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Friday, April 30, 2010

There is a mingling of my life in quilts, a lost relatives

in my family tree (antebellum) And my ever-present feeling of blackness ~ my identity linking women of all race, class, and backgrounds.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

What Mean Ye..?? These Quilts of Remembrance . . . .

I'm embarking on my book publication.  20th Century Black Quilters in the Sooner State 


Whenever a quiltmaker completes a quilt, he or she has created something more than a simple bedcover.  A quilt can be likened to a good book..... it begs to be picked up and handled!  When hanging on the clothes lines of yester-year. . . the colors and stripes call out to us.  Is it made of plaids, ginghams or a mix of old clothing?  As we move closer to the quilt, we begin to see the individual shapes (the wording) of the fabric.   We see the stitches as clearly as the words on a printed page:  whether assembled by hand or via machine stitiching.   Sometimes - both techniques were employed; suggesting additions or repairs to the quilt.

Are the stitches the same size or did more than one person work on the quilt?  Sometimes, when children were allowed around the quilting frame, their stitches appear near the edges, the less visible area of the quilt once it was spread upon the bed!   All in all, the quilt is a record of a person's life that lived long ago! 

Monday, April 26, 2010

Q & A Monday ~ Artisan . . In-Born talent or Acquired Skills?


What do you think ? ? ? ?



It's a beautiful, 42-degree Monday here in OKC, OK!


My Nine-Patch Top is Completed and I stand back and wonder if there's really a chance that I'm good at color selection ??? Is there some in-born talent //// or does repetition do the trick. I have read and re-read hundreds of quilt magazines... so possible that which has been absorbed within -- now has an outlet! An acquired talent??? :)
I amaze myself! Again, I say.... I amaze myself..... ! I search around at my stash..... absolutely stunning @ what I find and match!



Often . . . . when I'm browsing the fabric stores..... I know a fabric will match years later!!!

OKC Community Quilts

OKCCQ met on the fourth Saturday Monthly meeting OKC, OK

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Here is my Heartbeat....beating happily within my quilted work!

approx 60x80
Applique and Patchwork (quilted by Bill Crye)
photo by Levi McCullough

This weekend, I was among 40-50 fiber artists who created quilts for this exhibit "The Journey of Hope in America"! A reception was held from 3 to 5 p.m. on April 17, 2010 at the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce OH.

The exhibit, curated by Carolyn L. Mazloomi --- she is absolutely the GREATEST !




It was a "hey-day" experience for me - - - as we signed each other's books (JOURNEY OF HOPE) and shared our inspiration and the quilts we stitched in order to commemorate the election of Barack Obama as the first U.S. president of African-American descent. The reception was well attended with about 150 persons.... wonderful!!!



Exhibit runs through Dec. 18 in Wilberforce, OH before going on tour. Visit www.ohiohistory.org/journeyofhope

I think I've Found a New Love.....


Well she's really a BUTTON STAR.....


Momma's Freedom April (2008)




Returning From QUILTER"S PARADISE

or should I say  A Day with Quilt Artists

in Wilberforce OH


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

How does a quilter " reach for immortality? "

Perusing friendly blogs, I noted that Thomas Jefferson believed that "every experience deeply felt in life needs to be passed along -- Whether it be through words or music, chiseled in stone, painted with a brush, or sewn with a needle. . . . ."


There's my Big Mama's quilt speaking to me!!!  A deeply felt - connecting touch to her hands in her pieced quilt!  I participated in our annual Church celebration of Black History Month . . . .fabric and family artifacts in hand!





Monday, April 12, 2010

QUESTION & ANSWER Monday Musings !

As I finish up this nine-patch quilt. . . . . .
Does anyone else get this feeling of hesitancy when reaching about 3/4's completion point?  Wherein 88% of the nine-patch squares are done and ready for random color placement... and then ~ ~ ~ comes along this sense of completion?   This happens to me  ALMOST every time...  I can easily fold, put away, and start the other project that is on my mind!


Is this a universal phenomenon.... that we quilters may not have noticed within ourselves???


The half of nine-patch is on blue carpet space in living room.... I've closed in a multi-color purple, blue printed shades along the sides of the set-on-point 6 1/2" blocks!


As said... I know I'm almost thru with the second half of this quilt in my sewing room layout!
As we ladies quilted at the guild meeting on Saturday/OKC:  I've shared and considered what border I'll close it off with.  I can see about the finished size of this coverlet.  I haven't measures... but eighty // across // and down will do as a quilted gift to a friend!




Back to the satisfied feeling of completion... and almost the subsequent urge to "let sleeping dogs lie...."   and just hold precious to my quilting efforts.... kinda smug and happy!!




What's next.......My favorite - mindless... lovable Paper-piece blocks?  I found this jpg in one of many internet searches!!


Besides my JAZZ art  quilt!!!due out in June!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

A mirak for the Devilme-Alexis family

I heart is reaching out.....   and my hands will follow an inner call for this baby!

