Apologizing, who apologizes all the time, sorry that is not me, excuse me, pardon me, sorry, oops sorry about that.

BFF's talking as they peruse the workshops.  Oh, I'm taking this.  You should too.  (Clue #1) Why would I take a workshop that would teach me how to talk about my work without apologizing?  I think, whew, I think, I'll pick one of the others, sorry but that one is not for me.  Are you taking it? "Why?" and then her best friend forever started, "You never apologize about your work except when you find your:

cats hair on it, a string hanging, a crooked string, the cigarette smoke, or the food stains on it,
or you don't have enough time to sew on a sleeve and you pin it,
forgot to sign it on the front, used more than one color purple,
forgot to send the return postage, forgot to start the quilt period,
forgot...., didn't mail it on time, didn't start it on time, didn't square it up,
missed the point of the theme, always miss the point of the theme,
did not have any red fabric, mail your quilts regardless of the theme,
used a glue, sequins, or tried other attachments and they started to fall off before you mailed the quilt, quit sending entries in because you never get in, sorry but I am not going to try this or that ever again... " "Hey Hey Hey, I don't do any of that!"

Why would you take a workshop that strengthens your point of view.
Why would you take a workshop that gives you the tools you need to possibly move on.
Why not? Why so? It takes guts to gather with your real contemporaries and have an honest dialogue.  I am up for it! How about you?

How do you talk about yourself, work, life, children, animals, ok so maybe life partner should have been earlier in this sentence, but I am not about to apologize.

We have been exposed to so many reasons to diminish our wonderfulness, our accomplishments, to devalue...wait I am not about to go through a therapy session, when I am at a convention.

Good because this is not any of the above!  This class is about you. A few minutes out of your day to really listen to your peers and you, talk about what you do, how your present yourself, and to learn a few simple but powerful motions, words, stances, to take when talking about your creative process/work and the powerful artist you are.  Oh sorry, I forgot, I will be chiming in from time to time.  So sign up and march on in...You'll have a blast!

Ms. V

Detail: 240 Million Slaves Ago...
Hanging in the International Underground Railroad Museum of Cincinnati Oct-Mar 2014

Now Where Can I Hide It? By Ms. V

You know you are losing what few marbles you have when you start hiding quilt supplies from yourself. Oh wait, and loosing scissors when you know you have at least twenty pair. I spent the first ten years of marriage not buying fabric because I believed everyone when they said I had enough and I needed to save and spend on the family.

I spent the second ten years of marriage, having decided 'they' were wrong, hiding fabric in every nook and cranny, in the back of the car, on hangers in my closet, unpacking quickly when the hubby went on an Army Reserve Weekend tour, and even using the basement and the top of the kids closets. Now why do we do that?  Especially as the dining room table was my work space and I had to disassemble it every Sunday for the family dinner and packed everything up in plastic bags, never to be seen again as a new project emerged...with new pins, scissors, fabric, patterns...sound familiar?

I have spent the last ten plus years trying to find all the wonderful fabric, rulers, scissors…

found 22 pair, must have five duplicates of some and have relegated others to the paper cutting bin. I have decided as I am getting close to 36+ years with this dear man, that I have finally grown up enough, or found my right mind, or had an epiphany, enough therapy, or just felt one day, what the heck I work every day, I deserve to do, be, have, or some such nonsense, my art work and supplies without hiding everything worrying about someone else's opinion, his, theirs, mine upsetting my artistic flow.  Especially since everytime I packed up my things and put them away it took a shopping trip to reenergize myself again...am I rambling? ?Well at least I am not shopping. LOLROTF. 

I can remember my grandmother saying things like that, in my right mind, wait I am a grandma, now, is that what it takes??? and I thought she was a bit nuts. Well I have finally arrived and nuts is pretty good, feels pretty good, tastes pretty good, and sits well in my stomach. Not to mention the backbone I finally found, and that feels good too. Why did it take so long?  Maybe it is a sign that I have matured, or finally found myself, or just given myself permission to be me. Or maybe having lived a bit I have finally decided what I wanted to do when I grew up.

I am not going to hide my ‘stuff’ or ‘junk’ or artistic equipment or paraphernalia any more. So don’t be surprised if you stop by and find my living room, dining room, and spare bedrooms converted into a studio. All the kinks have not been worked out but during my short spell of illness a couple years ago I must have grown some…or lost some, let’s call them marbles, I like balls better but my five brothers and DH tell me I don't have any, but I could swear I had some somewhere.  Any who I love my things, the colors, the shapes, the inspiriation I get from them and finally I am surrounded by them and I feel wonderful!

Now I am trying to figure out where to put it all. Wait, right here out in the open...LOL! He, my DH, was peeking over my shoulder when I typed this and I just found out he knew all
along. ☺

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

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 2012

Promote Your Work, Without Apologizing

Changing Directions, Getting through the Change, Status Quo

Finding My Voice, My mark, My Signature, creating a body of work
Marketing Yourself - But I don't like that Part!  
Moving from the diningroom table to a studio or not
Building Self Esteem & Self Confidence - Tools of the Trade
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.

Bottom Line:  I am open to negotiating rates, but fees and expenses can not leave me in the red. 

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

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

Memory, Love, Cousins, Forced Separation

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

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

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.

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

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

To pin or not to pin

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.

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

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

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?

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!