Sunday, September 5, 2010

Nelson


Quilt No. 73
September 2010

Meet Nelson - the Library Cat. Since he is displayed in a library window where both his front and back can be viewed, so he was constructed as a double-sided quilt.

To create Nelson’s sleeping place, I photographed a stack of medical books and recreated them in fabric. Fonts and their colours were selected in Microsoft Word to closely resemble those on the actual books. The letters were printed out on printable iron-on fabric. Each letter was cut out individually, a testimony to what a super sharp pair of tiny scissors can do. The lettering for the Merck Manual was printed out as whole.

Nelson’s welcoming backside features the page edge view of the back of his stack of books. His cat toy doubles as the quilt label.

To read more of Nelson's story and to find other Library Cats see Half Nelson.




Thursday, August 5, 2010

Half Nelson


All wrestling puns aside, this is indeed a half Nelson, since he is currently an “in process” quilt. This is Nelson’s front section, and when I unite it with his back section, plus a cozy stack of medical books upon which to sleep, he will become a full Nelson. So don’t worry about those pesky frayed edges – they will disappear in the seam allowances when Nelson is finished. Chances are he won’t even wake up.

Nelson is destined to become a Library Cat, and will take up residence in the window beside the door of the staff library at Timmins & District Hospital. He will take his place in history with all the cats that dwell in libraries around the world. Most of them are real living, breathing cats, but as you can see, Nelson is special, since he is flannelette. He won’t ever cause librarians to fret over the changing of his litter box. Nelson has adopted his very fine name from one of the most common and beloved medical library texts, the Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics.

You can meet lots of other Library Cats all over the world by going to
http://www.ironfrog.com/catsmap.html


But you won’t find Nelson there. At least, not yet.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Summer Vacation

Quilt No. 71
March 2010

I did a brief session at the guild on how to dye fabric with Setacolor dyes. I was worried about taking dye into a room where we would be showing finished quilts, so I kept my demonstration very small, using a 10x14 inch piece of fabric placed on a cookie sheet. We left the fabric to complete its dying/bleeding process on the top shelf of our library cupboard.

During our next guild meeting I pulled out the fabric, and we all admired it. Then came the inevitable question, “So what are you going to do with it?” Do? I had thought my commitment was fulfilled with the passing around of the dyed fabric. Suddenly it had the feel of an unfinished recipe. Sure the ingredients were there – but where was the completed dish?

It seemed to me that there were all ready far too many in-progress quilts floating around my quilting table. I would let myself turn the dyed piece into a quilt only if I could do it quickly. I decided to machine quilt it, since the sun was begging for the addition of flames. But what to add to this weird sunset? I thought about silhouettes, working my way through and discarding the most obvious ones, such as crows, gulls, herons, humans, palm trees, and horses. That left space ships. And so here you see a space ship bearing a friendly alien - an alien who is relaxing on his summer vacation.

Quilt Notes

The piece was sandwiched with Fusible Warm Fleece. It made the machine quilting with rayon thread surprisingly easy. A silk tie rescued from Value Village was used for the space ship and the binding.

Monday, March 8, 2010

My Mother's Prayer

Quilt No. 70
March 2010
Quilters are often plagued by UFO’s. They lurk around and slop buckets of guilt on us. But unlike the usual kind of UFO’s, which are Unidentified, Fly around, and probably house aliens with questionable intentions, the UFO’s that dog quilters are more benign. They consist of all those projects that got launched but haven’t yet reached the Nirvana of completion. They are UnFinished Objects. And they are mostly alien free.

My Mother’s Prayer is a UFO of a sort. Sometime around 1948 or 1949 my mother completed a cross stitch of the prayer, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. She was a young, busy mother at the time, and somehow this piece of embroidery never made it into any sort of frame that would allow it to be displayed. As Mom went on with other endeavors, other crafts, and other children, the piece got buried deeper and deeper, and was largely forgotten. Every few years she would come across it as it languished in a dresser drawer or a cedar chest. It followed her wherever she lived. I can’t even say exactly when it passed into my hands. I followed suit and stashed it in a drawer.

