless and inspired. The reverence with which she approaches the graves and the care she takes to preserve artifacts and not endanger any historic site. Susan taught me more than stitching. See a detail photo of her Mother and Father quilt.

In my own efforts, I hope to use the techniques of Celtic Quilts. The bias tape work maybe even incorporate that into a stained glass piece. Lots to do in 2010.

Note the photo of Philomena Durcan's quilt The Children of Lir. Hopefully she will visit us in 2010. Her work as Scarlett Ross attested has inspired a whirlwind of creativity and a legacy of beautiful quilts from the hands of her students.

And I hope you will all join me on the journey. I hope we can have a show and tell page next year with Subversive Stitchers. A time when anyone can offer up a photo and an explanation of what they're working on. I'd be glad to post your 2010 fabric resolutions here. What are you working toward? Maybe post some photos of your first steps?

Several guest bloggers are also waiting in the wings -- Kathy York, Sharon Pederson, Gloria Hansen, Martha Sielman.... I won't give away the whole list, but there are lots of exciting things ahead.

I have so enjoyed sharing this year with all of you. Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles began as my little way to say, "Even when denied words, we speak with what is at hand." Needles, through the ages have given voice to the oppressed, the needy, the powerless, the female.

At the same time, I was finding so much creative inspiration online that I just wanted to share it with others who understand that fabric is so much more than woven threads. Well, you know what I mean. And it is so much more to share my discoveries than to just admire them alone.

I think of names and a cascade of beauty instantly flashes before my eyes. Guest bloggers through this year have expanded our horizons -- Karen McTavish and her machine quilting -- but also her tattoos. How many more quilters sport feather tattoos now that they've seen Karen's? Leslie Riley has me so excited about photo transfers and her wonderful TAP product. Virginia Spiegel's Boundary Waters quilts and amazing fundraising efforts; Linda Cooper's unique kinetic quilts and Eileen Doughty and her thread sculptures and landscape and activist quilts? And then traveling with Vikki Pignateli and seeing her classes and fabrics of other lands. Diane Gaudynski's machine quilting that makes me cry when I see how beautiful it is. And her love of fabrics so perfectly described. Lyric Kinard's inspiration about playing and experimenting. The class I took with her at Quilt University this past year was a turning point in more ways than one! And I hope to do more with paints and the various techniques I learned. Sarah Ann Smith certainly untangled threads for me!

Ami Simms and her inspiring mother! Maybe this is the year a cure is found for Alzheimer's Disease and maybe that will translate into a cure for ALS. Thanks to all of you who supported Derrol and me throughout this year. For buying raffle tickets and for encouraging me in that endeavor. Fundraising is not for the faint of heart! My hat is off to everyone who takes on that battle!

I'm so humbled that people say they like this blog. Humbled and so pleased. Every guest blogger is so special to me. Please revisit their guest blogs -- the line up is listed on the right column.

On the days when I can't think how to cope -- you all get me through. Each blog follower touches me whether you know it or not. If this little blog helps you through your day -- well, I can't ask for anything better than that! If it inspires you to do greater things, push further with your fabric art -- AMEN!

So, here's to 2010 -- I hope we can all enjoy it together! Let me know if there's someone or something you'd like to see displayed or featured here. If you'd like to guest blog, please let me know. It's been a fabulous year (despite the world problems)  -- I hope you feel the same.

Happy Holidays and a Happy Prosperous, Soul Satisfying New Year to Everyone!

Let's Twist Again: Linda Cooper's Kinetic Quilts

The hardware store or sports center may be the new hang out for fabric artists. You can find the neatest items there to use for purposes never before imagined. Wire mesh for rubbings, trowels add texture to paint designs. And Linda Cooper discovered a piece of fishing tackle that's become a vital part of her Kinetic Quilts.

