Liberated Inspiration

I am learning all the time.  The tombstone will be my diploma.  ~Eartha Kitt

I must admit I do judge books by their covers and sometimes just the mention of Gee's Bend Quilts in a book review will prompt me to add it to my basket and cross my fingers and hope for the best. Yesterday a few books were delivered from Amazon and I was relieved to see that I had made a few good choices.

Jean Wells  has written quite a few books (and I have most of them) but this one is different from the rest. It has a freedom from rulers and requires a leap of faith and follow-your-heart use of intuition that can only be described as liberating.

I wanted to get up from the couch and go sew something. In fact, I have been stockpiling Kona Cotton solids to create some quilts with a different look from my usual fabric collage techniques. If I could stop spinning and obsessing about wool long enough I might get to that.

This book is not filled with projects for us to try to recreate but it is more of a how to learn to let go and allow your eye to see what color needs to be next to another for each piece to sing. Looking around your environment and seeing patterns and shapes to convey in fabric and then quilting patterns, texture and even adding 3-D elements is touched on in several chapters. I especially enjoyed the Unconventional Finishing Methods and her off-the-wall quilts that are mounted over box like frames to hang on the wall.

I believe that cutting fabric up into pieces and then putting them back together to create abstract quilts is so spontaneous and liberating that it seems like it wouldn't be taken seriously by those traditional quilters who work from a perspective of perfection. I am attracted to the wonky, colorful, riot of shapes and as my eye wanders from page to page in this book I really am inspired to do this form of quilting. I am under Jean's spell and I truly do think I can make something like this. That in itself is worth the cover price.

Sometimes I read quilt books and feel like I could never make the wonderful quilts depicted and then I feel depressed and begin to doubt my whole reason for doing what I do. It is a welcome feeling then,  not to have that outcome after reading another new book by Nancy Crow titled Crossroads.

This catalog of her solo exhibition at the Snyderman Gallery in Philedelphia (Oct 5-Nov 17 2007) is a glimpse of Nancy's studio, journaling process and a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes and see the artist at work. I love the piles of fabric in her workshop literally everywhere the eye can see. As I go deeper into the photographs I see the Indian baskets she has collected and the masks and images that inspire her on display to reinforce the patterns and textures she uses in her work.

Again, there is a small voice whispering encouragement and I want to go to my sewing room and create. Nancy has a well developed language of color and her pieces are physically demanding as she climbs a ladder to reach her design wall and coax each fabric to be in harmony or bring out the best in it's neighbor. I am impressed with her vast stash of hand dyed fabrics and the gelatin mono printed fabrics make me want to try that again. This is another quilter who has grown saturated with traditional quilting and taken a journey into modern art through the use of pattern, color and stitches. It made me go back to Amazon and order her most recent book titled Nancy Crow.

My local Barnes & Noble only had one copy and when I went back to get it, of course it was gone. Maybe I can get some sewing done in the time it takes to be delivered. Well, maybe after I look through this last new book, one more time.

Quilting Art by Spike Gillespie is a beautifully executed book with inspiration provided by 20 contemporary quilters who when seen side by side offers a delightful escape from the average how to quilt book. It was like a trip to a gallery where each room is filled with quilts as diverse and imaginative as possible. I reluctantly turn each page, sometimes going back to look again at something my mind was trying to decipher.
 Wait, was that painted? Discharged? Quilted, then painted? How did Margot Lovinger create her stunning quilted portraits of women by layering organza, tulle and chiffon?
 Now I am feeling intimidated by artistry that seems more like paintings than quilting. I turn back a few pages to Loretta Bennett whose Gees Bend style quilts make me feel simple and comforted again. Turning ahead I savor quilts by Malka Dubrawsky, one of my own personal heroes who says not to worry about colors "going together" and be liberated and it shouldn't be something I have to worry about. OK, why not?
 All these women speak of how they got to where they are and I can't help but consider all those other women out there quietly dancing in their own sewing rooms (or kitchens, living rooms or make shift creative spaces) as they put colors together without rulers or patterns.
 Allowing the freedom to fill them with possibility.
 Having the courage to make mistakes and leave them in, knowing that it will add interest and not detract from the simple beauty of their design abandonment.
How will I grow and change as I soak up this new input?
Will I be a better quilter because of it?
I have a sense of the years spreading out before me, where I spend countless hours cutting, stitching, embellishing and working out the message that I have in fabric.
It isn't something that can be accomplished overnight, no matter how you chose to create your quilts. It all takes time and they are all beautiful, even the most humble quilt, because of the labor of love that is required to create them.
The next time you find yourself sitting crossed legged on the floor beneath the quilt books at your local bookstore, think of me and know that if I were with you, I'd share in the delight of seeing fresh modern quilts and I'd say "try it, you might enjoy it."
After all, you can always go back to the way you have always done it.
What's to lose?
You might Grow.
I think I'll go get my stitch on.
have a happy friday,
xo, calamity kim