lessons a quilt can teach

i have just finished a week long class in listening. listening to my own heart and soul. listening to my inspiration... listening to the process... listening to the quilt.

i have been thinking of what we have to learn from our past. our past history as humans from those who have gone before us and the past history of the world. i have just begun to bring these elements together in a quilt. i am pleased with the progress i am making. you may not be able to see what i am seeing at this point. but eventually you will...just have faith.

it all started with a scarf i had from my grandmother. it was from china before ww2. it had a huge hole in it. i tore it into pieces and passed some around. i dyed part of it in tea which i posted here awhile back. i found some fossils that were the same color...i will photograph them later when the light is right. it all started to assemble itself into a story with those elements as main characters. i waited for more elements to appear and assembled them with some other fabrics i wanted to work with. some of it was dyed by deb lacativa and sarah jackson; some by arlee bar. added to what i had dyed myself with a bit of african hand dye, i started with a wonderful palate.

more as i go on... and as i reflect the lessons this week has taught me.

beach grasses for grace

i finished it!!!

i have finally finished my piece that i started in rosalie dace's class on trees last year. she is a marvelous instructor. she inspires without dictating. she helped me immensely in finding a voice for this work. i have to add that without taking jude's classes this wouldn't be the piece that it is... i have used much more hand work than i was originally inspired to do. if i had finished this in a more timely manor, it wouldn't have bee n the same piece. but it is done now and i am very pleased with it. i am titling it "synergy". i hope to do a series based on the inspirations for this piece.

feathers and pelicans!

we went

to the beach for a week without internet, cable, telephone..except the mobile whose number very few have... it was the best week ever... so many things to show. but i have to first talk about the pelicans... the brown pelican is not commonly seen along the northwest coast except near westport, wa. in the fall. they are not local breeders but are powerful flyers and travel great distances in search of food, especially after the breeding season is over. this is according to birds of the pacific northwest coast by nancy barron and john acorn.

we were lucky enough to see literally thousands of these fascinating birds. every night we would walk to the ocean and sit and watch as groups of fifty or more would come flying by, sometimes within inches of the ocean and sometimes diving down into the water. we were lucky when one night they were landed on a little spit in front of us so we wandered down to see if we could photograph some... neither of us have really long lenses but we were able to get some decent pictures. the brown feather is my inspiration for jude's feather project. anyone can contribute... she is making something that will go to benefit children.