Recently, at quilt guild, a friend loaned me a book about making existing linens and embroidered pieces into quilted wall hangings. Eventually I connected the dots and realized that I could finally release my mother’s prayer from decades of seclusion and end its “UFO” status.
Quilt Notes

I found an off-white cotton that matched the embroidered piece reasonably well and added borders to make it larger. The outline and details of each embroidered child has been hand quilted. Likewise, the outline of each letter of every word has also been hand quilted. My initial vision for this quilt was one that included extensive quilting on the border. I spent a massive amount of timing trying to achieve that goal. When I finished it, I could see that this did not compliment the detailed embroidery - it ended up competing with it! I stared at it for weeks, trying to convince myself that it looked great. Or acceptable. Or vaguely okay. I finally gave in to reality. The quilting on the border had to be removed. Eventually I settled on an un-quilted border with a scalloped edge.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Private Idaho


Quilt No. 69
November 2009
What would it be like to live underground “like a wild potato”? This question popped into my head when I heard the B-52’s song Private Idaho (see lyrics on right hand side bar). The song suggests that someone who is gripped by fear of the ordinary - patios, pools, “signs that say hidden driveway”- might be hiding in a lifestyle that mimics a potato tucked safely underground. What might this safe harbor look like? I couldn’t help but put my own spin on both the above and below ground life of such a marvelous sheltering potato plant.

This quilt features a hand-dyed sky. Each leaf of the potato plant was created individually and then sewn onto the quilt. A hummingbird visits the blooms at the top.

I drew each potato room on paper and then scanned it into a file. The files were then adjusted to create the high-contrast sepia tones. The potato rooms were printed out on cotton and appliquéd onto the quilt. All potatoes are connected by satin roots and are outlined in gold metallic thread. This piece is hand quilted.

Lyrics to Private Idaho
Written by The B-52’s: Catherine Pierson, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, Cindy Wilson, Ricky Wilson

You're living in your own Private Idaho
Living in your own Private Idaho
Underground like a wild potato.
Don't go on the patio.
Beware of the pool,
blue bottomless pool.
It leads you straight
right through the gate
that opens on the pool.

You're living in your own Private Idaho.
You're living in your own Private Idaho.

Keep off the path, beware the gate,
watch out for signs that say "hidden driveways".
Don't let the chlorine in your eyes
blind you to the awful surprise
that's waitin' for you at
the bottom of the bottomless blue blue blue pool.

You're livin’ in your own Private Idaho. Idaho.
You're out of control, the rivers that roll,
you fell into the water and down to Idaho.
Get out of that state,
get out of that state you're in.
You better beware.

You're living in your own Private Idaho.
You're living in your own Private Idaho.

Keep off the patio,
keep off the path.
The lawn may be green
but you better not be seen
walkin' through the gate that leads you down,
down to a pool fraught with danger
is a pool full of strangers.

You're living in your own Private Idaho,
where do I go from here to a better state than this.
Well, don't be blind to the big surprise
swimming round and round like the deadly hand
of a radium clock, at the bottom, of the pool.

I-I-I-daho
I-I-I-daho
Woah oh oh woah oh oh woah oh oh
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Get out of that state
Get out of that state
You're living in your own Private Idaho,
livin’ in your own Private.... Idaho

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Crystal Blue Persuasion

Quilt No. 68
August 2009
It was 1969 when my best friend Jane and I first heard the song. We were sun tanning at the cottage, accompanied by the ever-present A.M. radio. Since that day I’ve always loved Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells. It’s not only a great tune, it has a wonderful message of hope – perhaps there is still a chance for “peace and good brotherhood” among nations. My dear friend Jane is no longer with us, but when I hear the song I am transported back to those sunny days.
This song is one of those exceptional pieces of music that has the power to create superb visual images. The first image that emerges is, of course, that of blue crystals. I looked at pictures of crystals until I thought my eyes would turn to quartz. I drew gawky clumps of crystals for several weeks before I came up with a configuration that pleased me. These were then used as patterns. The fabric was dyed with Setacolor fabric dyes, including Shimmer Pearl, which added sparkle. The crystals were hand appliquéd onto the quilt, and the facets were outlined with embroidery in metallic thread.

