Stitching Our Stories

Stitching Our Stories is an exhibit currently running in Santa Fe through October 20.   It's at the Santa Fe Arts Commission’s Community Gallery, 201 W. Marcy Street.  The use of needlework to express  family and social history is one of my favorite topics.  I'd go for sure if I was anywhere close!

The subtitle is:  Connecting Immigrant and Local Communities Through Story Cloths and Conversations.

The programs and exhibit were created by Art and Remembrance, an organization founded around the needlework panels made by Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz.  The panels illustrate her memories of her early life in Europe and her escape from the Holocaust as a young girl.

Art and Remembrance has created a program called HeART and Story which guides recent immigrants to create their own story cloths about their journeys.  Their work is also on display. 

You can see the lovely Esther Krinitz panels in a book, Memories of Survival, and a video Through the Eye of the Needle (which you can also purchase).

Seminole Patchwork

 

 

Here is my good friend Julia of Basya Berkman Vintage.  She usually is behind the camera photographing her models, but this time, I took the camera and photographed her in this great Seminole skirt.   As an anthropology major way back when who long ago became a quilter and then much more recently took on vintage clothing, mending this skirt was a real treat!

This is a patchwork style created and stitched by the Seminole Indians of Florida.  After the sewing machine and cotton fabrics were introduced to the Seminoles in the late 1800s, they developed their own patchwork technique by the 1920s.

Great-Great-Grandma and Her Great-Great-Grandson

Well, I have another story to tell about quilts and needlework in my friend Debbie's family.  Debbie's Grandma loved to sew and craft, and made so many useful and pretty things for her family.  These have become much treasured heirlooms.

Last weekend, at our annual day at the Fox Valley Folk Festival (always a wonderful event!), and I got to meet the newest addition to the family, Debbie's first grandbaby.  Debbie had brought along the quilt her Grandma had made in the 1980s for her daughter Emmie was she was a little girl.  And now, here is baby Will, the first member of the next generation, in his jaunty little hat, sitting on his great-great-grandma's loving needlework.  How cool is that!

Sunbonnet Sue Spent Her Summer Vacation at My Quilt Care Spa

Hello, Sunbonnet Sue!  It was great to spend part of my August with this little girl, all decked out in her summer frocks and bonnets.

Most of her problems were with the embroidery thread giving out.  The fabrics by and large are hanging in there, although a few are starting to get weak.

Her spa treatment included restitching the loose appliqués, replacing a couple of missing sleeves, and re-embroidering the ribbon bows hanging down from her bonnet.  It's always fun to see a well-loved pattern like this with an extra little flair like those ribbon bows.

Favorite Quotes #13 - What is Art

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

Edgar Degas

I found this quote in just about the most difficult spot ever to photograph!  It's on an overhang, with a brightly lit ceiling just beyond and a dark tall wall above....  But I loved it.  And I love that it's in a high school, seen by budding artists every day.

I do think successful art has two parts:  first, a sharing of what the artist sees (in the broader sense of feels and experiences), and second, what that touches and brings forth in the viewers' sensations and inner knowledge. That's why good art feels timeless and magical.

Here are two favorite stories:

Heirloom Cross Stitch Quilt

Isn't this a lovely quilt?  Sometimes the simplicity of a two-color design can create the most impact of all.

This cross stitch quilt is a family heirloom, made by the grandmother of the current owner.  She was living in Columbus, OH, at the time she made the quilt in the 1970s.

Summer Sewing

Sitting out in the back, beading and buttoning on my FFF (folded fabric flowers) project.  This will be another little quilt in the Something From Nothing series. 

It's quite thematic for a summer's day, don't you think?

And then I started looking for other things to photograph....  I love the freedom and the possibility of excess of digital photography!