A few thousand years ago, the middle school principal here in Camden–Maria Libby–put out a call for artwork suggestions for the middle school (a little over a year ago it was).  Among other things, she needed something big for a long, LARGE wall in a hallway below the big gym in the 7th/8th grade end of the school.  My first idea, a seasonal series of panels about the area, was nixed as the kids had already painted something similar a few years before.  Then inspiration hit…what about panels of people who inspire the kids…people from across time, around the world, all disciplines!  So “Be Inspired” was born.  I’m still totally amazed that she loves the idea of textile art, especially on such a big scale…way cool!

This picture is the modest beginning:

I dyed the “earth/sea” fabric (about 12 yards! enough for all six large panels plus one smaller panel) as well as the sky fabric.  Each of the six panels will be 36 inches wide and about 50-56 inches long, with straight top, sides and undulating bottom edge.  The seventh panel goes over a door in the middle of the wall and will read “Be Inspired!”  or “Who Inspires You?”  Then on the door I’ll make a poster that is a “key” to all the figures and places depicted on the panels.  Overall, it will be 21 feet in length and about 4 1/2 feet tall!!!!

Next, after surveying the kids a year ago to find who inspires them most, Mrs. Libby and I selected a representative sampling of folks.  The rules were famous more than 20 years ago, no naughty folks.  In the end, we decided to make one exception:  to include Barack Obama, since as the first non-white President of the US, he will clearly be a historic figure; plus, his inclusion dates the construction of the quilt(s) to 2009 and forward, which is kinda cool.  By doing 20+ years ago, we avoided the sports or pop stars of the moment and confined it to truly historical figures.  Here’s the tentative list for all six panels:
Panel 1:

Asia and Africa:

1.  The Pyramid builders
2.  Mother Theresa
3.  Doctors (Medecins Sans Frontiers)
4.  Jane Goodall
5.  Gandhi
6.  Nelson Mandela
7.  Sir Edmund Hillary (might just do Everest w/ a small figure for that one)

Panels 2, 3 and 4:

The Americas

1.  Martin Luther King
2.  Abraham Lincoln
3.  Rosa Parks
4.  Jackie Robinson
5.  Harriet Tubman
6.  The astronauts
7.  John F. Kennedy
8.  Amelia Ehrhart (w/biplane for the Wright Bros)
9.  Thomas Jefferson
10.  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
11.  The Incas / Machu Picchu
12.  Sacajawea
13.  Lucas / Spielberg / represented by R2d2 and 3CPO if they agree
14.  ?? Lucille Ball (may be a licensing / $$ / copyright problem)
15.  Obama
16.  Teachers

Panels 5 and 6:

1.  The Beatles
2.  Albert Einstein
3.  Beethoven
4.  Anne Frank
5.  Leonardo da Vinci’s vitruvian man
6.  The Cave Paintings
7.  Engineers (bridges, ships buildings)–Eiffel Tower?
8.  The Spanish and Portuguese explorers–ships
9.  Jacques Cousteau and/or the Calypso
10.  Shakespeare

This first panel includes Sacajawea, Martin Luther King (the clear leader in voting by the kids), Jackie Robinson, Barack Obama, teachers, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.  Chamberlain led the 20th Maine at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he and his troops played a pivotal role in the Union victory; he later became a governor and senator for Maine, president of Bowdoin college (in Brunswick, Maine).  So he’s our Maine representative…. Here’s the somewhat “iffy” looking beginning…with the tracings/drawings on paper, pinned to the background.  My first set of pin-ups were too small, so I enlarged them all on my all-in-one-printer until I thought they filled the quilt nicely.

At the top is the first person I made, Sacajawea.  There are no known images of her, so this is based on a sculpture (in Iowa? or was it Idaho?).  She looked a little lonely, so I added mountains.

The hard part is funding.  The school and schoolkids raised enough to cover about one panel (I’m paid, as well as material costs), but the local quilt guild, The Pine Tree Quilt Guild turned down my request for funding (apparently the fact that I’m to be paid is a problem, tho that wasn’t clear in the guidelines… I said I’d use the funds only for materials, but I guess it just didn’t fit the criteria…however, the sweet soul who chairs the panel deciding what fit felt so strongly about the project, she sent a PERSONAL check / donation!!!!!! Thank you!).  Anyway, I’m hoping that once this first piece is done, we’ll be able to generate interest and donations to cover the rest of the project.

Postings here will be scarce for a couple days, as I said I’d have this quilt DONE to enter in Maine Quilts…. it must be delivered on July 21, and as of this moment I am still making the fusible appliques.  EEEEEEK!  Gotta go quilt!

