Descansos

Over the past 2 years at least, I have been working on a large wall size piece that began with an interesting approach to make circles and background strips and cut and resew. The technique was in the American Quilter (from AQS). My pieces ended up looking like crosses and the colors were very southwestern. Two details from the piece are shown. But, as I was trying to figure out a name for the piece, I ended up on a journey of research on Descansos. Those are the crosses that are along the roadside marking the place were someone died. The origin of descansos is in the southwest and marks resting places between the church and the graveyard. Since the person who has already expressed intent to buy this fiber art piece plans to use it in her meditation space, the thought that these crosses on the quilt are resting places for focus and reflection and meditation seemed appropriate. For some really nice written text and black and white images of descansos, see http://webpages.charter.net/dnance/descansos/

Other fall pieces

Leaves can be fascinating at this time of year. So, it is nice to visit the pieces that celebrate this season. Two of them are in the 12 inch square category. All of them have dimensionality in the work (leaves created as own units and attached to the base quilt in a variety of ways). One was an exploration again of long and narrow (where the proportion of length to width or vise versa is more than 5:1)).

Cobbler's Child

There is a story about the cobbler's child that says that the cobbler never had time to make shoes for the children. Well, I am back to my fiber and, now that I also have a son, have no intention of making him go without. This past week I was making him a "tent", long overdue, from a panel piece of fabric and old sheets. Next up for him will be a quillow.

Work in progress

With the Brookside Garden exhibit coming up, I am working on some new pieces. It has been fun to include the choices of others - including that the leaf in here was one my 4 (near 5) year old son liked and gave me.

Job Change and Adjustments

Ok, so, right when I thought I had my life together, I went and took a new job. That stopped a lot of things from happening, including the blog. Now, a year into the job, it is time to regain my balance.

Presentation Portfolio Project

Now that the gallery exhibit is over, I could get back to some other summer activities. One item that I wanted to get completed prior to the exhibit was a presentation portfolio. Art Calendar talked about the importance of having a portfolio that stands out.

What better way to have a portfolio stand out than to have it be a demonstration of my work at the same time? So, I created the cover to the portfolio first.



Rather than have the portfolio have lots of paper, I opted to create a design that would allow for business cards, postcards, digital media, and some single pages of information. Given the cover size, I figured I would make the single pages be an odd size (8 inches square). So, the next piece was figuring out the dimensions of the page. Because I might use a standard CD or a mini-CD, the design needed to accomodate either. I first worked with paper to get my "template" measurements.


I settled on two "pockets" that have stitched dividers in them. I opted to bind the outside edges of the "page". I had some leftover "blades" from the fan project and wanted to use them in this portfolio as well.

Then, I had to figure out how to attached the front to the back. I made a tube out of the binding fabric and sewed it to the back of the "page" and then both fused and hand stitched the tube to the back of the front page.


Finally, a trip to Shipwreck beads and I found the beads that I wanted to use to wrap the blade ties around.

Uhuru Quilters Show & My reception

Hi all,

I've been having a bit of lull in my own fiber creations. I did contribute two quilts that will be on display at the Uhuru Quilters event on Saturday. You can see both Friendship is a Gift and Tropical Haze at that event, as well as 100+ quilts from other group members.

Then, the exhibit is up at the Dadian Gallery and the reception is this week Thursday from 5 to 7 pm. Dadian is on the campus of Wesley Theological Seminary at 4500 Mass. Ave NW.

I am making myself some new clothing. And, maybe one piece will be done and I'll wear at my reception. We will see.