Once a month I participate in a sew-in for Quilts of Valor – quilts made for Veterans. The project started originally to show appreciation to those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan but quilts are being made and presented to veterans of other wars as well. Our group operates under the umbrella of our guild Northwest Quilters but not all the volunteers are guild members.
We get together on the last Monday of each month to work on these quilts under the guidance of our tireless leader Maureen. She coordinates the workday and comes up with patterns and projects for us to make though some of the volunteers bring and work on their own projects destined as Quilts of Valor. I sometimes draw on my skills to coordinate a project or two but mostly I just follow direction and help Maureen feed the volunteers by making a soup or salad to contribute to lunch.
Maureen also coordinates the presentations of some of these quilts to the Veterans who are to receive them, these ceremonies can be quite moving; a young Veteran who was presented with his quilt at a ceremony during one of our guild meetings was so overwhelmed that he broke down into tears upon receiving his quilt. In all, we have a lot of fun accompanied by a sense of satisfaction that we are helping to honor a Vet and let them know they are appreciated.
Lori puts binding on a QOV
A quilt in progress on the design wall
On many projects, volunteers will work in pairs or teams to construct a quilt.
Maureen's husband, Bob, worked on these blocks with my help.
This is one of the the blocks Bob and I were making, we need 96 of them, we have 27 so far (69 to go!).
Tom shows off a finished quilt top
Kathleen holds up a finished quilt top.
This is one of the quilts I coordinated in the last few months, an off-center Mary's Triangles pattern
Home from the coast and I miss it already. I was born with salt water in my veins and a trip to the seashore replenishes my soul.
Siltcoos Lake
When that trip can be combined with a teaching opportunity – so much the better. Last week I spent several days at the Oregon coast, staying with a friend in a lakeside cabin in Florence and then commuting up to Newport on a couple of days for a lecture and workshop.
To the right is the lovely view from my friend’s living room window, imagine waking up to this every morning.
Seascape quilt by student Jean A.
The turnout at the Oregon Coastal Quilters’ meeting for my lecture on Asian fabrics was excellent, several members commented to me that the meeting was more crowded than usual. This is the second time I’ve lectured and taught for this lovely group of ladies (and gentlemen too!). It’s been several years since I was last there teaching a Landscape Quilting class and that program and class went well too. To the right is a picture of a gorgeous seascape quilt one of those students made back then and graciously shared with me on this trip. I’m guessing that as they invited me back, I must have made them happy the first time.
This time around, the workshop was on my Animal Totems and the workshop filled to capacity. The students were enthusiastic and the projects they created quite impressive. Most of the time, students in this class start with a simple Seminole band pattern I recommend as it is one of the easier ones to piece, but a couple of students in this workshop forged ahead and tried other patterns or modified the one I suggested. This did not surprise me as the last time I taught for them, I was impressed by their quick creativity. Below are posted a few pictures of the workshop and one of me lecturing and showing my Asian fabric samples.
Asian Fabric Lecture
Animal Totems workshop
Animal Totems workshop (samples on wall are mine)
Animal Totems workshop
Animal Totems workshop
Seminole pieced strip
Seminole Turtle Totem in progress
Deservedly proud students show their work. Way to go ladies!!!
A successful, satisfying class and trip in my opinion, hopefully in the students’ as well. During my trunk show, several students commented favorably about a Garden Windows quilt sample I brought to show and expressed a desire to take that class. I do hope this means I may again visit the Oregon Coastal Quilters at a future date to teach and lecture again.
My quilt – Sekhet-a-ra – was accepted into the 2015 Sacred Threads Exhibit to be held July 10-July 26, 2015 at the Floris United Methodist Church, Herndon, VA (outside Washington, D.C.). I met the exhibit founder – Vikki Pignatelli – last year when I was teaching at Empty Spools in California and she encouraged me to enter my work. She told me she had created this special venue to show works of spiritual significance. When I described my quilt, she said she thought is would be a perfect subject for the exhibit’s mission. I am so delighted that the quilt was accepted and will be shown.
This quilt is a memorial tribute to my father who instilled a deep love for ancient cultures in me when I was young. He was a Rosicrucian and his passion was ancient Egypt but he encouraged me to read books about the mythology and art of many different ancient civilizations. Among the books I read were one about Egyptian art and architecture and a novel ‘The Winged Pharaoh’ by Joan Grant. This was not an ordinary ‘novel’ but rather what the author called a ‘far memory’ book as she claimed she was able to recall past incarnations and her books are based on those recollections of past lives. The book, which left a deep impression on me, told the story of a princess – Sekhet-ar-a (which meant ‘beloved of Ra’ – Sekeeta for short) who undergoes training as a temple priestess to fulfill her destiny as wife of the pharaoh and spiritual leader.
The art book contained an enigmatic picture of a roughly carved wooden funerary mask. No gold or finery like King Tutankhamen’s jeweled coffins – just a simple mask with an adorned wig attached. The picture is credited as simply the head of a woman; no record of who she was and only a vague reference to what dynasty it may have dated from. Despite its crudeness, the mask is one of the most expressive faces I’d ever seen in Egyptian art with a sad sweet smile to her lips reminiscent of Leonardo DaVinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’. The picture fascinated me and I would return to is time and again (in fact, the book falls open to that page when balanced on its spine and allowed to fall open).
In my early adulthood, while I was still actively drawing and painting quite a bit, I decided to make a pencil drawing of the mask. This was followed many years later with a quilt version of the mysterious woman’s mask. I will admit, it was a lot harder to capture that gentle smile in fabric and the drawing does that more justice than the quilt does. While I never intended this to be a tribute to my father, I could not help thinking of him as I worked on the quilt and how I wished he had lived long enough for us to know one another as real adults. He died when I was 19 years old after a tragic accident that claimed the life of my 14 year-old brother; I believe he died from a broken heart. After completing the quilt, I wrote a prayer from the Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead’ on a cartouche I added at the finish of the quilt. The prayer reads: “Stars fade like memory the instant before dawn. Low in the East, the sun appears golden as an opening eye. That which can be named, must exist. That which is named, can be written. That which is written shall be remembered. That which is remembered – lives”.
The ancient Egyptians believed that as long as someone was remembered, they lived (which is why successors sometimes eradicated the previous ruler’s names wherever written upon a drastic political change in ancient times). The sentiment expressed by the prayer seemed a fitting epitaph to my father.
Below are pictures of the book picture, the pencil drawing and the quilt. I apologize for the poor quality of the picture and the drawing. The drawing is framed under glass and I did not want to remove it from the frame to snap a picture, hence the reflections which I tried to minimize.
