More Reliefs

Meanwhile I have finished some more reliefs (more about my reliefs: see also August 21, 2011) It's interesting to me that I lost all hesitation in using black, I usually had been very very careful in the past to avoid black parts in my work, but here now the entire effect is based on the contrast to white. The black (or white) lines are about 1 cm deep. 

In addition I use red and yellow. No other colors.
These reliefs can be hung up easily (2,5 cm thick, the back being hollow), they weigh next to nothing. 

The patterns are typical patchwork patterns: the Diamond, Orange Peel, Bright Hopes, Multiple Borders. My Bright Hopes relief  (third one from above, "in combination") has an inner diamond which is cut out, so the color and the shade of the inner diamond depends on the surroundings and background where it hangs and on the time of day.

In combination:

Although I did not intend this similarity in the first place, I realize that my reliefs do have some kind of connection to African American quilts. I like that! I did not know that I could do this.

(quilt picture above taken from: http://museumshows.org/shows/GeesBend.html)

Bravely Making "Music"

' "Quarrelsome? Certainly - and not with men alone but gods. Tangled in misery? More than most men. But despairing? No. Defeated by the certainty of death? Never defeated. Frightened of the dreadful wood? Not frightened either. A rebellious, brave, magnificent far-wandering old man who made his finest music out of manhood and met the Furies on their own dark ground."

- Archibald MacLeish speaking at the Presidential Convocation and Ground Breaking for the Robert Frost Library at Amherst on October 26, 1963'

I like this portrait of Robert Frost.

This quote is from the magnificent book: Robert Frost, A Pictorial Chronicle, by Kathleen Morrison, 1974.

"In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: it goes on."

Robert Frost 

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7715.Robert_Frost

Kaleidoscope

A dear friend gave me this link. It is incredibly beautiful. Move your cursor slowly and see what happens...!

http://inoyan.narod.ru/kaleidoskop.swf

Relief

I started to do something entirely new: I now make three-dimensional reliefs with patchwork patterns (this here is a typical Amish Diamond), 18 cm + 18 cm. It's done with papiermaché and it takes five days to finish a relief. Since I never before worked with these strong contrasts I'm a bit surprised to see its stunning effect when such a piece hangs on the wall.
I think I'll make more of them to find out more about three-dimensional patterns and the effect of using white and black and only one more color in them.
I got the idea when I saw such reliefs, made of manure, which a friend of mine had brought home from a trip to Africa. Since I've never been to Africa I can't do African patterns, but I can try to use "my" patchwork patterns and transform them into such reliefs. I'll try that out! :-)

Motif: A Dog

My sister and I made a personalized quilt for a beloved family member who celebrated his 60th birthday. We worked in several motifs that reflect certain aspects of his life. One motif is a dog, because he loves his dog so much! 

Here are the templates and pieces for the dog: 

This is the finished block:

Here the dog is worked in and I add the border around the finished layers:

I think the nicest thing is that the ear stands out a little!

And this is the wonderful dog in person!!

Old Fabrics

Someone presented me with a pile of beautiful old fabrics, collected over years on French markets. They feel so delicate and pure (I don't find a better word for it) ! 
Most of them came as quilted squares already, I think they were meant as samples of the fabrics, and they have these rings...
The only thing I can do is to carefully sew all the pieces together and make a wallhanging with them. What a joy to do that! 

Lupine's Birthday

It's now a year to this day that I opened my patchwork- and quilting-studio "Lupine". After more than 25 years as a school-teacher I decided on August 13, 2010, that it was time to put something into the center of my life that always mattered so much to me since childhood: creating something nice with fabrics.

This here is one of my earliest pieces of work, as a child I glued this scene onto a wooden case, holding my toys: 

So now it's one year "Lupine" and yes, I do think it's such a good and simple and important idea trying to do what the grandfather tells little Miss Rumphius: " 'You must do something to make the world more beautiful,' "... (in "Miss Rumphius", by Barbara Cooney).

In this lovely book Miss Rumphius needed a lot of time until she found out what's her way to accomplish that: she plants Lupines everywhere she can. With this story I found the name for my studio in 2010: "Lupine". I, too, needed years and years to find out that THIS is my way to add some beauty to the world, at least I see it that way: I sew things together to give some pleasure to myself and to persons who like my work. And I feel this is very similar to planting flowers.

The step from being a teacher to becoming a full-time quilter was a good one, but it changed my world entirely. I lost and found friends, money, energy, it was a constant up and down, but now I have a vague, fragile idea of what to expect in the future. From working in firm structures to forming my own structures of work (and life, that is), this was a challenge not only to me, but also to my family and friends. And it still is. Since my work is non-commercial (I work with persons on their ideas and I give pieces of my work away for whatever they wish to give me back in return) I still don't have the faintest idea how to ensure a steady income for myself. But over the last months I was so touched by what I received in return for my efforts, it always reflected the connection that was built up by working on a personalized quilt for example, and it carried me a long way in every meaning of the word.

On February 13, 2011, half a year after I started my "Lupine" studio, and despite my shaky English, I started this blog here, and I am so happy about that! This way I'm able to be in contact with quilters and quilt-lovers all over the world and I love to receive e-mails from readers! It's so important to share ideas and encouragement and this blog became a wonderful tool to do that. I wished now and then someone would write a comment here and would help to make this whole thing more sparkling and "colorful"! :-)

So, for now, I can only say that I'm very curious what will happen in my second year of working in my "Lupine" studio, and I'm very happy about everyone who appreciates the warm touch of an indivual quilt and shares that joy, with his or her family and friends, or with me in my studio or on this site.

Studs Terkel

One of my all-time-favourite books is: "And They All Sang", by Studs Terkel.  Studs Terkel, Pulitzer- winning author and the famous interviewer of ordinary American people, workers and musicians, a beloved Chicagoan institution, died at the age of 96 in Chicago in 2008. 

In "And They All Sang" Studs Terkel interviews famous musicians of the last century. He has a very knowledgeable and "tender", sensitive way to conduct the conversations and it's pure pleasure to read these most interesting life stories. Among others he talks to Louis Armstrong, Dizzie Gillespie, Janis Joplin, the 22-year-old Bob Dylan, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Andrés Segovia, Mahalia Jackson or Woodie Guthrie.

This is what Josef Krips, an Austrian conductor, says about art in the conversation with Studs Terkel:

"You have the feeling you experience the peace of true humanity. That is in reality the goal of art. Art is not entertainment. Art is a gift of God. It should give uplift. It should be able to give consolation. What you get from it, you can't count in dollars and cents."

This is my book jacket I made for this lovely book:

Reverse Side

It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how things are in themselves.   ~ Carl Jung

http://www.quotegarden.com/perspective.html

As for me, I sometimes like to give the reverse side a closer look, because it shows all the traces and roughness of work, and I don't find it ugly. 

Sans Souci

"Sans Souci" means: without sorrows or worries. I had been to the "Schloss Sanssouci" near Berlin, in Potsdam yesterday. Sanssouci was built in the mid 18th century, was inhabited by Friedrich II who loved the beaux arts and discussions upon philosophy and education, and I loved the ornaments and patterns! 
Some of them remind me so much of quilting and patchwork patterns!


Here are some pictures: