Congratulations! You’ve been published…

What a delight to open my mail box, this week, to find the Summer 2024 issue of Art Quilting Studio, open it to page 90 and see my name in print!

My work has been included in various books and magazines before and it’s been a wonderful experience. This time, it was all about my art quilting, what inspires me and my creative process.

I often start with a photo I’ve taken. Here’s one from my yard that inspired one of my pieces included in the article.

The three pieces are The Beauty in Ten Below, Three Bins and There Will Be Dandelions. I’ll talk about Dandelions in this post. When I created it, I was thinking about embracing the imperfect nature of things. I may have also been looking for a way to let my neighbours know that I did not want to continue to use chemicals to rid my lawn of weeds and they were going to see dandelions next door. Thankfully, they haven’t sent me any nasty letters.

Early, this year, I got an email from the editor of Art Quilting Studio asking if I would be interested in submitting some art. Someone I greatly admire, recommended my work. Honestly, I didn’t think I could get it done. I didn’t feel ready and I didn’t have the other projects, I thought I should submit, completed. So I almost didn’t do it. Then, some friends encouraged me to just do it! It was such a wonderful opportunity and they reminded me that doing nothing guaranteed that it wouldn’t be accepted. So, perfectly ready or not, I jumped!

I start a project by choosing the materials to use. Here’s what that looked like for Dandelions. What do you do with all of the thin, pliable sheets of plastic that wrap our food, our soap, or groceries? These are the plastics that are difficult and often impossible to recycle. When you throw it away, what happens to it? When you’re done here, you should go check into it. I’d rather they just stopped making these materials, especially the shopping bags. I’d happily find another material to work with.

Until that happens, I’m choosing to find ways to use it and keep it from ending up in landfills. It happens to be very stitchable!

Check out the video of me stitching blades of grass with my longarm quilting machine. I’m moving the machine. It is like drawing with a very large pencil.

It can be layered and stitched again!

I’m also trying to find ways to use the things that I already have. The string of hexi’s on the side were leftover from a lampshade project. Sadly, that’s still a work in progress, but part of it lives in this piece, now!

I hope you’ll check out my article and all of the other incredible artists and work included in this issue. And if you feel inclined, please share your thoughts with me. I’m not generally someone who shares a lot, but I do have some things to say and it feels good to be expressing them!

The team at Stampington were fantastic to work with throughout the whole process. It was an honor to be asked and then have my work selected.

They have given me a discount code to share with my friends. (use SUMMER624) It’s good for 15% off of anything on their website, including your own copy of the Summer 2024 issue of Art Quilting Studio!

Thanks for stopping by to visit. Please come again!