Kansas Here I Come

I want to tell you about the first ever National African American Quilt Convention. It will be a history making event. I will tell my grandchildren that I was at the first, the first. I won't go into the why and wherefores of having one for African Americans or why that is important to me or my grandchildren. So many exciting things are planned that I don't know where to start telling you about it. Let me start with my quilt exhibit called "The Women Who Fly" at the Lawrence Public Library.

The Lawrence Public Library is one of the seven most beautiful new libraries in the world according to http://www.techinsider.io/the-most-beautiful-new-libraries-in-the-world-2016-4
I am so honored and blessed to be there.


This exhibit is designed to showcase twenty quilts of women in many different walks of life. Several of the quilts are dancers but also women doing the many things we do to make the world go around. It is a testimony to the fact that we have to fly about the pain and strife in our lives while keeping it moving. (As the commercial says, Moms don't take sick days). We, as women, often do what we do with insurmountable strength as if we have invisible wings. This exhibit will allow you to take a glimpse of those wings.

Make no mistake- several exhibits are planned and even more are being planned as we speak. This convention will be like getting a quilting-education in four days equal to learning that could take you years.

The National African American Quilt Convention is happening in Lawrence, Kansas from July 12th until July 15th, 2017. The website is http://www.naaqc.org/   Everyone is invited. People are already signing up. One hotel is already fully booked. You don't have to be a quilter to come to this convention. Art lovers will love the great art on display. Lots and lots of exhibits are planned. Plus super awesome lectures are also happening. Have you seen Faith Ringgold before? If you have then you know what you have to look forward to, but if you haven't prepare to be delighted. Her lecture "More Than 60 Years" will be so informative and fabulous.

The line up for classes is fantastic. I am truly blessed again to be teaching a Scrap Quilt class on Thursday July 13, 2017 from 9am to 3pm. I can't wait to teach you how to make the quilt that is featured in my book "Scrap Easy". I was surfing the net one day for ideas of basketball players. As I rolled the cursor down the page an image of a lady in a flowing dress made of scraps popped into my head. To this day I have no idea how I got that out of pictures of basketball players. When I showed the first quilt, a lady bought it on the spot.  I am still amazed at the popularity of this design.

The great thing for me is being in the company of all the other great teachers. Lola Jenkins is doing a Portrait class. She is one of the great portrait quilters on the planet. She is a master of shadows. Check out her work and you will be pleasantly surprised. Sandra Johnson is teaching several fabric dyeing classes. She has great new innovative techniques especially what she does to jeans. Lori Triplett is teaching Indigo Resist Dyeing. She is a renowned author. Sherry Whetstone is teaching Victorian Crazy Quilting an Tea. Staying true to the vintage style of the 1800’s, students will embellish beautiful velvet, brocades, satin and fancy cottons with embroidery stitches, beads, trinkets and anything else that catches the eye. Bisa Butler is teaching Portrait Collage. She is the best at making a face from various beautiful fabrics. She can show you how to make magic with simple fabric patterns. Rachel Clark is showing you how to Make A Statement. She makes the loveliest wearable art. Renee Fleuranges-Valdes is teaching Mask Time! You can learn to make a mask that you can use to decorate in your home. Jan Hollis is doing Mosaic Fiber Art. I have been so influenced and inspired by her art. She has a wonderful eye for putting it all together. Go ahead and sign up for the convention and these classes today. Go ahead - pick one!

I have to give kudos to Marla Jackson for pulling these great group of artists together to teach us new and innovative techniques. Marla read my mind and did the da** thing. Yay!!!!

We are living in a wonderful time. Our grandmothers quilted in their own homes and communities and never met all the quilters of the world. We have the opportunity to get together first on social media and secondly, now at the great National African American Quilt Convention.

Save your money, so you can join the fun.  See you there!!!

Favorite Day

I know I have skipped a few weeks here and there. Please forgive me. Let's face it, my life is just not that exciting. So some weeks I can't think of a think to say.

Do you have a favorite day of the week? I do and it is Saturday!  I bet if I take a poll Friday will probably be everyone else's favorite.  I could sleep late but I don't. I can't wait to get up and get to my sewing project. I know that I will have a day of solitude when I can work as long as I want. I put Young Blood on the radio and then sing and dance to my heart's content.

