Wildly Wonderful

As a continuance of my previous post:

And my art? That will always be the wildly wonderful. A three month breather from stress and work was just what I needed to slide back into my little purple chair in front of the Bernina. A break to the wrist of your predominant arm is a scary thing when you use your hands for your art. About a month and a half after the break, I became strong enough to sew again. But it wasn't just all about the sewing. It was like coming to life again in the bright sun after being stuck in a fog for a very long time.

Buttons, lots of them! Tony and I took a small trip in August to our favorite vacation spot on Cape Cod for a couple of days. The Wellfleet drive-in theater is known for it's flea market on Sundays and there was this very large jar of buttons calling my name. You can see a few bakolite ones that were in it, probably by mistake, as a man sold it to me cheaply without his wife around. I love using buttons on my quilts, so this was a no-brainer. I started sorting by color in between exercising my wrist. Then we went to Brimfield in early September. More buttons. One large jar and a huge cookie tin full for only $20. So I must say a large part of my time at home was spent sorting buttons by color, cleaning them, and cutting old thread off of them then putting them into separate jars. This process started warming me up to get the creative juices flowing again.

I started looking around on line again. I had stopped just about everything having to do with creativity sometime around last year's holiday season. Checking out other people's progress with their art was making me feel a bit of a failure instead of spurning me on to work harder as it has before. My first stop was the SAQA website. I had missed the auction. Felt bad about that as I would have like to send in a piece to sell and contribute. But I was just in time to find out about SAQA's next convention which is in one of my favorite places in all of the US, Santa Fe, NM.

As you can see from the massive grin, my last visit there in May of 2004 was a happy one. I visited with a friend and her husband for 10 days and took in a lot of what New Mexico has to offer. Here I am standing in front of the statue on Museum Hill in Santa Fe. I took so many pictures with the lighting being so special there and the landscape, ruins, and architecture all so intriguing and different to this New Englander. Below is a photo of ruins from Pueblo Bonito. Shapes, shadows and lines are so interesting.

So without so much as the blink of an eye, I registered and paid for my spot at the next SAQA Convention. I have a room booked for 8 days and planned to rent a car so I can get around to more of the sights I missed in the last visit. Now with my job gone, I'm not sure how this is going to happen. A trip like this costs so much money. I may have to use money saved up in a 401K while working at the card store, or scrap the trip entirely. Just knowing that the convention was in NM was such a rush for me when I found out that my excitement level for all things art quilt rose exponentially. I took out a quilt started over a year ago that was based on a photo taken in Santa Fe and began working on it again. It will be the next post I make here as I am working to finish it. 

As I became increasingly stronger through the efforts of my Physical Therapist, Vickie, I felt an urge to express it, and she had shown an interest in what I do in the studio, so:

ANGEL
8" X 10 1/2"
September 2012
Machine stitched in commercial dyed cotton, buttons.
Collection of Victoria Moitoso

And I couldn't do this just for her when it was the surgeon, Dr. Lee, who put me back together in the first place, and both of these health professionals work in the same office:

MASTER OF HANDS

10 3/4" x 14 1/2"

October, 2012

Machine stitched in commercial dyed cotton and silk 

with ceramic beads, buttons and found objects.

Collection of Dr. Lawrence Lee

These two pieces were the first work in the studio I had done in months. While not my best endeavors, they were a key part of my getting excited again in the studio.

On a bit of a roll I decided to finish off a small quilt I started a while back which was inspired by my cousin's love of bee keeping. Judi was having a birthday and her daughter planned a surprise party for her. I just had to finish it and give it to her:

BEE KEEPER
13 3/4" X 13 3/4"
Finished October, 2012
Machine and hand stitched in commercial dyed cotton and organza with buttons.
Collection of Judi Membrino Madulka

So these few baby steps have helped me to find my way back into the studio. In a few weeks I will have much more time to work on my art. I am hoping for a good balance of work in the studio, work with my husband, caring for our home and plenty of time to enjoy life.