I thought the cloth was finished. I put it in my show at the Homer Watson last spring.
But this autumn, I felt that it needed more.
More weight. More time. More definition. Some darkness.
I began by adding brown silk thread.
I thought the cloth was finished. I put it in my show at the Homer Watson last spring.
But this autumn, I felt that it needed more.
More weight. More time. More definition. Some darkness.
I began by adding brown silk thread.
In this post I am trying something new. By using the online record keeping that Judy’s Journal and My Process provide, I can show in a single post, the making and exhibition history of one of my best quilts, Underfoot The Earth Divine.
To view the original posts, just click on the date.
The sewing started from the middle on New Year's Day, 2019.
January 5 2019technique: machine piecing materials: a variety of linen damasks coloured with natural dyes.
The hand quilting is finished.
February 19 2020The back.
July 17 2020Then the pandemic happened, and everything flipped including this quilt. I turned the quilt so that the velvet pieces are at the bottom and added a couched yarn circle. I was reading Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
"This then is life, here is what has come to the surface after so many throes and convulsions. How curious! How Real! Underfoot the divine Soil, overhead the sun"
I had professional photos made. The reverse side has a name: "Overhead the Sun"
September 15 2021Underfoot the Earth Divine is part of the two person exhibition with Penny Berens, In the Middle of the World. The show opened October 2 at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum and I was advised that a black sleeve would disappear into the dark ceiling when it was installed so that visitors could walk around it, and view both sides.
July 30 2022Underfoot the The Earth Divine won the Schweinfurth Award at Quilts=Art=Quilts in Auburn, New York, last weekend.
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The Seventh Jacket by Victoria Carley upholstery and fashion fabrics, embroidery floss |
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The Beanstalk by Victoria Carley upholstery and fashion fabrics, embroidery floss |
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Hansel and Gretel by Victoria Carley upholstery and fashion fabrics, embroidery floss |
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Hansel and Gretel, detail of the witch's house by Victoria Carley |
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Mysterious Veil I by Roxanna Kantarjian, machine pieced and quilted cotton |
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Mysterious Veil III, cotton that is machine pieced and quilted |
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Stones by Roxanna Kantarjian, machine pieced and quilted cotton |
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Lull by Karen Thiessen Cotton fabrics, hand pieced using the English paper method and then hand quilted. |
"The Hope Series explores post-traumatic growth - the gifts of difficult circumstances." Karen Thiessen
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In a Dark Time the Eye Begins to See (for Theodore Roethke) by Karen Thiessen. Dyed cotton, hand and machine stitched, with applique. |
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Circles of Hope by Karen Thiessen Dyed cotton and rayon, hand and machine stitched, with applique |
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Constellation of Hope by Karen Thiessen Dyed cotton and cotton/polyester fabrics that have been stitched with hand and machine |
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Beyond the Curtain by Karen Thiessen. Hand embroidered cotton fabric mounted on felt |
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Beyond the Curtain by Karen Thiessen, detail of hand stitch |
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The Seventh Jacket by Victoria Carley, detail of machine piecing |
which bird said what or to whom or for what reason.
The oak tree seemed to be writing something using very few words.
I couldn't decide which door to open
they looked the same.
or what would happen when I did reach out
and turn a knob
I thought I was safe, standing there
but my death remembered its date.
Only so many summer nights still stood before me,
full moon, waning moon,
October mornings: what to make of them? Which door?
I couldn't tell which stars were which or how far away any one of them was,
or which were still burning or not -
their light moving through space like a long, late train -
And I've lived on this earth so long. 70 winters.
70 springs and summers,
and all this time stars in the sky - in day light
when I couldn't see them
and at night when, most nights, I didn't look.
The images are of my stitching these past few weeks.