My "Christmas" Catalogue

Comes from Keepsake Quilts in Center Harbor, New Hampshire 4 times a year.  It is full of inspiration and fills me with desire to want, buy and make--just like Sears and Roebuck once did when I was a child.  In there latest issue!

 Here's one of mine.  You can see how I would like the four from their catalogue.

The Reason

I went to the National Museum of Women in the Arts was to see the quilt exhibition "Workt by Hand: Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts" on loan from the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  It's a "canned" show. The BMA assembled it, printed the catalog, and farms it out to other museums for a price.  Capitalism at its finest, eh?  But it is also a fine collection of quilts and worth every penny!~

This quilt was reverse-appliqued!  I mean--holy shit!--it was nearly unfathomable in its attention to detail. 

I loved the individual attention paid to the contents of each basket.  The upper left corner was absolutely the most stunning--but for the record the image is reversed (it would be the upper right corner on the actual quilt).  I replicated it here with fidelity to the catalog.  Bad editing... 

 The craziest thing about this masterwork is the embroidery!  I've never seen finer work.  If only I could have a detail of the border--all embroidered morning glories and each one a masterpiece.

Detail below.

Christmas Scheming

Is it too early to start thinking about Christmas? In the past I have sent out homemade ornaments of fish, seahorses, and starfish....perhaps it's time to explore the world of sea turtles? Here a prototype I made this afternoon. I can see some changes I would make--but that's the role of the prototype.

A Couple Of My Quilts

This one is based on the game Chinese Checkers, which was something my sister and I would play with our paternal grandmother during childhood visits. I appliqued the "marbles" in a way that allowed me to stuff them and give them a bit of a rounded form. The center is hand-quilted, and the border finished using a machine. This is the least premeditated quilt on the planet! I went into the fabric store with a friend and came away with the idea!--and the material! The yellow fabric is patterned with forsythia, and the print fabric in the pinwheels is of sea shells; so I call it "Forsythia Beach". My one time collaborator, Annalisa Leonessa, designed and did the quilting. Golly, I miss her!

Law & Order Quilt Design

Here is the random episode of Law and Order with it's 6 more prominent guest actors. Pamela stood out for me from an earlier episode in which she portrayed the wife of a man murdered by their son. And she looked so much like my mother! Scott's best performance in the series was as a realtor who killed for the Mob in his spare time--I also discovered in this that he was Gay and is dead: A happy/sad discovery.

Extending their performances to the other episodes that they acted in and then the other actors in those episodes creates this image.

Which I can extrapolate into this design. What do you think?

One Million Pillow Case Challenge

Thanks to my friend, Barbara, I am making pillow cases for terminally ill children through an initiative started by the website; All People Quilt DOT Com. The project is called the "Million Pillow Challenge". Check it out.

Phase One: Done!

After days of turning 20 years of collected fabric scraps and remnants from various projects and dozens of quilts into my best estimate of about 30,000 1.25" x 1.25" squares, the first part of my latest scheming is complete. I now have the start of a palette!

Next is to start playing around with its range and nuances with the present goal of creating a pixelated image. Lord, lord, where does this madness come from!

My Quilting Ways #19

Well, some measure of creativity was accomplished on this the final day of the year! I made a pillow! Whenever I create a quilt with an original design, I usually make a prototype of the block to see how it works and if I will make adjustments to the design and/or fabrics. These get thrown around and usually end up in a drawer someplace.

I imagine doing something with them, but up 'til now never have. This block was the first for a quilt that I made as a retirement gift some years back now for my friend Shelley.
The idea behind the basic design was to combine the Star of David with the Triangle. A reflection of essential qualities in both of our lives, her Jewishness and my gayness. Both symbols representative of oppression at one time are now symbols of pride. I like to work with fabric, in case this is not implicitly obvious.

So I took the first block and gave it a boarder, then machine quilted it to a piece of awfully ugly fabric (now only visible in the interior of the pillow!). Made a back with a flap held shut with velcro. And, voila! I have a new throw pillow.

My Quilting Ways #18

My latest quilt continues to evolve. I've worked out the arrangement of the twelve fabrics. This model doesn't actually reflect the much more subtle patterns or effects of the actual fabrics' interactions with one another. It just give me a guide to follow as I plot it out. From the first triad (My Quilting Ways #17) I have now completed 4 of the 12. I'm liking this one a lot.

My Quilting Ways #17

No sooner do I finish one quilt, than I start the next. This is the first of 12 patches featuring a triad of intertwined spikes against a charcoal background. The finished quilt with feature 12 different fabrics used in equal measure with one being donimant in each of the triads...perhaps the 12 tribes of Isreal? It's still evolving.

