Ms. V's quilts, writings, workshops, and exhibits.

Volunteers, the good, the bad, and the ugly?

2012-02-01T13:00:00.000-05:00

Recently I took on a task to head a fact finding committee. A short task with a great group of people to work with and somehow in the middle things started to fizzle. Hey what happened some stayed, new people joined and others dropped off.

After a while we all think about the time we are spending, what is in it for me, and is this something I really want to be involved with, or I gave the info I had, I am done. If we could accept this is what happens when you call an ad hock committee things would be a lot smoother. OF course the one running the program usually gets shot in the foot once or twice. And if they did not have their combat boots on at the time, getting your toes shot off a few times is enough for most people.

Why do I stay? I usually stay because have a vested interest in the out come, I am going to learn something, or I have something valuable to share. But when I am done, wild horses could not drag me back.

So we ask ourselves what happened, why it did not work, why don't people step up or go the distance, and why cant we get people to volunteer. Well I'll tell you, adults do not to hear no a million times or to have their ideas rejected time and time again. Who knows if their ideas would pan out or not. Kids you can say no to until you die but not adults. Well here is something to keep in mind people... sign on for their specific reasons, not necessarily or even rarely for the reason you think. Then when it is time to get down to work, the group shrinks.

Don’t worry it is not just your guild, group or committee. This timing happens on every committee and group I belong to where people are not receiving a monetary exchange for their efforts, a possible prize, or honorable mention or an award at a big function.

Note that volunteers always receive some negative feedback for their efforts. Usually from somebody that is not doing anything or is sending out negative vibes. Why in the world would anyone continue to volunteer after having their ideas rejected, or negatively critiqued and they never got a chance to get them off the ground? This has happened to me more than once, and at more than one group or another.

Here are the facts, well some anyway. People want things to change and they want them to stay the same. If they change the entire group will be affected. If they remain the same, guess what the whole group will be at the effect of no change. Volunteers usually come along with new members, new ideas, new energy. The current members of a group spend the first few meetings whispering oh we tried that, or we tried this. No one thinks to ask if the person offering the idea or volunteering has professional expertise in this area. Or is bring tried and true methods from their work life to the team. The person is treated to the 'wack you on the back' line. If you make it through and still want to volunteer, either you have played this game before or you are a tough nut to crack and the group will prosper, as long as the person has honorable and positive intentions.

Members of teams, committees, and groups beware, you may be the reason, without knowing it that volunteerism is low. If you always do what you always did you will most like get what you always got. That is why some organizations fly to the top and other seem to settle midway or below. There are ways to keep the high energy of new group members and seasoned volunteers coming back and ways to keep chasing them away

Lets review some things that work:

· One sure way to keep volunteers coming back is to break tasks down to manageable parts and/or short periods.

· Add lots of one time tasks on a clip board that you send around during a meeting.

· List tasks or jobs in the bulletin, newsletter or on-line email group sites for members who do not come to the meeting but want to volunteer and can do these jobs off site .

· Revamp jobs so that a team of two volunteers (present and incoming) handle the work so that no one person is carrying too heavy a load. This way you get to pass the history of the task and new ideas and new skills may come with the incoming volunteer.

· Have a handout spelling out the task, so people won't feel like there are hidden things that may show up and cause them to quit midway or feel taken advantaged of

· Each time the job changes hands there should be some kind of transfer of information, hand over a loose leaf book.

· Pass along an online file.

· Share a document on a flash drive to the next person with the duties, and time lines clearly written so one does not have to start from scratch.

· Include the history of the job and some do’s, don’ts, and ‘what worked for me’ type comments volunteers would know exactly what they were being asked to do and have a guide.

Why is this important? I have volunteered to help with many projects well before the event and some times years go by before I find out there was a book with the information I had been trying to find. So without that knowledge I started from scratch and always felt like I was panning for gold. The information was not a secret but everyone knew the information but me. Especially with a group that have active members who have been faithful for five or twenty five years. Again this is typical of groups and organizations so it is an observation not a criticism. If you want to increase volunteer efforts there will be adjustments to make. That is why corporations hire specialists to come in and work with different departments to help stream line their efforts and document what each person does.

It does result in layoffs, jobs disappearing, or new positions being created, new people taking over or coming into positions of authority, and lets face it people getting really out of joint. But the result does provide benefits to the team, group, or organization.

Even though volunteers are not paid in cash they receive numerous benefits. It is often how to barter their skills in the future, shared experiences, they gain opportunities for growth in a specific area of interest, receive training they would have to pay for otherwise, they get to add these experiences to their cv or resumes, and more important to many volunteers they get to spend time with others who share their interest in a cause or program.

There is good, there is great, there is bad, and certainly ugly. But at the end of the day good works are done by those who have incredible skills and a go give spirit.

Warmest regards,
Ms. V

Words of comfort ease you on your way, or Grieve now.

2012-01-24T10:12:00.000-05:00

For Patty Doyle and Family...

Keeping you and yours in prayer this morning.

Words of comfort sort of slip over one during times like these, its ok let them.
Let whatever feelings you have surface.
Face them moment by moment.
Grieve now.
Let the words of comfort ease your way.
Many of us have fathers who have passed on.
We do not love them less or miss them less.
We do not adjust or even forget.
We face the moments without them as each arrives.
Words of comfort sort of slip over one, beyond one’s grasp. It is ok.
Let them.

Heart felt sympathy,

Ms. V

2011-09-21T11:48:00.001-04:00

Gallery Shots, Postcard, Painting on Fabric, Weaving, Show & Tell

2011-06-10T11:48:00.002-04:00

Postcard Swap, Great Grandmother Willie (born before the end of Slavery) & Great Aunt Eunice her daughter walking on Market Street in Philadelphia. This photo was taken before 1945. The building was Tuskegee Institute, now University where three of the youngest, of my great-grandmother's nine children attended school. Eunice or E. Finch Morris, as she like to be called was one who attended.

This was drawn as one of a series, done immediately following a GYN appointment.

My Dear Professor Haymaker. He encouraged me to enlarge my work from 8 1/2" x 11" to 8x10 feet. The weaving behind us is one of three I made during our time together. I often start small but end up five to ten times larger.

Bad hair day, not anymore. I created the square behind the face, of paper, thread, crystals, glue and fabric. Later this mask required a backing and the cream fabric square felt just right. As I completed the appliquéd of face, hair, then necklace I realized it needed to be larger so I added the boarders. The quilting is the first overall machine quilting I completed after I got over the fear of machine quilting. Oh yes, I was nervous about it for years, finally taking the plunge after a session with Juanita Yeager. So it doesn't matter if you can draw, sew, paint, or fussy cut. There are things that have us stumped...until we gird up our loins and punch through or pop the bubble.

My dear friend and Show & Tell partner. I use this piece to demonstrate the way some quilters show their work. After the demonstration we all laugh at ourselves and having gotten the point do a much better job at introducing ourselves and sharing one of our art works with our audiences.

Three Pregnant Ladies a Chair and a Antelope

During the most pressing times of my life I paint, sketch, put colors together in a manner that relieves stress and pressure. Fabric has always been important in that process. Quilting has come and gone and come again into my life. What is special about this piece is it encompasses all of the above. A time when my daughters were pregnant, my daddy passed on and I was pregnant with that pain, and when I was in physical pain from an injury. I found my fabric, paints, with years passing before this became a finished piece. What happens for me is a start, pack it away, a finding, work on the parts, a finding of the last piece or technique needed, then a finish. Just so with this piece. I also found a way to handle all the emotional turmoil happening at the same time.

Did I mention I went to live for a period of time with my mother after my father's death? Well that is a whole nuther quilt...I haven't finished collecting the thoughts, pieces, paints, story on that one yet. I will post it when it is a bit more along in the process. The story behind each of these quilts has been written and one day will be published with the quilts. What a lofty goal. LOL

Lectures & Workshops by Ms. V - Empowerment - Promote Your Work

2011-06-10T11:25:00.142-04:00

This Lecture & Workshop series was created to empower artists to manage the expected and unexpected ups and downs of being in business with and for themselves from a position of strength. Oh yes, we are generally the business manager, along with the artist, the clean up crew, the shopper, no wait, we like that role, LOL, you get the point. (Fees Listed At Bottom...just in case...LOL

Bless You - detail, 2007

We live, work, and create in two different worlds. We generally create alone. It is an interaction between us, our materials, our tools, and our evolving workspaces. After a period of time say a few weeks or a few years we share our work with the general public. Well some of us Do share, some of us Think about Sharing, and some of us put our Work carefully away for long periods of time, some even forever. Why? Often because we can not figure out where to begin. We sometimes need to learn how to reallocate learned life skills into our art tool contaniers. And other times we need the company of other like minded people to realize our own worth and value as artists.

