Catching up

Another year has slipped by since I last wrote.  I've been busy.  Last spring I started making quilts based on the patterns in shells. The first few in this series were shades of brown and beige and gold.

But I tired of that pretty quickly and moved on to other colors.

While the colors depart from the true shell colors, these newer quilts retain the complex gradations that appear on real shells.  I see myself doing more along this line.

It's been 5 years since my last post, but I've decided to take this up again and share what I'm doing in my creative life.  I start with my latest completed project -- a panel depicting a bird that is part of a larger project coordinated by my guild.  Each participant will make a bird panel and then they'll be displayed as though a tree.

Silk Tie Quilt, 36" x 59" I started off with the ties as I received them. The colors were consistently dark red and navy blue. The blocks I constructed with those are contained within the blue and teal bands. With the rest, I stripped the colors out and redyed with red, yellow and blue. I used these ties to create the pieced cross and borders. Although I was frustrated and dissatisfied throughout the whole process, I like the finished result very much, and am planning to do more.

Experiments with batik

vat dyed









Direct application

SALSA Exhibition

This week I had two pieces accepted into SALSA (South Alabama Survey of Artists) at Space 301 in downtown Mobile (space301.com). The exhibit will open on Friday, July 10th. The pieces are:


Bones, 36" x 70" (and detail), 2009

















Alzheimer's #1, 27" x 26" (and detail), 2008

The Dream Rocket

My Space 301 class and I have reserved a spot on the Dream Rocket in Huntsville, AL. Jennifer Marsh, of the International Fiber Collaborative (internationalfibercollaborative.com) is collecting fabric panels from around the world to cover a Saturn rocket. Check it out at thedreamrocket.com. Our contribution has the theme of "World Peas", with the hope that hunger can be eliminated for everyone. Here's my contribution.

12" x 12"

Responding to the Gulf disaster

I had an immediate and visceral reaction to news of the BP oil spill. Here are the initial results.
All three are fabric stretched on a wooden frame.

Shame. 16" x 16"

BP Assault. 18" x 28"

Be Outraged. 20" x 24"