When working on my journal quilt for this year (which I can’t share until Festival opens at the end of this month), I wanted to try thermofax screens. While making some practice passes with the paint and screen, I made some extra cranes, which I have worked into these two pieces, Cloud Crane and Flying Crane.

This first one is Cloud Crane, the larger of the two pieces (and alas, the piece of paper with the exact measurements has gone walkabout; I think it is 13×16), is a quilted piece stitched to commercial batik over stretcher bars. The quiltlet is made of a single piece of cloth on which I screened both the origami crane (drawn by me, converted into a thermofax screen, then printed) and the background (which is actually a design made using a small white onion cut vertically as my “stamp”). It is quilted with gold metallic thread and a very fine, subtle polyester for the background. A slender gold yarn is couched to the edge of the quiltlet.

Flying Crane is a single golden crane screened onto my hand-dyed fabric, quilted, edged in a satin stitch of gold metallic thread and mounted on a coordinating hand-dyed fabric (also made by me). This piece is overall 8×10 inches, with the crane quiltlet about 4×6 inches.

Here’s a detail photo:

The Flying Crane is $65, the Cloud Crane is $135; shipping is additional and depends on your location.

I probably shouldn’t start with my favorite of the new pieces, but I will —ggggrin!

Tea began in a class with Teri (Esterita) Austin in the summer of 2006. As usual, I wanted to do my own composition rather than a set-piece by the teacher (Teri is used to me, and actually likes it when students do this sort of thing! plus, I made sure it was OK first). This is the picture which I set up for the still life:

Unlike Teri’s technique, which perhaps uses more segmented color work, using multi-colored pieces of cloth for each piece, I wanted to keep the elements more disparate by having a single “color” for each piece. But, I used her painting and shading techniques (in other words, I listened to her teach, absorbed what she said, and did my own thing) on the pieces. I had hoped to have the quiltlet done for our Frayed Edges show at the Library in August (see the August archives for pictures) but with Joshua’s accident and all it didn’t get done (or even started on the quilting). I used the Hobbs black 80/20 mostly cotton fusible batting, and REALLY liked it. I would use it again in another dark piece for sure.

I wasn’t sure what to leave unquilted, and wanted to get it done in time for the show at Zoot (see the post for October 3rd for directions and hours) coffee house here in Camden, so I just went at it with gusto….and a LOT of thread, all Superior 40-wt. trilobal (which in effect means it shines!) polyester. No snarls, no fuss, no muss, just glorious color! Here’s a detail of the quilting… I used four colors of blue on the bowl, and at least 3 or 4 on each individual piece, plus a dark brown to do the wood grain on the table and a stormy sky blue for the texturing on the wall. In the end, I left NONE of it unquilted.

This piece is available for sale for $295. It measures 16×19. I hope you like it!

I am one (of a bazillion) of the folks who receive a bi-weekly e-mail from artist Robert Genn. Some of the letters are gems, and I really liked this one, so asked and received permission to share it here. I guess I liked it because what he suggests is similar to how I approach things. Here’s the letter:

Personal coach

September 28, 2007

Dear Sarah,

My friend Ralph, who doesn’t mind me talking about this, is way
out of shape. His personal coach, Alberto, is a ladder-chested
ex-lightweight boxer with blinding white teeth and lots of
hair. Alberto comes over to Ralph’s twice a week. Sometimes
they work out on Ralph’s expensive equipment. At other times
Alberto drives him in his beemer to an upscale gym. Personally,
I’d say Ralph’s still the same. Maybe not. Maybe he’s bigger.

“Tennis players got ’em, why not you?” Ralph says. He’d like me
to book Alberto, but Alberto’s booked solid, just one of many
solidly-booked Albertos around here.