Beyond Comfort, detail 2011

As I have grown/sewn in this field I discovered moving from a private life into a public and on-line life was more than a notion. I realized I could offer a few How To's...for those of us who get stuck, feel intimidated when viewing other 's work, feel lost or just not up to doing the tasks necessary to reach or set our goals. So I looked back at my diaries and selected some of the roadblocks I have hit and decided to write down how I met the challenge or overcame the situations. Thus two series: Empower Your Creative Self and Promote Your Work, were developed.

Each lecture was designed to appeal to a general audience of both artists and non artists. Each:

Has a PowerPoint presentation available enhanced by relevant artwork.
Has a varied format of mini-workshops (2 hours), a 2-5 day workshops, handouts, workbooks.
Full day lecture has a hands-on art related component, we create!
Lectures can be restructured to target specific audiences, new lectures and workshops can be created to address specific topics, at various levels; beginners, intermediate, advance/seasoned artists all designed upon request.
Lectures and workshops are designed with the needs of artists at their core.

Lectures & Workshops and studio arts classes available in 2011

Promote Your Work - Four different workshops in this series

Without Apologizing
To sell, To Exhibit, To keep as Heirlooms
Creating Opportunities
Return on Investment

Train the Trainer - Enhancing your Techniques & Delivery
Finding My Voice, My mark, My Signature, creating a body of work

Job Readiness Series for Artists

Accumulating the techniques
Searching for employment or Self employed
I am ready to be launched - now what?

Marketing Yourself - But I don't like that Part! But I do want to get my work out there.
My Studio - the business end includes a combination of:

Database of in progress and work
Database of stash, tools, library
My Will
My dining room table or studio
Designing what is right for me

Using Show & Tell to encourage Guild Members (Professional Development)
From Stash to Cash

Building Self Esteem & Self Confidence - Tools of the Trade

Moving Forward Creatively - Stuck?
Healing Arts - I Sew and So I Am

Studio Arts Classes available: Surface Design - silk screening; batik; fabric painting; fabric dyeing;
Design - 12", 18", 44" designing my own quilt from scratch; learn to follow a quilt pattern, small project start to finish with surface design elements.

Fees:

My Basic rates: which include lectures, teaching fiber art classes, quilting techniques, and surface design workshops

$700 Per day class teaching stipend (up to 20 students, after that an additional $35 per person)
$400 One hour lecture with trunk show, and all expenses.
$850 Combination of presentation and workshop held during the same event/day plus expenses with permission to vendor before or after workshop or lecture.
Custom Rates are available for special programs.

Expenses include travel: mileage for airport trips, airline tickets, shipping any supplies back and forth, taxi if needed, as well as all motel and meal expenses for the 'days of the presentations'. If DH has to drive me our mileage fee is $.50/mile, and his motel provisions and meals should be included for the working days, when in attendance he is a part of my package, other DH's are encouraged to attend those lectures as we often speak as a team. I generally arrive the day before teaching starts, and leave the day after teaching ends. I am deathly allergic of cats and some dogs so my preference is to stay at a hotel.

Promote your Work without Apologizing!

2011-05-04T16:55:00.000-04:00

I will be teaching this workshop "Promote your Work without Apologizing!" at SAQA's Denver Visioning Conference this May 2011.

This interactive empowerment workshop will look at:
• Our perceptions of ourselves as artists and or quilters
• How we talk about our artwork casually, at gallery openings, and lectures.

This mini workshop will offer tools to help participants strengthen self-talk and business-talk

• How do you answer these questions when introduced?
o Who are you?
o What do you do?
o What medium do you use?
o Where can I see your work?

I am asking workshop attendees to bring the answer on a sheet of paper the size of a postcard.

They will also be asked to bring their authentic selves to the workshop..." and the one you want to be, the person you want to introduce to the movers and shakers, the person you have been striving towards, the one you want to introduce to the next curator or gallery owner who has asked around about you and your work, the one who is wondering if you would fit… their next promotion, their next event, their next exhibition to a tee!..."

That is the person I want to meet and really need to interact with. Why? So that you come away from the workshop empowered and imbued with the tools you need to achieve your goals.

Best Regards,
Valarie Poitier
Life Coach, Job Readiness Instructor
Curator, Co-Chair SAQA-NEQM-2009-2011 Project "No Holds Barred"
SAQA Rep MA/RI

SewSistahSew

2011-05-03T01:48:00.000-04:00

All weekend long I thought about all the things I wanted to accomplish. I managed to get the most important done. Rest.

With that rest came a flood of creative thought around my UFO's, not so much unfinished objects as in progress works, LOL. I have a fresh prespective of what is needed and what I want to accomplish, and how I want to, and can now do it. I will post a few UFO's next blog and the drawings that show what I am working on and where the rest has free me to take them.

Taking a moment to pray

2011-05-03T01:45:00.000-04:00

Dearest Lord,
It has been some time since I have sent out a prayer over the line and I thought I would take a moment to touch base with you and some of those on my prayer list in this manner today.
It is with great thanks that I come to you today.
It is with peace in my heart that I reach in your direction.
It is with the patience you have used to prune me that my spirit has grown exponentially, and I am at last aware and thankful.
It is through your guidance, that, and my willingness to let go of those things I cannot change that I have seen the greatest times of peacefulness in my life, and even now, filling my heart.
It is from the time I was given the grace to accept you in my life that I knew I would never be alone again, and having matured in life and in you I find myself humbled and grateful.
I ask much in your name Lord.
Peace be unto the reader, great and greater strength in you, I pray, also harmony and balance in their physical lives, rest and refreshment in their waking and sleeping times, abundance where needed and compassion and patience when warranted.
There is a special want or need pressing in the hearts and minds of some, if it be your will Oh Lord and to your purpose for their lives and ours, I would consider it a boon if you would grant their hearts desire.
May all that I do and say be a blessing to those you have gifted me with in my life. I ask these, nay all things, in your name, my strength and my redeemer.

How great thou art…
A request for a Blessings,
Ms. V

SAQA New England News...Colchester, VT Event

2011-03-28T11:42:00.000-04:00

Dear Reader,
I had the great pleasure to attend the Workshop Event in Colchester, VT this weekend. Margaret Sheehan was the hosting SAQA Rep and Alexandra Nickerson was the event planner and hosting SAQA member.

March 25-27, 2011   
It was an exciting opportunity for SAQA members.  
Two workshops were offered:  
Approaching Galleries - Rae Harrell, owner of Rae Harrell Gallery, and From a Juror's Perspective Valerie Poitier, guest curator/juror and SAQA Co-chair of the "No Holds Barred" exhibit at the NE Quilt Museum and SAQA MA/RI co-rep. 

I must say that Alexandra did an excellent job selecting the speakers, location, and studio's for the event. As both presenter and participant I felt we all came away with a reminder or much better view of what it takes to put on an exhibit. What it takes to participate in an exhibit. Whether or not we were in the game, or wanted to be in that particular game.

Friday night's dinner was great, even if I couldn't eat. The company and discussion was worth the trip. Saturday was packed from morning to late night with the two workshops and an opportunity to share our work with each other, simply smashing quilts were unpacked and unrolled. The works of art and techniques were very different.

Here are some of the areas discussed:
- The decisions and choices the curator, juror, gallery owner is faced with.
-What a gallery owner or representative is looking for and what you/we as artists need to provide that person so that we may be represented at the highest level of professionalism.
-Bio, Artist statement, Artist Statement, CV, Education.
-Pros & Cons of Exhibiting.
-Personal development, build courage by doing.
-Where you are now, where you see yourself going.
-How to get the best out of the resources available to you.
-SAQA site, we took a short on-line tour.

Sunday was an extra-ordinary day. We rode further up into the hills of VT. The trip took us to the most, and I mean most wonderful studio. Dianne Shullenberger, fabric artist shared her gallery and studio spaces with us in a gracious and melodious manner. Yes it was a pleasure to the ear and the eye. Her work and space was for me, like a grand banquet. Everything I would wish to see, crafted by a master, with the proper spaces to put them in. What more could this artist want, I got to see a working gallery and a working studio! That my friends... is one of my dreams...and it feels closer after this weekend.

All in all this was another spectacular New England Weekend. The weather favored us by being sunny, crisp, and a bit snappy with cold. We travelled back to Massachusetts having experienced the best of VT, the best of SAQA, and the best times.

Regards,
Ms. V

No Holds Barred - Regional meeting for MA/RI - all SAQA Members & Guests are invited

2011-03-13T14:22:00.002-04:00

Good afternoon!

In one week we will have the opportunity to come together at 10:00 for one of our Regional meetings at the NEQM before the current exhibit of SAQA New
England.

In addition to holding our regional meeting, we will share upcoming news, in progress or completed art works, talk about what we are doing or teaching, plan our next area exhibit, meet the artists of the current exhibit, and to invite our guests to become members.

One important order of business will be to thank Jeanne Marklin for her time
as Co-Rep of SAQA MA/RI. She will be stepping down in June 2011. Jeanne will not be in attendance however as she is hosting a meeting in western MA. So we will plan our thanks and deliver in person at our next joint meeting. We are seeking a member to work with me during the remainder of my term, and to carry the torch while recruiting the next rep. Please start to scout out possible members who have what you consider the necessary experience and energy to best represent you to SAQA and the art community.

After the official meeting time, approximately 1:00 we will walk the museum as a group and look at the exhibit together and ask specific
questions about techniques, materials used, and the types of machines used. We should all come away from this experienced inspired to either continue what we are doing or to try something new or in a different way.

If you are an instructor or have a business please bring business cards or a handout. This will be the perfect time to talk about what you do and what
you offer.

There were many lessons learned during the No Holds Barred exhibit process
and we should review some of them and what we want to do in the future. It
is important to discuss what we can do differently, in addition, or not at
all next time around. So the floor will be open to everyone to share their
input.

Also come prepared with ideas about what you would like to participate in
regarding future exhibits. We are ready to start on our next SAQA project
as a region and having your input is very important. The current plan to
open the area up beyond the six states and we will discuss to whom and how
many other regions to include. Depending on the ideas we may even open it
up to all of SAQA.

As you can see we have a full schedule of items to discuss and we hope you
will be able to join us. Your voice is important!

Please RSVP to vprattpoitier@yahoo.com.

Regards,

Best Regards,
Valarie Poitier
Curator, Co-Chair SAQA-NEQM-2011 Project "No Holds Barred"
Guest Speaker Grand Opening January 29th @ 1:00pm IT was awesome!
SAQA Rep MA/RI
****SAQA-MA-RI@blogspot.com ****OUR NEW AREA BLOG
Ms. V's Studio #508-314-6597
http://www.saqa.com - Studio Art Quilt Associates
http://saqane2011news.blogspot.com/ - No Holds Barred News
http://msvpoitier.blogspot.com/

websites that have photo's or press releases of my work

2011-02-17T16:34:00.000-05:00

I was searching on Bing, not a place I generally go and I found a few links with in of on my work and art. I got excited to find myself so I went exploring on google, and surprisingly I found articles and photos I did not know were on the internet.

Be mindful of who is taking your picture. I did find about seven that I did not know were on the internet. I will have my game face and top on whenever I step out the door for now on.

Atmospheric Change, God's Breath, & Sunrise, Quilt Art - on website.

http://www.quiltart.com/elements/html/Aseq_poitier_atmospheric_change.html.

Beyond the Obvious - detail, currently on exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum

http://saqact.blogspot.com/2011/02/saqa-no-holds-barred-opens-at-new.html

The Youngster, a quilt hanging in the Haley House Cafe, in Roxbury Ma was made for an exhibit (Henderson, KY June 2010 http://blog.hendersonky.org/2010_06_01_archive.html) celebrating the John James Audubon's landing in 200 years ago in KY.
A press release regarding same... http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/jun/12/exhibit-celebrates-artists-work-via-quilts-fiber/?print=1

http://www.baystatebanner.com/Boston-Scenes61-2011-01-27

Flash of Light, my journal quilt is listed under my name, search for poitier or scroll down to the p's and you will find me.

http://www.quiltart.com/2007journals/JQ07_07.html

A press release: http://www.lowellsun.com/art/ci_17215651 regarding an exhibit I am a guest curator of...NO HOLDS BARRED - Currently on Exhibit January-April 2011.

No Holds Barred - Event Date Chage due to Storm Warning

2011-02-03T13:58:00.001-05:00

Snowy Greetings,

The event planned for this Saturday has been moved to Saturday February 19th at 1:00 PM.

Celeste Janey has created a wonderful lecture filled with information about her journey. The art work is filled with embroideries, quilting, words, images, along with her poignant story telling.

Please pass the word on to your guilds, colleagues, and friends!

WINTER WEATHER CLOSURES: The Museum will be closed due to inclement weather on any day that the Lowell public school system is closed. Check "Lowell" on the School Closing List before heading out to the Museum.

Warmest Regards,
Valarie Poitier
Curator, Co-Chair SAQA-NEQM-2011 Project "No Holds Barred"

No Holds Barred – at the New England Quilt Museum Grand Opening Event was held today.

2011-01-29T21:33:00.002-05:00

No Holds Barred – at the New England Quilt Museum Grand Opening Event was held today.

Well the time came and went for the opening celebration. What an amazing experience! There was the sun shining and a clear highway to drive on on the way to Lowell, MA. We had standing room only at the Exhibition. Twelve of the artists were present hailing from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Five of the current SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Representatives from the New England States and one former Rep were also in attendance.

The support of the Reps, exhibiting artists, artists who answered the Call for Entry, museum staff and volunteers, the team that worked on the proposals, jurors, and the SAQA staff and volunteers all working together in various capacities over the past three years has resulted in a wonderful collection of Contemporary Quilts.

When you look at the exhibit you see the latest techniques being used today across the country, in fact, by art quilters not only in SAQA here in the states but around the world. There was hand quilting, machine quilting, dyed fabrics, stenciled and silk screened marks on fabric, commercial and whole cloth works, paint acrylics and oil stick, yarn, metallic and cotton threads, shibori and other techniques used. Whatever is considered leading edge was found in the exhibit today. There are also two quilts that are part of the permanent collection by artists who were juried into the exhibit on display.

In two other galleries you will see two different displays of antique quilts. There is so much to see…both antique and contemporary quilts.

I hope you will take an opportunity to go to the museum to see the show and on ~~Feb. 5^th~~ (***storm warning***date moved to February 19th!...to see the lecture: My Journey by Celeste Janey; Feb 12^th to see the lecture “Art Quilts by SAQA’s Exec. Director, Martha Sielman; and on March 5^th to a workshop followed by a trunk show by Wen Redmond. On March 19^th there will be an all regions all call SAQA meeting that will be open to the public. The artists have all been invited and they will be there to share one on one about their work and their SAQA experiences.

Thank you all for your contributions to this local exhibition!

Fondest regards,

Ms. V

Valarie Poitier
Curator, Co-Chair SAQA-NEQM-2011 Project "No Holds Barred"

Guest Speaker Grand Opening January 29^th @ 1:00pm – Smashing!
SAQA Rep MA/RI

http://www.saqa.com - Studio Art Quilt Associates

http://saqane2011news.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html - No Holds Barred News

http://msvpoitier.blogspot.com/

Member: Quinobequin, Quilters Connection, Sisters in Fiber, Boston Weaver's Guild
Life Coach, Life Skills Trainer

New Exhibit - New England Quilt Museum - African American Curator

2011-01-14T12:16:00.000-05:00

There are only two weeks left to wait for the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) and the NEQM (New England Quilt Museum's) Grand Opening of the Exhibition 'No Holds Barred'. The show has been hung and looks amazing. There were so many steps along the way on the tickler to check off that it is hard to reason we are almost at the grand opening.

I must get my nails done before then!

The dates of the exhibit are January 20, 2011 - April 9, 2011. Artists from six New England states were invited to enter the call for art works that would be debuting at this event. We had 52 artists send in their entry forms, pictures, and artist statements. There is a blog that tells about the process. http://saqane2011news.blogspot.com/

The panel of three NEQM jurors and two guest jurors Juanita Yeager, SAQA member, and Noelle Frye of the Fuller Craft Museum and I viewed all the works and a collection of mostly non-representations works came together.

There is is a wonderful line up including a lecture by SAQA's Executive Director, Martha Sielman, workshop by a Regional Representative Wen Redmond, and a trunk show by two different SAQA /NEQM members, Wen Redmond and Celeste Janey that will occur on Saturdays during February and March.

On March 19th there will be an all call meeting for SAQA members who live, are visiting, or plan to drive up to see the show and we will be talking about SAQA membership, the how to's and best way to support and be supported by the organization, and we will walk the exhibit with the exhibiting artists who are in attendance. That day will be hosted by Valarie Poitier, SAQA PAM member, SAQA Regional Rep for MA/RI and guest curator, along with Jeanne Marklin PAM member and Regional Rep for MA/RI.

We hope you will join us for one or more of the events. Check out the link to the New England Quilt Museum for more details! http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/events/special-events.html

Ms. V

Quilts and Guest Speaking in January 2011

2011-01-07T15:29:00.000-05:00

Update on what I am doing creatively over the next few months:

My work along with Celeste Janey and Brenda Jones will be on display at the Haley House in Roxbury January-March 2010, the artist’s reception is January 15th.

I will also be guest speaker at the New England Quilt Museum at the Grand Opening of the "No Holds Barred" exhibition that I am the guest curator for. I also have a quilt in the exhibit called Beyond the Obvious.

NO HOLDS BARRED: Schedule of Events

Saturday, January 29, 1 pm

Painted background appliquéd bird

Opening reception for New England SAQA, with Guest Curator Valarie Poitier

Saturday, February 5, 1 pm

Lecture: "My Journey", by Celeste P. Janey

Saturday, February 12, 1 pm

Lecture: "Art Quilts", by Martha Sielman

Saturday, March 5,
10 am, Workshop and 1 pm, Trunk Show with Wen Redmond

Saturday March 19, 10:00, SAQA NE Meeting and Gallery Walk

(Open to the public) Hosted by SAQA Reps, Valarie Poitier and Jeanne Marklin

I hope you will be able to attend one or both of the events listed at the top of this message. If not check out one of the events happening during the exhibit on a Saturday !

In May 2011 at the SAQA Conference: Visioning
I will teach "Promote your Work without Apologizing

This interactive empowerment workshop will look at our perceptions of ourselves as artists. Valarie Poitier will offer tools to help participants strengthen their sense of positive self and their ability to talk about their art at gallery openings and lectures."

Best Regards,

Valarie Poitier

After GYN Appt.

Curator, Co-Chair SAQA-NEQM-2011 Project "No Holds Barred" Grand Opening January 29th @ 1:00pm SAQA Rep MA/RI Ms. V's Studio #508-314-6597 Studio Art Quilt Associates http://www.saqa.com

http://saqane2011news.blogspot.com/

Affiliations and Memberships

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Boston Weavers Guild

Brush Gallery

Danforth Museum

New England Quilt Museum

Quilters Connection

Quilters Quad

Quinobequin Quilters Guild

Saxonville Workshop Instructor

Sisters in Fiber

Studio Art Quilt Associates

Surface Design Association

New England Quilt Museum - Saturday November 6th at 1:00 pm

2010-11-03T14:46:00.000-04:00

Great Day in the morning, or so the saying goes.

It has been a long and wonderful journey sourcing an upcoming exhibition for the New England Area to be exhibited at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell Ma. "No Holds Barred", is coming this January 2011. Lots of lessons learned, lots of wonderful people met, lots of traveling, lots of giving and receiving. Receiving is harder than you might think, at least for me. I began the journey thinking what I could share of the gifts I have amassed over the years. At the conception I was hale and healthy. Midway I was hospitalized and immobile, unable to walk, be touched, and even barely lift myself. Here and now I am so close to hale and healthy even I can see it on the horizon. By God miracles do exist.

Great day in the morning, well I would say so! To those who shared their strength, their ideas, their support, themselves and never once doubted my recovery would be possible, my hat is off to you. My thanks knows no bounds and I am a better stronger person because you dared to jump into the frying pan along side me and have greatly contributed to my life and longevity.

In fact in addition to working on that project our critique group 'Sisters in Fiber' presently all residing in Massachusetts, will be presenting this weekend at the New England Quilt Museum.

Oh yeah! My co-pilot, voice of experience, and world traveler Celeste Janey, Michele David, and Brenda Jones will all join me in presenting a trunk show for the current exhibit AFRICAN-AMERICAN
QUILTS TODAY: A Celebration of Motherhood, Sisterhood & the Matriarchs

We will display quilts we have been creating, embellishing, worrying over, swapping fabric in and out of over the past 20 years. We will have music, stories, quilts in various stages of completion, not to worry most finished, dyed fabrics, and other fiber items that we will share with you. The process is what is important to me and what I learn along the way, finishing is important to one of us, starting another, and finding time is a bug in all our bonnets. Well I hope you can join us, we guarantee a wonder filled, moving, heartfelt time!

Warmest Regards,

Ms. V

Improvements, creations, wait listed, creatively speaking, quilts, quilting, quilted

2010-07-21T12:15:00.000-04:00

Good day,
I mean it really, this has been a good day, and it is just noon. Improvements, I can concentrate. Probably does not sound like a big deal but it is. In order to create my art quilts I need to concentrate. Taking some of the repairing, relaxing, releasing, medications does away with the ability to concentrate. Downsizing on those same meds means more areas of the brain available to concentrate.

I can read, write, paint, watch tv and remember the story line. Are you laughing, ok it is funny on one hand, on the other it is amazing. I am trying to remember all the things I did before I was prescribed medication to deal with my injuries. Oh that's right I can check my journals again. Now that I can concentrate I can get those books and use the patterns and drafts to continue my mental journey.

I have been gardening. Well not weeding as per the therapist, but the flowers have been gracious and have grown anyway.

creations: I have two pieces of fabric that I painted using the top and bottom of plastic cups, jars, and the back end of a paint brush. Wonder of wonders I got depth perception going on. I have also used my shiva sticks to enhance a few of the women quilt tops and have started to pick up my studio.

Wait listed: well that would be sewing. I can hand sew but the hand eye coordination needed to sit at the sewing machine, the time sitting and breaking so I do not hurt is still being experimented with. I'll get there.

Creatively speaking I have the same 30-40 pieces in different stages of completion. I picked out five and will concentrate, now that I have mastered that again, and finish before the end of the month. That is tops, to pin, baste, back and quilt is a whole nother post. :)

Reflections

2009-11-24T00:35:00.000-05:00

Last year this time I was less than a week out of the rehab hospital. I wondered if I was going to be able to take the next breath, the next lifting of my head, the next swallow of medication, the next trip to the bathroom, and the next drink of water, would I be able to swallow enough of it.

I wondered if I could accept the pills and the patches without crying, if I could look at all the faces around my bed and not reflect back the sadness and worry I saw there, if I could not cry at all because the back up of fluid in my mouth and nose was choaking me.

I started to water the plant in my bathroom. And it began to open and to bloom. It caused a crack in the way I was thinking. Just a bit of water and sunlight and look what happened.

I wondered if I would remember things again, so much forgotten, so much lost, so much gone, simply gone. Would it come back, would I be able again. Just able, not able to do any particular thing but just simply able. I thought for long periods between medicating applications and could remember none of it when next I was given medicines.

I wondered if there would come a time when I could just be. Just not hurt. Just not cry. Just not ache everywhere, differently than before I went to the hospital in the first place. Just wondered if this was all there was ever going to be. And then I would have a moment or two of clarity. And the pain and misery of my situation and condition would press so tightly against my heart and my mind that I would cry backwards, I would muffle the tears as best I could but it never helped. I heard so many times, it is going to be ok sweetheart.

I did not believe it for months but I repeated it like a montra. Perhaps everyone but me could see something when looking at me that I was completely missing. I never gave up but I had nothing left to give either.

The cards and notes and small gifts of friends is what ultimately bought me around. As they reached in with these small wonders I began to reach out and to look forward to receiving them. It is hard to explain how much these cards and palm size gifts meant to me. They were small enough to fit into the size my world had become. They gave me hope, and let me know that dear ones outside of my room cared for me. I needed to get better and try harder so that I could thank them.

And I did. There were miles and stories between this year at this time and last year at that time but suffice it to say Thank You dear friends and love ones. You pulled me through. I made it. I will continue. I have placed your offerings in a special place in my heart and in my room. They make me smile and think and I know that I am loved.

How will I translate this into a quilt. It is a must as I will want to add it to my storytelling.

Warmest regards,
Ms. V

Here are shots of Damion working.

2009-11-09T17:58:00.000-05:00

I love so many of these shots. Great job Damion.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Damion-Poitier/79925134454#

You wait years to see the proof of your work

Wait to see the proof of the putting

Years go by and you hope something you do will be worthy

To finally see your work is almost spell binding

See how dedication and committment pan out

The true measure of a man's work is the process and documentation

Proof is always available when you are engaged in the process

Of all the days in my life I choose this one to take a measure of where I am and when

Your task is to keep on plowing the field, sowing the seed, and reaping the rewards

Work is only one of the many facets of life, do not forget all the others.

Ms. V

Damion Poitier New reels

2009-11-09T17:39:00.000-05:00

"http://www.facebook.com/pages/Damion-Poitier/79925134454#"

In Loving Memory

2009-10-27T12:26:00.000-04:00

Above all peace and understanding.

In memorial we stand hands held, hips and shoulders pressed together to keep each other lifted up.
One more missing from my eyesight forever.
No answer why, no satisfaction in the silent moments spent alone, no sound of that beloved voice in my ear, smiling into my face, hugging my body with such a strong hug and such a loving goodbye.
Separation only for a moment of God's time.
Beloved son, dearly loved cousin, there are not enough words to tell you how much you are missed right this moment.
If it be so, if it is possible, if all that we have been taught is true, you are with our other beloved family members and friends.

In God is our trust.

I love you and will keep the memory of you alive all my days, in my stories, questions, art works, and heart.
Cousin V

Memory, Love, Cousins, Forced Separation

2009-10-27T12:16:00.000-04:00

There are days when the incoming news takes your breath away for a moment.
Days when you wish you could rewind.
Days when you wish other choices had been made.
And days when you know our higher power has invoked his, her, their will.
Sending out love and blessings respectful of how you pray, communicate, acknowledge, or not, asking for: Peace to those who need it.
A Time to heal for those who are in the tunnel and not aware that there is a process before you come to the end or the opening, or the beginning of the next phase.
Love, warmth, hugs, tears, screams, sighs, back rubs and pats, watery smiles, and tearful kisses.
Moans and clarity, anger and surrender, confusion and giving up, Love when you need it most, silence and remembrance.
Above all peace and understanding.
In memorial we stand hands held, hips and shoulders pressed together to keep each other lifted up.
One more missing from my eyesight forever.
No answer why, no satisfaction in the silent moments spent alone, no sound of that beloved voice in my ear, smiling into my face, hugging my body with such a strong hug and such a loving goodbye.
Separation only for a moment of God's time.
Beloved son, dearly loved cousin, there are not enough words to tell you how much you are missed right this moment.
If it be so, if it is possible, if all that we have been taught is true, you are with our other beloved family members and friends.
I love you and will keep the memory of you alive all my days, in my stories, questions, art works, and heart.
Cousin Val

When is taking medicine just too much? or When I finally get to Quilt

2009-09-13T22:48:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day in seven when I was able to get up and around, even outside for a bit. I have to wonder if the meds are going to keep me stymied for another year or if my prayers for a solution to the 'very' thing that has caused this 'state of being' to be resolved will be answered, in the near future. So today I gathered the last of my postcard pieces and should be able to get the MLK cards out tomorrow. That is if I can stay up all day working. It is not an arduous task to complete the final steps rather staying up is the arduous portion of the project. Some days I am able to dream of project after project...and that is a far cry from last year at this very moment. Is it asking too much for a complete recovery with no medications necessary in order to function. Absolutely not. I feel like my Amaryllis. This is the second blooming. The first was at work when the light was poor and watering it was done a bit too much, we were just getting to know each other. I feel like that is where I am with my meds. I am using less and less and trying to find just the right amount is becoming quite a chore. If I use too much I stare at the ceiling and get little done. If I use too little I hurt all day and yet my thinking is clearer and I can imagine project after project. I am finding the middle a little better everyday. This amaryllis is in it's third blooming process for me. The first was in the winter, the second was also. But right now it is in my yard and the leaves are spread fifteen inches or more from the center...four strong leaves drinking in just the right amount of water and sunshine, breeze and shade. I watch that plant and I believe it is giving me the road to follow. Look at the fullness once the first of four bloom sprung! They are so strong and bright. Each area doing it part. Each stem strong and fit. I found just the right balance of dirt, warmth, nourishment, water, and light last winter, I will find it this fall for myself. Thank you Amaryllis for showing me the way. I do believe this plant deserves it's own quilt

Regards,

Ms. V

Afro Pick

2009-09-08T13:43:00.001-04:00

Actually the picture is from a study I did of a statue my mother has.

I drew on cloth, later painted then quilted it. It was during a time when all the work I did had lots of details closely drawn or closely quilted. I have since begun to open up the areas that are not quilted and am thinking of quilting the piece based on the manufactures instructions. Like for instance 'this can be quilted every three to four inches'. That might be liberating for me especially as the size of my work has grown from 8 1/2 x11 to eight by ten feet wall hangings. I'll let you know what happens when next I take on a larger work.

Teaching or sitting in workshops - The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

2009-09-08T13:19:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of pros and cons for the Teacher and the student when faced with so many different expectations. Most blurbs I read are about the horror or excitement of the student. Not a lot found on the trials and tribulations of the teacher, workshop leader, or the instructors.

The last workshop I taught the students came unprepared, they had a list of what was expected but were so accustomed to being disappointed that they arrived in an untimely manner and with that sort of monotone speaking voice thing people do when they expect to be bored or disappointed.

Well, when they left it was a totally different story. Their mouths dropped open during the session many times and the comments were on the order of 'this is exactly what I wanted to learn' so what is my concern as the instructor? The amount of energy it takes to pump up the group to be in a receptive mood and to open their eyes, ears, and yes their hearts to receive, was enormous. Keeping everyone involved and excited about what they were doing, having dragged or hauled extra...just in case supplies was a God send, but tiring.

Think about it...when you go to a class and you are pumped up and excited...and the instructor is great and knowledgeable, more knowledgeable than you even is terrific. When the instructor is reading out of the book only one step ahead of you is a drag and so disappointing that most people lose interest and even stop working.

So what's main point here...if you pay for a class, or someone else pays, or the instructor volunteers to share information that they have spent years or months even learning for the purpose of sharing with you...make the most of it. Come prepared for a great class. Accept what is being taught and if you are listening very carefully even a class where you should have signed up for the next level, as if you could figure that out before hand - not, there are some gems to be had. Look for them, if you learn a few things and you continue in the field of interest they will come in handy. There is a reason you are there beyond what you signed up or showed up for. Try it, if you do, you will walk away from every training experience with something powerful.

For the trainer, instructor, or teacher every experience sheds light on how to present the information in different ways based on the last set of students they had. In this new world of technology I have found that one thing has not changed, human nature, human types, human likes and dislikes. After you have taught for ten or twenty years you can look out on the class after just a few minutes with the students and actually pick out certain types. The beauty of this is two fold, you will either be absolutely right or you will be surprised. I hope the surprises are all blessings and the times you are right you will receive them with humility.

Regards,
Ms. V

Pain is a message from one part of your body to another.

2009-08-16T21:13:00.001-04:00

I often wonder if I did not have pain if I would ever stop. I usually work myself until I drop. If I don't drop I usually find myself sitting somewhere in a very uncomfortable spot needing desperately to go to sleep...in my bed. That was then, when I lived a very different life, the life of the young and the fit.

These last three or four days after an EMG I have been having aftershock pains running up and down my legs, over my hip, and almost feeling like they were like lightning stikes up and down my legs. It has been very difficult to move from place to place and if I forget and sit too long I ache for hours. I am waiting to catch up with my rest and waiting for a spot of no pain so I can feel some relief. I hope it comes soon. No that should definitely fall in the realm of a prayer. All for tonight, need to clean up the studio area so I can muss it up again. LOL, have a great night. Ms. V

Pain is a message from one part of your body to another.

2009-08-16T21:13:00.000-04:00

2009-08-16T19:26:00.000-04:00

As the sun has been dropping I have been thinking about quilting and examples that I have of different styles I like to use. Here are a few examples of this past years works. Some of these are exhibited below but this gathering really appeals to me. The title from back to front are

'I Can Do It', 'Three Pregnant Ladies...', 'Storm my 2008 Journal Quilt entry', and 'Talk to the Hand; my 2007 Journal Quilt entry'. As the sun rises tomorrow I will begin another phase of quilting some of my more recent works...they are looking for the batting, felt, and backings.

Regards, V

Three Pregnant Ladies a seat and a antelope

2009-08-16T19:22:00.000-04:00

Here is the finished piece. The center was plain muslin that has been painted and stitched. The first border is a commercial fabric that I could not leave at the fabric shop. The color was exactly the same and even had the same spiritual feeling of the woman who is brown. The was of course the third woman pictured on the far right. She is pregnant with pain and the loss of her father. I repeated that color with a dyed fabric that hand been stamped with a bleach and discharged. I create the stamp from a small sketch I made on a 3x5 card. Next I painted the blue piece with gold paint. When it came time to add the final border it had to be that blue piece. The gold picked up the colors of the middle woman. I bordered it with a very narrow border using the brown fabric. This was a labor of love and loss. Another piece done when my daughters were pregnant at the same time and my daddy had passed on. The lower edge of this piece had my finger prints one it. Each stitch and each painted stroke are very personal to me. Regards, Ms. V

Drumming My Way thru a Successful Postcard Sway

2009-08-12T11:32:00.000-04:00

A very good friend Marlene O'Bryant Seabrook has a wonderful exhibit at the Avery Research Institute. I was lucky enough to have one of my postcards included in the exhibit. Here you see the postcard placed onto of a drum and enclosed in a plexiglass box. Thanks Marlene for using one of my 2008 AA Swap Postcards in the exhibit of your quilts and Postcard collection!

