I love birthdays! Celebrating birthdays is how we say, “I’m glad you’re here! So I was particularly delighted when a friend asked me to make a special quilt for her sister on a special birthday.

Thalia Johnson had come to the studio to visit before. She called me to ask if there was a great tu’rtle quilt for her sister’s birthday. I said, “Not at this moment, but there could be.We sat down with some great reference pictures. Have you used Teamviewer before? It’s a way to share what’s on your screen with someone else. It’s definitely cool. It allows you to look at another person’s computer miles away,

Turtle in the Hostas

Fly Fishing

We decided on a water slider turtle, rather than a tortis or a box turtle. She loves orchids and her sister gave me pictures of her collection. It made a perfect lady’s slipper.
I went to work.
I embroidered the turtle.

Created the branch

Built in the water and sky and made lady slippers.

Here’s Paige with her quilt.

Commissions are an honor. They’re a badge of trust. They also scare me a little. I’m always terrified of letting someone down in some way. But when they  please someone this much, I feel privileged to have been asked.

Feathered Persian

I had an odd childhood. Most of it was after my thirties, so I’m still quite young, actually. Margaret Eddy, my birth mother was a school teacher who really didn’t know what you did with children if you didn’t have a desk between them and you. We figured that out before she and I came to major blows.  I was an only child so she had no earlier practice. So my childhood with my mother consisted of lessons. Piano lessons. Poetry readings. Diagramming sentences. Homework. Odd histories. Writing. Art history. Musicals. Singing music from musicals. And a tendency to try to make money out of the very odd crafts I insisted on doing. She managed practicalities fairly well. I was fed and washed as cleanly as any child with a passion for mud pies can be.

But my other mother taught me the important things.

No, I wasn’t adopted. But I had a neighbor lady who took me in. 

Mary Annis moved next store when I was eight. She lived in Mrs. Zilm’s crazy huge old house with four children, one who was my age. And she just folded me in.

Mary was the original lunatic fringe.It was like visiting OZ. In Mary’s house, people made messes. Out of art. They were late. They didn’t answer phones. Oddly enough they also didn’t care about food, because no one really cooked. I spent days tucked in making doll clothes, embroidering pillow cases, melting crayons, and making my real mother insane. It was perfect. Mary even had a cat who attacked my mother through the ferns when Margaret came to get me. It was wonderful!

An odd thing happened. As an adult, I know how adults just take their children’s friends wherever they’re going. But I had a taste for crafts and antiques her children didn’t share. We bonded over a million craft projects and piles of fabric. Somewhere she became more than my friend’s mom, and more than a neighbor. Words fail me.  Mother comes close. Friend comes closer, but an adult’s friendship with a child is a different friendship. If I wanted mothering, God knows she was a much better at it than my mother.  She was also my champion. She fought my mother for crucial things for me: art lessons, my first cat, space to create. Her fights with Margaret always made me want to head under the couch. She took them on clear eyed and gladly, and Margaret never had a chance. She made my childhood sane.

Why did she do that? I can only guess. She knew it was needful. And a woman who knows that the phone doesn’t need to be answered, also knows what really does.

Mary Shirley Annis

Mary was my friend past my childhood, all my life. I dedicated each of my books to her, for, in truth, they couldn’t have happened without her.  My art wouldn’t have happened without her. Was she my friend? My mother? Words fail us often and they fail us here. I only know she lit my corner of the world and coaxed me out.

Mary Annis passed away on May 8th. For her, I’m sure it’s a graduation, a celebration, a feast of joy to be home. We’ll celebrate her life at a memorial this coming Saturday. I intend to celebrate her life every day, as I live surrounded by her love, working on the art she only understood, with odd children running in and out my door.

You’ll find Mary Annis’s tribute by her daughter Barbara Gail Simons here. There are notes from Betsy and Chuck, her other surviving children, as well.

You’ll find a loving blog of Mary’s life in Indianapolis written by her daughter Betsy Fladung here.

I wrote another blog about Mary called The Mentor Waltz. I hope you find other mothers everywhere, because, God knows, we need them.

