OK…so most of you know me as an art quilter.  And some of you know that I adore Hawaiian style quilts, which are definitely on the traditional side.  You may not know that I am also a great fan of Welsh quilts and the quilting from Northern England!

Cover of the Catalog for the 2011 antique quilt show at the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre.

This catalog is for the 2011 show, “Oh that Summer Would Last Forever,” and is about 8 x 8 inches and (if I counted correctly) 28 pages.  The quilts range from pieced, to the wholecloth (which I utterly adore), to applique, and date from the late 1800s to about 1930.

Let’s face it… if it is quilting, I love it!  Not long ago I discovered that there was an exhibit of quilts with a published booklet at the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales.  Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I googled them up, wrote and asked how much it would cost to send a copy of the show catalog to Maine.  Luckily they had just gotten a new and final shipment of the catalogs, and the cost wasn’t much (under $20 including postage); in a rare example of speedy governmental service on both sides of the Atlantic, I got the envelope in about a week despite the onslaught of holiday mail. Here’s a snapshot of the flyer for the show:

Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre flyer

It looks as though this was the third consecutive year for a show, so I hope I can figure out a way to get to the Festival of Quilts, with side trips now including Lampeter, Wales!

Inside cover and front page of the show catalog

and

One of the stunning quilts... just LOOK at that beautiful quilting!

A few years ago before my quilty career took off and funds were more scarce than hen’s teeth, Thelma S. kindly sent me some handdyeds from her stash.  One huge piece (like king size bed quilt huge) was dyed this glorious peach-yellow-rose; I keep thinking of it as a sunrise.  Immediately I wanted to use it as a wholecloth.  That evolved into wanting to dye a wholecloth top the same colors, but in cotton sateen like the English north country style, with Thelma’s piece as the makes-me-happy back.  I still harbor that desire, and am slowly working my free-motion skills up to the demands of the precision of a traditional wholecloth quilt.  I’m definitely a more flow-y, free-form kinda quilter!

After reading the catalog, I went to write Hazel, the kind lady at Jen Jones’ centre who took my order (they don’t have Paypal or online ordering, so I ended up sending my credit card in separate emails, you can also fax or call her) to say how much I loved the catalog, and ended up looking at the site again.  Turns out they had three more books on Welsh quilts.  One, the big one by Jen Jones written in both French and English, would have cost a fortune to mail (so I am trying to get a copy through my local quilt shop and the US distributor for that book), but ordered up two additional books:  Welsh Quilts by Jen Jones, A Towy Guide and Marjorie Horton’s Welsh Quilting Pattern and Design Handbook.  I thought I’d share those, then decided I should also share a couple other books I have on Welsh and English north country quilts.  Since the posts would be waaaaayyyyy too long, I’ve decided to parse it out into three blogposts.

The first book I bought on Welsh quilts is actually a Threads magazine book made up of articles from the magazine, one of which was on Welsh quilts and is called Great Quilting Techniques.  But there’s not a ton of information in there… it left me wanting more, much more.  A few years ago at Quilt Festival in Houston I found

Making Welsh Quilts

Making Welsh Quilts:  The Textile Tradition That Inspired the Amish?,  by Mary Jenkins and Clare Claridge.

Making Welsh Quilts table of contents

As with so many of our quilt books, the shorter front half of the book is the back-story, the information, then there are lots of patterns for projects.  This is wonderful when you want a project book–alas, I always want more of the “not project” stuff!   That said, there is a LOT of great information here, as well as inspiring projects.  Best of all (for me) is the interesting section toward the end called “Welsh Quilting,” with designs –lots of pictures of lots of types of designs– that are typical of the actual quilting part of Welsh Quilts, including hearts, paisleys or Welsh pear, Leaves, Flowers, Spirals, Fans and Circles, Borders, and Infills.  The book would be worth it alone just for this section!

One of the pieced quilt projects

As you can see, the photography is good.  Best of all, the book is still available on Amazon if this type of quilting interests you!

I’ll be back with more of my book stash on Welsh and English quilting soon!

This set of quotes from True to Life:  Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney, by Lawrence Weschler, is also from the Cameraworks chapter (1983).  These relate to LOOKING–or as I would put it, SEEING what is really there.  After taking a number of quilting classes, when I started quilting in earnest, I realized that what I needed was not more quilting classes.  I needed to learn to SEE.  Not merely looking at something and moving along, but really SEEING what is there, how the lines relate and form shapes, create form and substance. On p. 14, Weschler quoted Hockney:

“The camera is a medium is what I suddenly realized,” Hockney explained.  “It’s neither an art, a technique, a craft, nor a hobby—-it’s a tool.  It’s an extraordinary drawing tool. …  these collages are principally about line.  An internal sleeve crease, for example, aligns in the next frame with the outer sleeve contour, and contours generall jag from one frame to the next, a series of locally abrupt disjunctions merging into a wider coherence.” [emphasis in book]

