Pin Cushions

Margaret Cooter, whose blog I thoroughly enjoy, has done a wonderful little post on pins. Since I'm just plugging away at quilting on the wedding quilt, I thought I would add to what Margaret started by sharing my pin cushions with you using the wedding quilt as a background. The wool felted cushion above is the one I use most of the time. The lanolin prevents rusting.



I believe it was Dan who at some point in his youth, color coded all of the pins and wrote the word in black pins. I loved it and have more or less maintained it since then.



This is my lovely little wrist cushion that my darling niece, Caylan made for me. I posted about it before here.



This is a Longaberger sewing notions basket that has a pin cushion in the lid.



Nancy Crow taught me to appreciate baskets and I've been collecting unique ones since. This is a tiny little basket pin cushion that I found years ago in Cherokee, North Carolina when I accompanied her on a basket shopping trip.



Jim brought me the first of the antique pin cushions, the shoe, when he made a trip to England. I found the silver cat when we were in London together and the little China one is from an antique mart in Indiana.



Since I am a huge fan of tea, I had to have a teapot pin cushion, too.



These are my regular old tomatoes pin cushions in a wonderful African basket.

Quilted Librarian is out to clean and quilt!

Bloggers Quilt Festival: "Curiouser and curiouser" --A quilt begins

Welcome to the third Bloggers Quilt Festival. I've participated in both of Amy's other two festivals. My first original quilt was the subject of the first post and, in the second festival post, I shared a quilt I made for my husband. Regular readers of my blog know that I've spent lots of time this spring making two, large quilts for my daughter and her best friend who are both brides this year. Rather than go back over that ground, I decided to share the beginnings of a brand new quilt for the third festival post. I'll be updating this post throughout the week as this new quilt takes shape, so please come back to see how it's progressing.

Over the years, I've found that my best ideas for quilts come from a confluence of things, a sudden mashup, if you will. This idea came from buying some new rubber stamps, lots of visual stimulation from the 1960's retro fabric designs in the quilt shops and online, hearing the old Jefferson Airplane song, "White Rabbit" on NPR, and my love of Lewis Carroll's Alice books.



I have owned these two books longer than any others in my collection. My parents read them to me when I was tiny and I have always adored the Tenniel illustrations. Since the copyright on them has expired, all of the rubber stamp companies are taking full advantage.



Here's part of my rubber stash.



Black and white are figuring strongly in this quilt. I am envisioning a sort of op art, fractured surface, interrupted with partial stamped images.



Little bursts of color will peek through the black and white areas.


http://www.johntenniel.com/view_art.php?art_id=1409&min=0&max=10000000

Composition will be strictly improvisational, but inspired by Tenniel. I'm planning on calling the quilt, "Curiouser and curiouser" because I've always loved that phrase from the book.

10:00pm Friday update


I have eliminated several fabrics. Here are all the fabrics for the front.



The two end fabrics were used as the color inspirations.



The wonderful black on white fabric that reminds me of psychedelic rabbit holes will be a wide border and the tone on tone gray op art geometric will be a thinner border. A very thin black strip will separate them.



This fantastic Alexander Henry fabric called "mocca" will be the back with the other two fabrics used as the label.

Saturday 22 May 10:00am update


The solid black and white fabrics are all pima cottons. Here are the first stamped strips.



All the strips are being cut free without using a ruler. Here are the first few pieced together. I think I'll go back and take more off that yellow on the left side. I learned all of these improvisational piecing techniques in working with Nancy Crow, so I won't be sharing specifics. Treat yourself and take a class with her some day. I cannot say enough good things about her.

Saturday 1:00pm update





The first set of strips.




Second set of strips.



First two cuts and the chess board begins.

Saturday 4:00pm update


Here's the top pieced without borders.




A detail of one of the Alice stamps.

Saturday 9:30pm update



The top is finished. Color was needed between the two borders, so I opted for the red with multicolored circles instead of the black and white small dotted fabric. I'll work on the back and the label tomorrow. Sweet dreams everyone.

Sunday 23 May 10:30am update


Experimenting with the layout for the label. I'm using my new typeswriter stamps for the first time.



This is the test stamp. I iron freezer paper to the back of the label to stabilize the fabric when I write or stamp on it.



The basic label is finished. I iron it to set the ink and then add a border.



The back with the label set in is finished. Now I will sandwich the quilt.

Final update: Monday 24 May 9:15pm


The center is pin basted and the borders are thread basted. Quilting will have to wait until Anna and Matt's quilt is done. I'm guessing you'll see this one as a finished piece around the middle of July. Thanks for visiting and participating in the festival.
"Good times," as the Delicious Dish ladies say.

