Forest for the Trees

Throw Back Thursday Quilt
1999 Forest for the Trees 

This depicts a sun drenched early morning on a hill near my home. Intuitive curved piecing. Cotton, linen, silk, net, hand painting and quilted. 36x28

Piecing in the Flow

For many years I taught an intuitive piecing workshop. The focus of the workshop was to teach direct cutting into fabric without prior thought, ruler or pattern. Piecing was taught using a really simple curved piecing method. Assembling fabrics that worked together with a few for contast was a key design clue.  Once you got into the act of cutting and piecing, you begin to loose your 'decider' self and proceed from your basic instincts of color and design, thus creating flow. When I first started this, curved piecing was a relatively new idea. 

Postings showing more of this work from 2/15/09, Blast from the Past, 4/20/09, Batting Average- a short history of batting, 12/4/08 Colors on the Brain  and Piecing in the Flow Workshop At Portsmouth Fabric Co. 3/9/08 which describes the workshop.                                 

Poem below from the early 80's.                                                                   

Tree (2003)

IN THE FLOW                   

I go to my table
Filled with my thoughts and my cloth palette.

Cutting through the fabric,
layers in my mind. 

Opening me,

possibilities,

Spirit finds me! Flow!
Standing back,
I see a new thing.
Collaboration!                                                                  

               

Blast to the Past

Sewing, free form quilts, by the rules quilts, folk quilts, free applique quilts ( later to be know as collage quilts), art quilts, painted fabric quilts, digital work. Ah, the progression of a fabric artist. Reading a online list, I have been forced to remember my roots. It has been a journey from 

piecing whatever I had on hand and machine quilting- in 1973 or 74- I just didn't  'know'  any better to digital printing and inventing my holographic fiber work.

My first books were the Noank Quilt Factory by Sharon McKain 1974, a nonconventional yet informative book, the Gutcheon books that I still have for some reason, to Yvonne Porcella and the grand dame of the wearable art movement, Virginia Avery. I was into antiques,  still am,  and those timeless treasures of antique quilts drove my interest.

This paralleled my partner's and my move 'back to the land' to  a farm in NH in 1979. He and I raised all sorts of animals, vegie gardened, put it all up, and heated with wood he cut. Mind you, this actually went on for 15 years or so, while I birthed my 3 children. Prior to that in 1975, when I was a Home Economic 's teacher, I taught sewing to the lucky boys and girls. We did NOT make aprons, oh no THAT! We designed our own patterns, sewn and quilted soft sculpture. WHO remembers that! We hung them from the ceiling and invited the principle for tea. He was bug eyed! Nice, the kids loved it!

Here are a couple early pieces, most are still on slides- what a ball it's been!

Pieces noted here are Molly modeling a vesting, 198?. Forest for the Trees- 1989?, Beyond Gender-1985?  , and Amethyst Summer, 1996.