Way cool…. it’s that thing about how we see that I quoted in the first of these posts—how we see things as a series of snapshots that then merge to create a whole.  This continues on p. 1:

“Yes,” he [Hockney] said, “I think some of the most effective collages in both the Polaroids and my more recent series involve the theme of looking—-of looking at people looking.”

and on p. 21:

Looking, for Hockney, is interest-ing:  it is the continual projection of interest.  “These collages only work,” Hockney explains, “bcause there is something interesting in every single square, something to catch your eye.  Helmut Newton, the photograher, was by here the other day, and I said, ‘Everywhere I look is interesting.” ‘Not me,’ he replied, ‘I bore easily.’  Imagine! I’ve always loved that phrase of [18-19th c. English painter] Constable’s where he says, ‘I never saw and ugly thing,’ and doing these collages I think I’ve come to better understand what he means:  It’s the very process of looking at something that makes it beautiful.”

I don’t suppose he was talking about our pug, <grin>, but there is truth there…the more you really look at something, the more interesting it becomes.  I’ll be back anon with more from this wonderful book.

Hi all!   Welcome to those of you who have surfed in from Virginia Spiegel’s blogpost which featured my studio.  And for my regular readers, please do go visit Virginia’s blog…. here’s what it is all about:  Over the past several years, Virginia has singlehandedly—with help from a whole BUNCH of people–raised over $200,000 to benefit the American Cancer Society.  It began with FFAC–Fiberart For A Cause challenge–fabric postcards at $30 each donated by many, many, many talented art quilters.  After a respite, Virginia has launched the Foto/Fiber fundraiser for this year.  Learn more about it here and for how it works and to participate click here.  You can also click on the button in the left sidebar to visit this cause.

Welcome to my studio...this is what I see when I walk through the door.

Long-time readers may recall from my previous participation that I have a very special place in my heart for this cancer research fundraiser project:  my father was diagnosed with throat cancer (having smoked cigars for 65 years) at age 82; his treatment was successful and he lived another 14 years.  My half-brother Charlie, a many-packs-a-day cigarette smoker, died of cancer of a whole lot of organs due to his smoking, and my dear friend Linda Wauchope died of liver cancer–if good attitude could save you, she would be with us here today!  I miss them all, and it is a privelege to be able to remember them and do something to help support research to cure the many nefarious varieties of cancer.

One of my gifties for Foto/Fiber is the postcard (fitting, don’t you think, considering it all began with postcards) seen (a detail anyway) on Virginia’s blog.  Another part is about a yard’s worth of my hand-dyed fabrics–a decidedly eclectic (odd?) assortment:

Hand-dyed cottons are the other part of my "bonus" donation

This was “in the beginning” for this studio:

This is what it looked like in the beginning. I don't have anything against brown walls, but in a basement room with one tiny window and two bare bulbs???? This was what my studio looked like before we began the work!

Most of last year’s teaching income went to fixing up the studio just right and some goodies for the house…like a new sofa and replacing the “vintage” (ahem) mattress!  I’m happy to say I no longer wake up with aching bones.

One of the best parts of my studio is mobile…he follows me where I go and often sleeps by my feet.  The painted cement floor, however, is too cold in winter so Pigwidgeon is on a mission to squash the new loveseat cushions.  How can I get upset with someone SO CUTE?

The pug who acts like a cat and sleeps on the back of the sofa. Oh how I love the dog-beast! Here he's wondering WHY I am snapping pictures when it is oh-so-hard to keep the eyes above half-mast.

Sometimes, however, a dog needs to move. In this case, about 22 inches to the next cushion over!

I blogged about the transformation of the space as it happened.  You can see those posts here:

• First mention of the studio here with two pictures (one of them is the one above).
• Then the transformation begins here.
• More work, including painting the cement floor here.
• More on the floor and small progress here.
• A bulletin board/display wall here.
• Adding the really LONG closet here.

If you are thinking about working on your studio and have any questions, just leave a comment!

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hope you’ll visit Foto/Fiber and make a donation on February 15 and 16!  One more time, here’s the link to how Foto/Fiber works!

Books like this make me happy, they excite me, make we want to dash out and learn more more more and create… I told my friends that if I hadn’t already bought them presents for Christmas, I would have bought each of them a copy of this book.  Kate looked at my copy, and promptly took all the info to order it for her town Library (her town is SO lucky to have her as their Librarian, but I digress…)…   What book?  Personal Geographies: Explorations in Mixed Media Mapmaking by Jill K. Berry.

Personal Geographies by Jill K. Berry.

Order from her here or Amazon.com here.

