Serendipity - At the Center of It All

The title of this quilt describes the inspiration and process of its design, and also a great way to approach Life.

Serendipitous - occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

I've discovered that I like working on more than one quilt repair job at a time.  It keeps things more fun!  So I had fabrics for two quilts on my table and decided that I really loved the combination - a deep golden yellow and a bright magenta.

One quilt was a string quilt, a memory quilt with fabrics from a mother's blouses.  The other was a vine and ribbon design, that had been made in Hawaii.   You can see both quilt repairs in progress on this video. 

 

A Wedding in Italy

A flash of inspiration birthed this quilt.  It celebrates the wedding of two of my daughter's super super good friends.  

They married last fall with a destination wedding in Italy, a gorgeous setting.  This quilt is my rendition of a photo taken on The Day.  

New Video: "Welcome to my Studio"

 

Hi, everyone!  I'm announcing a new video on my YouTube channel.  It's a bit of a tour of my quilting studio and fabric stash.

You'll see fabrics, new art quilts, and loads of doo-dads.  

Click here to access the video.

Please come visit!  

(You can also find my channel and see the whole video collection, and my interview on the Just Wanna Quilt podcast, by searching in YouTube for my name - Ann Wasserman.)

Totality

Back in August 2017, my husband and I traveled to Paducah, KY.   The city shared the happy coincidence of being the home of the National Quilt Museum and also being located, not only in the path of totality for a solar eclipse, but also at the point of longest totality.  Perfect!

Soon after, I posted the story of the journey and the marvels of viewing a total eclipse.

And now, quite a few years later, I've completed a quilt to commemorate the magic and beauty of the eclipse.

Quote of the Day....Quote of the Era, Actually

 I came across this on Instagram (@hayfestival) a couple of weeks ago:

These words were written by author Arundhati Roy.  They are the concluding paragraphs of her article published in Financial Times in April, 2020, called "The Pandemic is a Portal". 

Her words so clearly sum up my dreams and hopes for this difficult time we are traversing.  

I have to follow them with the little quilt I made early in the summer and posted a short while back, expressing my hopes for a new way of living being created from the old.  You can see the new ways and ideas just beginning to pop out from within and behind the old ways. 

World Turned Upside Down
18" x 18"

You can visit a previous post to read about the technicalities of how I created this two-layer quilt, and other stories about the concept that grew as I went along in making it.  

This season, I am most grateful for all the individuals and organizations that are coming up with creative solutions and pathways to not only imagine, but also build, a new lifestyle of respect and understanding for our planet and all the living beings who call her Home.

 

 

My 10-year Project, 2010 - 2020

 

Wow!  This post marks the completion of a 10-year quilt project!

Ten (10!) years ago I started a series of quilts, my own personal challenge project.  I was feeling the need of having some small, relaxing, just for fun projects in the midst of working on quilt repairs for clients.

I had been given a stash of decorator samples by an interior designer who was cleaning out her studio.  I decided to use them for my play space.  I set myself these rules:

The World Turns Upside Down - Part 1

 

This is my newest art quilt - I didn't start out to make a topical quilt.  I was just playing with some gorgeous swatches.

I have mentioned on this blog before how much I love challenge quilts.  This challenge is another one from the Just Wanna Quilt facebook group.  I looked at these luscious colors, and decided I need some of that brightness and beauty in these hard times.  We each got 2 packets of swatches from Free Spirit Fabrics, and the instructions were “make whatever you want”. 

My plan was to make two little quilt tops exactly the same, rotate one, and cut holes in the top one for reverse appliqué to let the other colors show through.

The World Turns Upside Down - Part 2

 

This is a challenge project from the Just Wanna Quilt Facebook group.  We each got 2 packets of swatches from Free Spirit Fabrics, and the instructions were “make whatever you want”.  I looked at these luscious colors, and decided I need some of that brightness and beauty in these hard times.   

Casting around for ideas, I remembered a set of three little pieces I'd made back in the '80s that I'd also made with 2" multicolored squares. 

Eye Contact P.S.

So, having just blogged about my entry in the Eye Contact show yesterday morning, this post about the exhibit showed up in the evening on my instagram!  (It's in two pieces because I couldn't screen shot the whole thing in one go.)

Eye Contact

An exhibit called Eye Contact: Creating A Connection has recently opened at the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg, VA.  The exhibit runs through September 15, 2020. 

I love everything about this show.  For one thing, I always love a challenge quilt show.  I find all the different, creative ways the challenge topic is expressed to be endlessly fascinating.  I also love this particular show because I have a quilt in it, and I had such a deep experience in making the quilt. 

The quilts are small - 23" wide x 5" high - and the only instruction to the artists was that the subject be "two human eyes looking at the viewer".

Here's my quilt:

The Solar System Quilt

 

I am happy to announce that my daughter, aka my darlin' daughter, just finished making a gorgeous quilt.  She's always been an artist and a crafter and now a great DIYer, but as far as fiber goes, she's been much more smitten with crochet and clothing than with quilting.

But quilting made its big debut because a new baby needs a great quilt.  The new baby in question is her boyfriend's brand new nephew.  The boyfriend loves astronomy, and the two of them planned a solar system quilt to introduce the new little one to his new home.

Fungi!

 

This year, maybe because of our super long and wet spring, the fungi group has flourished in my yard and neighborhood.  Such variety this year! 

The one pictured above is probably the most stereotypical mushroom of the bunch.  The variety beyond that seems to go on forever.

This is an interesting community, seen in a nearby parkway.

More Embroidery for the Social Justice Sewing Academy

I wrote about the Social Justice Sewing Academy in a post last fall, and showed these first two blocks I worked on.  You can hear a great interview with SJSA founder Sara Trail at the Just Wanna Quilt podcast.

     

A quick summary:  Blocks are designed and created (pieces glued on) by young people to express their social justice concerns and dreams.  The blocks go to sewists like me who embroider them to attach all the pieces securely and add texture and depth.  Then the blocks are made into quilts by more volunteers and sent to galleries and shows.  The final result is a bunch of young people who learn that art can express who they are and that their concerns can be heard.  It's simply wonderful!

I kinda forgot to keep posting blocks, so here are the next four that I've done.  The project is both fun and extremely fulfilling.  It is a true blessing, tapping into the great emotional depths and wonderful visual expressiveness of teens who need to be heard.

Polka Dots!

I made a small polka dot themed quilt as part of the copyright study at Just Wanna Quilt.   The basic question is to find the line between what's unique enough to be copyrightable and what is considered too common (eg., basic polka dots).  (By the way, any and all are welcome to join the project and make all sorts of things.  Visit the facebook page to sign up.  It's a great group, lots of interesting and fun discussions on all sorts of quilt-y topics.)

That may sound all highfalutin (which I discovered is actually in the dictionary and I spelled it right!), but actually I'm just using it as a reason to play with my stash.  You know, always so fun!

So, the background is white satin from a wedding dress that was too badly damaged to be re-saleable, but good in places for fabric and trim salvage.  And the polka dots are reverse appliqué, with machine zig-zag and invisible thread.

Tree Sisters

 

A Facebook group called Tree Sisters put out a call for 12" blocks to be joined into a quilt to be displayed next year, the "Year of the Tree".  An idea popped into my head, so I went for it.   

(Submission deadline is July 1. And there's room for some more blocks. Here's info on making and submitting a quilt block. )

I remember being fascinated when I first learned that trees and other plants have just as much size and spread under the ground with their roots as above ground with their branches.  Up until then, I guess it was kind of out of sight, out of mind.  So my design represents that.  And by showing a more complete view of a tree, I've also included the earth and all those underground process of growth and nourishment.

I See You

I finished this little quilt a few days ago.  It is now en route to the Sacred Threads exhibit, to be held in Herndon, VA, July 11-28, 2019.  From the website:

"Sacred Threads is an exhibition of quilts exploring themes of joy, inspiration, spirituality, healing, grief and peace/brotherhood. This biennial exhibition was established to provide a safe venue for quilters who see their work as a connection to the sacred and/or as an expression of their spiritual journey."

This year in addition to the main exhibit, there is a special project called Eye Contact: Creating a Connection. 

"There is a famous quote by Cicero (106-43 B.C.). 'Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi' (The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter). 'The eyes are the window of the soul' is a variant form of the proverb..."

The Social Justice Sewing Academy

 

I must admit that the quilt repair process can get kind of boring when it gets down to the actual sewing.  Once I figure out what needs to be done and how to do it, it can be pretty repetitive.  One resource I fall back on a lot is listening to podcasts.  And one interview that really sparked my interest was with Sara Trail, founder of the Social Justice Sewing Academy, on the Just Wanna Quilt podcast.

Evanston Made 2018

The Evanston Art Center is once again hosting an exhibit as part of the Evanston Made arts month in June.

I'm just finishing up my entry:

Looking Back and Looking Forward

I took this photo of my design wall last March, to celebrate being able to walk around enough on my healing foot to get back to pacing around while creating in my sewing room.

Here are the four quilts, from left to right, that were in progress then and are finished now.  They are all new members of my Something From Nothing series. The series is my own challenge project, based on a pile of decorator fabric samples that was given to me years ago.

More Quilts in the "Something From Nothing" Series

Here come the next three Something From Nothing quilts.  The series is all made from unwanted materials, primarily out-of-date decorator sample books.  (To learn more about the whys and wherefores of the series, visit Something From Nothing, and also follow the links at the end that will take you to other posts about quilts in the series.  You can find the whole set on my website.) 

Cathedral - 32" x 44.5"
This was shown in last weekend's annual Fine Art of Fiber exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  (Photos of all the entries in the show are on the FAOF website.)  All the fabrics in this quilt are different colorways of one print, no other fabrics have been added!  It was one of those quilts that mostly fell right together as I started playing with the fabrics.  Yes, there were a few sticky, problematic places.....but once the work-in-progress had hung on my design wall for long enough, the sticky places seemed to find their way to coming unstuck.