My Quilting Ways #16

I shared a couple of the circle patches from this quilt earlier; here, the finished product.

It's a work about diversity: Circles in vibrant colors appliqued against a criss-cross background of white on point squares under a grid of an off-white fabric with a pure white pattern. Subtle versus brilliant. Rigid versus organic. Bland versus vibrant. Conflict drives everything toward resolution, the difference gives everything energy, the journey deeper discovery.

And it's just kind of pretty, too.

My Quilting Ways #15

quiltcircle3, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Ever start something without knowing where it's going?

You do it just because you gotta get into it, and you have an inkling of an idea, an incomplete thought, a fragment of a concept percolating in your head. It's bursting against the limits of your creative brain cells, so you remove your thumb from the dam and welcome the deluge. That's kind of how this project is evolving.

Here's a third patch of circles on circles and I now see it as not simply circles, but portals. Windows into time and space and other worlds of possibility.

This is now my inspiration. It gives me a focus and sense of mission in this quilt, as well as, a working title: "Portals Into Other Possibilities." It's still clunky, still a work in progress.

My Quilting Ways #14

2newquiltpatches, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

At it again, this time applique cirlces on circles...... Wonder where tis one will lead?

My Quilting Ways #13

TN2-morningevening, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

The front TOP and back BOTTOM of my latest quilt are done. Based on a random number sequence, the top is meant to depict the morning sun through a window, and the bottom an evening dusk via the same. The background is meant to enhance the luminosity of light from within a space and without.

My Quilting Ways #10.1

morning, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Finished the first half of my new quilt. It's entitled "Morning" and it's made up of the pattern formed by the random serial numbers on the test booklets of 3 of the 6 second grade teachers at my school.

When recording the numbers, I became more and more fascinated by their random, yet un-chaotic arrangements. The patterns seemed to favor certain numbers and the "favoritism" shifted from one class roster to another.

I took the rosters and created a random set of Tryptichs. This one favors warm colors and is entitled "Morning". The other favors cool colors and it entitled "Evening". Together they form one day. Morning is framed with a dark nuetral gray, Evening with a light nuetral gray.

Numbers are beautiful. n'est pas?

My Quilting Ways #10.2

eveningfragment, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Here's a fragment of the first column of the back of the quilt. It's the "Evening" side of the duo tryptich. I've placed it against the background fabric to emphasis the contrast with the other side.

The best part about the back? All of the fabrics where already part of my stash.

My Quilting Ways #09

newquilt, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

With a return to the hot weather, I am again inspired to quilt--go figure. This latest creation is based on a random set of serial numbers used to track test booklets at my school for the annual 2nd grade assessments. Bazaar? Clearly! Interesting? Absolutely.

I'm using batiks and that adds even another layer to the design.

My Quilting Ways #08

roadtotherainbow, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

In sharing some of my quilts with a friend through this blog, I realized that I'd never uploaded one of my favorites. The pattern is tradiitonal and is thraditionally called "The Road To...." ergo my version is called: "The Road To Rainbow."

Red Geranium

redgeranium
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

The previous post reminded of this wall hanging that I made some years ago now. It's an original design both pieced and appliquéd. It's designed around one of my own haiku:

Red geranium
reaching for the autumn sun ~
one more day of life

Art I'm Seeing #31

thresixes
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

Washington, D.C. has a near embarrassment of riches when it comes to museums. And many of them are free, which only adds to the fun. One that isn’t free is the National Museum of Women in the Arts. It’s $10.00 well spent.

Works currently on display include this one from the show “Something Pertaining to God: the Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins”. The show was orginized by the Shelburn Museum in Vermont, and originally hung there.

The works are completely in harmony with those African American quilters from Mississppi collectively known as Gee’s Bend; however, this artist lived and composed her works in Richmond, California.

Ms. Tompkins (a pseudonym) was born to share croppers in Arkansas in 1936 and moved to California 1958 where she enjoyed two marriages, raised five children and worked as a practical nurse in convalescent care. In the late 1970’s she suffered a “breakdown” that resulted in symptoms consistant with schyzophrenia. It was a condition that remained with her for the rest of her life and deeply influenced both her drive to create and the process by which her creations took shape. Voices in her head competed against her fervent faith in Christ and prayer life.

The show gives you only a briefest of possible dips into the pool of an amazing artist. There is a photograph of Tompkins in the exhibit taken in 1986. You see a woman of 50 who could pass for 30 without a doubt. It’s the photo a woman whose life tells you of struggle and hardwork, but who’s face testifies to a quiet strength and grace.