When I was young Saturday was the day that my sister and I would hang out with Patricia all day. One Saturday we schemed to steal Ms. Henrietta's snuff. We had no idea what the snuff did or why Ms. Henrietta sent us to the store to get some all the time. We did know that she seemed to enjoy it so we decided that we would try it.

We swiped the can and went around the back of the house. We stuffed it in our bottom lip and swallowed. Then we went back to the side of the house where we would bounce a ball onto the house. Shortly after wards, the house started to spin. Everything was spinning. Served us right. We were drunk from the snuff. Who knew? I never ever wanted snuff again.

Patricia also had a wonderful blue bicycle in her house. I asked about it all the time. Finally she taught me to ride. Patricia was older than me so when her interest went elsewhere, she let me take the bike out on Saturday all by myself. I would ride off to Valencia's house and join her in a ride to town.

Valencia and I would park our bikes in front of the 5 and Dime. We would go in and separate. The lady would try to follow us around the store. She treated us as if we were there to steal. We touched everything and ran her all around the store and then we would leave. We didn't want anything but we got a kick out of baiting her racism.

I think Saturday meant freedom from routine very early in my life. Now it means a day to get totally lost in my sewing exploits. The hours just fly by. Sometimes I forget to eat until late in the day. And to top it all off, I was born on Saturday.

Do you have favorite day of the week and why?

Old Fashion

Facebook just reminded me that I posted these little girls on my page about six years ago. This is one of my favorite quilts and it was more than 40 years ago when my sister and I ran after butterflies in some similar dresses.

That is just a good a place as any to began reminiscing about the good old days. I was telling a friend how we buy the concentrated liquid of starch, mix it with water and put it in a spray bottle. She said, "oh you do it the old fashioned way."

People are saying that to me more and more these days. My children are constantly telling me that I should watch TV in HD (High Definition). I ask why. They say because it looks better plus you are paying for it and you have a Hi Def TV. I realized that I watch TV like it is a radio with a picture. I mostly listen because I am doing something else while it is on and every now and then I look up to see what is happening. So at this point HD doesn't matter at all to me. I tell them that I can see the future of TV. It is going to be like a hologram where the people in the show you are watching step off the screen and you have the option to interact in the story. My daughter's eyes lit up with delight at the thought.

I first noticed that I was sinking into the world of "Old Fashion" when one of my daughters informed me that an ink pen is now just called a pen. Really? How do you differentiate between an ink pen and a sticking pin? She says you just have to know. So I started calling them pens. Who cares which one? You only know the difference in writing or when someone sticks you with it.

My fate as an old fashioned lady was sealed when I was asked, "how do you store your quilts?" I answered quickly without thinking, in a chifforoll (really a chifferobe). One lady said, "oh Aisha, I haven't heard that word in a long time." Yes I know they are called Armoires now.

My latest reality check is the ability to talk to the whole world on social media in the matter of minutes. Who knew? Everywhere I go my work and my pictures proceed me. I have friends that I have yet to meet and I think that is an awesome thing.

It's a lot of little things that add up to show you that life and the world around you is changing. So for the rest of my old fashioned day, I am going to retire to my studio, listen to some down home blues and make old fashioned quilts. I like that old fashioned slow moving retreat that heals my soul.

Lost

Have you ever been lost inside a task? Have you been lost inside a good book, lost inside your latest painting project or lost while writing? I don't know why we say "lost" because I don't feel lost when I drift away in a project. I know exactly where I am but maybe it is because we are lost to the world.

I often slip away into an art project. Ms. K told me that her mother said everybody should have a hobby as her mother taught her to quilt. Her mother also said, "your husband needs to get his own hobby as well." I think she knew something about having something in your life that lets you drift away to that place that we call "Lost".

When I am lost in my work, it feels like being cuddled in my mother's arms. It is like sitting by a rippling creek listening to the birds sing. I have tuned out the physical world, even the white noise. It all fades away and even the work becomes part of the experience. I have heard absent from the body is present with the Lord. Can I say when I slip into this peaceful place that I have left my body for some divine experience?