Cara Candis Canis

Every dog wants a special sitting spot this time of year in the garden. With a little stealth and effort you can dig a lovely hole that will cool and soothe you all summer long.

• Look for a place where the ground is soft.
• Watch closely to see that your mom isn’t looking. She’s not broad minded, and she probably won’t approve.

• Dig a large luxurious hole that fits you even when you stretch out.

Refuse to sit in it in front of mom. No need to let her know for a certainty you dug it. There are other dogs in the house. It could have been someone else, right?

• Don’t let her fill it with plants or chips. Training people takes years. You need them to understand you are in charge and that, in the end, you’ll get your way.

Ellen’s not over bright, but we all take care of her. I regularly garden with her, digging holes that are lovely structures and making sure that they stay perfectly fresh, for the perfectly fresh dog.

Soulmates

All of life is an art form. I’ve always maintained that how we live our lives, structure our stories, organize or not organize our space is in it’s own way a creative act. Sometimes it features beauty, or courage, or growth. Sometimes it’s a rare moment of survival in the midst of craziness. It is, however a creative act in response to the world we live in.

Several weeks ago, my neighbor Liam told me he wanted to make a volcano. Not  a problem. Got a soda bottle, vinegar and some baking soda. Mix and explode. It was a lovely afternoon.

Yesterday,  I recreated the LaBrea Tar Pits pit in my kitchen. Honest to God. I can barely wait to show Liam.

We wash dishes here every six weeks or when we run out of forks, whichever happens first.This time I decided I’d have a clean kitchen for my birthday which was yesterday. At least it’s a novelty

I had a very slow drain and thought it was risky to run the dish hider ( I haven’t noticed that it washes dishes. But it’s very good at hiding them.) I knew it was a dicy situation, so I went and looked up drain cleaning on the internet. As always, every product had at least one one star review and five five star reviews. Thus equipped, I went over to the hardware store and picked up a product I will not name. It was buffered sulfuric acid. Should cut through anything. Right?

Not exactly. Home again and we put it down the sink. Looked good. Made significant noises. ( I always find those encouraging). I waited 15 minutes and ran cold water. Out of the depth black bubbly goo started to rise. And take over one side of the sink and then the other. I went to the living room and started to pray for a faith healing experience. That didn’t happen. Two hours later I had everything from the black lagoon in the kitchen sink except, thank God, the creature.

Then I heard the drip. I looked down to see a streak of black goo on the pipe. Ran to get a bucket from the studio. Ran some more cold water to dilute it.

This situation is what we call a busted comode. Full of something and going no where. When I though again about plunging and plungers, I remembered that we could have sulfuric acid and black goo everywhere.

Back to Liam’s volcano. I got the box of baking soda and started to pour it in. Black bubbles rushed up one side of the sink. The other side burbled in response. An odd black greasy crust formed on the surface, broken temporarily by more bubble action. It went on all night.Blump. Burbble burbble, blump,plip,plip plip. Grirrrirrrgle. A symphony in black tarry substances. More baking soda in the other side. More blurble sounds. It was the symphony of the swamp.

I plunged at 10:30. At 3 am. More burbling noises but no other changes. The swamp is still extant and bubbling at nine am.

Why is this art? It’s too funny to be anything else at this point. But in the middle of this, when I called a friend to ask what to do about it, she said” Have you seen the moon?” No, it wasn’t a non-sequetur. If you’re going to have the worst plumbing night of your life you might as well have the best moon too. And I bet there was a spectacular moon over the tar pits as the dinosaurs went down. You’ve got to enjoy what’s there. And it’s a new form of surface design. But you might not want to try this at home.

So I hope you have a super moon to light your plumbing disasters. I’m also hoping the plumber works on Sunday.

You’ll find more information about the super moon at

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/world/science/super-moon-rising-20120506-1y6m7.html?selectedImage=0

Update: The plumber doesn’t work on Sunday. And he thinks it’s the whole drainage system. Anyone wanting to buy a quilt today, contact me and we’ll have a half off sale. 

I’m working on a commission  which gives me the opportunity to play with a lot of possibilities. This is a great little quilt with butterflies and bleeding hearts. I’ve got number of backgrounds to try, to very different results.

Here are some of our possibilities.

