Seasons of Sewing

cool mornings, warm days... makes me wonder which way to go!

I've got 2 traditional quilts that need binding and I'm looking forward to some handsewing time under a warm quilt.

As the earth revolves around the sun, while rotating, I think of my evolution as an sewing artist too... Birthday month introspection!

Throughout my school days, I doodled echo lines around words.

Later, I sewed garments, curtains, reupholstered furniture, machine embroidery... then I fell in the rabbit hole of quilting...

quilts of my own design (didn't know the term art quilt or traditional quilt) it was just play!  This was a slow design process, but oh so enjoyable...  Love the bike close up in the center with the Kermit leg, and the Vanna White posing Kermit!  No pattern, just drew it!

 
traditional quilts following traditional patterns made it faster and got me to hone skills, piecing, binding and machine quilting - repetition is great teacher.  Tried lots of techniques like this small stack and whack












took classes, like this one at Bears Paws West (no longer in existence in HoCo) made art quilts following patterns,

playing in three dimensions, the garment sewer in me loved this, shaping, using my Marks pinking shears (my oldest pair of scissors), following patterns but adapting them.





Here is Professor Moskovi of Duck U.  I wrote a whole little back story for him.  One of these days I will get all my ducks in a row (I've made at least 6, all but 2 have flown the coop!) 

Felt Doughnuts, love working in felt by hand!

Sewing the sprinkles on the pink one was laborious, but fun!

 stretching a technique, here's watercolor background, broderie perse dog, and freemotion zigzag applied black eyed susans. Inspired by a good friend's dog "Daisy" so it's "Daisy in the Blacked Eyed Susans".  I spotted this last week at her house.  It's the first piece that I ever sold, not for money, but for a steak dinner... mmm

art quilts of my own design - these 3 were created in Ideas for Art Quilts class with Deborah Boschert.  Looking forward to this Saturday as I'm taking her class, Small Art Quilts: Designing in a Series.

and now having fun with surface design (dye, ink, paint, beading, needle felting)...












Like the earth revolves, I get back to a different season of sewing, a little older and wiser.  I've got ideas of for a garment and a young neice asking to sew with me, hmm...

Goals - time to stop blocking them

Fall is sneaking up on us, with promises of a new year. 
My thought turn to goals, dreams and aspirations. 

Goals - I should be an expert on this!
Why not, I've spent time in goals, I've blocked them, dove on them, let them in (disappointingly) but rarely made them.  I'm talking sports of course, favoring defensive positions in field hockey, indoor field hockey, camogie, and ice hockey where I really was protecting the goal.

In sports, art and life, I blend a certain amount of skill, single-minded focus, full field awareness, practice, with a smidgen of reckless abandon, love of the game and plain old joy!

Here I am with the Washington Wolves, March 2012.  

I wish the team a fabulous 2012-2013 season. 

With certain sadness, I stopped playing the beautiful game of ice hockey goalie, which is a really different game than just ice hockey!  The experiences and memories, I keep forever.  The garage full of sweaty gear spread out to dry, yeah that part I don't miss! Funny that the game of my life, was very lopsided - 10-1 against a team from Montreal.  We were so overmatched and mesmerized by their skill.  I swear there must have been over 70 shots on goal that day! Our team scored the only goal against them that tournament.

Sometimes the score says you lose, but inside you know you won!

Forest Ranger!

So what do you want to be when you grow up? In high school, the result of a career questionnaire was that it recommended I be a Forest Ranger.

I thought that was the biggest joke.

Now that I am closer to the half century mark than I am to the four-oh, I wonder... What would have happened if I listened to those results?

I do love nature and find a peaceful joy in solitude, I could see myself lecturing on and on about some aspect of nature, informing and educating.  My dad will attest that I don't let people litter! I look good in tan and green.  I love wearing hats & boots...  maybe there was some truth in those results!

Plus you seen the hat?

And since I'm being introspective, I realize that my childhood teddybear does "bear" a resemblance to Smokey the Bear.  Most likely Smokey was designed to look like a teddy bear so that my generation would know that we had personal responsibility for nature.  We also learned responsibility from his friend and fellow national symbol USDA's Forest Service, Woodsy the Owl.



From USDA
Smokey Bear’s expressions can change, but should never be menacing or frightening. He must always be portrayed as caring and informative, appealing to children and adults alike. The key to Smokey Bear’s expressive nature is generally shown in his eyes. It is important that any reproduction of Smokey Bear incorporates his caring, expressive eyes.



Rolling around in my little grey brain cells are several themes...

•  clear space and creativity
•  names (especially multiple names!)

"It is the brain, the little gray cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within--not without."  - Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's  eccentric detective.


Did you know... she was born Agatha May Clarissa Miller? and died as Dame Agatha Christie Mallowan?

thanks for having fun with me today!

