Kathy's Quotation

Belated Greetings, and an explanation about why my posting is a bit late.    Actually my quilt has been ready for a while, but while trying to compose this Blog entry, my computer, iPhone, and digital camera got together and collectively decided to take the day off  :-(    I've spent hours trying to upload the pix of the quilt (iPhone, camera, computer), and finally had to text (iPhone) the pictures to my sister and have her e-mail them back to me.   Arghhhhh !    Anyway ...  Here we go !

This quotation (Music is What Feelings Sound Like) is near and dear to my heart.   I started piano lessons when I was 6 years old, and started playing the organ in Junior High.   Music has always been an integral part of my life, and often, its where I "go" when I need some peace and quiet; when I need to think things out; where I find happiness, joy, consolation, solace.  

One of my former organ teachers (truly a Master at his craft), would often tell me to "Play with Passion ! " in other words not just 'play' at the music, but really put my heart and soul into it.   I've found this to be really important when I accompany church services.... especially those having to do with what we call "Life Events."     

When I'm 'playing' and rendering service to others as a "Liturgical Musician," I'm at my very best.  I know the people need comfort, support, encouragement, joy, laughter ....  all the emotions that go with the life events we encounter on our journey.     I'm able to do that through the graces of God, and the incredibly awesome musicians who have accompanied me on my own personal journey.

In making this quilt, I used my computer (Shreky! ) to word process the quote, then made paper stencils for each of the letters / words.   Using "Mystyfuse" and dark blue batik fabric, I was able to construct the words, and adhere them onto the lighter blue background fabric.  

I wanted the quilting to be rather ethereal, so kept the stippling pretty tight around the words; then expanded the quilting to include lots of swirls, expanded stippling and meandering.   The threads are two of my most favorites:  Madeira 30 weight variegated rayon (absolutely yummy !), and Madeira monofilament in the bobbin.

The backing of the quilt... of course was inspired by music :-D

The binding:  Pinked raw-edge fabric fused to the back and front of the quilt, and then top stitched, as described in "Fusing Fun !" by Laura Wasilowski

Dee's "Quotation" Challenge

Theme:  Quotations

Dee Stewart Merrell

"Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife, are in fact plans to protect man.”

― Stewart L. Udall

Title:  “A Tree for Udall”

I have kept many books of handwritten quotations over the years; I don't know where they are now, but I am sure that if I could reread them they would still have deep meaning.  As I have lived in different places and been the keeper of children, of promises and of secrets, I have changed and the themes of my quotes have changed. Now one of my favorite quotations, written by me but not the one I chose for this challenge, is; “Grow where you are transplanted”.   I have a closeness with nature, farmland and agriculture which was the canvas of my youth. Presently I live in the city, or rather, suburbs, which I love, but those initial roots have also been my support.   When choosing my quote I knew that I wanted to offer homage to trees. 

I have concerns about the present path that our government has chosen in regards to our environment, and I look back to the  progressive leaders  that initiated the environmental movement;  I chose to highlight Stewart Lee Udall. Stewart Lee Udall was an American politician and later, a federal government official. After serving three terms as a congressman from Arizona, he served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969, under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Udall played a key role in the enactment of environmental laws such as the Clear Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts and Amendments, the Wilderness Act of 1964, the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965, the National Trail System Act of 1968, and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968.  He also helped to spark a cultural renaissance by setting in motion initiatives that led to the Kennedy Center and others.    

My art work was done with two contrasting hand-dyed fabrics, manipulated to offer the  best placement of color.  The trees are fused and stitched with simple background quilting.  The background fabric is by Gloria Loughman, and the tree fabric by Ricky Tims.  The quilted piece is mounted on an 11”  x 14” canvas frame.

Sara's Quote Quilt - Directions from Yogi Berra

 The Women in Visual and Literary Arts in Houston did a show called "She Said", where each piece was inspired by a woman's quote. I thought "Quote" would be a great one word spring board and I did not expound on it much since I thought a work might be inspired by any number of quotes or sayings or perhaps even typography. This topic proved tricky for me because it seems so boundless. As I said the last time, I need boundaries to quit thinking and actually start working!

It turns out that there are many quotes I love. My favorite was on a calendar for "Women who do to much" that I was given at the lowest point of my life. I remember taking to heart the notion that "She who laughs, lasts" (often attributed to Mary Pettibone Poole but sometimes to others). I also love one from Robert E, Lee "The education of a man is not complete until he dies". I did not get a visual sensation from either of those.