But don't be fooled, her clever repurposing sets her quilts apart from the norm, but her attention to detail and fine sewing make these quilts award winners. -- Dawn

Please welcome Linda Cooper in her own words:

My dad was a fisherman. When we were young, we often gave him fishing swivels for a present. These swivels look like figure 8’s with a bead in the center and both the top and bottom loops rotate. They’re used to let the fishing lure whirl as the line is pulled through the water, catching the fish's attention. The swivels come in many sizes and several finishes and can be purchased from sporting goods stores. The little gizmos fascinated me.

Connect those childhood memories with my love of dimensional quilts and you see the genesis of my Kinetic quilts.

I spent many years trying to name this kind of quilt and my web designer, Cyndi Souder, came up with Kinetic Quilts. Kinetic quilts are two-sided and have fishing line swivels to rotate the cut-outs in the quilt's center. No two of my quilts are the same. Some are mobiles, others swivel, or feature whirligigs. [Linda usually purchase Cabela's swivels as pictured above.]

My first quilt using the swivels was made for a Millennium challenge quilt. I made it in 2000. It had Mylar inside the mini-quilts and I wired all the cut-out openings for stability. It had patchwork designs on one side and millennium fabric on the other. Unfortunately, the shape didn’t hold well through the years.

When Timtex and Peltex (the interfacing in baseball caps) was introduced, that gave me a chance to use it as batting and make a sturdy piece that I was able to quilt. I am limited by the size that gently rolls under my home machine because if you crease the Timtex the fold won’t go away.

I hadn’t realized until I was writing this how personal each of these quilts is to me.

Evening Primrose - Evening primroses are plants which bloom at dusk. When my kids and I visited my parents in Ohio, we often watched the evening primroses open. They seem to vibrate a bit and then pop open. Sometimes very large moths fly in, attracted by the fragrance.

I adapted Kumiko Sudo's origami pattern from "Fantasies and Flowers". The one side of the quilt is blue, violet and yellow diamonds representing dusk and the other is a dark batik for evening.
The mini-quilts have buds on one side and the open flowers on the other.

Quilting-The Heart of the Matter

I was in a challenge class with Cyndi Souder. She asked us to make quilts with the theme "the heart of the matter". Of course for me, quilting is the joy in my life. I painted a background and Broderie Perse appliquéd flowers to it. I pieced diamonds for the other side. In the hearts I have examples of many techniques I enjoy: my marbling, paper-piecing, silk flower appliqué, beading, chenille (which was new for me), and burned-silk appliqué. For this quilt I couldn't find Timtex and I substituted Peltex which is thinner. I have 2 separate layers that I quilted independently and then sewed together at the openings. You can see other examples of my Broderie Perse painted background quilts on my website. [A detailed view of the quilt's center is the first photo.] Recently The Heart of the Matter won a Judge's Choice ribbon at the 2009 Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, Pennsylvania!

Rabbit in the Moon and Rabbit in the Moon 2 In the Far East, people look at the moon and see not the man-in-the-moon, but the Moon Rabbit. My yoga teacher, Clare, pointed him out to her class. So in Rabbit 2, the "moon" is a challenge fabric on one side and a representation of the moon rabbit is on the other, while Rabbit 1 has a fabric photo of the actual moon on the other side. On each quilt, one side of the moon is a harvest moon cake design. These are special treat pastries served in Asia in the fall. The bunny at the bottom of the Rabbit 2 is a fabric photo of an ivory moon-rabbit netsuke, a fob that hung from a traditional man's obi in Japan. The other side has the rabbit which I copied in appliqué.

Turning Leaves I've enjoyed making sun prints with Setacolor and these are featured on one side of these cut-outs. I printed on pique, which has great texture and gives the sun print extra dimension. I made mini-quilt sandwiches with the sun print on one side then the Timtex, then a piece of backing fabric and then a piece of silk. I quilted around the sun print and then on the other side I cut away the excess silk leaving the leaf shape. These leaves are like a guide to what was growing in my yard at the time.