But the crystals needed to look worldly. When discussing this feature with my friend Ruth, she suggested adding a globe of the Earth. I thought of adding a series of different phases of the Earth on to the crystals, but this proved too challenging. The crystals looked liked they’d lost in a marble swallowing contest. Eventually I decided that a map of the world spread over the crystals would give the effect I wanted. To add this feature, I traced a map onto the crystals. One at a time, I painted the continents with Elmer’s School Glue (Blue No Run Gel). This glue penetrates fabric and is very precise – it doesn’t wander into areas beyond where it’s been painted. I sprinkled Trichem Downyfleece (it looks like loose powdered fleece) over the glue and let it dry for several hours, then dumped off the excess. The fleece adheres only to the glue-painted areas and forms a very durable bond with a clean edge. Where did I find this product? Ironically, I’ve had it in my craft stash for over 25 years – ever since I got it from my friend Jane.

The words “crystal blue persuasion” always suggest great expanses of blue water to me – or maybe that’s just latent heatstroke from listening to the song in the hot sun. I wanted a visual element of the Earth as a globe, so ocean seemed the natural choice. Dolphins, killer whales, and other marine life were added to take advantage of the crystal blue water.

The lyrics called for “children of every nation.” This seemed like a pretty tall order, especially the “every” part, so I settled for only a few representative children. I drew the figures, transferred the drawings onto cotton, and embroidered them by hand in satin stitch. Each child took a few hours to complete. Each figure was then fused to another layer of fabric, and then fused onto the quilt.

The waves and the quilt binding were dyed in various blues to finish off the quilt. Small music symbols are featured on the binding fabric. The song lyrics are reprinted as part of the label on the back of the quilt. As a final touch, clear beads were added to the stars on the background. A new day is dawning – but not quite yet.

I think Jane would have liked this quilt.
To read the lyrics to Crystal Blue Persuasion, check the sidebar on the right hand side of the page.

Lyrics to Crystal Blue Persuasion
Composed by Eddie Gray, Tommy James, and Mike Vale

Look over yonder
What do you see?
The sun is a'risin'
Most definitely.

A new day is comin'
People are changing
Ain't it beautiful?
Crystal blue persuasion.

Better get ready
To see the light
Love, love is the answer
And that's all right.

So don't you give up now
So easy to find
Just look to your soul
And open your mind.

Maybe tomorrow
When He looks down
On every green field
And every town

All of this children
Every nation
There'll be peace and good
Brotherhood

Crystal blue persuasion.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Quilt Show At Timmins and District Hospital

Eleven Concept Quilts created by Julie Domenico are currently on display in the Artist's Promenade at Timmins & District Hospital, July 13 - August 21, 2009. These quilts, collected together here as Our Beautiful and Terrifying World, illustrate the contrasts in our world that we take for granted. Wildlife and landscape quilts are featured along with quilts representing themes based on war.




Saturday, May 2, 2009

Origins of Life

Quilt No. 66
April 2009

The black velvet acacia tree featured on this quilt serves as a back drop for jewelry owned by my mother, my mother-in-law, or me. Several layers of gold or orange organza stretched over a layer of pale orange cotton were used for the background. Chains from necklaces outline all outer parts of the tree as well as the boundaries in the background. The jewelry ranges in age from one to fifty or more years, and includes a rhinestone necklace from the 50’s or 60’s, charms, pins, earrings, and bracelets. A Ten Commandments bracelet that was given to me around 1960 can be viewed on the mid- to lower-right of the tree.


Quilting Notes



All jewelry items were sewn onto the tree using ”invisible” thread (MonoPoly from Superior Threads). Only a minimal amount of hand quilting was added to avoid “wrinkling” the organza.