Jan. 14, 2023

For Ukraine

Twenty years ago I traveled to Ukraine twice.  The church choir in which I sang was invited to participate in a mission trip to Kyiv, and I was sent first (as part of a pre-tour group) in addition, to help solidify planning for our larger group's arrival.  During my second trip with my choir, we sang in several concert and cathedral venues, enjoying a return visit to the homes of members of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Music Mission Kyiv whom we met and had hosted during their most recent tour of the US.  

During my two visits to Kyiv, I was privileged to be introduced to and spend time with a number of widows who were 'under the wings' of the KSOC/MMK for visitations and care [food and medicines].  A number of the widows presented us with intricately cut paper snowflakes as a token of gratitude for our visiting with them.  

When I returned home, I pondered about how I might use these beautiful hand-cut paper works of art and settled on the idea to make sun prints on cotton fabric using the snowflakes as the design element.  I set the paper cut-outs outside in the sun, resting on a background base of fabric [still wet] I had just painted with blue transparent textile paint.  [Blue is one of the main colors of the Ukrainian national flag.]  An hour later, the prints were dry.  They measured a little less than 12 inches by 12 inches, a perfect quilt block size.

A month ago, I hand-quilted around some of the design elements of one print, on top of batting, and framed it under glass.  It has been a reminder of the beautiful hearts and total courage and generosity of the amazing people I met and befriended in Kyiv.  Their daily reality now is 180 degrees the opposite of what we all experienced twenty years ago.  However, an unwanted, undeserved war has not changed the hearts and resolve of the Ukrainian people we visited and came to love so deeply.

 

For The Children

Our country has far too many children who need comfort and joy in this holiday season.  So, I'm trying to do a little something about that in my county.

I live close to a JoAnn Fabrics store, which is a real 'plus' during the winter months.  I don't have to drive long or far in any traffic or inclement weather.  Every year, the store seems to offer a stuffed animal for sale at the holidays at very reasonable prices.  I've stocked up on a variety of animals during the past several years:  'boy' and 'girl' bears of many fur colors, white Husky dogs, and moose toys, too.  

The 'art' involved in this project is locating flannel with appropriate designs that I can sew into doubled one-yard square 'receiving blankets' for the stuffed toys.  Each animal is accompanied by a small book for the little child to have for his or her very own.  The animal, and the book, and the blanket all reside in a light canvas carrying bag that has been stamped in one front corner with a small rendition of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.  I have included a 'name tag' in a plastic holder that is attached to a bag handle.  It states that it was made with love, and has a place for the new owner's name.

The filled bags will be delivered this coming Saturday to Issaquah, WA - not far from where I live.  The destination is a non-profit called KidVenture [formerly Eastside Baby Corner].  They are about to host a gift-giving event for families who are currently in financial distress and possibly homeless and living in their cars with children.  KidVenture is doing an amazing, herculean job keeping babies and children of all ages through twelve in diapers, clothing, and gifts.  All year long.

I have also created adult-sized double fleece blankets for the older kids, and age-appropriate fleece blankets for the younger ones.  It takes very little time and money to make an effort to help those so much less fortunate than I am.  It brings joy to me to be able to participate in such a worthy cause that KidVenture has taken on over the years.  They've grown exponentially as the need has constantly pushed their limits and beyond.

So, I get to play with soft fabric and colors and adorable stuffed toys and send my love to the kids that will soon take over the care of the animals for me. 

A Riot Of Color

Today's "mission accomplished" is a quilt top, batting, and backing that I finally put on my longarm APQS "Lenni" yesterday.  I completed the quilting this morning.  The photo shows the quilt after it was just unpinned and laid across the machine frame.  It's awaiting its trim and binding, and then it will be laid on the pile of quilts and fleece blankets I have previously finished, awaiting donation.

The weather in the beautiful Pacific Northwest is forecast to be summer temps again - including one day upcoming in the 90 degrees territory.  Then, as September approaches, so do the cooler temps.  We've not had a real day of rain in who knows how long - but it will come.  Forest fires are burning once again - in our state and surrounding states plus BC and Alberta to the north of us.  The first rains will bring welcome relief and much-needed help to exhausted firefighters.

The pile of quilts and blankets I'm accumulating will go into big boxes for shipping in the very near future.  Cool fall and cold winter come quickly to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, to the Appalachia hills and hollows back east, to refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan seeking new lives beyond their native lands, and to the small spaces housing homeless families in our area.  With the approaching seasons of grey and gloom, the "riot of color" in this and other quilts I'm making could offer a welcome reprieve from the world of neutrals that so many people inhabit.  

I love painting with fabric.  Moving colors and patterns around, cutting and resewing pieces into new designs and color palettes.  Art moves easily into life, and I love living in it and sharing it wherever it's sent.  