 I remembered learning in an "Improving Work Processes" class (when I worked in a manufacturing facility) that Yogi Berra said "if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there". I looked it up and discovered to my horror that that is NOT what Yogi said but rather was derived from the Cheshire cat. Yogi actually said "If you don't know where you are going you will end up somewhere" or perhaps "You have to be careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there". He also gave directions once saying "when you get to the fork in the road, take it". As someone who has always had issues with map directions, I decided to pay tribute to directions from Yogi Berra  with this simple quilt:

Made with bias strips and an x marks the spot done with fusible applique. I constantly do remind myself that "she who laughs lasts"

Alice's Quotation Quilt: A Bookshelf Quilt

I suppose it’s no secret by this time, among my Material Mavens friends, that I love books and reading!  Off the top of my head, I can recall my “Comfort” quilt (favorite reading easy chair, mug of tea, stack of books, etc.) my “Translate” quilt (depicts the main character of my all-time favorite book) and recently, a quilt based on poet Robert Frost’s poem.  Perhaps there have been others that I don’t immediately call to mind, quilts that reveal this love that stands with quilting as my two favorite pastimes.  SO! I embraced this theme with great delight!  What quotation to choose among the hundreds of my most favorite authors?  

And then I chose a quotation from an author (Roald Dahl) who’s a favorite of one of my grandchildren and not me!  But the quotation is so delightful, and as soon as I found it, I knew what I’d construct:  a bookshelf quilt, with a shelf holding some of the favorite books from my childhood.   I put Dahl's quotation in a banner above the bookshelf.  (It reads: "So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV sets away. /  And in its place you can install/ A lovely bookshelf on the wall.)

That idea conjured up a happy memory of myself as a little girl:  Sitting on the floor in front of a shelf in the children’s section of the Austin Public Library.  I had just finished reading THE VOYAGES OF DOCTOR DOOLITTLE, and I was fascinated by the doctor and envied his ability to talk to animals.  When I discovered on the bottom shelf other books about the beloved doctor by author Hugh Lofting, I was as excited as I’d have found a buried treasure!

The books on my bookshelf quilt are pieced, not fused.  Once I had finished the piecing, for the titles I used again a technique I had used for my “Interwoven” quilt, printing onto ribbon.  I typed in different fonts just a few of my childhood favorites among the scores whose titles I well remember. Then using double-stick tape, I taped ribbons over the titles, and I ran this page through the printer again.  

Then I fused the ribbons with the titles down onto the books, using Wonder Under, and then I appliquéd them with a small buttonhole stitch.  I printed off the banner at the top of the quilt with the Roald Dahl quotation, and I appliquéd it, too.  The little blonde girl, who represents me as a child, was a coloring book image that I printed onto fabric, after coloring it with colored pencils. Then I fused it and stitched around it also.  This buttonhole and straight appliqué stitching sufficed for the quilting on my quilt.  I bound the quilt conventionally with red fabric, and the backing is a wonderful print of books that I have had for a long time.

Rita's Quotation Quilt

This challenge has been a delightful thread to follow.  In my search for the perfect quotation to illustrate, I found some writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson that seemed to be a book about quotations, containing quotations about quotations.   And so my quilt was formed.

In actuality, the piece entitled "Quotation and Originality" is just one part of a larger work by Emerson entitled "Letters and Social Aims," published in 1875, containing essays originally published in the 1840s.

My quilt displays only three quotations attributed to Emerson, but several more quotations about quotations from Emerson, which are food for thought, are as follows:

"All minds quote."

"We quote not only books and proverbs, but arts, sciences, religions, customs, and laws; nay, we quote temples and houses, tables and chairs by imitation."

"A brave man quotes bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his memory serves him with a word as good.  What he quotes, he fills with his own voice and humor, and the whole cyclopedia of his table-talk is presently believed to be his own."

"Quotation confesses inferiority."

"The child quotes his father, and the man quotes his friend. . . .  Whatever we think and say is wonderfully better for our spirits and trust, in another mouth."

"The divine never quotes, but is, and creates."

Another quotation that is fun for the imagination was written by Gelett Burgess (1866-1951), author of "The Purple Cow."

"Ah, yes! I wrote the 'Purple Cow'--

I's sorry, now, I wrote it!

But I can tell you anyhow,

I'll kill you if you quote it!"

In creating my quilt, an image of a book, closed and opened, was enlarged to fit the space designated for each. The pieces of the books were traced on heavy weight paper stock, cut out and wrapped with fabric to which a fusible had been applied.  The puzzle pieces of the books were then put together and using permanent fabric glue, attached to the quilted and bound background. A bit of whimsy was added with the stick figures quoting Emerson.