I know some artists who have stayed in that grove way too long. Some artist tell me that when they get in that zone, they don't want to come out. They skip meals, don't sleep for days and work until they just have to stop. I have waited too long to eat a few times but never went too long without eating and I can't imagine not sleeping but I do know what it is like to be there and not want to come out until the book ends or the art is finished or the work is done or until all the numbers add up.

I started out putting a few sequins on the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. quilt. Eight months later the hat was covered with sequins and it was exhilarating.

 

I started by making French knots one at a time until I covered President Obama's head. I don't remember how long it took but I do remember sticking my fingers with the needle a lot.

People have told me that it looks like crazy to them. Who does that? Who spends untold hours making something? Those people just don't know the secret of slipping away into the clouds, doing that repetitive thing that puts your body functions on automatic and lets your mind soar. I guess that is why so many artists say that what they do is therapeutic. Like the time that I spent stitching up and down about a million times to create the wings on "Only Women Have Wings". 

And Now This!!!!

I can say for sure that when I am in that space and it is clicking, some awesome stuff comes out of it. I have spent months working on that one little part of a quilt, only to have that be the sole factor that makes the quilt outstanding. I love it when I can go to that place and make MAGIC!

Whole Cloth

Whole cloth quilts are made from one piece as opposed to quilts pieced together with many colored pieces. The beauty of the whole cloth quilt is usually the intricate quilting stitches that make up for lack of piecing design.

I had the pleasure of helping the talented quilting artist and teacher Marquetta Johnson with a class for teenage art students. We all worked on a whole cloth that started out as a blank canvas. The students were so creative. They drew fantastic art onto the cloth with fabric markers by Crayola Crayons. I didn't have time to work on mine during the class because it was an example piece. I taught the young adults how to quilt by hand on the cloth. I started mine by showing them a little design of stitches.

I brought my cloth home and did not have the heart to throw it away. It got added to the pile of "I'll get back to someday." One day it called out to me. I haven't figured out why but I picked it up and started doodling with shapes and stitches. I had no idea where it was going but it felt good. It felt real good to just relax and sew by hand.

I added a woman with wings in the center of the quilt and finished quilting the entire top. I put some brown cloth on for the woman. At that point I didn't know where I would go next. I knew I wanted to color with the Crayola Fabric markers. I also knew that I didn't have any, so I ordered some. In a few days they came in the mail and I was on my way. Painting on the colors was equally as enjoyable and relaxing as it was to quilt by hand.

First down was blue, next the center started out red.  Light green seemed like a good idea, but when I finished it I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the last space. More light green of course.  I put some yellow highlights on the center and that tinted it orange. Dark green rounded it out. I can't say that orange tint was where I wanted to go. I wanted more of a gold glow. I have one more thing to try for the effect.

The next thing was the wings. That was virgin territory. I learned a new technique from Tony Williams. He made some beautiful feathers on a quilt. Tony's feathers were so impressive that I thought they were real feathers. I don't think I quite mastered it but I can say I tried it anyway. And I should do better next time I do it.

I still have to put hair on her and bind the edges but I love the way it is turning out. My final goal is to find a nice frame for this one.

Thanks for taking this little journey with me from a blank canvas to a work of art.

My Style

Every artist has an unmistakable style. I am not sure when and how I got one but people tell me all the time that when they saw that one-they knew instantly that it was me. All I can say is that it has been developing over time. When I started on this journey my variety of fabrics were limited. Two things effected it: 1) was our income status and 2) was the kind of fabric I could afford to buy. Ooops that is the same thing. :-)

My first quilt project was made from scraps that my father salvaged from his job. I don't think anyone that I knew made quilts from brand new fabric. Perish the thought. Everyone scrapped and saved to have enough dribbles to make a quilt. So I followed suit. I had a small bundle because I didn't know how much fabric it would take to make a quilt. My ambition was to make a full bed quilt but with my skill level and know how I should have went for something a lot smaller. So when my father brought in scraps from the making of hospital scrubs and nurses smocks, I picked a lovely pattern that I had seen other women make. My father called it "the Fly in the Buttermilk" pattern. I had seen it in a book and they called it "the Jack in the Box". My dad never played with a jack in the box when he was growing up but I am certain he drank a lot of buttermilk. As a matter of fact, he liked buttermilk until his death, especially with cornbread in it. So I suspect he knew more about a fly in the buttermilk than a jack in a box. Needless to say, I was not prepared for the undertaking I had embarked on but my father was so proud that I thought I could do it. It would be about twenty years later when I finished it. That is my regret and that was in the 70's.