I did some paint stick rubbings for this. But this is going into a baby’s room and the mom has a sensitive nose. So the answers to those is  no, no matter how lovely.

Which leads us to several hand dyed options. This has a darker black, blue purple background that is more mysterious.

This brighter background gives us a well of color behind the red exterior.

Which did my owner like? The green felt I embroidered the vine on. So I’m off to look at my stash of green hand dye.The background of a quilt is usually your first decision. Except when it isn’t. It changes how everything in your quilt is perceived.

Sometimes it’s very valuable to take your elements and give them an interview on differing backgrounds. You know.

“Do you work and play well with others?”
“Do you share the limelight?”
“How do you fit in here?”

Often the answers aren’t what you expect. Aren’t you glad you asked the question?

Butterfly Components

I’m currently working on a commissioned quilt for a new family that’s just had a baby. The dad has asked me to do a butterfly quilt, partially for the mom but for his baby daughter as well. Commissions are a privilege. It’s an act of trust, that I am always a bit nervous about.

So I make several approaches possible and go from here. The premise was pink and purple butterflies. So I’ve started the quilt with those. I’m using an applique process where I cut my shapes out on sheer fabric backed with Steam A Seam 2, fuse them into a form, embroider them and then cut them out to use as appliques on the quilt. You’ll find full information on this in my new book Thread Magic Garden.

Fabric for butterflies

These are my butterfly fabrics. They’re great sheers and an oriental brocade. I buy these wherever I see them, because you never know if you’ll see them again.

butterfly bits on a pressing cloth

Here they are cut out as butterflies. Each butterfly has two teardrop wings, a body and eyes. They’re on a non-stick pressing cloth so I can arrange them.

fusing onto the sandwich.

Once their formed, I fuse them on to a stabilizer sandwich. This sandwich is made from hand dyed fabric, poly felt, and Decor Bond. This makes a firm embroidery surface that controls some of the distortion that happens with intense embroidery.

I embroider the  butterflies from inside out. First the bodies, then the veins of the wings, then the shadings and finally the outlines. They’re embroidered with a freemotion zigzag stitch and metallic Supertwist threads from Madiera. Finally I added in my bleeding heart blooms as well.

in place with the stem

The image at the top is what they look like cut out.
Here’s the rough placement with the stem I have planned.
Next time we’ll talk about backgrounds.

Thread Magic Garden

You’ll find information about freemotion applique in my book Thread Magic Garden, available on my site, on Amazon, and at your local quilt store.

How many times have I looked at a project I was trying to explain to someone and said,  ”Well, here’s the colors.”  I went into Photoshop and guessed as best I could. 

Quiltverse Volume One by Jacquie Scuitto

Jacquie is a quilter’s quilter. Her quilt work is warm and scrappy and fun. But on top of that she does delightful verse that speaks to the quilter in us all. She reminds me of Cathy Miller’s insights into the quilt world, but with a voice all her own.

Her new book, Quiltverse, is a collection of poems that sound like every quilter I know. She has an ear for what we all say and a heart to say it well. I particularly liked her poem about the sewing machine.

JUST WONDERING
The sewing machine is a wondrous thing
That I’ve never quite figured out:
The needle goes up and down, the bobbin goes round
And a nice neat stitch comes out.
For more years than I’ll tell I’ve used my machine
And sewn a mile or three,
But I still don’t understand how the stitches are formed.
Do you? Or is it just me?

and this is really the answer to all the unanswerable questions 

QUESTIONS— NO ANSWERS!
How long did it take to make that quilt?
(How long is a piece of string?)
How much does that quilt cost?
(How much is a bird on the wing?)
What price on creative dreaming?
What value to place on skill?
Is the time spent drudgery or fun?
Does it give the viewer a thrill?
Is it repeatable or one of a kind?
Would one WANT to make it again?
Trying to answer questions like these
Will sure strain a quilter’s brain!

A Black and White Tale

Jacquie teamed up with Ann Fahl  in 2011 to do a delightful book inspired by Ann’s cat quilts called A Black and White Tale. Her poems shine against Ann’s engaging images of Oreo the family cat.

