Photo suite 45 -- me and my shadow

Cover girl

I have a quilt in the SAQA-sponsored exhibit, "Seasonal Palette," which is on display this weekend at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  I wasn't there, but was happy to get a copy of the catalog in the mail yesterday, and surprise -- there was my quilt on the cover!

That's it at the upper left, my depiction of the glaciers and icebergs in Antarctica.














We were asked to submit extensive documentation of our process, both the concept and the execution.  Here's what I wrote about my inspiration:

Imagine winter so profound that the snow never melts from one year to the next.  Instead it grows deeper, deeper, the new snow on top piling so heavily on the old that the bottom layers are compressed into ice.  The ice flows like a river across the land, picking up dirt and stones as it moves.

Eventually it reaches the lake or the sea, and large or small chunks begin to calve away from the huge frozen river.  Some ice stays in small slushy heaps at the foot of the glacier; some floats away as icebergs, perhaps to travel hundreds of miles before they melt, perhaps sinking a ship or two along the way.  

Last year I was privileged to go to Antarctica.  I've always been a lover of cold weather and the big ice we saw, sailed around and walked upon was breathtaking.  I was fascinated by the myriad of colors of blue in the ice, the veins of dirt, the complex fracture patterns as chunks cleave and break away.  I attempted to depict these fascinations in my quilt "Big Ice."

And here's a full view of the quilt:

Update:  I've posted this to Nina-Marie Sayre's weekly blog; click here to see what other fiber artists have been up to recently.

Sign of the week

Junk mail haiku 3

Yesterday I showed you some of the less serious poems I've been finding in our junk mail.  Here's a subset of those poems: those where the appeal is not to charity, not to education or culture, but to plain old GREED.

Junk mail haiku 2

I wrote several weeks ago about the "found haiku" I've been getting from our daily pile of junk mail.  I will point out that this project makes me happy to see a bunch of junk mail, perhaps the only way known to mankind to achieve that end.

When the appeal is for the starving and suffering of the earth, I don't like to find smartass poems in the letter, but when it comes from a less worthy cause I have no compunctions.  Here are some of the ironic or humorous haiku I've found in the junk.

Giveaway!!

I have finished all my Christmas ornaments, except for The New Guy, as we refer to him around the dinner table -- who we hope will have the good graces to be born this week and receive a name that I could embroider on his ornament.  As with so many other projects,  I finished just about the time I was getting really good at it.

Toward the end, it was taking me half the time to produce an ornament as it did at the start.  I figured  out exactly how to do the embroidery, which threads and decorations worked better than others, how to attach the hanging loops and finish the ends.

At the start, when I was still experimenting, some of the ornaments looked better than others.  Later on, they all looked great.  When I got to the end (except of course for The New Guy) I was on a roll, and kind of sad to be finished.

But I had a good idea.  I have pretty much cleaned off my work area, except for what I'll need for TNG's ornament, put away the tulle (which I only used on a few pieces), wrapped up the decorative braids and stowed the quilt batting.  Still, one more ornament would be kind of fun, and relatively effortless.

So here's a holiday giveaway to thank my faithful blog readers for faithfully reading.  Leave me a comment before Thursday morning (the day TNG is supposed to arrive) and one of you will get an ornament, embroidered with whatever name you tell me.  I hope you'll keep it for yourself, but I would understand the urge to get something sweet for your grandchild.  (I won't make ornaments for cats, dogs or goldfish.)  USA only, please, but I promise I'll have equal opportunities for international readers in the future.

Thanks to you all, and let me be the first to wish you Merry Christmas!