For Haitian parents Nadine Devilme and Junior Alexis, their reunion in Miami with their baby girl Jenny Alexis  — 83 days after a devastating earthquake separated them — is nothing short of a "mirak," or "miracle" in Creole.
On Monday, Devilme and Alexis left Port-au-Prince, where they lived in a makeshift tent, to be with their 5-month-old daughter, Jenny, who was rushed to the USA after she was found under rubble, barely breathing, five days following the Jan. 12 quake.
At a press conference in Miami on Monday, Alexis, 24, said through a translator that holding his only child "was true glory."
Jenny, in a white dress with pink and red flowers, slept through much of the press conference. Bruises and scars are reminders of her ordeal


Via the Oklahoma City Community Quilt Guild (OCCQG), I have e-mailed the Group Home in Miami, FL to gather information on what donations they will accept for the Alexis family.   I believe this may prove to be an extension of our Charitable Quilt donations for its' group



Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Listening to my Dreams....

It is established fact that creative quilting stints satisfies my soul:  but I feel a nudging to reconnect to my girlfriends..... we are a  sage group of 50+++ers.   In what way am I needed???  

Another voice is urging me to write it down... make a list and check off  the younger friends/couples who are having their new babies, or kids @ 4-6 yrs old.    I deeply need to give them a baby blanket--- my hand and heart opens up in love and suppot for them.

I have only this one life and I want to make it count.  The work of my heart and hand..... is to
 b-quiltin!!!

Quilting out of our abundance......

As I was reading online: Mary Black's family quilt: Memory and Meaning in everyday life: by Laurel Horton; I was stunned and overtaken.... The blessings and joy of quilting today... truly is an expression of my abundance as an American Black citizen today.

I sit in my sewing room, and the shelving reaches the ceiling for three bookshelves holding fabric.  I've also been rearranging, feeling, touching, experience the depth of color in the fabrics and I move into a PHASE.... be it a first or last stage of creating a JAZZ Art Quilt due in June 2010!

I've been hoping to find a picture of Miss Mary Black... who is described as having Scots-Irish ancestors who emigrated to the South Carolina back-country in the 1770s.  The Snoddy-Black family thrived as members invested in land and slaves who made it productive and profitable (sounds like the owners of my own Great-grandmother Sinda (Lucinda)  (1845-1905), a cook on the Anderson Plantation in Chicot Cty, AR)

In the book, Horton made reference to scrap quilts being evidence of abundance --- documenting Mary Black's access to a wealth of different printed fabric! 

Another task I embarked on this morning was to rearrange into date order my computer jpg's.   And boy do I have photo's of quilts !

I created the tree of life quilt centered // surrounded by Underground railroad symbolic blocks back in 2006










I collected black mammy's - Jemimas'



And came across a book called Mammy's White Folks the other day in an antique shop....
Thee last two are postcards I purchased 3-5 years ago as inspiration for future quilt examples.


Herein I see my abundance.......


Monday, April 5, 2010

Never to forget his sacrifice . . .


1-15-1929  ~   4-4-1968


Now just WHERE ? ? ? ? exactly have I quilted my friend's image onto a quilt ???   Yes, indeed.   There's one in the making......

Old "Bill on the Gammil

My buddy must think I've long forgotton him.  It's been almost six months since I visited with him. He has finished up all my quilts with a "meandering" or Candy-Cane stitch... always at a reasonable price.  So the truth is, that I piece the top and backing s.... and adds the batting and does my long-arm quilting!

Also, he get the credit for my "Transcendence" Quilt shipped to Wilberforce Ohio last December '09.  I do so appreciate him!

I called, he's yet up and at'em!  This the spliced-topsey turvey... GEESH, what was this cut-up nine-patch called....

I did the show and tell of this at the Jan '10 OKC Winter Quilt Show !

Deciding On the Placement.....

one-two,
buckle my shoe...
3 -4-5-6
Seven, Eight....
Lay them straight


I'd say this is much too standardized, to easy !  So I sit and browse for hours and days... (in perfect peace - I might add!  :)




How do you like this???

YEAH -- from a very old quilting magazine.....

Hi Fellow Quilters (u who b-quiltin....just like me!)

Although I am a stickler for "CORRECT ENGLISH".......   The down-home havin-fun part of me likes to do the slang that can flow so naturally.   I blame a house of six kids and a HBCU- luved Langston Univ back in the day.

So hi again, dear quilters.... ! ! !

Now, this blog did record back in December 2009 --- that I lost my Sony camera.     I refused to buy one... wanted to so badly to do my genealogy, travel and family pics!  

But the Lord is so good to silly me... I cleaned and landed it underneath the cushion in the big comfy chair!!  So my Sony is back in action >.>  :)

These are my forever-precious little black girls.  They are destined to be finished!
       

Friday, April 2, 2010

Still More

Niner's . .  on the ironing board...
need quite a few 2 complete this thing-a-ma-jig!!!  
Luv it!!
My phone camera is great -- but not quite enuf lighting in the house...   This a shared project between myself and guild friend (OKC-Community Quilt Guild) that we started just two weeks ago.   I'll post her pic's soon....   We will really have perfected our technique -- and will finish up this quilt in just a few more days....

Lay them straight.... or Set on POINT !! ??


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