The trickiest thing about making a Kinetic Quilt is coming up with a design that looks good on both sides and making the mini-quilts integrate with both sides and with the innumerable positions that they can take. It's a bit like playing chess in 3D.

A binding hint that I've found works well (and this would work in miniature quilts too) is to find a fabric that continues its color or print to the edge of the selvage. I use narrow bias bindings (usually 1 inch wide) and when I sew them, I let the selvage edge finish on top of the binding. This results in a much smoother binding without lumps where the extra fabric would usually be turned under.

All of these quilts have no fronts or backs and a sleeve would ruin the look. So my solution was to make loops and hang the larger ones from dowels top and bottom and uses bamboo pieces on the smaller Moon Rabbits. Unfortunately, some shows prohibit quilts with wooden parts.

Bio: Linda's family has endured her quilting obsession for the past 20 years. Linda loves all aspects of the quilt world but has gravitated to art quilting in the past few years. She teaches fabric painting, raw-edge appliqué, and other classes at Artistic Artifacts Annex in Alexandria, VA. She is also available for lectures, workshops and commission work.

Her kinetic quilts are only one example of Linda's diverse abilities. You can see her Flowers for a Cure in the IAQ 2009 Quilt Festival's special exhibit: Making Memories. Her Fading Memories quilt with hand painted background is currently on tour with Ami Simm's Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative traveling exhibit.

I also discovered that Linda is a fellow Ohio transplant and grew up a few miles from my old stomping grounds! Small world!

Ami Simms 2008 Favorite Quilting Philanthropist and loving daughter

Is there anyone in the universe who doesn't know Ami Simms?

She (right after Mom and Grandma) influenced my love of quilts and all things fabric. She demonstrates that a quilt is first about love.

Her "Underlying Current" quilt (shown here) gave me goosebumps when I began reading the various blocks. They describe the behaviors that the Alzheimer's Disease brought about in Ami's mother, Beebe Moss. Like many who have seen this quilt, it brought back memories of a loved one. For me, I think of my father, Ben Stump, who battled Alzheimer's for more than ten years.

When it comes to quilting, Ami encouraged alot of us to make our first quilts and her 'Worst Quilt in the World" contest gives us someplace to show them!

Ami provides the answers to questions posted below. And she lets us get to know her and her mother and the charity that grew out of her mother's battle against Alzheimer's Disease. Like Ami's quilts, her fight to find a cure for Alzheimer's Disease is all about love.

Get your coffee, kick back, and give a warm welcome to Ami Simms. --Dawn

First introduced to quiltmaking in 1975 while conducting research among the Old Order Amish, Ami is the author of nine quilting books, numerous patterns, and is the creator of the infamous Worst Quilt In The World Contest®. Ami has designed two fabric lines, appeared on five different television shows, and was invited to the White House in 2004 along with other artists who participated in the Art in Embassies program.

Ami is the founder and Executive Director of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative and the curator of "Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece." Ami was named Favorite Quilting Philanthropist by Quilters Newsletter in 2008. She blogs and writes a free monthly e-newsletter read by more than 16,000 subscribers. She is the creator of FindAQuiltTeacher.com.

1. What was your mother like or who was she before the disease?

My mom was one of the most creative women I ever met. She was a potter when I was a kid. We had a kickwheel and a kiln, and she sold her bowls at small art fairs in the Detroit area for several years. She gardened like no other. Her whole hand was green, not just her thumb. She was into orchids big time, and after she retired she traveled all over the world with other "orchid nuts" attending conferences and collecting the plants in the wild. She had a greenhouse and used to rent blooming orchids (they do that infrequently and they look pretty boring the rest of the time) to people whom she couldn't convince to grow their own.

Mom had a loom, she made all her own clothes and most of mine too. She could knit and crochet, loved to read, volunteered with the Art To The Schools program at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and went back to school when she was in her 70's. She went to Clown College---so she could entertain the old people. She designed a line of quilting fabric for Marcus Brothers after that. [See photo of Beebe and some of the images she created for her quilting fabric line below.]