Below you see me standing near my journal quilt at the 2008 International Quilt Show Exhibit at the Saugus Arena in Lowell. I also submitted a piece for 2009 but it was not accepted in the show, it did however get in the 'not accepted for the show slideshow posted to the internet', that was a great idea of one of the people who submitted a work. She decided to get permission to have a 'not accepted for the show' presentation on-line. Great idea and my work did make it in on time.

Below you see four rounds of a round robin. My submission are the third round and the faces. Earlier I showed just the faces now you see the quilt top as it was returned to the owner. When she finishes with it I will ask if I can post a photo here so you will see the finished quilted piece.

I just love working on textiles and the past week I learned quite a bit about deconstruction silk screens. It was amazing to watch what happens when you paint on a screen then use a product to break down the dye as you use a squeegie to scrape across the screen. Almost as much fun as these other first times: listening to popcorn pop, taking something out of a microwave oven, seeing windshield wipers work, having watched the installation of street lights on your block and then that night when they automatically turn on. After that happened we had to be home on the front steps when the lights came on. Imagine us running from all directions to make it to the steps before Mother looked out to see if we were all there. I just love first times.

V's 2008 Journal Quilt

2009-07-31T17:27:00.000-04:00

This is my 2008 Journal Quilt. I figure since it is on the web it should be on my blog. It has an intersting story which I will share later but I wanted to get it on here so that I could share it with my friends and family. I even signed it using
my Sewing Machine, twernt easy but I practiced until I could do it. :)

To pin or not to pin

2009-07-31T17:20:00.001-04:00

This is the tenth time pin-ing these fractured squares up on my wall board. And I've changed my mind again. Now three thirds of the quilt top has been sewned and only three rows are left to do...since last OCTOBER...ok I'll wisper it next time. Now, and I am not sure what happened, but, I want to make this into a full or queen sized quilt and applique something in the center. The brown is still around the edges but the green was opened up and is only three rows deep. In the center I got the notion, why I do not know...but I did, to add some of the lighter shades from the flower and I cut, and stitched another 40 squares and put them in the middle. So if you can imagine what you see here as the outside two borders you can almost picture what it will look like before I put something in the middle. Yeah, it will probably be a face or a mask. But this time a contemporary one because of the leaves. I will be searching for one and will have lots of napkins and drawing paper in my handy bag to quickly scribble it down when I meet up with it. All for now, I am going to go out and enjoy the rain. Not.

To pin or not to pin

2009-07-31T17:20:00.000-04:00

Masks, to fabric, painted on, stitched on, just on

2009-07-31T15:48:00.000-04:00

Round Robins can be fun or a disaster to work on. I was lucky. I had the pattern you see below to work with and it was an opportunity to add a few appliqued faces to it. The final quilt is not mine, boo hoo, but the lucky person that has it is doing a wonderful job of finishing it. I hid the center in this photo to keep the secret going of whose is whom's, LOL. After the four faces were completed I did quite a bit of zig zag work attaching almost each edge of the faces but keeping texture in mind chose a few places to leave unattached. The faces went on all four sides of a center made up by the first person. I had the third round. The fourth round was wonderfully creative and once the piece is completed and permission is given by the owner I will post it.

I am really struck by the masks I come across. And have found over the years they pop up in my work as sketches, doodles, paintings, or are cut from fabric and appliqued to a quilt top or are sometimes painted on anything on hand like this one painted on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of old left over felt. It will probably end up in a quilt...they all do at some point.

But keeping in mind how I envision my work I can find a face in almost any grouping of objects.

Invariable I will see images in the clouds, a formation of leaves in a tree, on the bark, in a pile of fabric or even in the fold of curtains.

I like trying to quickly sketch these faces. I have learned that the inside of an envelope works much better than a napkin, especially since I tend to grab a napkin to clean up a spill and it isn't until the ink is making it's way to the surface that I realize I have begun the destruction of a truly inspired piece. Ok now I am laughing at myself.

Most often I admit to seeing them in books, magazines, postcards, calendars, and one the walls of many of the quilters I know. Here are a few pictures of masks I have created in paint, applique, and of course the orange haired lady on the creme background in an earlier blog.

These are small croppings fabric paintings. This one has been finished and has made it into a number of exhibits. Again my daughters were pregnant and my daddy had passed, the blue lady is me and I am not sure if I am screaming my head off or about to twist myself around in and impossible manner or just falling apart or back together. So much happening in a short period. The animal and chair showed up on the fabric in a few crinkles in the folds...some of my daddy's favorite symbols. It was then that I knew it would be alright. Not right, not ok, not good or bad, not here or there, but I was going to be able to breathe again.

The one below has been arguing with me or rather I with it trying to decide whether to leave it as a painting or to incorporate it into a quilt.

When my friends see it they almost always

ask me to make a mask by forming it around
some type of stiffner or block of wood.

The jury is still out and the painting is still going

on. Or rather, I go back to it often. It is just about ready for the thread painting through out the face and on the yard of fabric to the right of the face. I have added at least 5 more hours to the work since this picture was taken.

It is interesting to say at this point that I do not end the piece. The piece seems to finish its self. I try to either add more stitching or more paint or more fabric, but the piece just...sighs, then I do and I stop.

I visited a GYN Doctor once...need I say more?

2009-07-31T15:02:00.000-04:00

This picture was painted just after I visited a doctor who told me about a procedure that would help fix a problem they discovered. I was not having any part of it...It really expresses how I felt. Stretched out to the limit, eyes nose and mouth pressed flat. Throat and body scared by the exam. Had I as many legs and this comb has teeth I would have run away. As it was I refused the procedure and in time the problem has resolved itself. Now that works for many things but not teeth. So do not go thinking my problem will work itself out too...if it is in your mouth. My problem, or their diagnosis, was located somewhere else. And it and I am just fine, thank you. LOL. Ms. V

Summer prayer 2009

2009-07-24T12:47:00.000-04:00

This year in Massachusetts we have been getting lots of rain and stormy, cloudly days. Where is the summer weather we all waited through the long dreary winter for? There must be a reason Lord. So I will not complain that I can not go to the pool and wade in the water, or sit outside on the ground an plant a few more flowers. I will instead, wait, wait on you Lord and seek a reason for this weather, for the slowing down of our usual summer persuits. Oh, I know there is a reason and if I read the papers or watch the news Lord I know what is down or low for this time of the year.

There is always a reason Lord and I will seek within myself for it. I hear you but I am not sure what the message is. I will use the quiet time and the rainy days to reflect on all that is going on in my life and I will wonder at your magnificence. The answer is there, in you, in me, for all to see.
Thank you for this day and the tool of the computer.
Thank you for bringing me this far, it's funny Lord but at one time I had no idea what that meant but sang the words..."We've come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord", and I had no idea then what was to come.
Thank you for giving me that song. It has continued to be a theme in my head and heart.
Thank you for bringing me through the storm to today.
I wait for the sunny days, but not of my life, this is one, any one I can open my eyes and breathe and pray is one.
Thank you for this Massachusetts summer.
Amen
Ms. V

Why so wide eyed?

2009-07-24T11:37:00.001-04:00

It was not a fluke...that painting was pushed out of me...

How? Well this little bitty was created after a GYN visit. Look at the face and you can see that there was some news that I wasn't expecting or even wanted to hear. There was a procedure that would help me strengthen some muscles that were injured in a fall. Well guess what. I did not want to hear about it or even have any dealings with it. I was fine until the tech said, now don't think about this as anything sexual. Duh! I was out of there. Why would I even go there. This was a place of healing. Well they would not be healing me...any time soon. So I prayed, as usual, and asked if there was some alternative. God answers prayers. There was and is something that does not send my moral and sexual compass off the chart in the, let me outta here, fashion. I am not completely where I want to be but I am following the devine plan, and not the tech's.

"Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it's holy ground. There is no greater investment." --Steven Covey

So what does this have to do with Art Quilts, life skills, or stories. Well think about it. I will have a finished quilt one day...when the time is right. I will be able to share a life story that will I hope give someone the courage to say no when the procedure or plan does not fit your way of thinking or life style. There are many answers to physical concerns that will fall within your own pattern of thinking, what seems or feels right or wrong, and combined with prayer you will find a certain strength and sense of purpose when you are on the right or chosen track to great health and great strength, be it of purpose or of health.

Find a way to release the dis-ease you feel in many different situations. I paint on fabric or sketch on little bits of paper, envelopes that I open are of a nice quality for pen and ink. I also use any cardboard and scraps of fabric to rind a way to release any dis-ease that pops up in my day or way. This picture truly shows the feelings I had. Now how do I translate that into a work of art that can be recognized as I felt it by others...