 

"Saturn, Interrupted" has been hanging on a wall in my kitchen for a number of years.  It's not the largest piece of art on display there.  In fact, it almost blends into the wall, rather like a fiber art wall-flower.  But, the impact this little work has on me is almost beyond words.

Today I shared with a friend via email just what this piece represents to me:  gazing into a limitless universe, beautiful beyond anything we can conceive in our own mind, where we can hear 'the music of the spheres' loud and clear.

I grew up star-gazing, partly because my father introduced me to its art and mostly because it took my eyes to a realm beyond my comprehension:  limitless, forever space and time and stars and planets and mysteries of incalculable types.  

This "three-part invention" [with a very strong nod to Bach] has brought the limitless Universe into my limited living space, carrying with it a lifetime of star-gazing memories and unlimited joy in the viewing. 

The images of Saturn that I manipulated were printed off of the Internet many years ago, from the NASA website, onto fabric.  Because the original photographs were taken through the Hubble space telescope with no participation by any other for-profit or non-profit entity, NASA has made these particular images available copyright-free.  Users simply need to acknowledge the source of the photos, and I am doing that here and now.  I am grateful that my tax dollars are at work in this fashion and totally for my enjoyment. 

 Christmas Day, 2021

Merry and Happy Christmas to all this day!  Today's post's photo shows a few of my own 'art quilt artist' creations "of the season."  While I am neither Catholic nor Orthodox, I have loved icons for many years.  Fifteen years ago I took an icon painting ["writing"] class and this was the result.  Eastern icons display a totally different perspective, so what looks off-kilter was meant to be.  

The Christmas stockings are pieced and quilted in a variety of fabric designs - holiday seasonal as well as non-holiday seasons.

My workroom is piled high with donation blankets and quilts that are ready to be dispersed this coming week.  My dream goal is to use every bit of my fabric stash before I have to "retire" from sewing and quilting altogether.  Hopefully, I have at least one more decade for creating items that might be of use to others who don't have the means to create them for themselves.

I hope everyone reading this post is safe and warm and healthy and will remain that way into the indefinite future.

Merry Christmas!  

Requiem

 

Requiem 

This week I have been floating in the memories of past decades, several not so distant.  The photo of this fabric 'stained glass' Rose Window came to mind.  I designed it in the mid-2000s, and it was created  by the Banner Team of University Presbyterian Church in Seattle.  It's made of thousands of small pieces of multi-colored fabrics, hanging about five feet in diameter.  It is displayed from time to time in the UPC Narthex, preparing the way to the real stained glass glory installed inside the Sanctuary.  

I love Rose Windows.  I have sat for hours in majestic cathedrals during my working and traveling years in Europe - infused in the fractured, colored light that enters those hallowed spaces through exquisite stained glass windows.  Often, I would also be a silent audience of one during the rehearsals of cathedral choirs - bathed in the mystery of ancient choral repertoires.   

My favorite, soul-healing choral music pieces are the requiems composed by Morten Lauridsen, John Rutter, Faure, and more.  I have sung the first three composers' pieces, plus the choral motet "O Magnum Mysterium" by Lauridsen.

Such diaphanous, ethereal music offers healing medicine beyond what can be dispensed in any earthly world I've experienced.      

   Today is a special day in the memories of most living Americans:  9/11/2001.  Twenty years ago today, the television views of the tragedy in New York City captivated us and stopped us in our tracks, breaking our hearts.  

   Today, 9/11/2021, our world is still torn asunder by such wartime tragedies along with the covid pandemic.  It's the wartime tragedies I am especially reminded of today.  My photograph displays three quilts that I have recently completed.  They [and at least several more] are destined to be handed soon to the Pacific Northwest coordinator for Quilts Beyond Borders.  The quilts plus many more created by hundreds of other helping hands will be given to  Afghan families, newly-arrived in Washington state and many other states, whom war has displaced.  

   These Afghanis are now refugees here in King County and other counties across our nation.  They come with only the clothes on their backs, in many instances.  So, quilts made in love and  welcome and friendship will soon gifted to many of them, along with the basics to begin a whole new life in a new land.  

   The African animals, portrayed in the fabric of one of my quilts, are depicted during a 'great migration', which, although not by their choice, is what has brought the Afghan families to America to begin a new existence.

   Standing in New York City's harbor is our Statue of Liberty.  On its pedestal is inscribed the following sonnet, welcoming refugees and immigrants of many generations, from lands near and far.  Its words are meant for all new arrivals on both coasts and through all borders of our country.    

Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses

Yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of

Your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless,

tempest-tossed to me:

I lift my lamp beside

the golden door.

 -          Emma Lazarus

-          Written in 1883