Judy's Open Books, Open Minds

 

With books being banned in this day and age I’m stunned. I can’t imagine growing up being told you can’t read a book because it was bad. When I was in high school I helped the librarian by typing up cards of the new books for the card catalog. The bonus is that I was able to read the ones I wanted before anyone else did. There were several I chose and was shocked with what was in there, but I got to decide if I wanted to finish reading it or not. If I wanted to learn more I was able to go out there to see what someone else’s point of view was.

I love my libraries and bookstores. They are places that hold so many treasures. When I walk in I just relax and savor my time there. Growing up the little town library had beautiful picture books. As I got older, my favorite books were the little orange books about people like Clara Barton and George Washington Carver. A couple years ago I spent time again in that little library using their internet for researching Missouri counties. From that research I was able to make a quilt block that was chosen to be included in the quilt for the state bicentennial. That quilt was going to be unveiled in a special celebration at the Missouri governors mansion on March 26, 2020. I was going to be there for that but when Covid hit I never got to see it. That year they also made an ornament of my block for the Governors Christmas tree. The sweet thing is that all of my sisters and my Mom were able to see the quilt as it traveled around the state.

The big town 15 miles away had a grand library with a winding marble staircase up to the children’s department. Summers were the best because there was always a summer reading program and you got a sticker for each book you read.

When my husband and I moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho I walked into their beautiful library to find a Christmas tree that was positioned so that it went all the way up to the second floor. Imagine a 2 story tall tree in the center of the library!

I always took my sons and then grandson to story hour here in Waco and Hewitt. It was hard to see the libraries close here because of Covid, but I was so thankful they did curbside pick ups. The libraries did a great job getting story hour online when we couldn’t go. Now story hours are coming back! There is just something special hearing someone read to you.

The background fabric is some leftover from the millennium. I love that it has it written in so many languages. I was just going to put the lightbulb above the pages, but the Hoffman fabric was so bright and vibrant that I could see the joy flowing out of the book.

Enjoy a book of your choice today!!!!!

Andrea's Open Quilt

 Open - Toad Shoes

11" x 14"

Fused commercial and hand stenciled cotton fabric.

OPEN was my submission for, at the time, the drawing for the last Material Mavens quilt. 

When thinking of an appropriate theme, I kept saying to myself "When one door closes, another opens"

( Alexander Graham Bell ), so I thought OPEN would be fitting.  As we now know, that door did not close, just shifted a bit, thanks to Nedra!

When re-thinking my Open options, I came up with 'open-toe/toed' shoes and as I am a confirmed shoe addict, this was perfect.  I believe both open-toe and open-toed are correct terms, however 'toed" looks odd to me and so that became toad.  These Open-Toad shoes are based on a favorite pair of black and white shoes purchased in London in 1986 and even though they no longer fit, I can not bear to part with them!

I cut a toad stencil to print my black and white fabric which I was pleased with, but then could not find a fabric that I liked for the insole, so I concentrated on the background fabric instead.  I auditioned a few black and white fabrics, finding one in particular that worked, but decided I should print my own.  I spent the better part of three days printing lots of fabric, but when I was honest with myself, none of them worked as well as the commercial fabric I had originally chosen.  Using a fine, thin white cotton for the insole with the background "show-through" worked also, as it did not distract the the toads, but added just enough subtle texture.

Nedra's Open - Australian Open

 Tennis is of huge interest to me - playing and watching!  The Big Four - the slams as they are called - include the US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros(French Open), and the Australian Open.  The calendar year of the pro circuit begins in January in Melbourne, Australia and of course I was watching it when I began to contemplate my choice for the Open theme.  The rest of the project was easy.  

The court at the AO is blue and represented in the bottom corner, the flag of Australia in the upper, and the ubiquitous kangaroo is playing!!  Commercial fabric was used, including a Kafffe Fassett for the roo,  and one was painted to get the right color for the court.  The piece is fused and machine quilted.   So fun!!

Tricia's Open Window

 Tricia's Open Window

When I heard the theme OPEN I was really stumped. I thought about open fields, open sky's etc. I just couldn't settle on anything to create a quilt. After talking the theme over with my husband, I thought about an open window. I remembered an open window in a summer cottage. I went looking thru all my photos. I found the summer cottage but wasn't convinced that I wanted to create that image. Then I stubbled on this photo of our black cat, Moss. The photo is from our house in Nantucket. Moss loves to sit in the windows.

I have recently been working on thread paintings of a few dogs. I printed the photo onto broadcloth and started to thread paint Moss. It was much harder to thread paint a black cat! There are very few variations in his fur. It's even hard to see the cats body shapes. I stitched a few details in the background. I then appliquéd  flowers in the flower box that hangs outside the window. I free motion stitched the centers of all the flowers.

Carolyn: Open Hands Grow Caring Hearts

My thoughts for the chosen word, “open” continually went to an image of open hands.  I have thought a great deal about how much at this particular time in our national history, we need to be more open to folks who are different from us in ALL ways - gender, ethnicity, religiously, politically, etc. It is so much easier to accept people who are like us in every way, and oh so very hard to accept those who are different. I firmly believe that the first step in healing is learning to accept others. And, I have personally experienced the growth of love that can come from doing just that. Thus, “Open Hands Grow Loving Hearts” became my theme.

I chose a hand-painted fabric in sun-filled colors by Laura Wasalowski for the background. I took a course from Laura many year ago, and I adore her use of whimsy and bright colors.  I found an old tree stencil in my stash of “things for quilts” and modified it for my bare-branched tree. I drew the tree onto a light tan batik fabric and then painted it with Intense Ink Pencils.  When it was dry, I used Primacolor Pencils to sketch in shadows and lines. My next step was to choose scraps of Kaffe fabrics and hand-dyed fabrics for “hands” to serve as leaves for the tree. I selected different colors and textures to mimic the great variety of people in our world. 

The tree with Wonder Under was carefully cut out and fused to the background. Then I drew roots for the tree directly onto the background. I colored them in with multiple colors of Primacolor Pencils. After making the “4-layer sandwich” with batting, Timtex and backing fabric, I machine stitched the tree and roots.  

Next came the placement of the hearts. I decided to make 3 hearts flying away from the tree and 4 hearts growing up from the roots. To do this, I felt like I first needed to create some grass and leafy stems. I drew them directly onto the background, stitched around them, and then colored them in with multiple layers of green Primacolor Pencils. With each step when using pencils, I “set” the colors with a hot iron. 

The final step was the binding. For that, I chose a Kaffe Collective fabric that complemented the fabrics used for the hands. I hope you will enjoy my interpretation of "Open".

Andrea: Excerpts from (Instagram) 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge

 We were given a new theme each day to work with.  I decided to sketch in a concertina/accordion sketchbook: