The Full Moon/Waning Moon/ Letting Go Quilt Sale continues. Below are the last two additions to the sale. All the quilts are $150 each + $20 shipping. If you’re interested or have any questions email me at maria@fullmoonfiberart.com.

This one is “Black, White and Red All Over”. I was inspired by one of the Gee’s Bends quilts were I noticed that the ties were just as important as the fabric it was tacking. I wanted to make a quilt that did the same thing. I named it “Black, White and Red All Over” after the joke that asks “What’s black white and read all over?” (The answer, of course, is a newspaper.) This one is all about color and texture, and has lots of slow details. It’s measures about 85″ x 64″. SOLD

This is a detail and below is the back of the quilt.

The last quilt for sale is called “Victorian Trashy” It’s inspiration came of a dreamy state of mind. I was thinking of all those small spaces in nature where fairies might live, tiny, protected moss covered areas, the spaces under leaves or between rocks. Jeanne’s bottle (from the old TV show “I Dream of Jeanne” ) was also on my mind. As a kid I loved the inside of her bottle where she lived before being released. I always wanted one of those pink, circular couches. “Trashy Victorian” has pockets and buttons and some vintage fabric from the 1950′s and 60′s. I think the mix of fabrics and textures along with the “fleshy” colors give it the “trash” in “Trashy” It’s about 86″ x 61″.  SOLD

Below is a detail.

I know the full moon was on Monday, but I just don’t want to wait for the next one. I guess it’s really a Waning Moon Quilt Sale, which makes sense too. So I’m starting something new with my business and my art and it’s time to move some of the my quilts to make space for new ones. Some of these I’ll have a hard time letting go of (humm maybe it’s a “Letting Go Quilt Sale”) but the original intent of my work is to connect with people and if someone want them, that’s were they should be.

The following quits are for sale for $150.00 each + $20.00 shipping. If you see something you like contact me at maria@fullmoonfiberart.com.

The first (below) is one of my favorites, “Spanish Moss”. Lots of vintage 70′s fabric and ties. I called “Spanish Moss” because when I look at it I keep trying to figure it out, like looking at spanish moss hanging from trees and trying to understand why it grows in the directions it does.It’s about 58″ x 45″.

This one I saw in a dream. It’s called “Red Square” because that’s the title that came to me on waking. There are layers of fabric under the white. It’s a subtle and quiet quilt revealing itself slowly. There is also a detail photo and a photo of the back. It’s about 51″ x 68″.

The last one for today is called “Feed the Hunger” the title comes from and Indigo Girls song. The lyrics are “starve the emptiness, feed the hunger”. That’s what I’m doing whenever I make a quilt I’m feeding the hunger. This started as a monochromatic quilt (the center) and gets gradually bolder. I remember debating which way to take it once I laid out the blues. But once I put the red and yellow down, I knew there was no turning back. I love looking at the subtle change of color in the yellows and the different patterns in the reds. It measures about 56″ x 67″.  SOLD

Enjoy looking and let me know if you see something you like. I’ll post a few more tomorrow.

Last week I received a box of fabric in the mail. It turned out to be a treasure chest. Inside were some precious and history laden personal items. A shirt made of pineapple fiber. 2 pieces of cloth hand woven by the Ifugao tribeswomen of the Phillipines. And a much used (and obviously loved) quilt made by the grandmother of the woman who sent the box. Her grandmother was Sarah Palmer and she made the quilt for her hope chest. She started the quilt when she was 15 and finished it 2 months before she got married to the man she would be with for over 70 years.

I made a couple of potholders from a piece of the quilt and the woven fabric in exchange for the fabric. There another small wall hanging that I think I’m going to use in a quilt. And I’m still thinking about how to use the rest of the treasures.

The path where Jon and I walk with the dogs is always changing. From day to day, from morning to afternoon and I’m sure from moment to moment, although I wouldn’t see such small changes. So sometimes, to make myself more present and observant, I focus on the wild flowers. On the way in I notice all the different flowers growing that day. On the way back I pick one of each. I always wind up with a bigger bouquet than I expected. If I see only one of a certain type of flower growing I leave it to grow. I’m sure there are always one or two flowers that I miss.

Last walk , after lots of rain, there were some white, waxy, mushroom-like flowers. They looked like the ghosts of miniature daffodils, only very real, very substantial. I decided to leave them where they were. (I’m reading Alice Hoffman’s “Practical Magic” a witchy story with lots of poisonous herbs and spells.) Sometimes the mushrooms pop up so quickly they still have the soil and leaves they came up through on top of them. It’s like looking at a sunflower that is so big it seems like you can see it growing.

I used to run through my walks, mostly trying to calm my nervous energy. I’ve found that only gets me anxious and tired. The only thing that clams me down is to calm down. Walking slowly and purposely, searching for flowers, keeps me present and stills my mind and my body.

It was a great day at the Creative Union show. So many wonderful people showed up form all over. Some of them I had only had contact with through my website and got to meet for the first time in person. Some were old friends and some were people I didn’t even know were out there. Jon signed tons of notecards and gave two talks about art and the market place and the integrity of the artist. Izzy was his usual professional self. He greeted people and posed for photos. Christine Nemec ,the gallery owner, along with everything else she did, had a colorful cake for Jon and me and the Creative Union celebration. I sold most of my potholders and signed a few too.

The Quilt Raffle was also a success. Because of all the generous donations we raised $500.00 for the the Cox and Smith Family. They are a Fort Edward NY family who were recently the victims of a house fire in which 6 children died. It’s one of those tragedies that pull the community together and it did just that today. So thank you everyone who participated.

The winner of the quilt is Susan Smith of Barneveld NY. Congrats Susan!

I grew up in a family that valued work above almost everything. There are few ,if any, photos of my grandmother without a shovel or broom in her hand. (she would knock you down to make sure she had a tool in her hands before she would let a picture be taken of her just standing there not working) If you sat around the house for too long, someone would find something for you to do. Not surprisingly, I found myself in a similar situation in my first marriage.

Needless to say I have a strong work ethic. And that can be good, but it can also get out of hand as it seems to have done at times in my life. Sometimes I worry that it’s genetic.

Then there’s the guilt. If I’m not exhausted at the end of the day I think I haven’t worked hard enough. Or if a friend tells me they got up at five AM worked all day then had to cook dinner and take care of the kids, I think I should be getting up earlier and working later. If I’m by myself my lunch breaks are only as long as it takes me to eat. Some days I’ll eat more food just to take a longer break. And on and on it goes.

So lately, I’ve begun confronting my own personal demented work ethic. I take one to two days off each week and walk the dogs and visit the donkeys guilt free. I’ve considered taking lunch breaks that last longer than the food. And I’m beginning to trust myself. Sometimes the creative spirit needs replenishing. Sometimes I go to work in the studio and nothing turns out right. Sometimes the ideas just don’t come. Usually on such days I’ll do the drudge work that doesn’t take any creativity, tacking quilts or sewing potholders together. But sometimes there’s just no energy at all, not even for the drudge work. And I must say, when this happens, the creative spirit inside of me knows it. It’s useless to try and work and just depletes the tired spirit more. In the past I haven’t always listened to it, because I haven’t always trusted myself and because in my life, I have learned to endure (unfortunately). But now, I’m beginning to listen, and to trust.

So today, knowing and believing what I feel in my heart (and ignoring the chatter from my brain), I’m sitting on the porch looking at my resting studio through the pouring rain and taking the day off. I’ve emailed a customer whose bag was due this week (I hope she’ll understand) and postponed it till Monday when I’ll get up with a renewed creative spirit ready to work again.

I went to see the Mettawee Theatre Company’s production of  “The Woman Who Fell From The Sky” which is an Iroquois Creation story.  I’ve been wanting to see the Mettawee puppets for years.  They put on  free productions ( and ask for well deserved donations) in the area every summer and now that I’ve seen what they do I will be going back next year.

Sometimes the puppets are people in costume,  this production also had people working puppets about 24″ tall.  The puppeteers were visible and held the wooden puppets bending their limbs using body language as well as using their own voices for  the dialogue and narration.  It seems like the puppeteers should be distracting, but they weren’t.  They were  both  invisible and very present at the same time.  At other times the puppeteers would put a simple mask over their face to become the sun or rain.   There were 4 puppeteers and one musician and it was magical.

This production was outside on the grounds of  Georgi Museum in Shushan NY and they do performances from Washington County to NYC.

Freida and the potholder fabric

A few weeks ago I got a phone call from a man who had read the article about me in the Post Star. His wife had recently died and he wanted to know if I could make potholders for his family out of some of his wifes clothes. It said in the article that my studio was in West Hebron, and knowing it was a small town he drove out thinking he would find someone who knew where I was. It wasn’t as easy as he imagined, but he find someone who gave him my phone number.

He showed up at my studio a few days later with a bag of clothes. He said everyone in his family cooked and would want a potholder so 30 would do. A few days later he called back and told me that one relative wanted 2 potholders, one to use and one to save. So he wanted 10 more and would bring by more clothes.

The next time he came he brought out 2 plastic bins filled with clothes and we went through them together pulling out the cotton and leaving the polyester. There were a couple of blouses that had special meaning that weren’t cotton and I told him I could use them on the potholders to be saved, not used. By the time he left he I was making him 44 potholders. He said it was all he could afford right now and if he needed more in the future, he knew where to find me.

I love this kind of work. It seems to serve community and connect people in a unique way. It feels close to the original purpose of art, something I’ve been interested in since I first became an artist.

I do believe the purpose of art changes and works in ways that are sometimes invisible to us for years. But the important stuff seems to have staying power and it eeks its way into our daily lives.

Some artists’ work effect whole cultures, others effect small groups of people, or just themselves.

Another hot day. I actually love the hot weather, but there is something eerie about such heat so many days in a row. And tonight it’s so still and quiet, I can’t help thinking of all the apocalyptic movies I grew up with in the 70′s. At dinner, as I ate a small and disfigured tomato from my garden, I thought of the movie “Soylent Green” and Charlton Heston eating the tiny, precious apple, some of the last fruit left on the overpopulated planet.

Fortunately, I wasn’t thinking this way as I was working in my studio otherwise the bags I made today may have been a bit darker.

It was hot, but there was a breeze for most of the morning and my work came easy. Freida moved from her crate to her spot in front of the wood stove and back to her crate looking for the coolest place. The sheep behind my studio grazed in the morning and spent the afternoon with their heads down in the shade. The heat doesn’t seem to bother the cats. They still sleep under my car and circle and meow for food whenever any one walks by.

But now it’s still,humid,overcast and hazy. Every once in a while there’s the smell of something dead, I keep telling myself it’s just the manure on the field across the road, but there’s a yellow tint in the air that feels like something waiting to happen.