Quilt World magazine became popular in the 80's just in time for the reawakening of my latent quilt talent. I decided to try my hand at a quilt that I saw in a book. I loved making blocks and stacking them up. It became a meditation before I knew what meditation was all about. I tried almost every kind of block imaginable. I liked the Star pattern the best. I made a lot of stars. Simply loved them.

My next leap didn't happen until the end of the 90's into 2000. I saw a picture of a landscape quilt and a picture of a person on a quilt. I am not sure which one I saw first but decided that I could do that. I tried my hand at the landscape first. I was so pleased with it I figured I would do a lot more of them. It didn't quite happen like that. I tried my hand at a person next. The first one was alright and the second one got better. Next thing I knew I was about twenty portrait quilts in, doing an exhibit and publishing a gallery book about the exhibit. The book is called Gifted: Art Quilts Featuring African American History Makers.

Which brings me to 2016, and the project that is taking my breath away. I said I would make 20 quilts for the National African American Quilt Convention. The Convention is 2017 in Lawrence, Kansas. It is the first ever of it's kind. I guess you can hear my excitement. Check it out at www.naaqc.org This morning I woke up realizing that 20 quilts is a lot of quilts. I have been working and designing away. And still need two more. They will come. I just need to step back and wait on more inspiration. This project has moved me to yet another level. I want this exhibit to be outstanding, fabulous, noteworthy....

We'll all see. 

Day Trip to Paducah

I had a wonderful time!!!! First let me tell you how it all happened. Earlier this year a friend called and said, "do you want to go to the Quilt Museum in Paducah? We could go up one day and come back the next." I jumped at the idea and then put it on the back burner. I almost forgot about it. Fast forward past several months, she called again and said, "Aisha let's set a time right now. How about October 1?"

So the air is fresh in Paducah this morning. The first stop yesterday was the Hancock's of Paducah. I failed to take a picture when I walked in. I should have but I was so overwhelmed and euphoric that all I could think of was where do we start. So we went to the farthest end and walked up and down each aisle. Ou uuuu uu... Fabric Heaven. Seriously fabric heaven. We filled the shopping cart with as many bolts of fabric as it could hold and that we thought we could afford. Next we went to the cutting table. After we got all that fabric cut, the workers told us of another room in the back with pre-cut packages. Off we went. More wonder was waiting in that room but I decided to pass and order later online. The last stop for me was the remnant table. Found about five more pieces. Since I forgot to take a picture at the store, I decided to take a picture of the fabric I bought.

After walking around the store for a couple of hours and not to mention the 6 hour drive, we were ready to eat something. I brought some salad from home because I was so sure there would not be anything I could eat at the restaurant. That is usually the case, so I ate the salad I brought in the car on the way to the restaurant. Boy was I wrong. We went to JP's Bar and Grill.

The atmosphere was nice and the food was wonderful. The waiter was very knowledgeable and seemed to know that we were people who wanted some healthy food. To my surprise the food was fresh cut, fresh cooked with olive oil as opposed to butter. Just what I needed. I passed on the asparagus and went for hummus and waffle fries. The portion was so large that I had to stuff it in past the salad I had already eaten.

Some how I managed to get all of the fries down by dipping them in the hummus. I had to pack the pita bread to go. I have to give my friend all the credit for doing a fantastic job of finding us a wonderful place to eat. I do have to say that the asparagus looked really good on the other ladies plates but I had no more room in my stomach. One more thing- I have a thing for sweet tea, especially if it is good. This one was good (not as good as the sweet tea in Charleston, SC or at my house) and the waiter kept my glass refilled. I drank way too much tea.

