Journal Quilt Project II: Elements

I submitted this piece called Fire Dance to the Quilt Art Journal Project II: Elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) exhibit. It was not selected to travel with the exhibit. This piece is special to me because I made it while visiting Vikki Pignatelli for 4 wonderful days last July. I was learning and experimenting with her techniques for improvisational design and curved piecing. The border/binding is pleated and has little contrasting flaps sewn in. It has a lot of texture and is 3-D.

My intepretation of the Elements theme: Fire Dance shows the spirit of God in waves of energy, moving over the earth during creation. In the earth’s initial stages, God’s spirit, represented by fire (coral), the waters and air (teal), and the earth (black) are all inter-mingled while the spirit creates their form and they become distinct entities.

Teaching in California

While I was in California I had the opportunity to teach a Praise Quilt Workshop. Fourteen women from different churches in the Morro Bay area attended. I taught an abbreviated version of my Lazy Landscape class and demonstrated how I do Thread Paint Lettering and raw-edge applique. I thoroughly enjoyed connecting with women whom all share a calling to make banners for their churches. Here are two pieces.

The first piece is by Donna Ross and was made for Pentecost.

This next piece is by Judie Kirkhart and is a gift for a family member.

Thank you to Loisann Cass for thinking of this workshop and organizing it. And thank you to the Calvary Luthern Church for hosting the event.

Hoffman Challenge 2008

I learned from my friend Suzanne Kistler that my Hoffman Challenge quilt "Global Balance" was selected for the traveling show in collection QC-A. I am thrilled that it was selected. It's my first time entry.

I am also happy to be back home in Virginia. We enjoyed six wonderful weeks at our summer house in California. However, the only contact to the outside world is through a dial-up connection. While it is nice to have no TV, no cell phone, etc., I do miss my computer and high speed Internet. Mostly, it's wonderful to be so remote. The evenings are spent playing games and talking. My favorite evening was when the guys had a BBQ cook-off and the kids put on a talent show called "International Idol".

Brehm Coalition Quilt

I have completed this new quilt called Connecting the Dots of Type I Diabetes Research. It will be donated to the University of Michigan Brehm Center for Type I Diabetes Research and Analysis. The piece shows funky dotted portraits of ten top scientists from around the country that are a part of the Brehm Coalition and are committed to collaboration on finding a cure for the devastating disease. Also shown in this quilt are Bill and Dee Brehm who created the vision for this initiative. And a guest appearance in the quilt is Paul Lichter who heads the Kellogg Eye Center and co-houses the Brehm Center at the University of Michigan. Can you figure out who is who?

Canna Flower

This is my newest quilt called Canna. I tried a new technique using Photoshop to manipulate the photo and then printed it on fabric.
The inspiration photo was taken by Craig Cramer and was used with his permission. You can check out his blog at www.remarc.com/craig/. During the course of our discussion, he posted a blog about my work. You can read his entry by clicking here.

This quilt will be donated to the University of Michigan Hospital cancer wing. For you alert readers you will notice that I abandoned my project from Asilomar. I was not happy with the applique.

April Trip to California

I am home from a wonderful trip to California. I visited our lovely summer home and was amazed by all the wild flowers in bloom on our property. Here you can see the poppies in the background. Also in bloom was the ice plant.

While in California I attended the Empty Spools Seminar at Asilomar. I took a class with Jan Krentz and worked on my canna flower quilt for the University of Michigan Hospital cancer wing.

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

I have returned from my trip to Hampton to attend the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. I had two quilts: San Diego and Follow Me in the juried show. It was quite a thrill and I was happy they were hung side-by-side. Also Mary Kerr's Vintage Revisted challenge debuted. It was very well received by the public. I had four pieces in this exhibit. Visit Mary's website to learn more about Vintage Revisited and to see pictures of the show.

Identity Crisis

My Fiber Artists group has created an exhibit called Identity Crisis which will debut at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA, Feb 21-24, 2008. Each quilt measures 18" x 60" and has an accompanying artist statement that explains the crisis.

My quilt is called Googlegänger (Portrait of Lisa Ellis of LisaEllisMusic.com)

My Artist Statement: I am a computer geek and I spend lots of time on the Internet. I obsess over tweaking my website and those websites that I manage. My goal is to get my sites to the top of Google results without paying for keywords. And like most Internet junkies I Google my own name. It’s sometimes called ‘ego surfing’. Well, I like to think it’s more like business research rather than vanity. So anyway, I have a fairly common name. Lisa Ellis. When it’s Googled, Lisa Ellis generates 1,810,000 hits. A Googlegänger is someone that shares your name that you find in Google. So what’s my identity crisis? I want my website to be at the top!

Who is at the top of Google results? The Lisa Ellis from lisaellismusic.com. So this quilt is of her. (She gave me permission to use her portrait for this project). It was fun talking to her. She is quite the rocker and totally different from me. She’s cool; I am not. And, she has the number one spot on Google.

Praise Wall Update

Since the installation of the Praise Wall at my church in October 2007, dozens of heartful praises have been offered. Here is an updated picture of how the Praise Wall reminds us to enter His gates with Thanksgiving as we prepare our hearts for worship in the sanctuary.

Epiphany's Mission

I belong to a wonderful church called Church of the Epiphany in Herndon, VA. We live by our mission statement which is:

"To stand for Jesus Christ, grow together as God's family and make Him known through the power of the Holy Spirit."

I made this new quilt to hang somewhere in our building. My hope is that it will help us to remember and inscribe on our hearts and minds what we are called to do within the body of our church.