everything is curved

Anne Truitt was in an airplane, flying over the desert.  She looked out the window and suddenly noticed that everything is curved.

"Seen whole from the air, the global horizon confronted one bluntly as a context all its own.  I had the startling impression that I was looking at something intelligent."

"Every delicate pulsation of colour was met, matched, challenged, repulsed, embraced by another, none out of proportion.  Each was at once a unique and a proper part of the whole.  The straight lines with which human beings have marked the land are impositions of a different intelligence, abstract in that arena of the natural."

She began to see her own life as something between natural and abstract.

nature - culture
earth - human
natural organic - abstract geometry
curved - straight
balance - imbalance
woman - man

"As I live, certain aspects of what is happening adhere to me as if magnetized by psychic gravity. I have learned to trust this center."

"It is as if there are external equivalents for truth which I already know.
I have to stay tuned in to catch these equivalents.
Vulnerability is implicit in this process."

"The process of art contains my intensities but also exorcises those that are beyond my endurance.
I do all this with haste akin to panic.
I depend on making objects as a kind of defense."    Anne Truitt

text found in 1995 journal, paraphrased slightly from the original
new quilt top finished before the end of the year.  Glad both year and quilt top are done.

the quilt tradition

storm at sea
msde for Tom and Marg in 1988. (They eloped). Marg brought it over a couple of days ago so that I could photograph it for my blog, one hundred quilts. It's number 82. It was nice to see the quilt and to handle it after all these years.

details, details QN 2011

Detail of Stars on the Water - The oil Spill/ 5 of Paring Knives in the Kitchen Tarot, 2010 by Susan Shie. Air brush and air pen writing each day for 100 days of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill Detail of Quilt Drawing #13 - for Maureen by Daphne Taylor Juror's Award of Merit hand quilted, hand embroidered Detail of Portrait of the Youngest Girl 1, 2010 by Judy Rush Quilt Surface Design Symposium Award of Excellence Detail of Rook Road, 2010 by Elizabeth Brimelow showing the hand applique and embroidery a second detail of Elizabeth Brimelow's piece
I recommend purchasing the catalog to see the wide variety of techniques and ideas. Gary J Kirskey, Larry Hamel Lamberft and Sam Girton took beautiful photographs of full views. Detail of Facade VII 2010 by Deidre Adams.
Deidre uses acrylic paint after drawing with the sewing machine.
And visit Diedre Adams excellent blog to see her photos of the QN artists. Detail of Mushroom 2010 by Carolyn Sullivan, plant dyed and hand stitched Detail of Circles No. 4 2010 by Judy Kirpich. Judy cuts into her fabric to insert these many circles, all piece work. Detail of Greek, 2010 by Naomi S. Adams Most Innovative Use of the Medium Naomi uses dyed batting and adhesive reconstruction to write 3-dimensionally with cloth. Detail of Werekata Moon 2010 by Pamela Fitzsimons plant dyes, hand stitch. Detail of Broken Fence 2010 by Leslie Joan Riley, showing her original pattern that references traditional quiltmaking block repetition.
detail of Big Leaf 24 2010 by Dominie Nash Leaf Rubbings with textile paint Detail of Cross My Heart 2010 by Judy Martin showing my hand stitching with silk thread on layered dyed and painted linen On the drive home through Ohio I took photos of many beautiful barns from the car. Late Sunday afternoon, the sky suddenly became so dark. When we turned on the TV in our hotel in Kalamazoo, Michigan, we found out that we had narrowly missed the tornado.