Carolyn's Quote: "Each Flower A Soul"

"Each flower is a soul blossoming in nature."

In March, Alice and I took a class from Lenore Crawford who mixes painted fabric with cotton prints.  After the class, I was not happy with my piece.  It was based on a photo I took of a vivid pink ocotillo bloom at Ghost Ranch, the home of Georgia O’Keefe.  So when thinking about our theme “quote,” I decided to cut it up and make a close-up version of a modern looking cluster of flowers popping up from the ground. 

As a flower-lover, I found a lovely quote by Gernard de Nerval that suited my intention for this design.  Nerval was an 18^th century writer, poet, essayist and translator.  As a friend of Victor Hugo, he translated Goethe’s Faust into French, thereby introducing the French to a variety of German Romantic authors.  He thus became a major figure in French romanticism.

I used pieces of my hand-painted flower that had previously been bonded onto 100% cotton and fused the pieces into a design using Wonder Under.  Each piece was layered onto a piece of dark blue batik. I thought the design needed some other colors, so I free-hand cut and painted a yellow batik flower and green batik for greenery.  The small yellow flower above the leaf is a piece from a Kaffe Fassett fabric.  The quote was digitally printed on a yellow background.  I made a sandwich of the design by adding cotton batting,  a layer of 12”x12” Timtex and a backing fabric.  Then I machine quilted the design through 6 or 7 layers with Aurifil thread on my domestic Bernina machine.

Humor and Travel by Teresa Schlabach

At first I was not sure about this theme, but the more I thought about it, the more I became excited about it - so I did two quote themed projects.  I wanted to reflect that I have humor in my attitude about my job as well as one of my hobbies is to travel!  Thus, the two quilts you see!  There were so many quotes in my collection, it was hard to choose, but these two kept coming to me again and again.  - Teresa Schlabach

Quote by Candace Berry

I have always loved this quote and I love the character in Mother Teresa's wonderful face.  The face was printed from my computer onto a used tea bag. I put it on some hand-dyed fabric using gel medium. I then machine quilted, added some stamping, handstitching, and finished with some silk sari ribbon for the binding.

New theme

Our next inspiring word is SPACE. I hope you have fun with it.

Nedra's Quote - The Emerald City of OZ

The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorite movies as a child.  I loved it, but those flying monkeys and the witch scared me so much I had to cover my eyes when they came on the screen!!  There were so many memorable quotes from it that I had a hard time choosing my favorite!!

I painted fabric for the rolling hills to which I added dots of fabric paint to mimic the sleep inducing poppies encountered on the journey to OZ.  The Emerald City, yellow brick road, Dorothy , basket, Toto, and the larger poppies are fused, beaded, jeweled and embellished with fabric pens.  I added a little machine quilting to the hills and mylar to make Oz sparkle. The quote is printed on hand dyed fabric.

Judy's Quote- Life is not waiting for the storm to pass-It's learning to Dance in the rain

There are a lot of storms in our lives both big and small. After the initial shock of the storm hitting, I work really hard to see any good there might be from the event. There isn’t always dancing, but since I am a relatively optimistic person I choose to head that way. I haven’t had any catastrophic losses so my dances happen pretty fast, but sometimes they are tentative dance steps.

The stomach churning, grieving pain, and yes, physical pain from mental anguish and  physical pain in general is not something you can just turn on or off. There is a process and we can’t do anything, but go forward. Everyone has a different timeline for healing and we need to support without criticism their process. If I need to just sit and hold someones hand or just sit, I want to support them and let them know that someone is there for them.

I've been taking a class at Baylor on 2-D design and it is a joy to now see why a piece of my work works. Before I just did it by instinct and now my world has opened up to see why things are good or bad. I hope you enjoy this little quilt.

Gail's Quote: What is Truth?

One quote I've always loved to ponder is the infamous Pilate's "What is truth?"

spoken just before he washes his hands of any guilt.  This quote speaks to us as loudly today as it did 2000 years ago.  Our eyes, ears, and hearts are inundated with moral relativism, fake news, tweets, and opinions.   So, what is truth?  Truth is reality . The truth comes from our Creator and it is absolute as God is absolute.  

I found this image from some online clip art and added the quote.  The water represents purity, the hands represent humanity, the copper bowl represents the earth, and the green background represents hope.  I really liked this challenge and being Lent I thought this quote was most appropriate.  Happy Passover and Happy Easter!