Words to begin 2023

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Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside awakes.

Carl Jung

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Artist's Statement: Midnight & Noon (2 of 3)

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Midnight & Noon- sides "A" & "B" The two sides of this quilt could stand separately, but I think they are stronger together. The navy background top, (side "A"), was finished first. Since it has a vertical, portrait, orientation, I deliberately approached the composition of the second top with a different vision. For side "B," I chose to do the reverse, making the shapes dark with a light background and a horizontal orientation. When the two sides were complete they evoked very different feelings.  The forms on side "A" take on a sculptural quality. This side brings to mind walking down the street on a cool night and seeing a streetlight up ahead which spotlights an object. Within that cone of light the form is illuminated but the environment around it falls away into the darkness. We instinctively know that there's more there than we can see.  In contrast, side "B" looks more like a landscape with structures. Its ...
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From the Ashes

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Moment of Transformation Ah, the things you can make with leftovers! The starting point for this piece was the remaining cut away scraps from my last, much larger quilt:  Embers . It was done with a combination of appliqué and reverse appliqué. First the fabric scraps were laid out on the burgundy length of fabric: Appliqué stage After these contours were needle turned under and appliquéd in place, the piece was put on top of a second length of a lighter color. This lighter color would become the background:   The beginnings of reverse appliqué I have taken to using a thin crepe tape to experiment and think through the placement of lines I want to highlight, as can be seen in the lower left area of this photo. This has been so helpful as the tape can be moved around until the right shapes are found without damage to the fabric. Needless to say, now I have scraps in both the burgundy and "creamsickle" (reads more like peach to me.) But they must be put aside for now. I've ...
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Working Larger, Stitching More (1 of 3)

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Midnight and Noon, 2025, side "A" The focus of my work lately has been on creating more dynamic compositions. Of course, this is rather a broad, open ended challenge. It might be easier if I were drawing from reality, we are so familiar with arranging images these days. But, I have chosen to strip out the details of known objects and work with shapes. Even narrowing down what will be in the composition, the question still stands; "Where do you get the shapes?" "What is the starting point?"  I use the scraps from earlier projects to construct shapes for two reasons. First, I enjoy the challenge of creating new forms that I haven't seen before but that still reference their origins, the work that came before. Second, using every bit of fabric is a quilting tradition. It is mindful of resources, minimizes waste, and honors the history of this art form. Midnight and Noon is a double sided quilt, hand appliquéd and hand quilted. I designed the cream on na...
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