We passed by several shops on our walk back up the street. One lady ducked into a boutique and ended up buying some jewelry. I waited on the sidewalk while the other ladies disappeared into a shop ahead. The next store was a Trump supporters store. They seemed to be selling t-shirts, bumper stickers and other Trump paraphernalia. They looked at us as we passed as if they were not welcome there. I could be wrong- I was wrong once back in 1929. ha ha ha. Then we passed one more shop that was going out of business. Passed it by. The other ladies emerged from the chocolate shop with goodies in bags. I missed that. A two hour walk around the Quilt Museum would be just what the doctor ordered. I had to walk that food down.

The anticipation swelled as we approached the building. We just knew we would see something exquisite. 

   

Once inside we found that no photographing was allowed. We took pictures in the lobby and memorized the rest. The quilts were awesome but we were sorely aware that there were no quilts that reflected us. I wondered if I were an alien from outer space, would I think that African American people failed to participate in this craft. The Gift Shop did not have even one (1) book by an African American person. I guess that thought was in my mind since the Smithsonian National African American Museum just opened. I could see those people in the Trump store probably asking why would you need another Quilt museum for African American people. Everybody wants their achievements and accomplishments to be acknowledged. We are no different.

The docent met us at the door and welcomed us in. We went right away to a reversible quilt hanging to the right. We could see a beautiful landscape quilt in the distance. She explained the layout of the place and told us how a few of the quilts were created. I rushed ahead since we only had two hours to see everything in the exhibit. I saw some beautiful log cabins, some horses and other art quilts. We saw abstract and traditional. Once I had seen them all, I realized that I had time to go back through and study some techniques. Some quilts had reverse applique' while others were painted on, one was thread painted and many had exquisite quilting designs. (Quilting is the stitching that is done to hold all three pieces of the quilt together). Another docent asked me had I settled on a favorite. I don't know if I found a favorite but I couldn't get the landscape  quilt and the scallops on the bright colored log cabin quilt out of my head.

I left the museum excited about the quilts I had seen along with the inspiration that I had garnered and some deep thoughts about our needs.


I swear I fell asleep with visions of new quilts in my head.

Sunday Turned Into Monday

I don't know how it happens. I wake up on Sunday morning with all of the good intentions- exercise, meditate, market, cook, Sunday things, write on blog, etc... The next thing I know -the sun rises again and it's Monday!

So here is the real deal. I spent the whole week cleaning my studio. For some strange reason (unknown to myself), I just work and put things in a pile that I plan to come back to at a later time. One day I look around and I have umpteen piles that I don't want to get rid of nor do I want to take the time to sort through them. I made a promise to myself that I am not going to do that anymore. Not sure how that promise is going to work but I think I have a plan along with the fantastic organizing system my daughter has put in place. 

When we first started this organizing project, I proudly proclaimed to my daughter that I did not need a lot of space for yardage. "I don't keep much yardage," I boasted. I guess quilters (aka fabric hoarders) don't realize how much fabric they actually have. I obviously had no idea. We started folding it and putting it on the shelf. The shelf started filling up but I could see that I had a lot of room for growth. Almost as if the Universe were listening, a friend gave me three large bags of yardage. Our next door neighbor cleaned out her mother's things and I inherited another boost to my yardage shelf. Then Cousin Leola, who had been a seamstress all her life, was moved to a nursing home and more sewing goodies poured in. I started finding fabric that I forgot I had stuffed into some totes in my rough past attempts at organizing. I found that out of sight meant out of mind. The more totes, bins and boxes that we opened, the more I realized that my sense of how much fabric I really had was totally off.

The button display turned out to be more a work of art than a storage system. I never turn down buttons. We always salvaged buttons from old clothes before discarding them. So I had a wonderful collection of old buttons that my oldest daughter spend her childhood enjoying. Buttons are the one thing that I inherit the most when people are cleaning out their mother's belongings. I love collecting those buttons.

When did I buy all these beads? When I first started making quilts, all one needed was fabric and thread. Then quilting warped into the arena of fine art and embellishments became the rule of the day. I kept the beads in a container, then I added another container and a box. They became another thing that was out of sight/out of mind. This beautiful display makes adding embellishments playful.

