Winter Sets In

My parents sitting in front of the window quilt I made to keep out the cold wind of the Lake.

It is a time when the cold either sharpens your senses or sends you running for a quilt and a mug of tea. It is a time when most of us crave light and we do our best to compensate for the lack of sunlight by decorating our houses, trees and window sills with candles and electric bulbs. No matter where you are from or what your background, it is hard not to appreciate a string of lights across a dark porch railing.

For those of us who are in the arts and crafts business this time of year is hectic. Not only are we trying to sell our wares, but we are making our own lists. Over the past few years, it has become acceptable to do what I have encouraged my friends and family to do all along - make your own presents! This is more easily said or written, than done. The key is not to seek perfection, but rather to enjoy the process of making each gift unique. If you are in the "business," break away from your "thing." Be daring! If you work in cloth, try mixing dry ingredients for cookies, soup or bread. If you work with metal, try sewing. If you work with paints and brushes, pick up some beads and start to string them. You get the idea.

No matter what the weather and no matter how long your list is, appreciate what you have. Take a walk to perk you up and then have a mug of something to warm you up. Everything, even the lights on the front porch will seem clearer and brighter after that.

Peace,
Rebecca

How is it possible to capture someone's life in a quilt? It isn't, but in the process of trying, it forces both the artist and the loved one to consider the colors and textures of the clothes the person wore and the objects and landscapes the person loved. What do the colors signify?

The answer is of course better known by those who loved the person, but as an artist I can say that in the process of sewing these wall hangings I appreciated this person's sense of individual style, her vivaciousness and her boldness. They lent themselves to the birds and flowers I was asked to represent.

This was not an easy commission. I knew one of the daughters of this woman and I cared very much what she was going to think about my representations of her mother. It also was a challenge because the material was of several varieties including silk, polar fleece, t-shirts and velvet. But after some hemming and hawing I decided that the only way to finish them was to start. I am happy to say that the family was very happy with my work.

I survived the TWIST FAIR! Phew it was a long weekend, but it was fun and I sold out of a lot of my small landscapes. As you might be able to tell, I managed to claim enough space to hang a sheet and it gave me space to display beyond the 6' table top we were promised. It is great to watch people take such care shopping. I think people who buy my work are really thinking about what the piece will mean to their friends or loved ones. More than one person walked a way empty handed only to return unable to resist a certain wall hanging.

To Lexie and her crew - thank you for all that you did to make the experience successful for the vendors!

Wedding Commissions

One of the most satisfying kinds of commissions are those intended for wedding presents. In the past two months I have done two and I thought I would share them.

For September Wedding Memories the client asked me to focus on the bride's bouquet flying through the water. I also tried to incorporate the Minister's impromptu cairn alter and the rubber boots the bride wore into the water. I was lucky because I had just the right color green for the brilliant trees in my stash. As I did for the VT water in the next quilt, I used my wrinkle technique to depict ripples and reflections. I quilted the groom's words, "Stepping into this ole river we call life together" into the river bank. It was a fun quilt and I hope the happy couple hangs it for years to come.

The second is a quilt depicting one of the wedding couple's favorite places, Lake Willoughby, VT. I have visited the family cabin throughout my childhood so I had a good idea of what it looks like, but photos from one of the grooms helped me capture the shape of the mountains. I hope this quilt remains in their family and serves as a wonderful reminder of a quiet peaceful place. My only regret is that I forgot to hide their dog in the stitching!

A Forest of Birches

In preparation for the Amherst Family Center's 21st Annual Apple Harvest Festival I'm cranking out as many quilts as I possibly can. I have no shortage of ideas and so it is only the problem of time and energy. Last week I did two apple orchard scenes, one misty threadscape from my imagination and I completed another series of birches - hey! - I had five more in me!

This week I loaded up about eight yards of muslin backing and I am doing a few birch variations, another threadscape and several views of the Notch one after the other. It is hard to wait to see how they came out, but the practical time savings makes it worth the wait. Once I am finished with all that I have pieced I can take the whole roll off the machine and cut them into the individual quilts. This may sound confusing, but it isn't.

If I'm lucky I'll have time to do some batik table runners and my ultimate goal is to do a big piece based on an old apple tree that I can use as a center point for my tent. I have some beautiful gold and brown fabric that caught people's attention last time and I want use some more in my new scene. Wish me luck, cause I'm going to need it!