I really love this new world where self publishing makes it possible for all kinds of people to showcase and document their work. It’s a wonderful thing!

Jacquie Scuitto

You’ll find Jacquie’s new ebook, Quiltverse, volume one, on Smashwords.

You’ll find her blog at http://quiltmuse.blogspot.com

You’ll find A Black and White Tale, her book with Ann Fahl at Ann’s site on www.annfahl.com

or on Amazon at www. amazon.com

 I’ve loved the blog community for it’s warmth and kindness. It’s a place where we are ourselves and where we support each other.  Lately I’ve noticed a new trend in blog comments.I’ve had several blog comments that were personal, critical and edgy. Though I’ve answered them personally, I chose not to post them. I wouldn’t have posted them no matter who they had been directed at. I don’t care to support or encourage a world of edgy critical assault. It feels like a cheap shot for attention. Like talk radio, the more outrageous the comment, the more attention it draws.

I identify myself with quilters for a reason. I like quilters. Many of them are great artists. But to the main, they’re spectacular people.They’re a community of women who support each other, mostly. I have a deep appreciation for their attitudes, morals and stances. Most of them are the definition of decency.

I don’t view myself as a political or argumentative person. Mostly I see myself as here to share my journey and help with yours. I’m perfectly capable of errors and unfortunately human. If I am in error, I’ll do my best to correct it. If that’s the case, I do want to know.

But there’s something about a really flaming comment from someone you don’t know, who has decided that your statement is too light weight, just plain wrong or whatever. If you find yourself wishing to make statements like that, I suggest you think about how much fun that would be to say to that person’s face.Where you can deal with the pain/anger/ embarrassment/ or shame you just engendered. If it loses some of it’s glee for you at that point, you might not want to say it.  

If you know more than I, please enlighten us on your blog. Good for you!  If you find I’ve harmed your feelings or your reputation (never my intention, no matter what) I’ll do anything I can to rectify that. If you just need someone to shoot at, I’m not it. It’s tiresome and I’m not playing.

I really think that attack mode is about sitting safely in a living room, away from how that comment feels for someone else. It feels  private to you as you write it there. It’s about as private as Times Square. That person not only has to deal with that comment, but that comment in a public place. If it isn’t something you would like said to yourself in Times Square, you might want to think it over.

I remember years ago when someone I was involved with told me how fat, old and ugly I was. I was 25.  When I objected, he said it was simply true and I should face the truth. I told him that it was his opinion. not a truth, and like a nose, everyone has one. I’m not a fan of quivering truth, particularly the kind that digs holes in people’s hearts. I’m a fan of the affirmation that may or may not be true, but leaves room for growth, courtesy and respect. I hold my blog as a space for that.

This world of instant information leaves us the ability to say anything. And everything. Perhaps it shouldn’t.  There is such a thing as TMI.

I’m a frustrated archaeologist or paleontologist. My Dad read me God’s, Graves and Scholars when I was a kid, and took me to every natural history museum he could find. By the time we hit the tar pits, I was hooked.

As I got older I realized
a. I wouldn’t be able to handle the snake component.
b. I don’t want to hang out in baking sun.

But the fascination is always there.

So lately I’ve wanted to do a dragonfly in amber. How many dragonflies have I done over the years? I’ve honestly lost count. But I’ve always done live dragonflies. What makes a dragonfly look dead rather than alive. Time to look!

Now, good etiquette is that you never copy anyone. But all art is visual and all art is reference to something. Or put biblically, “There is nothing new under the sun.” So I use pictures as information. What angle does the wing take ?  What does it look like if it’s folded funny? How did the antenna go? It’s always my drawing, but it helps to have a reference.

Enter Pininterest.  I faced facebook with fear and dread. Until I realized it was the largest living room out there. I hesitated on blogging until I realized what an amazing connective community it creates. I guess I’ve passed some kind of threshold on social community, because I flew right into Pininterest. I know it’s not traditional to use it as a bulletin board for a project, but it does strike me as an amazing place to share a creative process. If I’ve fallen off some bridge into evil territory, I’m sure you’ll let me know.

Things I’ve noticed

The shiny sliver eye really does make them look alive. So no shiny eyes.