Working Through

Over the last year, I’ve had recurring pain in my elbow. The pain fluctuates and flares — I’ve come to think of it as its own entity. Each morning I check in.

How are you today?
How much attention will you require today?
What will you allow me to do today?

It’s always in the back of my mind, like a second pulse. I wanted to illustrate my relationship to the pain but also my need to keep going, keep creating, and keep using my body in this life. So in this quilt I’m attempting to portray my elbow pain alongside some creative life force flowing out of my hands. I appreciate my hands, wrists, and elbows for allowing me to do what I love. I’m rooting for them and trying to care for them so they will carry me another 30 to 50 years, please and thank you.

Working Through, 36”x26”

Working Through, detail

Working Through, detail

Working Through, detail

Working Through, detail

Working Through, detail

Working Through, detail

Working Through, detail

Working Through, back

Working Through, label

This quilt was constructed almost entirely from deconstructed shirts (everything but the back) as part of the Take the Shirt Off My Back sustainability challenge organized by Diane Paquin Provost, a member of my beloved Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. I took inspiration from amazing quilters I admire: Carolina Oneto, Sherri Lynn Wood, and Annabel Wrigley. From sketch to construction, this is one of the harder things I have pieced and I’m proud of how it turned out.

Peoria Street Surplus

Sometimes we can’t explain the things we do for our art and this is one of those instances. I sewed up this quilt top in 2018, using extra blocks leftover from my Art 140 quilt. After having it long armed, I decided it needed to be hand quilted instead. So I spent the next 2 years ripping out the quilting I paid for, and quilting it by hand, block by block. I used the same lines as the original quilting, and joked that it was a very expensive way to mark a quilt. I often questioned my sanity. Now that it’s finally done and on our bed, I’m happy. Measures 83”x83” Photos by Mitch Hopper.

Peoria Street Surplus, 2023

detail

detail

back

label

Yoshiko's Donut Mountain

I finished this earlier this year, it’s a quilt dedicated to donuts. It was conceived at QuiltCon 2015 when I bought this Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric featuring the puzzling yet pleasing motif of donuts floating over a mountain range. I started collecting fabrics to complement it, including a little bundle gifted to me by Celina Mancurti after I assisted in one of her QuiltCon screen printing workshops the same year. That stack of fabrics stayed stashed in a bag for 7 years, the longest I’ve ever had a project in progress. I’m glad to check it off the list. It’s not my favorite thing I’ve ever made but they can’t all be! It’s scrappy and a bit wild and I had fun piecing the donuts.

Yoshiko’s Donut Mountain, 60”x 80”

Yoshiko’s Donut Mountain, detail

For the record my favorite donuts are glazed donuts from Walmart circa 2009 (I think they changed the recipe since then), and powdered donuts from the Oak Park farmers market. {{{excellent photos by @man.of.action as always}}}

quilting detail

Yoshiko’s Donut Mountain, back

Yoshiko’s Donut Mountain, label

back, detail

Mini for Miki

Last year my guild Chicago MQG held a mini-quilt swap with the Mexico MQG The prompt was to put our partner’s first initial somewhere in the quilt. My partner Miky Zapata mentioned she loves the work of Carolina Oneto so I decided to channel her style for this project. I took Carolina’s on-demand course “Curves and Transparencies” (available on her website) and used the techniques from her class to create this composition (it’s a lowercase cursive m). It was my first time working with transparencies and it was super challenging but fun!

Mini quilt for Miky

detail


Sadly this mini quilt got lost in the mail somewhere between here and its destination in Mexico. A tiny part of me still hopes it magically resurfaces and makes its way to Miky. But it probably won’t. Still, I enjoyed making it and learning something new. I definitely recommend Carolina’s class!

quilt back

label

Here is the quilt Miky made for me!

Back in Therapy (Increased Surface Area)

This piece was created in the summer of 2021. The patchwork came together quickly and intuitively, kind of a like a sketch. I didn’t originally intend to leave the threads exposed; I planned to bury them, but as I kept pushing them out of the way, stroking them all in the same direction, I decided they looked so interesting that I would leave them out (but tack them down with quilting). I don’t know if I invented this thread technique (probably not) but it was new to me and exciting. For this piece I was thinking about the different types of energies I experienced during Covid, surges and waves in all directions, some that buried me and others that lifted me up. I was thinking about the weight of it all eventually getting on top of me and making me realize I needed some help which led me to seek therapy after a long hiatus. Being a student of anatomy right now, these thread rays (as my friend Jenni Grover brilliantly named them) also reminded me of microvilli, structures that increase the surface area of a cell. This resonated too, as I certainly felt like my surface area increased this year and as a result I was more vulnerable to stress and irritation. I often felt stretched, flat out, on edge, like my nerves had nerves (not anatomically possible but you get the idea). It’s called Back to Therapy. Measures 21”x28”.

This piece was part of the virtual exhibit Maternochronics, put together by the talented Emily Zarse and focusing on maternal exhaustion. It also hung in the show Moments Like This, juried by Jessica Bingham, at Women Made Gallery.