Motivation and Perseverance

Meet my mom, Lois Lynch Nickel. Mom is a quilter from way back and taught me to love, appreciate and do quilting and needlework when I was in grade school. She also taught me to keep on keeping on...her favorite story to read to me when I was a child was "The Little Engine That Could".

Mom's work is amazing, and she has been and always will be my inspiration and my motivation!

Unfortunately, she doesn't sew too much anymore -- Alzheimer's Disease charged into her life last Spring. If you know me on Facebook, you'll know that I am involved in the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative to help create awareness of and encourage fundraising for Alzheimer's Disease research for a cure/prevention.

Please take a minute and click on either link above to join my involvement with AAQI to raise awareness of and encourage fundraising for Alzheimer's Disease cure/prevention. One day it won't be too late for someone's mother, family member, or friend.

Thank you.

The Dream Rocket

The Dream Rocket

Shared via AddThis

This is an exciting project, an opportunity through a realized dream of the International Fiber Collective, a group in which I participate. I invite you to check out their site, and the past two projects -- the Gas Station Wrap (very cool!!) and the Community Tree Display (many countries and states were involved in both!).

This year's project is the Dream Rocket. I will be submitting a panel. Please click on the title of this post OR go visit the International Fiber Collective site to get more exciting information! And for my student readers -- this opportunity is available for a GREAT school project (suggest to your teachers and get some extra grade points)!!

Update!

I met with Gwen Dixie today, an absolutely wonderful woman who is in charge of scheduling exhibits at the Dallas Main Library. She gave me the dates of March 2, 2010, through April 30, 2010. I'm quite excited! Now, back to work!!

Good News!

I received a favorable response from the Main Library in Dallas as a venue for my next exhibition. Woohoo!! Stay tuned for updates...!

Just In Case...

A new hat can make one unfamiliar...I ran into an old acquaintance on the train today while out on errands and she didn't recognize me as I was wearing My Hat! I love hats in the hot Dallas summer, so here you go, Just In Case!!

BTW

Oh yes, By The Way, I had mentioned more pix and posts for a slew of projects on which I was working before Thanksgiving. Well, they will not be forthcoming at the moment, probably later. Life has a way of getting IN the way sometimes, as you may or may not know (*grin*), but I'm back in the saddle and getting onwards and upwards. So please stay tuned!

The Artist As Herself!

Everyone likes to see what the artist looks like, so here I am today, in June 2009.

More Than Just A Pretty Bunny...!

In addition to traditional quilting, art quilting, surface embroidery, counted thread techniques and many other types of needlework, I also do some types of mending and completions. Many times someone will have an heirloom piece that needs just a few final touches which were never added. In this case, the above picture illustrates those final touches. So, she's more than just a pretty bunny...

She's also a just-completed job! Meet Miss Bunny, the treasure of a neighbor of mine. She had no face, and the fastenings had come off the back of her smock. Poor Miss Bunny needed some real help!

Miss Bunny's eyes were done in sepia brown backstitch, with salmon pink French knots for the centers. Her nose is chainstitched in black, approximately 12 stitches to the inch to be dense enough yet provide some dimension. I am fortunate to have some of my grandmother's sewing stash, courtesy of my wonderful mother, so I used three tiny snap fixtures which fitted perfectly with the ambience of the whole doll. And, she is seated on one of my Texas Iron heart-backed cafe chairs for her "photo session"!

I'm in the middle of finishing a slew of projects slated to be done by Thanksgiving. So please stay tuned and come back soon for more pix and posts!

With One Voice Final

For my "With One Voice" piece, I chose Thomas Merton:

This quilt is in memory of and in honor of Thomas Merton, Brother Louis, a Benedictine monk and writer. He spoke to the many people in the different belief systems with his one voice through his writing. He believed in harmony: Despite the singing of many notes (voices), suddenly one hears only the one note (melody). Living primarily as a hermit, he advocated in a sermon to the birds, "be what you are: be birds." In other words, enter into dialogue, have mutual understanding, and accept each other as individuals within respective groups.

I am very honored to have had the permission and approval of The Thomas Merton Center, to whom I will be donating the piece.

Breaking Traditions Piece Progress...

The birds pictured in my last post (below) will be cut out and appliqued onto my piece for Breaking Traditions 2008, the theme for which this year is "With One Voice". Please check my other blog for actual progress pictures as I don't want to bore everyone with too much repetition! The piece has to be sent in time to be received by Saturday, August 30, so the picture of it in final will be posted, with an explanation of my subject and why I chose to portray it as I did, by Wednesday or Thursday.

Please come back soon!

Birds of a Feather...

These two birds are an experiment in eyelet, silk and sheer. Silks courtesy of Hand-Dyed Fibers.

As a dear friend commented to me, the eyelet stitch does look like polka-dots (*grin*), but that's the camera's fault, not mine...really!!!

Carrying Over ...

In my other blog, I posted about this little medallion. The Battenburg lace is a new endeavor for me -- generally, in the laces department I concentrate on needlelace and pulled-thread techniques. The SRE (Silk Ribbon Embroidery) materials are courtesy of Vikki Clayton at Hand-Dyed Fibers.

You'll remember that fabrics, fibers and founds are what I do. This idea was poking at my thoughts processes, so I decided to try it. For a first attempt, I don't think it's too bad -- you get the idea that it's a medallion shape. The reason I'm publishing it here, also, is because it's beginning a tie-in point that I've been kicking around for a while, so I wanted to present it.

These types of ideas will continue to be shared here, as well as my various pieces as they come off exhibition.

Please continue to share my walk along the circuitous and tumultuous path of fiber art discovery and let me know how you interpret my work. All comments are most welcome!

Disclaimer, sort of!

Well, some of the stuff on which I'm currently working can't be shown until after November 2008 due to exhibit commitments. Although, actually I'm so thrilled to have these opportunities! Do take a moment, however, and click on the 'Breaking Traditions' button there in my sidebar and view some of the lovely work that others in the group have done recently. More later!!

Still Working...

Still working on items to be posted here...but if you go visit my other blog, Ever Embellished, you can get a peek of what I'm doing to fill in waiting time while things dry, etc.

Keep exploring! Keep searching! And I'll keep working and writing!

Well, here's to opening up shop!!

Keep posted! Keep sane! And I'll keeping working and writing.