Getting Better with Age, AMDG

My birthday month has started - birthdays are like baseball, they don't always follow time the way you would expect.  The birthday month (ok, I admit this is my own invention - but it's a good one)  Ok, the birthday month begins one month prior to my actual birthday and ends one month after.  So yes, the birthday month is really 2 months long, and in my case spans September, October and November.  So this is my "new year" and I turn my thoughts inward.  Interestingly enough, I saw a little old lady today who had just a smidge of resemblance to my Abuela Marta, my paternal grandmother, sewing teacher, and one of my creative mentors.  When this stranger gave me a smile today that had my Abuela's playful humor and a sparkle in her eye, it gave me joy to know Abuela sent me smile-mail from heaven.

In Tempe, Arizona I found this beautifully aged copper post cover at the aisle side of  the pew at Old St. Mary's Church.  I loved that it was worn, wrinkled and tarnished.  There is no way that new copper can compete with the beauty of this aged metal.   The church is a national historic landmark built in 1903.  It's not a traditional parish, it's associated with Arizona State University as the "All Saints Catholic Newman Center Mission".

Interesting snippet heard from our local priest ... sometimes when we think to ourselves "wow, that was lucky", that those opportunities could be free gift of grace from God. 

I've always loved being lucky! 

Personally, I love my luck even more now thinking that those lucky times were gifts of grace from God. Padre also elaborated that those gifts aren't shared willy-nilly as he spoke of the need to do good works along with having good faith.  I'm considering it a good work to put to this out to the blog-sphere, that this is part of who I am. 

As a human, I have many parts and it's a balance since they are all important parts of me - artist, worker, leader, wife, daughter, sister, stepmother, friend to humans and animals, humanitarian, god-loving-atarian, fun finder, and maybe philosophizer too!  When I was younger I walked past these 4 letters "AMDG" everyday - at least twice to-and-from classes.    And I think that God would be pleased to read that when I create art, I may not always think or say that I am doing it for God, but that in my quiet stillness of stitching thread through fabric, I feel closer to those who came before me and to the Creator, the great I am.  I live my life AMDG, I make art AMDG!  I was lucky enough to be Jesuit educated, other trained by SJ's know exactly what AMDG means.  "For the Greater Glory of God."

In a world filled with people, some with different faiths, some without and others struggling, I find myself not sharing about my faith, because I think that's separate from x, y, or z activity that we share, or that it will offend or exclude.  But I can't honestly say that my faith can be separated from the other parts of who I am and for me to share my thoughts on life without acknowledging my simple faith would be offending myself and excluding myself.

My favorite prayer is one of faithful surrender "not my will, but Your Will", I have a comfortable relationship with God.  I say He reads my Facebook posts, so why wouldn't He also read my blogposts?  The "Big G" and I are close that way.   So on this first day of my "birthday month" special thanks and love to those who created me, Mom, Dad and the big G!

Here's some great parting thoughts from St Iggie and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (both of which I think would agree that faith is so intrinsic we can't separate it from the day to day parts of who we are).  Mother Teresa share the name Teresa and an abundance of names. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, "Blessed" because she was beatification Oct. 19, 2003 (only 4 day after my birthday.  She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, known as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and simply Mother Teresa.)

signing out with my big name...
AMALIA TERESA PARRA MORUSIEWICZ


"By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."
―  Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully.
As a result, we ought to appreciate and use these gifts of God insofar as they help us toward our goal of loving service and union with God. But insofar as any created things hinder our progress toward our goal, we ought to let them go.
― St. Ignatius of Loyola

Love is shown more in deeds than in words.
― St. Ignatius of Loyola

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
―  Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Sparkly

On a day filled with wild hats at the royal wedding, I leave you with a scary photo -

or close your eyes right now and scroll down!

foiled again!

so why on a blog which is clearly dedicated to finding my inner artist, do I burden you with my hairdressing woes?

In finding my artistic voice, identity is key - the great question: "who am I"?

Growing up, I loved my grandma's shocking white hair, just couldn't wait for my hair to sparkle with white also. Well a few years back, I decided to stopped coloring and I cut my hair -OMG, Jaime Curtis short!!! whoa!  shocked myself, I think I fainted and woke up a few months later and went back to color!  So, now older and wiser, I will attempt again to embrace my humanity and let some of those sparkling whites grow in... The lighter hair makes for a less shocking transition. So off on an adventure of discovery. 

Go with the Flow - one of my first adventures in art quilts.  All the color except the forest green flecks, red heart and the denim words is made up of silk fibers (hand dyed silk caps) machine needlefelted into the background, which is simply the "wrong" side of the denim.  White bamboo fiber swirls about her being both her hair, the clouds, her thoughts and dreams.

My Inner Artist created "Go with the Flow", while I was distracted with emotion. Cause one of my friends (LB) who is possibly of the most positive people on earth, told me of her cancer diagnosis...(her second time and she is a survivor!)    I think my Inner Artist was telling me to embrace freedom, joy and sparkly hair.  Can you hear her whispers in this piece, is there anything my Inner Artist was saying that you can pass along to me?

I can't always hear my Inner Artist, cause her roommate in my head, the "Inner Critic"-  is such a loud mouth.  So I have given Inner Critic 30 days notice, the Inner Critic, needs to pack her bags and go, or I am evicting her!