My favorite organized spot is the thread shelf. It makes my work so easy. I used to dread changing the thread because I kept the thread in another room. I would have to stop what I was doing if a change was required. So I compensated by doing as many things with one color thread before I changed. I would have several different projects going at one time because they all used the same color thread. Now all I have to do is stand up from my sewing chair, grab the next color and keep it moving.

This wonderful organization did not happen over one week but a big push this week make it just beautiful. And all in all, I finished the Crown Royal art quilt. I named it "Friday Night." And the owner of both the art quilt and the bed quilt was super super happy. 

Finished

Last Sunday was garbled up in the holiday. I thought I would come back on Monday and write but it slipped away as well. I finished three things that I had been working on. So happy to say that the Crown Royal bed quilt is finished. I can't wait to see what the owner thinks about it. 

I originally thought I could get away with leaving the crowns off the back of the bag. That didn't work. My niece looked at it and said, "what happened to the crowns on the bags?" I told her I was trying to leave them off. She said, "well maybe you can make some kind of design with them. Like just putting a few to a make a design like a diamond shape." I am sure that was her kind and silent way of saying, "are you crazy. That looks a hot mess." LOL. Making a design with the crowns proved to be more work than to just add the crowns to each bag. If I had known I was going to add the crowns, I surely would have done it before I started sewing all of that together. She was right. It was not the same without them.

I also finished a couple of other quilts. It would seem that since I finished those two plus the crown royal quilt that I would be down to two open projects left. That is not how it goes. My brain starts ticking away at the next quilt before I can finish the one I am working on. So I am back up to five on-going projects. Whoopi!

My workshop at The National African American Quilt Conference is Scrap Easy. I've been working on a smaller version of the quilt for the workshop. It turned out the same as the big one.

The time went by so fast when I was working on it that I was able to do two of them. I am going to try and get the technique and time down so that we can have some finished products when the class is over. It is going to be a fun filled class. Check out the website for more info on the conference at http://www.naaqc.org/

I still did not finish the Crown Royal art quilt yet but I am in the home stretch. I am putting the binding on. I'll show you next week.

What Are You Working On?

What the world doesn't know about me is that I am secretly crazy when it comes to my work. I think all artists have a touch of the crazies. We crawl into a stitch in time or some safe little pocket of unconsciousness and do our thing. I usually have about five projects that I am working on at one time. One project is pressing for the next deadline, another one is my long term- five year project, then there is the commissioned project, or the one that I have been dreaming about but have only collected a stack of fabric, and the one that is hanging on the design wall because I am stuck.

So when someone asks me, "What are you working on?" I am stumped for an answer. My mind races around my studio glancing at each project. I ask myself what am I going to say? I weigh the situation all in a half second. If it is a long time quilter I say that I am working a project that has me trying to figure out which way to go. I'm hoping they have some suggestions. If it is a person that I don't know I say I have a project that is due next week and I am putting the finishing touches on it.

I don't dare say I have a long term project that I like to pull out every now and then that is going to take me about five years to finish. A five year project seems to agitate people. When they see me working on it after a year or so, they say, "You haven't finished that quilt yet?" 

Today I want to answer that question with a commission that has proven to be a lot of fun. First of all I made this quilt for an exhibit highlighting recycling and re-using. My brother passed and I acquired the Crown Royal bags he had saved over a period of time. I thought right a way that they would be just the thing to make a quilt out of and show recycling and re-use. Friends teased me about having drank a lot of Crown Royal.

My nephew overheard a man saying that he would love to find someone to make a quilt from his Crown Royal bags. He had been saving them for 20 years. My nephew told him that he knew just the person.

Long story short- I am working on a queen-sized quilt from a big bag of Crown Royal bags. Of course that is not the only thing I am working on. The man also wanted a wall hanging quilt from his bags. I have the top of the queen-sized quilt almost finished. I still have to put those crowns on the empty bags that were originally the back of the bag. I will be quilting it after I put the crowns on it.

In the meantime I have started on the wall hanging. It is coming along well. It is ready to go on the quilting machine. I thought I would be able keep it simple but once I got to this point, I realized that I am going to do a lot of quilting on that gold background.  I want to do some stippling and make the dancers stand out. I will post the finished product next week. 

