Rituals

In contemplating what I was going to make for the upcoming Dinner at Eight Artists exhibition in Houston, we asked our artists to choose a theme from the last nine years. My most favorite exhibit was called rituals. My original piece was titled ‘Make a Wish on the Purple House.’ I am one of the jurors of Dinner at Eight Artists along with Leslie Tucker Jenison and we always make a quilt each year. This will be our tenth and final year exhibiting in Houston at the International Quilt Market/Festival.

For a few years I have been making wool felt squares about 10” square and hand sewing them at night. My nightly ritual. This is how they begin with a variety of wool felt in different colors and Sizzix die cut flowers. Everything in pinned onto a wool blended felt substrate. 

This is what they can become. I love the randomness of the shapes and stitching. I add interesting embellishments as I go. I challenge myself to do harder subjects, which is totally fun. I think I have made over 40 of these and they are all different and fun! Zen Stitching is my name for them and I also teach this as a class. It is so relaxing! There are little treasures in every square. 

And then I decided to make some of them into a quilt for Dinner at Eight Artists final exhibit. My nightly labor of love to be seen by the public and printed in a book. I hand sewed each square onto a piece of wool blended felt by National Nonwovens 30x50 vertical format. It took a chunk of time. You can see many fun objects and stitches in this photo.

Zen Stitching on my design wall. If you click on the image, you can see it closer. It is flawed, uneven, imperfect, colorful, intriguing, fun and so me. I am so happy how it turned out. 

And a detail shot. I really need to add a YKK zipper, because it is part of who I am as a designer. The zipper queen! 

This is how I store my felt supplies

Another view! This exhibition of 38 quilts will be shown at the International Quilt Market and Festival in November of this year. So exciting. Here is the blog address 

Dinner at Eight Artists