It’s no surprise when people ask me to be their personal coach.
It happened again only yesterday. The lady was talking art, not
abs. Come to think of it, a lot of us buffs are in demand. So I
was thinking of all the inefficiency and disappointment that
must ride on Ralph and Alberto’s contract. And while I sort of
like the idea of tailored guidance, I rather wanted to offer a
more general workout. A sort of “Jenny Craig Success Course of
the Arts.” Mine’s free. Here it is:

Find a sanctuary where you can comfortably work.
Dedicate at least two hours a day to your art.
Have more than enough equipment and supplies.
Set short- and long-term goals and keep track of progress.
Think of your work as exercise, not championship play.
Explore series development and exhaust personal themes.
Work alone with the benefit of books and perhaps tapes.
Replace passive consumption with creative production.
Use your own intuition and master your technology.
Feel the joy of personal, self-generated sweat.
Fall in love with your own working processes.
Be forever on the lookout for the advent of style.
Try to be your own person and claim your rights.
Don’t bother setting yourself up for rejection.
Don’t swing too wildly and damage the well-being of others.
Don’t jump into the ring until you’re feeling fit.

If you can stick with this regimen for a couple of months, I
can pretty well guarantee your progress. If not, then at least
the exercise will let you know the job’s not for you. We all
have the potential to be slim, barrel-chested, rich, satisfied
or evolved.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: “……Yes, please go ahead and forward this letter to a friend.

If you think a friend or fellow artist may find value in this
material, please feel free to forward it. This does not mean
that they will automatically be subscribed to the Twice-Weekly
Letter. They have to do it voluntarily and can find out about
it by going to http://www.painterskeys.com

Well, if the President as head of the executive branch can give a State of the Union address, and since as quilters we are ALWAYS a bit curious (OK, almost voyeuristic) about other quilters’ studios, I thought I’d let you see what I’ve been up to this past week.

I have done a TON of paperwork on the book, writing to get permissions to use quotes, and so on, so seriously needed some creative time. Plus, Jan and Dwight P. (Jan is a friend and quilter, Dwight is her hubby and photographer) and I are having a small show at Zoot, the cool coffee house in town. That means I figured I needed to make some pieces for there that are not expensive (as in might actually sell and generate some much-needed income). When I finish one thing I tend to need to have a tidy attack and clear the surfaces so I can function. Then stuff piles up as I work. I guess I’ve been working. Here is the work table:

Here is the overflow (Gramma’s toaster table, immortalized in my Flying Toast quilt):

Here is the sewing machine cabinet:

And the doorknob:

Yes, busy. I have one more 6×6 piece to fuse up and quilt, then I need to paint all the canvases, mount all the pieces, add hanging sleeves to the ones that will not be mounted, add hanging apparatus, label them, take photos, re-size the photos for use on the website, price them (duh!), and be ready to sell them! I’ll blog them here and on my website galleries (think I’ll make a “small works” gallery for most of the ones mounted on canvas which I can then delete once the pieces have mostly sold). Even though they will be for sale at the coffee house, I’m definitely open to purchases that require shipping [grin!].

The inspirational sculpture continued as we walked farther away from the visitor’s center, and then looped back around. Near the Zen / Meditating Garden, was this reflecting rockery. From a distance you’d think it might be a stone found there, with smaller stones around the perimeter, but you’d be wrong, as you can see when you get close and see the finely carved opening. I loved the reflection of the trees, and hope to go back and take pictures again on a sunny day, and yet again when just enough of a chill is in the air to start freezing the water into frostlines on the edges:

The path we took followed along the edge of the river where we saw the sun and moon, a carved wood piece with gold on one side and silver on the other. Here are Kathy and Kate walking ahead of me near the piece:

The light was low, so alas a couple other cool pieces I photographed didn’t turn out since I blurred them. But, tucked into the back woods was the Circle and Line “bowl” with the trough of moss:

On the Birch allee, which will be glorious when the array of different varieties of birch trees matures, are a number of pieces including the raven-woman in my previous post on the sculptures. This piece doesn’t photograph as well as it looks… I think it was called legs:

And saving the best for last, I loved loved LOVED this standing stone:

With my family’s roots in Ireland, I have a “thing” for old standing stones, along with a just-me “thing” for circles, and for sinuous lines (is it because my name begins with an “S”? What if I had been named Brigid, would I still love swoopy lines?). I can definitely see some of this imagery working its way into my pieces based on the gardens.