I used his special Crown Royal bags in this wall hanging. Got to get back to work. This is what I am working on.

See more of my quilts at www.obaquilts.com

Motivation

I had the wonderful experience of attending another Trunk Show by Dawn Boyd-Williams yesterday. I am always so impressed with the things that motivate her to do what she does. Her work is so thoughtful. She says, "I read a lot, listen to a lot of music, watch people, and study all kinds of cultures." She set me to thinking. What is my impetus? I do all of those things and the impressions hit me differently. That is the beauty of individuality. The spectrum of light can come from the same source but be perceived by each person as a different color. So Dawn and I both read a lot, listen to a lot of music, watch all kinds of people, and study all kinds of cultures. She sees red when I see blue.

 I have had so many requests for quilts about the President and the First Lady that I want to tell you what motivated me to make several of the quilts.  This piece is called "Elegance." It is the first one I made a couple of years after the first inauguration around 2010. I had this idea of portraying the First Lady in a red dress (although she wore white at the inaugural ball) to show that she had a powerful and forceful spirit. I also had an idea of  a couple dancing and enjoying the dance. I thought it was symbolic of the dance they would have to do to survive in the white house. I made them with really big smiles as I could see them sidestepping political BS. It was early on in my work with faces so I can now look back and see some things I could have done differently (better). I also wanted to have the 3-D effect, so I made his bow tie and the bottom of her dress stand out. I purposely chose the light background because I wanted them to stand out. 

Then I was asked to do a portrait workshop and I had this idea that a picture of the president would be a portrait that most of the class members would like to make. So I created the "44th President" quilt for that class. The class never happened but this was the preparation. Either I seem to like him in a blue suit or I have seen a lot of pictures of him in a blue suit. I can say that I made this face twice for this quilt. The first time I made it, I used the wrong color brown fabric. It looked like somebody but not the President.

When Barack Obama won the Presidency the first time, we were overwhelmed with emotions. Pride was one of the most prominent of the emotions. Mrs. Mattie Pittman asked me to make her a quilt for the bed with a picture of President Obama on it. I said yes but had no idea how it would look. So I threw it n the back of mind and tossed it around for a few years. Then her daughter said she wanted a quilt for her mother. She said, "she likes big hats and I was thinking of a quilt with a lady in a hat." I remembered that she had previously asked for an Obama quilt and now her daughter wanted a lady with a hat. The light bulb turned on in my head and I heard the ancestors sing. I'll combine the two requests and make a quilt with the President and the First Lady and I'll make the First Lady with a hat on. Not just any old hat but a big church hat like Mrs. Pittman would wear. I made the First Lady's face first. After that, I found a hat that I wanted and designed a dress to go with the hat. I wanted a big 3-D flower to place on the hat, but how would I make it and keep it light so as not to weigh the quilt down. I decided to go with ruching. Ruching is a French word which means to plait. It is a very ancient technique. A strip of fabric or ribbon is gathered in a repeat pattern and as the gathering thread is drawn up the strip forms scallops or petals.

I used a ribbon made from organza. I really liked how light it was once I finished. I set it aside and kept working on the quilt. Next I did the President's face and his suit. The back ground was next and then the people were sewn onto it. For Mrs. Pittman's quilt I added rows of squares to the center back ground to make it bed sized. Once all pieces were in place, I quilted it on the long arm machine.

I sewed the ribbon flower on to the hat. Made a gazillion french knots to mimic hair on President Obama's head. I added all the final embellishments to finish it off.  I named it "Just Between Us" because the President seemed to be laughing at something whispered between them while the First Lady looks like she held the punch line. It was seven years from the time Mrs. Pittman asked me for the quilt to the time I finally finished it. I spent about five years thinking about the concept. She was so happy when she got the quilt. She laid it on the bed right away and then declared that people could only see the picture of the quilt when they came by. 

There is probably at least one more Obama quilt inside me. Not sure what it will be but it is stirring around somewhere in the back of my head. Like Dawn, I will read something, or someone will say something, or a song will touch me a certain way and the foundation for that next quilt will spring forth from the back of my mind.

I can't wait!