Ya know how a comment from an internet friend, especially one in a small group where you get to really know each other and know a suggestion is worth checking out, will set you off to check out a link for a tutorial, which will lead you a person’s blog, then their website, and on and on?  And then you find out she has just published a book…on a subject you adore?  In this case, it was this tutorial on geo-papers and Jill Berry’s blog and book about maps…all SORTS of maps!

True confessions:  I will admit to being totally, utterly biased.  I LOVE maps and I LOVE color and I really enjoy a bit of whimsy. But let’s start at the beginning:

Table of Contents

As you can see from the map on the right page, it’s not all about continents and streets and the bird’s eye view from the height of an orbiting satellite… that map is about the Right Place at the Right Time…oooh what a cool concept to turn into a map!   You know straight off you’re not in for some dry tome on elevations and political boundaries, at least in the usual map-sense.  This book begins with some basics:

• What is a Map
• Questions for the Cosmic Cartographer
• Things to Map

"What is a Map" from Personal Geographies; as you can see, I was so excited reading it and full of ideas I had to write them down in aqua ink right there on the page--any book that does that to me is a GOOD BOOK in my world!

• Nontraditional and Quirky Maps
• Parts of a Map
• Designing a Compass Rose

Parts of a Map---pages like this make me want to learn more, see more old maps....

• Designing a Cartouche
• Supplies for the Journey

Now…I am a book fiend AND I love to delve MORE into the information… I was thrilled that in the back is a Resource section that coers not only where to get STUFF, but where to get more information…like research sites and good books for learning more.  Guess where I’m going …the internet and inter-library loan!!! and I may be adding a couple of new reference books to my groaning book shelves! I mean…how tempting is it to know there is a site where you can learn the history of sea monsters?!!!! OK… I’m really not gonna go surf now…really…..

Then there are the three major sections of the book:

• Mapping the Self
• Mapping Your Experience
• Plans, Projections and Possibilities

Oh me Oh MY…..just re-reading this makes me want to stop writing and go PLAY and DO! But I will restrain myself just a bit… just for you dear readers!

One of the first maps is this one which, when you read the words closely on the top layer (“My Idea of My Neighbors’ Day not mine”)  and suss out the words on the underneath layer  (Jill’s life) are just hilarious…makes me wish Jill were my neighbor–this is someone with whom you can have fun!  I’ll just have to do that via her book.

Jill K. Berry's"Head Map"--please remember all these pages and artwork are Jill's and respect her copyright!

Just one example…on the nape of the neck it reads on the top layer:  The way to sculptured shoulders perfect in halter tops.  On the underneath layers:  several blog shapes with the notation:  spit-up land.  What a hoot… anyone who has been a mom or babysat remembers having shoulders like that!

Another cool thing Jill did is to ask a dozen mixed media art buddies (including Jane LaFazio, whose classes I’ve taken online….) to try making a map–something they had never done before.  She sent them the projects in this book, and they each tried… and wow what they did… it is so much FUN!

As usual for me, I wish there were more more more of the information up front, and not quite so many projects, but that is just me.  The set up of the book is pretty standard for what you see in the quilty world, too:  information up front, projects in back, a smattering of art from other artists to illustrate the author’s writing, and resources, index, biographies of contributors, etc. in the back.  That’s just a quibble…I’m greedy:  I WANT MORE!   So thanks to this book, I’ll set off on my own map journey, which will include going to that sea monster site.  Now!   And oh yeah, in case you hadn’t figured it out, I can highly recommend this book, especially if you like maps, or if you just want a lark into a mixed media thingy that might just open whole new ideas for you!

Another thrill—I am one of a number of folks who have written for Quilting Arts magazine whose articles were included in The Best of Quilting Arts: Your Ultimate Resource for Art Quilt Techniques and Inspiration, edited by Pokey Bolton.

The Best of Quilting Arts by Pokey Bolton

My articles on edge finishes were merged, edited and included in the first of five major sections in the book.  The Table of Contents is impressive:

The Table of Contents, The Best of Quilting Arts

The five major sections are:

• 1. Starting and Finishing: Art Quilt Basics (this includes my article)
• 2. Trends in Surface Design:  Stamping, Dyeing, Printing, and More
• 3.  People, Pets, andMore:  Representation in Art Quilting
• 4. Make it Green:  Recycled and Natural Materials
• 5.  Embellishment and Mixed Media:  Too  Much is Never Enough

This page spread is the opening of my contributions.

After each section Jane Davila has written a “Professional Advice” article on various subjects, all of which are interesting.

One of Jane Davila's Professional Advise articles.

For anyone new to art quilting, this is a fabulous all-in-one-place resource, and it would be a useful addition to the newbies library and even for those who are at an intermediate level.  As always with Quilting Arts magazines and books, the layout, graphics, and photography are outstanding.  And for those of us who live in the boonies, there is a useful Resources list in the back along with additional reading suggestions and a useful index.