Yesterday I got a box in the mail of fabric from Joyce. It was full of treasures, batik dresses and panels as well as yards of different kinds of fabric.
When I saw what looked to me like a Phoenix Rising on a dress, it called to me. I love her beak, wide open, making herself heard.
I placed the bird on my studio floor and wandered around trying to find what came next. And once again it was one of Carol Conklin’s batiks that was the perfect fit in color, size, and subject matter.
Below is what I have so far. But I know what I’m going to do next. I also know I won’t have time to get that part of it done today. In a little while, I’m going to Bellydancing. So I’ll leave it for tomorrow. I’m already looking forward to getting back to it.
Debbie bought my quilt that I’ve named Dreamflower. It was Debbie that gave me the piece of fabric above the rectangles of the rocks and water. Her mother brought it back from Japan and Debbie was happy to have it back in its new form.
It was Carol Conklin who gave me the piece of fabric above that. Lothlorien is the title of the batik it came from. It’s a fairy place in JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings.
When I asked Carol what it meant to her she wrote me “Lothlorien was powerful and peaceful nature. The depth of the rock and chasms and the beautiful sounds and flowers and echo of ages were all inspiring. The River was magical and currents entrancing.”
It was Donna who told me that Lothlorien means Dreamflower. I thought it fit the quilt.
There’s a lot going on in this quilt, yet still I find it peaceful to look at.
I feel like the soft edge gives the center of the quilt space to breathe. Almost like the ripples around the rocks.
Carol Conklin’s printed batik fabric (the repeated image just below the rectangles at the top) is called Lothlorien. I’ve read it refers to a forest where elves live in one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. But I’ve never read any Tolkien so I don’t know anything about it, except that it looks like a place I’d like to go. I’ll have to ask Carol about it.
I have a few people who have already shown interest in this quilt. Next I’ll back and tack it.
When Fate fell asleep in front of the quilt I’m working on I thought she almost seemed a part of it. As if she were giving me a clue as to what comes next.
That piece of fabric just below the rectangles is another of Carol Conklin’s batiks printed on fabric. Not only did the colors work, and the subject matter just right, but it was the perfect size too.
Looking at Fate and the quilt together, I’m thinking that black and white squares up and down the two sides might be what comes next.
I finished my quilt “A Gentle Place”. It’s already sold. I had more people interested in buying this quilt than any other that I’ve made.
I think it may have to do with the time we are living in, how so many of us could use a peaceful place to retreat to now and again. It’s interesting that it came out of this time. Apparently I was craving a soothing place too.
I have to thank Carol Conklin for her part in this quilt.
She gave me the two batik printed panels with the serene waves, mountains, and night sky. I even got the name for this quilt from Carol, her batik is called “Evening In A Gentle Place”.
The light blue fabric came from four or five of Jon’s old Chamois shirts. The patchwork is an old quilt top. There’s also a piece of a sundress that I got twenty years ago for $1 at the Salvation Army and wore till just last year.
I’m fortunate to have more of Carol’s printed batiks. She gave me a bunch of them as a trade for some lenses I gave to her for her iPhone. I’m sure to be making more quilts using them.
You can see more of Carol’s work and buy her batik prints and originals on her website amityfarmbatik.com.
I spent the day working on my quilt that I’m calling “A Gentle Place”. It’s slowly coming together.
I think I can see the influence of the collages I’ve been working on in the soft blues. All those blues come from three of Jon’s old shirts. And today after I cut up and sewed down the last one I knew I needed more.
I also knew Jon had more shirts on his shelf that he doesn’t wear anymore. So when he was in his air-conditioned study working with the door closed, I threw the old shirts in the wash then hung them on the line.
Tomorrow I’ll cut them up and hopefully be able to finish designing the quilt.
The batik wave fabric that inspired this quilt is made by Carol Conklin, and is called “Evening In A Gentle Place”. You can see more of Carol’s work here on her blog Amity Farm Batik. She reproduces her batiks in lots of different functional and inexpensive ways as well as selling her originals.
What “A Gentle Place” looked like at the end of the day.
It was slow going working on my quilt today, but I’m happy with the progress. I used an old quilt top on the sides and they had all the right colors in them.
It took me forever to figure out what to do next. I still have to sew that bottom strip together but that will have to wait till tomorrow.
Carol Conklin who made the batik that inspired this quilt told me the name of her batik is “Evening In A Gentle Place”. I think that gentle feeling comes through in the colors I’m using in the quilt.
The first thing I did this morning when I sat down on my studio floor to work on my collage was cut it into four pieces.
It was too big, there was too much space.
Then I spent the rest of the day working on the four pieces and three more pages in my Freedom Book, all at the same time.
But I mostly focused on one piece, working on it and reworking it.
When I sat down to write my blog post tonight (which I scrapped and replaced with this one), I had four unfinished collages drying on my floor. I’ll admit I was a little frustrated at not having even come close to finishing one.
Then, in the middle of writing, I got up (I can’t even remember why) and within minutes I pulled together some of the pieces of the collage I had removed and cut up and attached them with matt medium to the bright pink backing.
Before that I had been fussing with them for so long. Trying for some kind of perfection when all along what I needed was the immediacy that comes from not thinking, from imperfection.
When I looked at it I felt it. And I liked what I felt.
Don’t ask me to put words to it. A title might come to me at some point, but for now, I just want to let it be.
Carol Conklin came to my studio today to give me some of her fabric that Jon bought for me. I told her how I sometimes feel I don’t have the patience for collage. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but she talked about the benefits of working quickly.
Some things take time when creating, but there are moments when there is magic in immediacy.
I feel like that’s what happened with this collage, when I put the pieces of it together as if it were a puzzle that knew what it was supposed to look like.
I going to visit my friend, the batik artist Carol Conklin this moring.
We’ll take a walk in the pasture behind her house and complete our trade. I gave Carol some lenses for her iPhone camera and today I’ll pick out some of the fabric that she makes from her batiks to use in my art.
I slipped the gold stretchy band around the stack of Price Chopper gift cards that people sent to Jon and put them in the priority envelope addressed to Sue Silverstein. She’ll distribute them to the families of the kids, who go to Bishop Maginn High School, and don’t have money for food.
I’d been thinking of what to use as a substitute for the 1/4″ elastic I need to make more face masks when I thought of the gold stretchy band. It originally came from a pack of Carol Conklin’s note cards. I saved it knowing I would use it someday.
So I messaged Carol and she told me she got them from Clearbags. They had plenty in stock so I got a hundred- 14″ elastic stretch loops. They’ll be here in a week.
But I offered to make a couple of masks for friends and now a week seems like a long time away.
So I was all ready to make some masks with ties (which I heard slip easily so resisted making them) when I thought of the sewing box of notions that Bev, from Carroll’s Trading Post left on the back porch for me.
I was already able to share some elastic from the notion box with my friend Emily who needed it to repair one of her Bellydancing skirts. I knew there was more 1′ elastic in the box, so I thought I’d see if I could cut it down to 1/4″.
But as I was looking through it, I found a package that I hadn’t seen before, of 1/4″ elastic.
It seemed like a little bit of magic to me. Like that box of notions that will always have just what I need.
So tonight I’m going to make a few more face masks. I’ll send the few off to my friends and have some for whoever else may need them.
And when I need to make more face masks, I have about 10 more yards of 1/4″ elastic that I’ll be getting in about 2 weeks.