Not sure but on with the process.

Now the audition begins. I need to look at my hand dyed fabrics I finished last year and see if any would be a suitable background. Eyes are laid on this piece called storm. I cut, stitched, painted, penciled, and cropped this piece and submitted it to the journal quilt process but it was not chosen. I have used the mostly finished piece, border not hand sewn...for workshops to show the use of multicolored threads on top and an invisible, or mostly invisible thread used on the back, which was also hand dyed by me. The result was rather good considering it showed a Massachusetts stormy sky. But that is not what it takes to get a piece in an exhibit. There are so many other bits of criteria that one wonders when placed against so many others how a piece gets juried in. More on that in my other blog, http://msvpoitier@blogspot.com/ when I get time to post it. It is already written and waiting for the right moment or hand dyed fabric to line it up against. In the mean time...

Here is a detail from the mostly finished 'Storm, or MA Atmospheric change" it is the lower left hand side.

I love the deck flooring but of course you can not use that when taking pictures for jury purposes. You should either have a professional 'quilt photographer' take the pictures or set up an inexpensive dark room in your home or studio for that purpose.

Here is the actual quilt top. if you click on it you will be able to view the details.

Thanks for stopping by, taking one more stitch, one at a time, trying one more technique and no more than three in a quilt, per my friend JY, one stroke of the brush or pen, one more bit of glue and my multi-crafted art quilt will be done...this year if possible...next if not.

Blessings, Ms. V

Saying a little prayer, or actually a really big one for friends and family. Hi Mom!

Why so wide eyed?

2009-07-24T11:37:00.000-04:00

It was not a fluke...that painting was pushed out of me...

"Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it's holy ground. There is no greater investment." --Steven Covey

Here is a detail from the mostly finished 'Storm, or MA Atmospheric change" it is the lower left hand side.

Here is the actual quilt top. if you click on it you will be able to view the details.

Blessings, Ms. V

Saying a little prayer, or actually a really big one for friends and family. Hi Mom!

Weaving in process...quilt to follow of cropped areas of the finished piece.

2009-07-23T11:05:00.000-04:00

This is one of the pictures that shows some of the early drawings and inspiration pieces I looked at prior to starting the piece. In the center is an old copy of a mask I found in the studio and it spoke to me on many levels. I had to pin it to the loom and some how incorporate it into the piece. The sketches are my own.

Next we have my work area in the studio I was using in NC. This room was a magnificent space that I had a small corner of. I was able to work any where in the room but the weaving happened in this spot near an open doorway to another work space.

I realized later I should have added a few of the earlier pictures so that you could see this piece before it became a quilt. That is on it's way, for now I am sharing the weaving. These were a few steps along the way. What you do not see, as I do not have his permission, is my dear mentor. He encouraged me in such a way that I was able to go from making small quilted squares to considering enlarging them and even weaving some of them on this eight by ten foot loom...that I built. I built the loom because the other one was in use. The things we do for the love of the art, or I just could not wait...to see it loom, yeah that was a pun.

Weaver creating a quilt from past works, they asked for it.

2009-07-23T10:45:00.000-04:00

This piece started out as a square where I was layering torn fabric strips and ribbons, old thread and wool yarns. I was intriqued by the textures which you will be able to see if you double click on the picture to enlarge it. Much, much later the idea to put a face came to me. Looking at the weaving next to it you would not think so. They were done five years apart. This told me something about my love of the colors used in each piece.

The quiltled lines in the piece on the left came out of the motion I was creating of the hair. But the background was a strong vertical line seen from a distance...the diamond and squares, the rectangles and the points made by the zigzag stitching are only noticed when view up close. I like that about my work. Something to see from a distance, something to draw you in to say 10 feet away, and finally when you are a foot to three feet away, pow, you get to see all the work and the designs the stitches and the couched threads make. This piece says, I did it, and I ain't playin' no more. LOL

I have a few weaving's that are now calling out to me to reproduce them as quilts. The question I have is are they looking to be actual quilts or quilt tops.

I have learned over the years that some pieces are only ever going to be a quilt top, a way to learn a technique, to be used in a lecture or training workshop, or to just hang on my design wall. The unlucky pieces stay stuffed in a box or a bag. Why unlucky? Because I always intend to get back to them. This year those unlucky pieces from the last twenty-thirty years are going to see some sunlight.

Take this piece for example...As a complete piece it does not have the pull to create a quilt but crop it in a few places and it screams at me to take it on.

Look what happens to this 8x10' weaving when I crop it. It becomes a bold possiblility for a quilt. It lends itself to all kinds of techniques including adding some threads and beads, weaving the fabric in and out to mimic the actual weaving. The threads hanging from the bottom and around the eyes of the lower of the four faces could be strips of bias sewn above the eyes for example. I love the way the piece enters and exits the edges of the faces. The inspiration for this was an African Mask I saw with what appeared to me to be tears streaming down the face. Later I learned it was from an agricultural tribe and was used in ceremonies at certain times of the year that had nothing to do with what the mask felt like or meant to me.

I love putting together faces that work into each other and become the brow or nostrils of the next face. There is something me, myself, and I about it. This particular piece was almost done and I was going to work some type of hair treatment at the very top when a friend asked me if God would be looking down from above...although those were not his words but my interpretation of what he said. Like most of my art my hearing when it comes to my art takes on a life of its own and works its way into my pieces. If I want a piece to be solely my own I would probably have to shut my self up in a space with no outside influences. But is that even possible as we take with us all our previous and most especially last impressions into a piece. Well that is so for me, especially when I look back two or three years. I found the pieces I made with all the lazy eyes and noses were all about the adult asthma I would later be given a diagnose of. Did I bring it on, or did I know it, and not know what I knew. Look into your art works and see if you are weaving a quilt or creating a topic for discussion.

Weaving a quilt - or creating a quilt topic

2009-07-23T10:25:00.000-04:00

I have a few weaving's that are now calling out to me to reproduce them as quilts. The question I have is are they looking to be actual quilts or quilt tops.

I have learned over the years that some pieces are only ever going to be a quilt top, a way to learn a technique, to be used in a lecture or training workshop, or to just hang on my design wall. The unlucky pieces stay stuffed in a box or a bag. Why unlucky? Because I always intend to get back to them. This year those unlucky pieces from the last twenty-thirty years are going to see some sunlight.

Take this piece for example...As a complete piece it does not have the pull to create a quilt but crop it in a few places and it screams at me to take it on.

Look what happens to this 8x10' weaving when I crop it. It becomes a bold possiblility for a quilt. It lends itself to all kinds of techniques including adding some threads and beads, weaving the fabric in and out to mimic the actual weaving. The threads hanging from the bottom and around the eyes of the lower of the four faces could be strips of bias sewn above the eyes for example. I love the way the piece enters and exits the edges of the faces. The inspiration for this was an African Mask I saw with what appeared to me to be tears streaming down the face. Later I learned it was from an agricultural tribe and was used in ceremonies at certain times of the year that had nothing to do with what the mask felt like or meant to me.

I love putting together faces that work into each other and become the brow or nostrils of the next face. There is something me, myself, and I about it. This particular piece was almost done and I was going to work some type of hair treatment at the very top when a friend asked me if God would be looking down from above...although those were not his words but my interpretation of what he said. Like most of my art my hearing when it comes to my art takes on a life of its own and works its way into my pieces. If I want a piece to be solely my own I would probably have to shut my self up in a space with no outside influences. But is that even possible as we take with us all our previous and most especially last impressions into a piece. Well that is so for me, especially when I look back two or three years. I found the pieces I made with all the lazy eyes and noses were all about the adult asthma I would later be given a diagnose of. Did I bring it on, or did I know it, and not know what I knew. Look into your art works and see if you are weaving a quilt or creating a topic for discussion.

Postcards and knowing how to manage your creative flow.

2009-07-16T12:55:00.000-04:00

I really like making postcards. I find them wonderful little samples and ways to stay in contact with friends and family members.

Pulling together art work for a show can wear one down and the spirit of the creation can also be watered down in the process. Postcards and 8x11 size pieces help me keep my creativity flowing and the excitement high while I work.

I perfer when possible to create a number of works based on what is going on in my life then submitting the work if it fits the call. That is not always possible so I figured out how to work the opposite way. And I figured out that some of my UFOs would make wonderful small works of art.

There was a call for postcards and I worked on quite a few with different fronts but the theme was the same. I wanted to share pics of my ancestors, actually I have grand children so these women are their Great Great Great grandmother and GGG aunt. Three of this Great Grandmother's children went to Tuskegee Institute it was called in those days and they graduated and were very successful in their professional lives.