The ways of jurors for big quilt shows mystify me……this year I entered Koi:

and Fields of Gold:

In the annual World of Beauty contest at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. The good news is that after FIVE years of “sorry but….” letters (I got in the first time I applied and never since), I am in AGAIN!!!! HOORAY…

What baffles me is that I consider Koi, a 40×60-ish quilt, two sided, lots of good technique, great quilting, imposing, yet it was “declined” (OK…let’s be blunt: rejected! For the second year in a row!) and the lovely but small (about 16×20) Fields of Gold, which began as a 9×12 journal-type quilt as an illustration/project for my book, has been accepted! I will admit, I ADORE the wheat in the quilting (even if I did do it myself…), which is my favorite part of the quilt along with Lisa Walton’s fabric (visit her website Dyed and Gone to Heaven) which really made the piece. But still… whazzup?

At least Koi got in to Paducah (if my faltering memory serves me correctly) and then got featured to my great surprise in QuiltMania, in a photo spread on the AQS show. Weird. Don’t get me wrong… I’m thrilled the drought is over and that as I teach there for the first time this year, I will have a quilt in the juried show. Still, I’m happily baffled.

Maybe I’ll be able to use Koi as my teacher’s quilt LOL!

Addendum:  Suzanne Sanger and Terry Grant both had very astute observations (see the comments)….  that there have been other koi quilts by other people, but nothing like Fields of Gold…… I think they are on to something…..

WOOOHOOOO…..  in his final year of eligibility, I entered Bijagos Warrior into the NQA show after Lynn Kough invited me to submit an entry for the juried Contemporary Colorations Exhibit II after having seen Fields of Gold in the Chandler show in Arizon at the end of 2008.   Well, to my utter astonishment…while we were away on a trip to a WONDERFUL family reunion in Florida (more in a few days), someone on the Janome list said my quilt had won a prize.  Since I hadn’t seen my name on the list of winners I was confused…turns out NQA hadn’t posted THIS year’s winners, and I was looking at LAST year’s list!   Thanks to Marie K. on the Janome list, I have this picture of my quilt with an Honorable Mention ribbon (in the competitive pictorial category) at the show!

Bijagos Warrior with Honorable Mention Ribbon at the 40th (2009) NQA show in Ohio

Thank you so much Marie for letting me know, taking the picture, and allowing me to share it.  The ribbon–my first ever in a truly national level show (had an Honorable last year at the large-regional, nearly-national show at Lowell Quilt Festival in Massachusetts)–is now hanging on the doorknob to my studio.  Now…to find time to make more truly competition worthy quilts.

In addition to Bijagos Warrior in the main show, I submitted several entries, for the contemporary colorations exhibit.   Fields of Gold was juried into along with works from Laura Cater-Woods Nancy G. Cook, Jane Davila, Karen G. Fisher, Marilyn Gillis, Terry Grant, Gloria Hansen, Leigh McDonald, Kathy McNeil, Pamela Mostek, Scott Murkin, Joanie Zeier Poole, Ruth Power, Jeri Riggs, Norma Schlager, Sarah Smith, Elizabeth Spannring, Cynthia St. Charles, Beth Wheeler, and Kathy York.  It is an incredible honor to be included among such talented artists.  Thank you Lynn!  Without your invitation, I probably wouldn’t have entered the main show and had this wonderful outcome!

Fields of Gold

Wow!   A few weeks ago there was a discussion on the QuiltDesigners Group over on Yahoo, and  internet friend Diane Harman-Hoog of Quilters Keep Learning was prompted to do a quick search on me on the internet.  Diane, you see, is a maven of family genealogy (spelling?).  In just a few days, she had traced my dad’s family back to the Patrick who immigrated from Ireland in 1857, and my mother’s family back to Switzerland and Germany to 1590!!!!!!!!  She incredibly generously sent me a TON of information (and discovered that we have a common ancestor in Edward Plantagenet!) and did this extensive family tree:

Dad’s family is the little cluster on the upper left portion.  All the rest of it is my mom’s family, which has been in the US since the late 1600s.  I had NO idea I had family ties to the Netherlands, Switzerland or Alsace-Lorraine (now France, previously Germany)!  Here’s that corner of the chart:

And here:

And then there were tons of records including my dad’s 1921 passport application.  I printed out over 100 pages of history into a binder (photo at top).

THANK YOU DIANE!

In early May, Virginia Spiegel brough her multi-year campaign to raise funds for cancer research through her FiberArt for a Cause to a close with a final Collage Mania sale.  I was lucky to nab two of my favorite collages by North Carolina artist Grace Howes!   I selected them as gifts for my husband for his birthday.  One reads Faith, the other Trust…because I trust him implicity and completely, and because I have faith in him.   Happy Birthday Dear!

The collages themselves are 8 by 10 inches, and are mounted on stretcher bars covered with batting and batik (11 by 13 inches if I remember correctly).  Interestingly, despite the clear similarities in the two pieces, it was difficult to find a single fabric to use that played nicely with both collages.  In the end, I chose a black with wheat/rust/ochre from my stash. I sure hope Grace likes what I’ve done!  You can visit her web site at Red Barn Studios...

Thanks Grace for donating these wonderful collages! We’re so happy to have them in our home.