Oh, and check out my friend's blog http://www.firehausstudio.com/in-the-process/ to see what she says about my quilting. Thanks Liza!

There is an ongoing debate about the difference between art and craft. This Saturday, as I participated in the Amherst craft fair "Art on the Common," I continued the debate in my head. As I watched people shop, as I talked to my customers and as I sold my quilts I came to the conclusion that the number one difference between an artist and a crafter is that I assume I will be able to sell my work unlike my artist friends who work on their art for art's sake and not for money's sake. Birch trees are in, so I make birch tree wall hangings. Ok, it is true that I like birch trees and I do like my design and choice of color. I sold all but one. My local landscapes sold out. I will make more.

But what about all the "crazy" ideas I have in my head? Well the other difference between art and craft is that crafts will fit in a tent. My more artistic ideas will only fit in a large space. They won't even fit in my house. This fall I am going to set aside time for my art. I will experiment more in between the times I am sewing what I know will sell. I will meet with my art quilter friends to talk about design and theory.


However, I have to admit that selling out of my products is cool, I loved the customer interactions I had and I am very thankful to all the people who support and encourage me.
I can be both a crafter and an artist. I know I can.

This past week has been about cards. Cup cakes, onions, peas, corn on the cob, cairns and chicks. There is a certain satisfaction in making paper cards: watching the pile grow, penning my logo on the back, inserting a finished card in a biodegradable plastic sleeve. And I know people love them. But eighteen cupcakes in one day is just too much for the "artist" in me so I will have to get better with my production calendar!

The Seven Continents

Here is my latest commission The Seven Continents (70" x 40") . Starting from left to right: North America (Pioneer Valley, MA), Asia (Korea), South America (the Amazon), Africa (Kilimanjaro), Australia (Ayers Rock and coral reef), Europe (Innishmore, Ireland) and Antarctica. A few of these scenes are personal - the Oxbow as seen from the top Mt. Skinner, the Amazon where my sister spends her summers tracking monkeys, the coral reefs of Australia that my Uncle studies and the beaches where my grandparents wintered and the cliffs of Innishmore where I dangled my feet in 1991, the year I spent criss-crossing Europe.

This quilt was extremely challenging. Not only did I have to pick the scene for each continent, but I had to really work hard to make the seven continents flow together in a way that made sense both in terms of composition and color.

The client told me she had fun watching the process and I am happy that I could finish it within a few months.

The Birch Tree Quilt is Sold

The end of April was a whirl. I set up my new tent at the Amherst Women's Club May Faire and Art Show and thanks to beautiful weather, a massive email on my part, and some loyal friends I had quite a few customers including a woman who fell in love with my Birch Tree quilt! She loved it so much she bought it after much deliberation. I can't really explain how I felt about the whole transaction. It was amazing to have found the person who was meant to have it and it was incredibly weird for me to hand it over to her. I hope she enjoys it as much as I have.

Thank you to everyone for helping to make my art possible. Now that I have a tent I am planning to participate in more sales. Hope to see you there.

Maine Anniversary Quilt

I said I would write a blurb for this blog every month and I'm sneaking this in on the last night of March. This quilt was a lot of fun because I used huge pieces of cloth to make an image portraying Maine as I remember it and as I saw it viewing Google Images. I used a contrasting thread for the quilting and the greenish gold really shows up nicely on the pine trees. I appliqued the leaves as I quilted and I am pleased with their randomness.

Now I've moved on to a commission based on the seven continents and I am glad to report that I'm still having fun...

Two Season Lake Champlain Quilts

When I saw the hand dyed sky blue fabric, I knew exactly what scenes I wanted under it. Half a yard later - two scenes of Lake Champlain from my childhood home. I've been sailing many times in my father's yellow sailboat. I've only been ice fishing a couple of times, and never in a pick-up. But lots of people do drive their vehicles out on the lake, pull their ice houses into place and set up camp for weekends of fishing. A really fresh fish jumps in the pan and Lake Champlain perch are sweet and flaky. I am reserving the other half a yard for a scene near where I live now, that is unless I can't resist another lake scene. It's funny, I never think of moving back to the islands, but when I am quilting, sometimes it feels as if I never left.

My studio is unpacked, my machine is loaded and I am ready to go. To where? I don't know, but there will be a lot of quilts made in the process.