The most interesting part of that project was that no matter how hard I tried each one was different. I just could not make 20 identical cards. I kept thinking oh this one should have both the Tuskegee Institute picture and the family elders. Or an African Figure or some kente cloth.

The pictures of my Great Grand mother and Great Aunt along with different small figurines was repeated but the layout and colors chosen for the cards were slightly different each time. Oddly enough I knew in advance who the cards would go to but that did not influence my decision when it came time to mail the out.

In fact I made all the cards and put them face down and just addressed and wrote the information with out a clue who would get which card. I found that the be the fairest way to distrubute the cards, after all I do have my favorites, both cards and quilters.

I know we should not have favorites but for me the pieces are like small children. I give each card a lot of attention, and lots of thought, and lots of hand holding, smoothing the fabrics, searching for just the right small slivers of fabric and threads and word for the back.

When all is said and done I get to send out small wonderful works and my quilting friends return the favor. I get a boost in terms of creativity as I usually try a new or different way of using a technique. It could be something as simple as the stablizer or the bonding method. Or I try working with a fabric that is not cotton and may give me trouble if I don't experiment with sewing or applying it first.

Try a few postcards and take pictures of them for your journals. You can start in your (UFO's)The Unfinished Objects/projects...you know the one's you will never finish. I have found lots of ways to turn those unfinished projects into starting places for small works of art. Or you can sketch the ideas out, just toss a number of fabrics, threads, and stiffners...which could be postcards you receive that are ads... and go to work! It is stimulating, relaxing, and for me it is a way to keep the creativing flowing and 'completing' something meaningful on a regular basis.

Life goes on and small wonders find their way into my mail box, out to others, or on to a place of honor on a larger quilt, LOL. Have a wonderful day and remember to smile someone just might need to see it.

My girls were having babies

2009-07-11T02:33:00.001-04:00

The other piece that came from that color pallete was the one that represents for me one of two pieces done that expressed my feelings about two daughters pregnant at once and what a mother feels during that time. Together, spliting apart, fading in and out, frighten but excited...interesting enough this piece was stretched and used in a show at MIT during their excellence award ceremony to adorn the lobby where the refreshments were served after the ceremony. Now that was sweet. The only problem I had was making two one for each daughter. The eldest took the center before I could finish it and hung it on the wall of her bedroom, the youngest waited until I finished it, put it in an exhibit, and is not ready to take it home. Their daughters are much the same...I am finding. Loving the grandmother role...LOL

2009-07-11T02:10:00.000-04:00

A sight line in this case is one that travels through a number of pieces, through your pieces and out through a few other pieces. An intriguing and stimulating idea. How would this work for me? Once I have the color theme what comes of it...what pieces... here I used the lighter colors shown in the earlier post for the boarder and behind the face and the orange hair, which were strips cut in an arc, I used ribbons, threads, strips of fabrics, stitching in the ditch, paper, zigzag multicolor threads and tons of other techniques to get that square to sing to me. once that was done I laid that face, necklace pieces, and began the fun job of quilting the swirls of tiny and widely spaced rows to create the vortex the face was to sit in.

I got a lot of feedback on this one but it is only one from the color pallet used earlier. Much later I used the mid-range colors to boarder a piece I did as a tribute to my father who passed some years ago. I was 'told' the colors were to similar, they meant it 'read' as almost the same tones...the point I might add. I was morning my Daddy's passing, there were no light-lights, or dark-darks there was only the pain of his voice and smell and touch... missing. For me that piece says that. It is somber, peaceful, with beautiful colors that are warm and they feel like his voice speaking to me.

Sightline - my process

2009-07-11T01:50:00.000-04:00

There is an exhibit I would like to be a part of because working in a series really appeals to me. I am always creating quick sketches on what ever is at hand; and even though I have plenty of sketch books…they rarely get my best ‘notes and sketches.’ Next I work out the colors... and the theme usually follows in a series of either postcard size or 8 ½ x 11 size pieces. Later I create three to five one yard size pieces that I either dye; paint; or do a series of overlapping strips of fabric, ribbons, threads to use as a background for the main section of my project. Not really last, but next somewhere along the way, I can create the final piece using what feels right from what I now call my drafts. The drafts usually end up as finished pieces or are later used in their various unfinished stages as examples of the various techniques I offer in my workshops or lectures, to teach others about my process. The notion of creating and connecting to others work in this fashion is extremely attractive.

What is a sight line...

Praying for Quilters, quilting, Painters painting...

2009-06-30T22:39:00.000-04:00

Heavenly Father

I pray for all my sisters and brothers, who are quilting, and painting, and stretching, but

Not more or less for any one of them

At times we lift one or another up to you for a special blessing

As many have done on my behalf recently

And it is with thanks giving that I am responding to such unselfish acts of kindness

I pray that we all might all be blessed to extend acts of kindness to one another on a regular basis

Not only when one’s health fails, or one looses a job or when one gains one, nor when ones relationships

End or begins, or when we gain or lose a family member, or have our candidate voted in or not

I would that we ‘just’ remember to pray on each others behalf

I pray for all my sisters and brothers, regardless what they may have said or done in my past or present

I pray for all my sisters and brothers, regardless what they may have missed

saying or may have missed doing in each others past or present

I pray that we may through your grace realize that some of what we say

or do should be left unsaid, or undone, in our future

It is a challenge to create a work Lord and to have others critique that work.
Sometimes the words used hurt, unman, disable, or even cause an artist, a quilter, a person just starting out to
turn away from expressing themselves in any venue that leaves them open to criticism and not positive talk

Heavenly Father, your word can empower us in a way that stills our tounges and stops us from hurting one another

Lead us to do or say more based on what you have taught us through your word, and remind us to read your word

Heavenly Father guide our words in a way, that we may pass along a blessing, be a blessing, be a deed to one another

Show us where to find the ability to sharpen our skills so that we encourage each other, build each other up, empower each other

Heavenly Father I have been favored and blessed these pass months, as have all who read these words

At times knowingly, at times without a clue, at times because someone made a sacriface

At times because I or we made the sacriface, at times because I or we read your word

At times because we heard your word read, oft times together, oft times alone and lonely and forgetting that you are there for us at all times empowering us and blessing us.

I pray for all my brothers and sisters

Not more or less for any one of them

I pray for me, myself, to remind me to read your word regularly

to remind myself to be a blessing and if you are willing Oh Lord a candle, to light the way

Help me to stitch or draw, or paint, or write in such a way as to lead or head in the direction of the blessings you have in store for me.

Amen

Deciding which Exhibition to enter

2009-06-27T23:10:00.000-04:00

It is that time of the year when I try to decide which exhibitions have topics or themes that are running concurrent with the quilts I want to make over the next 12-15 months. The hardest part of this task is to not get caught up in the woulda, coulda, shoulda trap.
I really want to enter at least 12 different exhibits, alas, there is only time for one or two. How do I select the two that are closest to what I already have begun sketches and color schemes for? Not an easy answer, no matter how you look at it. Some quilts want to be made. Some quilts will find their way on your cutting and drafting table without you knowing how they managed to get there. Other quilts are torn out of you fabric by fabric, thread by thread, and sewing appointment or class no matter what you find yourself working on the piece even when you did not have it booked as a part of your sewing or creative time.
This year I have already committed my self to creating an antique money chest, a fractured square piece, and to write a book. How can I add two additional quilts when I know one is already spoken for and the other is screaming to be let out of my fabric totes?
Well it looks like another night will pass and the answer for question will find itself on the back burner. I promised I would finish one Unfinished Project or UFO, and finish one project that has already been figured out, fabric purchased, cut, and is sitting in my traveling bag. What is a quilter to do? Give up the new quilt ideas swimming around in my head? Or should I just keep trying to stay ahead of the pile of quilt tops that are piling up on what used to be my stash table.
That table hasn't seen the light of day in months, ok, years. But as soon as I get the UFO's done I will be able to have a solo quilt show, LOL. Have a great night and remember, sew a little, cut a little, and dream a lot...when it is almost midnight.

Ms. V

New Port Critique Group

2006-09-03T15:37:00.000-04:00

We went to Newport hoping for the best, wondering how we each would fit in, wondering if the bounty we bought would be 'enough'. All is well, the weekend went exceptionally well. Everyone lugged their work and we did the critiques. We all got the hang of it and are off an running creating our next works of art. Thanks be to She/Him whom delivers gifts.

Ms. V

Art Quilt Symposium

2006-07-22T23:53:00.000-04:00

It was a blast. We learned so much, worked together in harmony, grew as individuals and as a group.

POWERFUL!