Mom was my best friend. We lived overseas for 3 years, spread out over my growing up years, and as an only kid I was very close to my parents. I hung out with adults a lot. Until my teen years I was probably more comfortable with people four times my own age than I was with my age mates.

Back in the States we were very close with my Mom's side of the family, and for a time my great grand mother lived with us. She and I shared a bedroom. My father passed away in 1984 and when Mom got tired of living by herself the plan had always been that she would move in with Steve and I. Together we had added on an "apartment" for her, but she wanted her independence and refused to move in! Her diagnoses with Alzheimer's in 2001 pushed the issue and she moved in with us later that year.

Mom lived with us for almost four and a half year before I had to move her to an assisted living facility. It was during the last six months or so that the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative was born. Her constant, unrelenting decline was death in slow motion. I had to do something. My skill set being what it was, I did what I knew how to do.

She never grasped what I was doing, but for a time I used to bring the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts to her at the assisted living place for her to unwrap. She thought they were all beautiful, even when she closely examined the wrong side or the paper they were wrapped in. She loved anything I ever did, no matter what it was and that stayed with her almost up until the end. She was my biggest cheerleader and that is one of the things I miss most about losing her. She was never objective, and that bugged me from time to time; but she loved me to pieces. She passed away in November of 2008 for the most part having forgotten who I was.

2. What quilts have you made for the initiative?

I made my exhibit quilt, "Underlying Current," which I started the day I moved Mom into the assisted living facility. Mine was the last one done, way beyond the deadline and into the "I May Not Make It In Time" zone. As curator, it was very intimidating to see the other quilts before completing mine. I remember that every single thing that could go wrong with my quilt did. I also made 23 Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts and Little Treasures Quilts, but that was mostly at the very beginning of the Initiative. I have very little time for my own quilts as the AAQI takes up an inordinate amount of time. It's the best work I've ever done, but it is work, and there is a lot of it. It seems to never end.

3. Does the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative help you cope with your mother’s and your situation?

Yes, it does. It feels good to know that hundreds of thousands of people have seen the traveling exhibit ("Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece") and been moved by it. It helps to know that quilters all over the country are threading their needles and becoming quilting philanthropists. It helps to know that we are supporting research that some day, hopefully, will end this vile disease.

4. Do you have any high points, exalted moments where you can say, “my quilts made a difference”?

I don't often get to travel with the exhibit, but it does work out some times. I have watched people read my quilts (the background is a chronology of Mom's disease direct printed on fabric) and weep. I have seen them laugh through their tears too. As an artist, seeing someone react to my work as I hoped they would is tremendously gratifying. Multiply that by 51 other quilts in the exhibit and you can understand why I feel drawn to it like a moth to a flame. These quilts are so emotionally painful to look and yet because they make their point directly to the heart, people understand what Alzheimer's is all about when they look at them. For those that don't know about this disease it's a way to appreciate why we're working so hard to end it. Those who are walking this journey with someone they love understand that they are not alone. Seeing the quilts can be cathartic, a vehicle to share their story with their friend, with me, with one of our white glovers. We ask that venues provide tissue. Some don't understand why until they need to give it to someone sobbing in front of a quilt.

5. Do you worry about becoming your mother (I think I can answer that one having watched my father disappear before my eyes and wonder if I was looking at my future).

Of course. It's only natural. If you are actively involved in caring for a relative, or even a friend, with a terminal disease it's not a big step to put yourselves in their shoes. You do that as a good caregiver all day long, trying to anticipate their needs from their point of view. Because we know that Alzheimer's probably has a genetic component, I think it's a given that anyone with a parent or sibling with his disease wonders if they're next. Like many people, as I age I have "become my mother!" Will I get Alzheimer's too? Every misspoken word, every time I forget where I put my purse, I used to wonder. Now that Mom's gone, I wonder a little less because I'm not dealing with her disease every moment. Running the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is, to a great extent, like any other work. It's when I step back and remind myself of the reason behind the work that the fear comes back.