See more of my quilts at www.obaquilts.com

Celebrating Femininity

In July I launched my new book "Inspired By Her; Celebrating Femininity through Art Quilts" because I realized that about 60% of my quilts were celebrating women. I set out to understand this seeming obsession with creating women doing so many different things.

I ended up with a vast understanding of how so many women have effected my life story. They were not all saints but they were the strongest influences for me. I wanted to thank a lot of people but could not thank them all by name. So I decided to dedicate the book to all my friends' mothers who showed me the way consciously and maybe times when they didn't know I was watching them.

Mrs. Mattie Pittman

Mrs. Mattie Pittman was one of my two best friends mother, She was soft spoken and kind. She could cook anything on a wood burning stove. She amazed me every time she pulled that perfect pound cake out of that oven. I loved visiting her house, so much so that I wanted to stay with them. She kindly told me that I had to go home. 

Mrs. Marion Daniel

Mrs. Marion Daniel was the other of my best friends mother, She always looked at me like I was up to something and I was. She knew. I always felt like she could see through me. She would ask me sharp pointed questions. I would try to answer fast and give as little information as possible. I knew if I kept talking I would give away the real reason we were doing what we were doing or going where we were going. She knew the real reason was - boys, what else did teenagers have to think about. I think her watchful eye kept us on a good path. 

Mrs. Ann McMullen

Mrs. Ann McMullen was a wonderful example of motherhood. She taught me the importance of family staying close. She had a large family and was still a very attentive mother. My girlfriend was feisty and I am sure she got it from her. She called her mother "Hot Rod." I loved visiting with her. She always had a smile and a laugh even after her illness got worse.

Mrs. Marion Cleveland

Mrs. Marion Cleveland was the best at teaching me to ignoring what seemed to be a difficult situation. We all thought her husband was so mean. Whenever we wanted to come over to play with her girls, she would say it was alright but he would look at us with a scowl. She would usher us inside past him and treat us so kind. She seemed to have a kindness that melted his anger. She was strong in her convictions, a friend to other women in the church and a really good mother. You never realize how much you are learning just watching someone's actions. 

Mrs. Dorothy Brown

Mrs. Dorothy Brown was the youngest of all the mothers (or at least she seemed that way). She influenced me most when her daughter and I were little children playing in the yard. I can't think of her without remembering eating fried green tomatoes under the table in her dining room. We were barely in elementary school and still small enough to sit under the table. She talked to us and was understanding. She liked to have a good time and my favorite picture of her is at a nightclub with her husband. I learned that a good time was an important part of life by watching her. 

Mrs. Rosetta Hinton

Mrs. Rosetta Hinton was the mother that I watched from afar. I learned what a stern mother looked like from the things her daughter would say about her. Her daughter and I got in a lot of trouble together. Mrs. Rosetta would always be my measuring stick if we went too far. Yeah we went too far a couple of times. I am sure she never knew it but she disciplined me through her daughter. She was a pillar of strength in the community for me. I was so blessed to have Mrs. Rosetta in my life.

Mrs. Nellie McKibben

Last but certainly not least was Mrs. Nellie Ruth McKibben. She was Mama to me. She let me be one of her children. I came and went as if I were a sister to her daughters. She taught me to cook some of her best dishes. I am still trying to perfect her Caramel Cake. I ate way too much of her food on Sunday. She seemed to be a very independent married women. She had her own money. She went to her meetings and had friends. I learned that balance was good in marriage from her and so much more. She always had a smile and kind words. She also did not hesitate to put me in place when I was out. I felt her love and am so grateful for that.

Most of them were really young women when we were growing up. We didn't realize that. They all let me call them by their first names (except Mrs. Rosetta), which I would never do today. I think it was because they were still real young ladies and their own mothers were still in their lives. Their mothers were the Mrs. not them. Most of all they were kind to me. I don't know why that meant so much to me then but I try to follow their example and be kind to people.

I guess that is some of the  inspiration for my art, my life and my marriage. I can truly say that I was inspired by HER!

Books available at http://obaquilts.com/shop/inspired-by-her/ and amazon.com  https://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Her-Celebrating-Femininity-through/dp/0991130537/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1471184056&sr=8-2&keywords=inspired+by+her%27