Played around a bit with some paper and sewing today:
12" x 12" Gotta love those flowers!
And more results from my having made a mess in the studio the other day. Some yummy hand painted cheescloth:
I love having lots of this in all different colors on hand so that when I need it I can just reach into the stack and keep working.
Last week Joanna and I started a new group that is working it's way through the book The Artists Muse by Betsy Dillard Stroud. Our first challenge was to create a mandala chosen from a list of several suggested topics. I chose friendship for my topic and here's the mandala I created:
A mandala is typically rich with symbolism and meaning and although it may look fairly un-symbolic at first glance every element of this quilt is a representation on some level of friendship.
First the colors in the quilt:
Purple is the color of people seeking spritual fulfillment and they say if you surround yourself with purple you will have peace of mind. Surrounding yourself with friends and those you love is surely one of the best ways to fill your sprit with calmness and peace. Wearing a purple crystal or gemstone is a great way to inspire your imagination, balance your life, remove obstacles and the energize from depression – all traits shared by the gift of friendship.
The color pink provides feelings of caring, tenderness, love and acceptance. Wearing a pink crystal is helfpul when you want calm feelings, relaxation, acceptance and contentment. Again all traits shared by the gift of friendship.
The turquoise in the quilt represents communication. Without communication there can be no friendship. Too much though and you may become overbearing, pushy and overwhelming. Not enough and thoughts of being secretive, closed and confusion surface. A balance of turquoise is cool, refreshing, joyful and relaxed. Wearing a turquoise amulet provides protection, health, confidence and strength. There's just enough turqoise in this quilt to be noticed but not enough to be a overwhelming element.
The center purple motif is stipple quilted. This represents the twists and turns and different directions frienships can take. Although the stippled lines don't cross over each other at any point they do cross over into the straight quilting lines that radiate out from the center of the quilt to the edge. A symbol of how group friendships overlap and interact.
The magenta area of the quilt is quilted in wavy lines radiating out from the edge of the purple area. These wavy lines represent all the good feelings and emotions that true friendships can give off.
And finally the quilt is bound in turquoise because communication is the element that binds all friendships together.
I have to say making this mandala was really an interesting experience for me. I can honestly say that the entire I time I worked on it I thought of good friends past and present and how they have touched my life and helped to make me the person I am today.
Friendship mandala is 19" square, hand painted, machine quilted.
It's been a cold snowy blustery week here in Massachusetts and I am really starting to long for some warm spring breezes...
Hand dyed cheesecloth & angel wings.
In the depths of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
- Albert Camus
This weeks journal quilt:
"Balance"
Background is hand painted linen. Measures 8 1/2 x 11
One of my goals for 2007 is to create one small art quilt a week and here is my first one...
These 4 photos are the only tangible items that I have from my childhood. The dates on them were May 1965 so I am 10 months old. I'm not typically one to dwell on what's happened in the past but I got to spend some time this week with someone I've not seen in a long time but who was a huge part of my childhood so it's had me doing a lot of reflecting. At the same time I have been really looking forward to the start of this new year and all the new challenges that it will bring. And so this first quilt is entitled "The Journey Begins".
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