A Virtual Tour of Safety Pin Studio

Welcome to Safety Pin Studio. This is the name that I gave to my workspace because I've always liked safety pins and found them oddly comforting. It's a small, intimate space here in North Carolina (about ten feet square), but it serves well. I'll just start as one comes in the door and move around the room to give you a sense of the space.



When I first met my mother-in-law, she gave me my first decorative thimble. Over the years, she's added to the collection as have my mother, my husband, and my children. My mom and dad found the printer's drawer on one of their drives from Florida to Indiana on back roads. It's a punctuation drawer to be exact and it works wonderfully as a display unit.



This wonderful carving came from the Museum of Appalachia right outside Knoxville, Tennessee and was purchased on my return drive from a Nancy Crow class at Arrowmont School. It's signed "Butch 1991" and was carved by one of the remarkable, outsider artist Troy Webb's children.



Jim gave me this strange little cabinet one Christmas. He found it in one of our favorite antique shops in Crawfordsville. It's designed like an apothecary cabinet, but the drawers are very short--only about four inches wide.



The drawers were all constructed using scrap wood from cigar and cheese boxes which is a tramp art technique.



It makes a perfect place to store rubber stamps and display little hanging ornaments and mementos.



This lovely basket holds yarn.



This is one of my two metal, library bookcases holding mostly art books.



I made curtains for several of the windows in our house the first summer we were here. This is my favorite. I love the fabric. They are all lined because of the sunlight, but my studio also has a special shade that cuts the UV rays to protect the books and fabric from damage.




The barrister's bookcase belonged to my Grandmother Warner and houses my favorite literature books and mementos.



Here's my trusty old Bernina and one of the larger studies I did after taking Nancy's first Improvisational Piecing workshop.



The second bookcase has my quilting and embroidery books as well as some family history stuff and scrapbooks.



The first summer we lived down here, I refitted a number of the closets with shelves and hanging racks. Fabric, notions, tools, and finished quilts live in here. The sliding doors have got to go one of these days.



This was a gift from the children.



These are postcards and a poster from some of my shows.



My worktable is the centerpiece of the studio. Our good friend and master craftsman, Gordon Huffaker built it using a tabletop he'd acquired. It's just high enough for me and was the only thing that had to come apart to come in the house when we moved! I store fabric on the shelf underneath--not an ideal solution. I miss not having my fabric out so I can see it and having a design wall. Except for those two things, it's a great place to work.

I would love to see your studio or workspace. If you've done a tour on your blog, will you leave me a link in the comments?
Thank you.

Influences on me as an artist: My husband, Jim

This is my dear husband, Jim, who announced this morning, "Gee, I had to scroll back all the way to our anniversary to find a significant mention of me in your blog." He exaggerated slightly, but I've determined that I can't win. Anna took me to task for putting a picture of her in a blog post that her co-workers found and took the mickey out. Because he has a blog of his own, Dan and I seem to have struck a balance on this. So, in an attempt to redress his grievance, this post is dedicated to Jim and his influence on me as an artist.

It was theatre art that first brought us together. We were cast in a production of Annie Get Your Gun here in Greensboro. Because we were both seeing other people at the time, we first became friends. About six months later, we were cast in a two-character romantic comedy and we've been playing it out ever since then. After we married, Jim began to direct me in shows more often than acting with me. He is, quite simply, the best director with whom I have ever worked.



Bus Stop was the first time he directed me and it was a memorable production. He made me a much better actress and gave me some incredible roles over the years.



The Man Who Came to Dinner at Wabash College was the last time we acted together--and with Anna as well.

In addition to being a wonderful director and actor, Jim is also a gifted writer. I've always encouraged him in his research and writing. He's written a few plays, as well, and I hope he does more because he has such a unique perspective on all the angles that must be considered to make a play succeed.



With a few exceptions, he's dedicated his books to me and the children. This is his first book on the commedia dell'arte. When it was reprinted, he had Mellon Press put a photo of the quilt I made for him, "Improvizo!" on the cover. Arlechino is his favorite commedia character.

Not only has Jim been incredibly encouraging to me about my art work, but he has also provide me with the time I needed to study and work. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized. He encouraged me to go back to Purdue to pursue an art degre. He single-parented the children for two weeks when they were very small two different times so I could go to Arrowmont to study with Nancy Crow, and for the week I went to QSDS. He helped me set up a studio space at home so I had a place to work. He had my work photographed by a professional photographer and had postcards made of my quilts. In other words, he's my biggest cheerleader.



This is the most recent piece that I made for Jim. It's called "Te Amo Mucho." That really says it all. I'll leave the last word to the best of all writers, Shakespeare (Sonnet 23).

As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put beside his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart;
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love's rite,
And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
O'ercharg'd with burthen of mine own love's might.
O! let my looks be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love, and look for recompense,
More than that tongue that more hath more express'd.
O! learn to read what silent love hath writ:
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.