The first time I went to International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, was the first year for the Journal Quilt Project.  Two series in particular grabbed me and wouldn’t let me forget them:  Maria Elkins’ feathers and Suzanne Riggio’s rooftops.  You can see Maria’s here, and Suzanne’s here (hers are the second row down in the first “bank” of journal quilts on that page).  To see more of that first year’s journals, click here.  I didn’t know at the time how many glorious quilts Suzanne had already made, and clearly with more to come.

Recently when I posted to the QuiltArt list about my drawing, Suzanne saw my post and must have remembered my San Domenico quilt (here and here plus additional blogposts in late June 2006) and sent me this jpeg of her quilt for St. Mary’s school.  Since she doesn’t have a blog, online album or website, I asked permission to share it with all of you and the quiltart list by posting it here:

What is astonishing is that during the eleven years this quilt was in the making, Suzanne had severe back problems, surgery, is now in a wheelchair, and STILL the art will come out, and come out stupendously well!  I just get goosebumps thinking about the quilt, her affection for her school, her art…the whole kit and kaboodle!

Suzanne wrote to me that the quilt “will live is a two-sided glass case with oak surround in the new atrium at St. Mary’s School.  (The names of the graduates and the history of the school are on the back.)”   The new wing will be dedicated on May 31, with archbishops and all.  I expect there will be MANY looks of awe and dew-y eyes!

Addendum:  some new information from Suzanne:
FYI, St. Mary’s is not my school.  We came to St. Mary’s Church in 1996 from West Virginia (36 years).  I had a solo quilt show at St. Mary’s in 1998, and that was the inspiration for the commission to do a sesquicentennial quilt for their school, due in 2009.  I knew nothing about the school at the time and had to do lots of research.

It was a school started by the School Sisters of Notre Dame who got their start in Bavaria in 1833.  Milwaukee was mostly settled by Germans, especially Bavarians, and was a good place for a “mission.” The sisters continued to sponsor the school until 1913 when the parish took over.  But the sisters continued to teach and administer.  The last SSND principal was Sister Betty–the quilt is dedicated to her.

In the course of my work, I applied for and received a couple of grants from the Wisconsin Arts Board to make this work of art.

The work contains historic stained glass (prismatic foil), maps, buildings then and now, lots of text giving the history, a quartet of kids representing 1859 and 2009, the sacraments kids receive, monstronses, gardens and orchards, sunrises, the names of graduates on the back, and a lot more.

Thanks Suzanne for letting me share this incredible work!  The photo is (theoretically) click-able to view slightly larger.

A couple of years ago,  I was able to participate in the phenomenally successful FiberArt for a Cause fund-raiser conceived, organized and run by Virginia Spiegel in which all proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.  I donated this quilt, and thank Gold Donor Katherine McNeese for her generosity to the ACS in her donation for the quilt above, A Sense of Place:  The Tree.

The preview for the final installment, Collage Mania, in which all 384 fiber collages donated by 161 generous artists are now available for your viewing HERE.

Collage Mania, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, opens May 5 with a minimum donation of $80 for each artwork and continues May 6 and 7 when the donation minimum drops to $40.

Please read over the directions on how to participate in Collage Mania. NOW is the time to send me a note if you need special accommodations in any way. Once Collage Mania starts it will be wild and crazy as all artwork is available on a first-come/first-serve basis.

All donations for artwork are made directly to the ACS through Fiberart For A Cause. Patrons receive an immediate electronic receipt from the ACS.  Our goal for this final Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser is at least $20,000. We have already donated over $170,000.

Enjoy the artwork!

Congratulations to Virginia, the small but effective bevy of folks who have joined to help her with artwork for items on Cafe Press, collating and uploading jpegs and preparing the THIRTY NINE pages of collages for this round (among other things), and to all the artists who have participated in the Postcard fundraiser (donations made at the FFAC booth at Quilt Festivals in Houston and Chicago), the several years of Collage Mania, and the several years of the Reverse Auction, and to the generosity of so many who have made this possible.

About five or six years ago, having taken a phenomenal workshop with Hollis Chatelain in 2002 at Kalispell (Montana)’s Quilt Gallery (for which I saved up for two years and drove a thousand miles each way!), and while at another well-done workshop with Jane Sassaman, I came to the conclusion that what I needed was not so much quilting workshops, but ART lessons.  I needed to learn to SEE. I learned other good stuff from Jane, but that was the prize realization!

In a nutshell, I wasn’t getting things to look like they really look OR the way I wanted them to look…I needed to learn how to translate what was in front of me into cloth and in some way other than photos and tracing… I wanted to be able to DRAW so that I could make the quilts in my head.

However, I then lived on San Juan Island, Wash. state, which is 2 hours by ferry from the mainland; while there were assorted painting classes available on the island (population year round about 7,000), there were no basic DRAWING classes, and I needed that first.  So I purchased The New Drawing on The Right Hand Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards (click on title to go to amazon listing) and, to make myself do it, the companion workbook which really makes it such a no-brainer to do that you have no excuse for NOT doing the exercises.

I told some of my quilty friends, and two, Lunnette and Linda, both asked if they could do it with me.  That was the best thing that could have happened… because of our committment to one another, we really worked hard to get the “homework” done.  Lunnette’s sons were mostly grown and gone, but Linda (working full time as a teacher no less) and I had wee  ones at home and work, so the two of us were ALWAYS doing things at the last minute.

