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.

Two Valuable Additions to Anyone's Library by Virginia Spiegel and Judy Coates Perez

 I have become fascinated with Blurb Books Publishing ever since Virginia Spiegel released a peek at her latest creation (pictured here): Wild at the Edges: Inspiration from a Creative Life. 

The free software fits my budget and the quality of the finished product is stunning. The author creates and Blurb Books prints and distributes. So of course the beauty of the book depends upon the author. Two of our favorite fabric artists have created stunning and inspiring books -- Virginia Spiegel and Judy Coates Perez.

Check out Judy Coates Perez new book Painted Threads: Mixed Media Textile Arts. Her art nearly jumps off of the pages and is so striking and detailed and colorful and lovely. What an excellent format for viewing Judy's beautiful 'painted threads.' She's put together a book of the most endearing art. To preview her book, visit Blurb Books.


If Virginia isn't creating her beautiful fabric art, she's carrying a canoe on her shoulders through her favorite wilderness and stopping to journal and photograph the journey. Now she has taken her experiences in creating and cojoined them with her insights drawn from nature and from having lived to be a certain age. With photographs of the inspiration mingled with the art she subsequently created, the power doubles and anyone seeing this lovely book can not go away unchanged. Add to that her thoughtful essays as the one shown below, and well, she's created a book that any artist would welcome as a gift or addition to their libraries.  If that isn't enough, 25 percent of the proceeds will go to support the American Cancer Association. 

A Gift to Ourselves by Virginia Spiegel (An excerpt from her new book: Wild at the Edges.)

No writer on Earth would send a work out for publication without revising, revising, revising. I write these very small essays by hand in a Fabriano notebook, let them sit, type them into my computer, print them out, revise them, let them sit, correct, and revise. Back and forth, back and forth. So much work for so few lines and the end result is, of course, always less than perfect.

But it is in the revision; the erasing; the layering of ideas, of words, of themes that I learn what I really think about this topic, what the topic IS, what I really wanted to say, what is superfluous and what is necessary.

A writer is, by necessity, an editor. If only I could apply the grace of revision to all of my artwork. I don't know why I expect fully-formed artwork suitable for exhibition to appear via a virgin birth. Two of my favorite art books clearly show that Frankenthaler wasn't always "Frankenthaler" and Diebenkorn didn't spring fully formed and complete from nothing. There were steps forward and back, experimentation and revision.

Since my artwork springs not from sketching and plans, but from writing and then interaction with my materials, the revision must come after the fact. I must be unafraid to cut, re-make, destroy and re-build and, sometimes, abandon artwork altogether. I won't expect each piece to be a masterwork, but instead will learn to accept much of my artwork as drafts and to be a kind and gentle editor. Perhaps that is a gift we can all give ourselves.

Photo: Scissorsweb


My book, Wild at the Edges: Inspiration from a Creative Life, is now available and you can go right to a preview.


My new book evolved by thinking about the kind of book I love, but can never find. I love books that tell me about an artist's inspiration and influences while showing me what's beautiful and significant in her creative life. It's not a how-to book, but it will inspire you to make art about what's important to you.
You will find encouragement for art and living in sixteen short essays, a sense of wonder, a little advice, haikus, close-up photos of art and nature, and last, but not least, a very personal view of the driving forces behind my creative life.

Twenty five percent of profits from this book will be donated to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart for A Cause. Fiberart For A Cause has donated more than $190,000 to the American Cancer Society. -- Virginia Spiegel

My View: Three techniques you'll want to try

If ever you want to be inspired to make your own art quilt or activist art quilt or just make a fun project – these DVDs from Quilting Arts Workshops are for you!

Where to begin!

Lesley Riley, a well known name among fabric and collage artists demonstrates three ways to transfer images onto fabric in her “Transfers Tried and True” DVD. In 45 minutes she gives watchers enough information to try and succeed at the use of transparency transfers using Golden Matte Medium and a foam brush plus burnisher (aka a serving spoon). Also how to make a water transfer using Printworks photo paper and everyday matte photo paper and a mist spray bottle. And last and perhaps the best option – permanent iron-on transfers using TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) and a hot iron. By performing the three methods, she shows watchers the differences in the techniques’ results.

Lesley provides an easy to understand demonstration of transfer techniques as well as tips and troubleshooting to guarantee success. She’s comfortable in front of the camera and clearly articulates the instructions. Lesley also is the author of several helpful books, her most recent is Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur.

Perhaps the more messy, hands on, fun kind of transfer begins with Thermofax Screen Printing as demonstrated in “Demystifying Thermofax Screen Printing” by Claire Fenton. This begins with how to make a thermofax image and ends with Fenton spontaneously printing a third scroll in her New Orleans series. It is fascinating to see how her mind works and to look through her artist’s eye. By the end of the piece I was pointing at the screen suggesting “Put it there, make an image there!”

I so wished I had the paint and cheap little plastic scrapers she buys at the hardware store and could get right in there with her. The scrapers may be the only inexpensive aspect o this process. A thermofax machine, which may not be easy to find, runs around $1000. Tattoo artists are snapping them up on EBay so the reconditioned models are not easy to find. Then the film runs about $175-$300 a roll and up. The Versitex ink starter kit -- $18 or the $255 Thermofax basic kit with · 40 thermal screens, ink, reusable plastic frames, etc.

I understand there are now thermal imagers available new. This technique gives quick results and instant success. Other than being messy, I can see this being a fun project to do with your kids. The Thermofax machine can get hot, but once the transfers are made, the process looks complete safe. And did I mention MESSY!

I suppose you can do this with the transfer techniques Lesley Riley demonstrated, but the thermofax screen prints are reusable. Claire Fenton creatively used parts of photos or manipulated photos on Photoshop before printing out an image to be thermofaxed. She also used headlines and newspaper articles, geometric shapes and images that will reinforce the story she tells with her art. Being creative with the thermofax can incorporate much in the way of found art.Another option would be to pay someone who owns a thermofax machine to make your stencils. Since they are reusable, it might be cost effective.

I did say three ways to be creative and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Judy Coates Perez and her Mixed-media Painted Fabric demonstration. Her technique, more free form, marries clip art and various images with transparent paints.

She adhered, using acrylic gel medium, the clip art and bits of paper – phone book pages and pieces of clothing patterns for example to PFD fabric. Then she began adding color and an overall design using transparent and metallic textile paints, black permanent pen or marker and then adding bits of decorative or handmade papers. She worked in layers as did Fenton working for balance and harmony and a melding of images.

It was spontaneous, yet with an underlying basic image that she had in mind. She will eventually add traditional quilting techniques and machine quilting to her artwork. Perez seems to talk to herself rather than clearly speaking to her watchers. But her actions are self explanatory and she emphasizes the necessary steps. Yet some may find her mumbling a bit disconcerting. The techniques and beautiful finished art speak for themselves.

Prices are reasonable, around $20 each.