I’ve written a lot lately about the inspiration for my quilts and the process I go through when designing quilts for special recipients. Now that my sister’s wedding quilt has been delivered, I can share the thought process behind its creation. My sister and her husband live in Colorado and see the Rocky Mountains on […]
In last month’s newsletter, I discussed how to bring on spring after suffering through the dark time of a creative winter. I wrote about beginning new projects and the process for getting started. I missed the connection at the time, but that turns out to have been a very appropriate article for July because it […]
In the last Sources of Inspiration post , I wrote about being inspired by the person for whom I am creating a quilt and about thinking of particular aspects of the person’s personality or background that I want to use as my starting point. Yet, for an entire series of quilts for one family, the […]
Last week I wrote about being inspired by a bolt of fabric to make a quilt for someone I love. Sometimes though, it is the desire to make a quilt for a loved one that comes first. In the past year, two people I care about were diagnosed with breast cancer. Because neither of them […]
I love fabric. (That’s pretty obvious, I know. I don’t know any quilters who aren’t in love with the materials of our craft.) I have always loved fabric. My mother made clothes when I was a kid and I loved trailing along behind her in a fabric store while she was shopping. I’d run my […]
Last month I wrote about the seasons of creativity and discussed how normal it is to go through cycles of active creation and rest. But, if you find yourself in a creative winter like I do right now, how do you bring on the creative spring? Start a new project! Many cultures celebrate the new […]
It wasn’t that long ago that we humans lived according to the seasons. Here in North America, we aired out our houses and planted in the spring; worked hard through the summer, sometimes taking siestas from the hot midday sun; we reaped what we had sown in the fall and we put up our stores […]
There was a really lovely article printed in the Boston Globe yesterday about my Victims Quilt Project and the exhibit at the Arlington Center for the Arts. I do, however, have to offer a clarification. I did not “meticulously embroider” the letters onto fabric. I printed them out from the computer. I don’t know how […]
I had the great fortune yesterday to spend the entire day in the gallery at the Arlington Center for the Arts, surrounded by the pieces in this exhibit. Of course, I also got to enjoy each piece at the opening reception, but I was no less affected by the power of the work yesterday having […]
I have made quilts that have taken years to make. The first quilt I ever made took two full years of regular work because it was completely handmade – hand pieced, hand quilted, the seam in the backing sewn by hand, and hand-bound. I’ve also had quilts that have taken years because I got started […]