When we began, I was skeptical that it would really work, but we decided to give it a go.  As part of the process, you are asked to do several pre-instruction drawings, then not look at them until you complete the training.  The three of us did our self-portraits, and while none were stupendous, you could tell who was who, and a stranger looking at them could have done so, too!  Here is my pre-instruction portrait from Fall 2003:

It took us nearly a year to complete the “course” and we rushed toward the end, as we ended up moving in June 2004 and we all really wanted to finish it together.  Here is my end-of-course portrait:

Quite a bit better, eh?  My notes say “eyes not quite correct.”  Very true.

Now, nearly six years later, (well OK, a year ago, five years or so later I bought the stuff, but it has taken until now to get the time to do this) I decided that I might benefit from doing the workbook and exercises again.  My “seeing” skills are better, but I need more practice.  So, following the instructions more or less (they said use a 2B pencil, and I used a 4B) I did this drawing.

Once it was done, I pulled out the old workbook for comparison.  I’m happy to say I have not gotten worse!  Here are the two side-by-side:

In the new portrait, the face is a bit too narrow, but otherwise it is pretty good.  The eyes are better (and new glasses), and I think the hair is actually better, but the nose in the one from 5 years ago is much better.  The current one also needs more shading, but (in a feeble self defense) that is hard to do with a single pencil… you need the soft ones and smudging….  Anyway, I had forgotten, however, that part of the education is learning to create a ground–to shade the paper to a mid-tone, then work darker AND lighter (the eraser as a drawing tool…was that ever a lightbulb moment!)

To give you an idea of what I was looking at when I did this self-portrait, I managed to take this photo… and you can see my packed studio (and more packed design wall) in the background.  I propped the mirror on the flip-up stitch display on my Janome 6600 (note:  I took the photo in the afternoon, and the sun had shifted so the lighting on my face is different):

And after looking at the “after” portrait from 2004, I went back and darkened up the background and added a bit of shading.  Better.  Face is still too narrow, but looks better. I also appear younger than I actually am… I think that is because there isn’t enough shading, but I need to learn how to convey (sigh) sagging skin and other vagaries of age.

I’ll be curious to see what I can learn by the time I get to the “after” this time around.  Since it took a year last time, and since I don’t have two friends to keep me on track this time, don’t hold your breaths, but I will share…when I’m done.

Eli, our younger son, came home with a TON of graded papers and whatnot just before the April vacation.  Amidst the social studies, writing and math, was an art project from (I think) FCS (Family Commercial Sciences or something similar, what used to be called Home Ec).  Mrs. Burwell (FCS) and Mrs. Andersen (art) are great friends, and get together some AWESOME projects for the Camden-Rockport Middles School students.  Personally, I’d like to TAKE the art classes!

Anyway, the project was to create “Your Personal Portrait Flag.”  The handout notes “One way we communicate is through symbols.  Symbols can be ancient or modern.  A flag is a type of symbol that consists of several parts that represent different meanings.”  The sudents were to sketch their personal flag, reflecting on “four different aspects of you and who you are.”  The students were to answer these questions (taken from the handout):

1. 1. Interests-what things do you love to do?
2. 2. Abilities or skills-what things can you do well?
3. 3. Values-what is really importnat to you?
4. 4. Personality-attitude toward life, ways you behave, etc.

The students then answered the question, learned a bit about design and composition, were to find/create symbols, transfer the designs to fabric, paint the designs, then iron, sew and hang their flags. On the back of the handout, the child listed 1-4 items for each question, then came up with a symbol for each reply.  For pets, Eli drew a cat and a pug, a saxaphone for his music, a soccer ball and goalie gloves for sports and soccer skills, trees for his love of being outside.

How COOL IS THAT???? I want to do it!   At this point, I have to get some work stuff done, like a pattern ready to go to the printer, the first panel of a possible commission done, and other “must do now” stuff, but I think this would make an AWESOME journal quilt type of project….or even something larger…. great creativity stuff!  Hooray for Mrs. Burwell and CRMS (again!).

That is guitar-speak for really crazy wicked wild guitar playing, I think of the heavy metal variety.   Yes, it has been eons so I decided I should blog about the boys.  We will NOT tell them that when they were young I referred to them as C.O.U. (Center of the Universe), as they already think they are.  Just because it’s true doesn’t mean we need to let them KNOW that, after all one is a teen and the other will be (sigh, sob) soon, and we all know about teenage attitudinosity.  Still, they are both pretty cool.

Recently, it was Easter.  Here is Eli searching for his eggs:

And here is Joshua, searching (Not!) for his.  I guess at 15 one is too cool to search for eggs? So to make up for it, I’m helping Eli eat his 100 percent share of the eggs.  Ahem.  Plump goes the Mommy.  Anyway….

And HERE, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, video camera, Joshua’s uploading to YouTube skills as well as guitar, is the teenage beast shredding, with a perfect take on the first try.  If you are over 16 and/or not male, you may want to make sure the speakers are turned down a bit…..

Later this week, Eli’s latest artwork…..now I’m going to pop the lasagna in the oven and enjoy the first balmy day since last October or thereabouts!