7. Who have become special friends or Samaritans or beloved friends through this effort.

Because of the AAQI I have had a chance to interact with thousands of people touched by this disease who have taken my struggle and made it their own. I have witnessed selflessness and generosity in our supporters which inspires me every single day. My life has become so much richer for knowing them. And, yes, there are some incredibly special people who, through this project, have become confidants, and friends. That is pure bliss.

8. What kind of quilts do you need?

We always need Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts.

These little 9" x 12" quilts account for more than half of the $300,000 we have raised so far. From the quilts we receive (more than 4,000 have been donated) I select those that I think will bring in the most money and auction them during the first 10 days of every month. We only have room for 26 quilts each month, so the rest are priced and offered for sale at quilting venues, most importantly at Houston's International Quilt Festival each October.

The Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts are also the pool of quilts from which the quilts for the next traveling exhibit will be selected.

9. How can one participate?
Visit our web site and read the "rules" to make a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt.

Sign up for the AAQI Update and help (as much or as little as you want) with other things like printing flyers, and sharing information with your friends.

10. How’s the traveling exhibit doing? Where is it now, where is it headed?

"Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece will be hosted by the Mountain Top Quilters at their show in Prescott, Arizona on August 14 and 15. I'll be there for a lecture on the 15th which is open to the public. Check out the traveling schedule.

The quilts will stop traveling at the end of 2010, but there are still a few openings to book the exhibit early in 2010. Most of the quilts will be returned to their makers; however several have asked that I auction their quilts to raise more money for research. Our new exhibit, "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope" will begin traveling in January of 2011.

11. And what are you quilting right now? What do you do when not involved with AAQI?

My quilting time is pathetically non-existent, however I am trying to find time to work on a new pattern called Dancing Spools. When I'm not involved with the AAQI I basically eat and sleep. My life right now is terribly out of balance. As soon as I get some time, I'm going to try and fix that. Yeah, right.

Note: Ami has also made more than 200 quilts, and perhaps unrelated, has a quirky sense of humor that always makes me smile. Check out her blog for a laugh and maybe even a tear, but always a surprise. And if you aren't familiar with her 'rag fur', it too is worth a look!

[Copyright 2009. All materials on this blog are copyrighted.]

Books to consider, charities to support

Giving is such an integral part of the quilting community. Charities abound and Fiberart for a Cause contributes greatly to the American Cancer Society. Illinois art quilter Virginia Spiegel contacted me today to announce the availability of her new book that also donates proceeds to charity.

I highly recommend Virginia's art and must admit that I have fallen for her bittersweet activist quilt: 400 Songbirds. The story behind it is heart wrenching. Her songbird was included in an article I wrote last year about activist quilters. Such a talented group who displayed their quilts in Thelma Smith's exhibit: Changing the World One Thread at a Time.

Here's the news about Virginia's book:
"Art, Nature, Creativity, Life" by Virginia A. Spiegel is now available with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the American Cancer Society.

"Art, Nature, Creativity, Life" is stuffed with essays; art, art, and more art; recommended books for artists, nature lovers, gardeners and other creative types; over 80 inspirational photos; more than 35 haikus, and much, much more. The nineteen chapters are greatly expanded versions of the best issues of Spiegel's e-newsletter of the same name.

For ordering information, reviews, and more information about this web-based book, please click here.

Another book, concentrates on a delightfully complete coverage of quilt history, including the movement in the quilting communities to support charities through stitches, is The Quilt by Elise Schebler Roberts etc.

I'm always looking for books about my favorite subjects and by my favorite people -- quilts and quilters.

Ami Simms has a charity-related book out, that features the fifty-two quilts that were on exhibit since August 2006 in support of her ongoing Alzheimer Disease fundraiser. The 112 page book Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece includes more than 160 photographs, all in color.